Then after a few moments of reflective meditation, it’s time to start the flipping!! I never will get over how these practitioners turn each other over like so many pancakes.

There is a whole philosophy to the approach. I was reading about Aikido in one of the books that Adam has in the front sitting area and it said that the idea is not only to use your opponent’s energy to thwart the attack, but also to benefit from the extra energy left over. I really like that thought and think it can apply to so many areas of life. No time to waste energy on people who attack you, better to use some of their energy to keep them off and then take the remainder as a little extra boost for yourself. Stronger than vitamin C!

In the classes I observed, the students were doing quite a bit of workout on their knees – this takes stamina -

I was starting to get into the abstract quality of the movements, it is very sculptural to see. Also I wanted to play with a little bit of color this time; it really helps describe the energy of the motion:

The color can help amplify the energy of the throw and also describe the feel of the different practitioners.

While all this was going on, Sensei Hagihara stood watching intently, occasionally stopping the action to demonstrate something with one of the students.

There was a woman working out in a class that was otherwise all men and it was interesting to me how her energy was more fluid than a lot of the guys. But still very powerful!

At one point in the class, Sensei had them going at it three at a time. What a mash-up!!

I had a great time drawing there as usual, thanks to Sensei Hagihara, Adam and the rest of the crew. What an enjoyable way to spend a Friday evening!

Recently the irrepressible Liz Steel was in town, and Margaret Hurst and I had the pleasure of meeting her in Central Park for an afternoon of drawing. What a beautiful day we had! Simply gorgeous, tailor made to impress (not that I’m trying to, but Liz is traveling for four months across the globe, and I think New York should be a stand-out experience!) First we sat by the Bethesda Fountain, really one of the most beautiful spots in the city. (Really!)

Then Margaret took us to one of her favorite places in the park, where the roller skating crowd meets to do their thing! Marg has been drawing these people for quite some time, it’s a wonderful series. (You can see one of the drawings she made HERE.) It was so nice of her to bring us there, and the place is full of New York originals…

Here’s Bladey, the seeming ringleader of the group, with his fabulous ride…

Not everyone was skating, a lot of people were dancing. There were some kids out there who were pretty good – doing the robot, isn’t that dated?! And one guy who just liked to shake in time to the music. Margaret nicknamed him “Cocktail” as in, ’shaken, not stirred.’

Here’s a drawing of Margaret and Liz in action. What a great day and I think Liz got to see some real New York New Yorkers. Fantastic! So I hope she has a good time and enjoys the rest of her journey and I hope Margaret has a great birthday (which is today.) Drawing on location is just about my favorite way to spend a summer day, and when there are sympathetic friends there as well, it’s as good as it gets.

I recently had the opportunity to travel, draw and teach through Barcelona and Paris – what a great summer plan! : )My first day in Barcelona and the first drawing I made there (above) was of the Casa Batllo by Gaudi, a building I have wanted to see for about 20 years. It looks like a big carnival mask, and the inside of it is absolutely beautiful. I went back with Neil a few days later and toured the inside as well, gorgeous.

(The building to the left of it shown in the drawing above is the Casa Amatller, by Cadalfach. The whole block is composed of different architects, and the people have christened it “Illa de la Discordia”, or Block of Discord. But more on that in another post!)

I also had the opportunity to meet up with Lapin, a French illustrator who lives in Barcelona, the first afternoon I arrived there. We “knew” each other through the blog Urban Sketchers to which we both contribute. We drew together on the Passeig de Gracia and sat by this most famous building by the architect Gaudi. What a wonderful introduction to the city! We walked to some other sites as well until I started to get visibly sleepy from jet lag. At that point Lapin laughed and deposited me on the metro platform, ticket in hand, with directions back to my hotel. What a nice easy going person he is!  He seems very much like his drawings, intelligent and directed for sure. Here is a drawing I made of him that afternoon:

I enjoyed meeting him, and a few days later when Neil arrived he invited us to join him at the “circulo artistico de sant lluc” for a life drawing session. What a place: Miro was a member there and possibly Picasso as well. I hope that some of that Barcelona artistic ju-ju rubs off on me! The building itself is fantastic – you walk into a large inner courtyard and up a grand staircase to the balcony and the drawing studio beyond that. Neil and I had a wonderful time drawing with Lapin and meeting some of his artist friends – such nice people. Everyone we met in Barcelona was lovely and I have many more drawings and stories I want to post, but for now I’ll put a few of the drawings I did in the Miro/Picasso school. (Like how I dropped that in again?) To see Lapin’s account of our visit to Barcelona, read his blog post HERE.

