Kleine Lieblinge aus Brasilien

Funny how the sketches that stick with you after a big sketching trip aren’t always your grandest ones. Or even your most successful ones. It’s the little stuff, the surprising stuff, the things you never expect that are the “stickiest”. So at the risk of leaving you with no real narrative, and a real bits-and-pieces post, here are some of my favorite sketch-memories from Brazil.

The cartless horse. Sketched on the last day of the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty when I walked past yet another horse and cart and thought “How come I haven’t sketched one yet?”

The flooded streets of Paraty. What a fabulous surprise that was, when the tide came in and flooded the streets of the town. It’s like a double treat: you get to draw a picturesque town and then you get to sketch in it’s reflection.

I know you don’t have to account for every windowpane and pillar in a really complex building, but I am amazed I missed sketching the two prominent windows in the facade of this really simple church. In fact, it wasn’t until I took the shot on the right that I thought “wait a minute, something’s missing”. Too late. Now this will always be my church with the missing windows. Paraty, Rio de Janeiro.

This is the demo piece I did during my workshop at the Symposium “Never Fear the People”. It was a challenge to sketch and talk through my sketching process at the same time, but I really enjoyed it. This piece was auctioned off at the end of the Symposium. It reminds me of teaching and of the sketches the participants produced during the workshop. (I was most amused by how many people declared they ‘never draw people’ and then produced fantastic people-filled sketches of busy Chafariz Square.

Women on the streets of Rio holding signs reading “We buy gold”. Seeing those signs made me think of all the stories that might be behind the gold they buy, of families having to sell their heirlooms and memories, of intricately carved pieces being melted down into just a of gold. As I was finishing this up, it rained, all over my sketch. Nothing like a little rain to add character to a sketch.

And these last sketches made in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio. No grand buildings, no famous ones either, but their dilapidated grandeur described the spirit of the neighborhood perfectly.

That’s it from Brazil. Back to sketching the San Francisco Bay Area now. If you’re up to it, all my Brazil sketches are hier auf flickr, or blogged in many posts hier auf meinem Blog.