Let’s Sketch Wellington - Sequeira Luz family

We had a great time in Wellington and were spoiled for choice of nice scenes to draw.
We met a good group of interesting people and got to go trough their sketchbooks when catching up in cool cafes. Our Sunday morning meeting point was in Aro valley, we had never been there before and loved it, the best thing was it was just a short walk from the farmers market so we went there for chestnuts and a quick sketch. Thanks Dave, Andrew and all the Wellington Sketchers for the warm welcome!

Cuba

Meeting our family half the way between Portugal and New Zealand seems to be the way to go, it´s less expensive, we fly less hours and we can see something new so, why not Cuba. The plan was to meet Liliana´s parents there.  Hopefully get a plane before the cyclone Cook arrived to Auckland and get back before the tornado season there. A direct flight from Los Angeles took us to see the biggest island in the Caribe.

 Habana is a remarkable place to sketch, layers of history and layers of bright paint with unexpected and creative ways of using the old buildings can be seen all around the city. Every place would give a good drawing so the frustration of not sketching enough was almost guaranteed.

The transports in Habana are very diversified and follow the Cuban creativity. Starting with the bicitaxi, a tricycle mostly used by cubans, the cocotaxi a motorized tricycle which Eva loved and the horse with carriage for tourists. In terms cars there are a mix of old russian and american cars, none of each remains original, the old russian Volga car that took us until Trinidade had a Kia engine and several other parts from different cars. The music pumping loud from the speakers is a must. There is always something being repaired on the road side and it feels like those cars can last another 50 years.

 

Eva forgot her sketch book but wanted to sketch people and was constantly asking Liliana for pages of her book, we decided to find her a sketchbook or school book with blank pages, we went to the main art shop in Habana but there were only books with lines. According with the guy working there, last time he had a book with blank pages for sale was 5 years ago... "But we have free health care and good weather" he added with an amazing sense of humor. The Cubans are happy persons. 

 

I Sketched People Sketching

With so many good places to sketch and interesting people to meet our weekend in New Plymouth was perfect! 

I really like to sketch people, but I don't do it often as I think people may get uncomfortable with me staring at them, but fellow sketchers should be ok with it, right?
After filling the page I still managed to find an empty corner and add a sketch of "the photo".

Pizza for the people

Pizza for the People at Lyttel Punga Picture Club (now Arbour Woodfired Pizza).
We took the toppings, they provided the home made base, we added $5 each to the box. Eva loved to do her own pizza and I loved all the interesting people and objects available to sketch.

Summer in Winter

Its been a while since our last post but this one has plenty of sketches so it feels like a redemption. We just came back from Portugal where we spend our summer holidays with family and friends, the weather was amazing, sea water was warm and we had time to sketch, which always increases the holiday feeling.




Trafal beach, it was 1:00 pm everyone had an umbrella except us, while I doing this sketch I got sun burn on my back that came with me to Christchurch cold weather, having a sun burn in winter time was a new experience. Still on the shading subject, I liked the fabrics used to create shade along the old town of  Loulé, they made me want to sketch them, it really works to cool down the temperature.

Friends from New Zealand, a Polish-American couple, invited us to go to Poland for their weeding so we had the chance to spend 4 days in Gdansk, a city completely destroyed after the second world war and beautifully rebuilt in a short period. We were both sitting on the coffee table sketching I was looking one way she was looking the opposite way. Mine is on top Liliana´s is below.  

 

City center of Lagos above and Aljezur bridge view below.

The joy of drawing together again, this time in Loulé seating on the shade of the big trees at the main avenue.

This one is on the Amoreira beach where the Aljezur River meets the sea, this drawing is similar to one from our last "southern hemisphere summer holidays" in Australia. That coincidence is probably a consequence of Liliana's love for both books and estuaries.

"Favorite Spot" Sketch nr.5

 

A sketch of J.'s house and garden.   

"Favorite Spot" Sketch nr.4

 

Another "your favorite spot" sketch. 

This was our first time in this small beach, the day was really warm and I sat in the shade to sketch while Eva and Mario were in the beach making sand castles. This was S.E. request, a sketch of Magazine Bay in a warm summer day.

New Regent Street - City Sketchers Group

 Sketches done during a meet up event with the City Sketchers group of Christchurch. Another family post with 3 different styles.

"Favorite Spot"

When I have a persistent idea in my head of something I would like to do, I usually try to convince Mario to do it!
This time I wanted (him) to sketch the favorite spots of people living in this side of the Harbour.

I told him "This will be great! we (you) will get to meet the neighbors and sketch themes chosen by others, this is a challenge for us (you)!"
I don't know why, but this time he said "I think it's a good idea, but you will be the one doing it!"

I posted an advertisement on Timebank (a bank that exchanges member's time and not money) and I had some requests. I still have some drawings to do, but these are the ones I've done so far.

                                    Sitting at the porch in G.'s house, looking at the boats

                                   A warm summer afternoon at J.'s goat farm

                                    A Sunday morning in H.'s super cute nursery

Even though it is always intimidating to sketch for someone else, I'm happy Mario push me to do it.