So no post for quite a while, I have been on the road in Barcelona, Paris and, most recently, Portland Oregon for the first annual Urban Sketchers Symposium!

Now that I’ve unpacked my bags and am getting (finally) over a cold I brought home with me from the West coast, I have a lot of drawings to post. It’s been a wonderful July and I enjoyed every minute of it!

So I think I’ll work backwards, and start with some drawings I made at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Portland. (The drawing above is of the Steel Bridge in Portland.) What a great time and great event! Artists from all over the world – USA, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa – came together for three days to draw and learn from each other. I was lucky to be asked to be one of the presenters, along with Tia Boon Sim, Lapin, Isabel Fiadeiro, Simonetta Capecchi, Matthew Brehm, Kurt Hollomon, Jason Das, and of course, Frank Ching and Gabi Campanario. MANY thanks to Gabi for having the vision and drive to pull this off so smoothly!

I had two mornings with no sessions to teach scheduled, so I had the opportunity to tag along with Lapin’s ‘urban line’ group on Friday and Tia’s ‘urban color’ group on Saturday. Lapin took the group to the Steel Bridge, wow, what a beautiful piece of industrial design that is! It’s a drawbridge and I think the oldest one in the city. Lapin was leading us all to the waterfront and under highways and over railroad tracks to get the right view – yeah, man, it was a great one! It was fun to follow his infamous ‘hat’ not knowing where he would bring us. Once we got there I took the opportunity to play around and do some thumbnails, such as the one above. Then the TRAIN CAME OVER THE BRIDGE (all caps to emphasize my excitement!) and I made the quick drawing below:

Wow, a Pacific Railroad train!!! I couldn’t help thinking of the California school and a little bit of the Abstract Expressionists as it went by. The colors of the west coast plus the beauty of the industry were almost too much to deal with…here is one more thumbnail from the day:

Lovely – thanks Lapin! The last day that I spent in Portland after the symposium I went back to that bridge and spent some blissful hours drawing it more. Wish I could pack that one in my suitcase!

Saturday morning I tagged along with Tia’s group – ‘urban color.’ She led us on the streetcar to the Portland Farmer’s Market. It was kind of a grey morning and I love what Tia said to the group: “maybe there’s not a lot of color this morning, so you should just make it up!!” (She’s the best! I did an interview with her for the Symposium blog, you can read it HERE if you’d like.)

So anyway actually there were plenty of flowers loaded with color there so I had a ball. Here is a thumbnail of a woman and her baby picking up some flowers:

I noticed a lot of children in Portland, many babies, and I can imagine why. What a beautiful city and great place to raise kids! There are many fountains in the city and the children are allowed to jump in and play around in the water. I took one of my ‘urban people’ groups to a fountain like that on Thursday afternoon and it was a gorgeous day, many families hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. Someone told me that there are a lot of ex-New Yorkers in Portland and I can understand why. It feels like you took the older section of the West Village in NYC, the one with many trees and brick buildings, and spread it out, western style. Add a bunch of parks and fountains and a free streetcar service and you have Portland. Lovely. Plus the blocks are somewhat smaller than the ones in NY so you can walk greater distances in less time…or so it seems…

My last drawing that I want to post from Portland is of a little boy I saw helping his mother sell cherries:

How sweet! – no pun intended. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the symposium. All of the presenters were very talented and it was wonderful to see their different approaches to drawing on location and learn about their different reasons for doing it. The participants were all ENTHUSIASTIC beyond belief and I enjoyed meeting them and working with the people I had the opportunity to work with. I only wish I could have seen all the presentations and met everyone, but I guess that’s what next year’s symposium is about ; )

Thanks again Gabi, the Urban Sketchers Symposium was truly special.

Queens, New York, is the most ethnically diverse city in America. Or so they say, so when I was hanging out in a park in Queens one recent Saturday morning I was not surprised to see some Chinese practitioners of Tai Chi. I decided to do some drawings, as I love drawing the figure in motion, and I was having a blast doing it. A few women from the group noticed me drawing and came over during one of their breaks to see the results. They decided that I should be drawing the leader, a Tai-Chi master visiting from China. I told them, yes, of course I will draw him, and thought the matter was decided. But no, I wasn’t doing it soon enough nor giving him the proper attention!

So…feeling the pressure, I laughed and moved to the front of the group to get a better view of the teacher. He was good! Somehow he moved slowly but quickly at the same time. I couldn’t figure that one out, but that’s the only way I can describe it.

