People from Serpa in Portugal
After I had spent 2 or 3 days in Serpa sketching all kind of buildings, I got quite bored, and needed to sketch something else. This is why, on the 7th of July (2009), I sat with kevin at a cafe outside, and made sketches of the people sitting there. I liked the faces I saw, and had quite a nice time doing that. As always my sketches tend to be caricatures, I just can’t help it… but I swear that I have warm and sympathetic feelings towards all these people I sketch, my intention is really not to make them look silly or ridiculous or whatever negative… I am sorry if some recognise themselves (what i doubt in fcat as I am not really searching for a good likeness) and feel offended… 
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These are some of the people I sketched that day. if you wnat to see more, go please to my Flickr account
The Art of Reading #3 : A Literate Tattoo
When you observe people reading their newspapers, above all, I guess, when they sit in a public place like our Cafe Masko, you really can see that the whole personality is involved in this act. Not only the hands which hold the paper, but also the body , the head, the hair, the lips, etc.
Even the tattoo seems “to lend an eye”!
To be honest, just by looking at the way this guy is reading, I know that he could not be my friend. You might think that I judge too quickly, but this attitude says so much about his character, I find. I would be really interested to know what YOU think he is inside, when you look at my sketch. It would be great if you could tell me in your comments…
Anyway, he was a great model for me, and I am thankful for it!
ATTENTION PLEASE!
I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too…
so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!
The Art of Doing Nothing #1
Where I live (South of Spain) it is an Art in which 90% of the population excel!
There are 1000 ways of doing nothing here, but most of the time, you can be sure that a glass of beer or sangria is involved!
ATTENTION PLEASE!
I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too…
so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!
The Art of Eating #1: Donuts!
Yes, it is always a big pleasure for me, as a painter and a student of human nature, to watch people eating. If you haven’t already, pay attention to it in the future. There are millions of different ways to hold a fork and a knife, and each way says more about the eater than a mirror…
But I will start this series with something very basic to eat, where you don’t even need a fork and knife to eat it, (except of course if you belong to the aristocracy or are from the precious kind); Donuts!
In Cafe Masko, which I presented to you some days ago, they serve the cafe con leche with delicious tiny donuts. It is an incredible pleasure to eat them, but even more to watch people eating them. Generally the women are specialists in holding them very daintily from the top of their long fingers, and eat them slowly and elegantly, tiny crumb by tiny crumb, their heads turned absently to the horizon. The men, generally, search for the shortest way between their mouth and the fingers holding the donuts, and their eyes are fixed to the donuts, cross-eyed, when they eat them. And they need a maximum of 2 bites to be finished with them.
But the most extraordinary donut eater I have ever seen is my Kevin. And when I say “seen”, I should better say “not seen”! I can’t even show it to you because he is so fast that I never have time to see him eating his donut. A little bit like Lucky Luke, you know, that guy who shot faster than his shadow.
As you can imagine, the man on the sketch had already finished his donut and was coveting the woman’s one. This is why his face is green with envy. While I was drawing there, I was wondering if he was planing an attack…
The Art of Smoking #1
I cannot help: I find a smoking hand very aesthetic! And there are so many different ways to hold a cigarette, which is the reason why I start this series of sketches, a part of the more general series:
“The Arts of Everyday Life”
Hands are anyway a wonder of natural technique, with so many freedom parameters. No wonder that the everyday tasks which they have to accomplish can be so different from one hand to the other. But exactly these parameters are the reason why hands are so difficult to draw…
Please don’t look too exactly at my hands, they are only meant as a quick impression of the gesture. I have anyway most of the time only 1 second to catch them in one position!
The Art of Reading #1: The Wall
I started this series of sketches about people reading newspapers in my main blog some weeks ago, but as I decided to present all my paintings concerning people here, it is where they belong now.
It really fascinating to watch at them. To start with some of the papers are so gigantic that the people’s arms and hands seem to grow accordingly! So if you think, looking at this first sketch, that I don’t know the natural length of arms, you are wrong. Look at people reading newspaper, and you will see: their arms are suddenly made of elastic stuff!
What amazes me sometimes is when people come together to a Cafe, and one starts reading, holding the newspaper between him/her and friends. I find that incredibly impolite and careless!
This is by the way my nightmare picture of a couple: sitting at breakfast, the man reading newspaper, and holding it between him and her in a way that they can’t see each other. Like a wall, kind of. And in fact I guess it is really meant as a wall, consciously or not!
About
The “normal” people… and the celebrities!
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Contact me at miki@goodaboom.com