I wasn’t the only one trying to keep up with him! In the drawing above you can see that the leader has already completed the turn the others are just embarking on! I know there’s a philosophical meaning behind all of this, but honestly I was just trying to get his movements down on the page. Finally I decided to focus on the Tai Chi master himself and do a portrait of him in full force, which he ended up really liking.  I posted it last week on our Studio 1482 blog, one drawing a day. You can check it out HERE if you’d like. Another great day of drawing in the great city of New York!! : )

PS – Tia Boon Sim has just posted a lovely interview she did with me on the Urban Sketchers Symposium blog. You can read it on the blog HERE if you are interested. I’m really looking forward to visiting Portland and working with her and the other artists at the symposium!

My book, September 11 2001: Words and Pictures, is available now.

Please visit sept11wordsandpictures.com to order. Thank you.

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I am happy to say that I am going to be one of the instructors at the 1st International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Portland Oregon this July! It will be a three-day workshop taught by several of the artists whose work is shown on the Urban Sketchers blog, founded by Gabi Campanario, who will also be one of the presenters. I will be teaching a workshop or two and giving a lecture about my experiences drawing on September 11th in New York City.

I am very honored to be included and excited for the opportunity! Also I am looking forward to meeting some of the artists whose work I’ve been admiring on the Urban Sketchers blog.

If you would like to find out more about the Symposium, please visit the dedicated blog HERE.

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The new Dalvero Academy schedule is going out this week! Margaret and I will be conducting a week-long life drawing class in August and are planning another Disney reportage workshop for January 2011. For more information, please email us at dalveroinfo@mac.com. Visit Dalvero at dalvero.wordpress.com or on Facebook: Dalvero Academy.

Check out some of the Dalvero students work for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund HERE!

Give to the Earth and She’ll give back. The truth is, every day should be Earth Day.

My fellow Studio 1482 member Greg Betza posted an interesting link on our One Drawing a Day blog, check it out!

Yes, spring is here and with it comes the urge for spring cleaning. There were so many unwanted blog comments waiting approval on my blog (how does 2500 grab you as a number?) that I decided it was time to delete them. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted some comments on my posts that I really liked! So, if you’ve commented on any of my posts in the past and have now been D-E-L-E-T-E-D, please don’t take it personally! The power of the admin function was placed in my hands and I inadvertently ABUSED IT – - !

Oh well, at least I don’t have to look at fifty comments about Paris Hilton or great real estate deals anymore. Spring is here and with it a new start. So please, do comment on these posts if you like and I promise not to delete you in future, dear readers!

Happy spring – this was painted at the Botanical Gardens with cherry blossoms swirling around me…a much more enjoyable pastime than administering to a blog, I must say.

My book, September 11 2001: Words and Pictures, is available now. Please visit sept11wordsandpictures.com to order. Thank you.

Several years ago I had the amazing opportunity to reportage “Semana Santa”, or Holy Week, in Seville, Spain. Holy week is the last few days of Lent leading up to Easter, a very important time in the Catholic faith. In Seville it is a major event. Starting on Holy Thursday and going up until Easter Sunday, groups of religious men known as ‘the brotherhood’ don hooded gowns and carry life-sized statues of Jesus and Mary to the main Cathedral of Seville, one of the largest gothic Cathedrals in the world.If you notice in this drawing, the men are barefooted. Up until the 1960s, when it was outlawed, self-flagellation was sometimes part of the procession. As you may imagine, it is very intense. The mood in the streets is solemn, and when the procession is over, the smell of incense hangs in the air for days and slippery wax from the thousands of candles is all over the pavement. Wow. It really is quite something.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the hooded costume of  the Holy Brotherhood is very similar to the ones worn by the Ku Klux Klan. I was really taken aback by that. The organization is not related to the infamous Klan, but they do have their own turbulent and very political history. If you are interested to read a bit more about them, click HERE.

You can see more drawings from this series in my post on Urban Sketchers. – Veronica

My book, September 11 2001: Words and Pictures, is available now. Please visit sept11wordsandpictures.com to order. Thank you.

My book, September 11th, 2001: Words and Pictures, has just been published by vero press. The book is a first hand account, through my words and reportage drawings, of the events of September 11, 2001 and the weeks that followed in New York City. The drawing shown above is from the book, portraying police officers barricading lower Manhattan that day.

Please visit the website, sept11wordsandpictures, for more information or to order this book. A portion of the proceeds of this project will go to the New York Firefighters Burn Center in honor of Carl Bedigian, a New York firefighter and friend to all of us at Studio 1482 who lost his life that day. Thank you, Veronica.