Interview #11--Meet Lapin!

Meet Lapin!  He's a charming and talented guy whose work I first saw on the wildly popular Urban Sketchers blog--I fell in love and I know you will too. As we noted in our teaser--and as you can see in this interview--he works on old ledgers and lined paper a lot, to amazing effect. 

He goes by lapinbarcelona on Flickr, so take a peek, there's a lot to delight you there.  His portfolio shows a lot of his illustrating work, as well...a versatile fellow!

Here he is in his own words, but keep reading--interview below!

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I'm a French illustrator living in Barcelona for 4 years and a half.

I’m graduate of the private art school Pivaut (2001, in Nantes, France), and worked for 5 years as a graphic designer in Paris and in Barcelona, and than decided to work as a freelance illustrator.

I'm working for edition, fashion, advertising and magazines, and participate to many exhibitions in Europe, mostly about travel books and sketchbooks. I’m also used to teach “sketching” during workshop in university and in art school.

I am an Usk correspondent from Barcelona, and was one of the instructor of the first urban sketchers symposium in Portland last summer.

My illustrations were published in “Illustration Now 3” (Taschen) and “Illusive 3” (die Gestalten Verlag) and by many creative review as Elephant (UK), Computer Arts (UK), Grab (Italy)…

Whether he's drawing boats, buildings, people or nature, Lapin's work is immediately eye-catching..

And now to our interview!  This time, Lapin's answers are in italics...
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Q.- Do you work in your sketch journal every day?

A.- I have to sketch in it every day, and I’m in a very bad mood when I do not have time to do so. It became an habitude and a necessity.

I love this whimsical tree with a face, feet, and tail...

Q.- How did you happen to start using ledgers and graph paper?

A. -I’m sketching in notebooks for nearly 10 years now, and very quickly, I was wondering which kind of notebooks will fit the best to me.
 
My love for the flea markets is part of the answer. I found there some old diaries of the 60’s and 70’s, and decided to bring one for a trip in Mexico. I immediately fall in love for this lined paper that create a new dimension to my sketches, and I’m still amazed by the quality of this “vintage paper”.
 
Each time I show one of those sketchbooks to some other sketchers, they can’t believe that a paper that fine support some watercolour on the both side.
 
So I’m looking for new ones every time I go to a flea market along my trips.
 
I actually published 3 facsimiles of my sketchbooks numbers 98, 108 and 120, which are originally some old Spanish book accounts.

Q.- What interests you most? (people, travel, buildings, and why?)

A.-More or less in that order, meeting people, travelling every day, and sketching the cities I visit. It’s how I record my surrounding, and all my sketchbooks are my personal archive.

Q.- How does your sketch journal relate to your job, if it does?

A. It relates to the place I visit for my job, but today my sketchbooks ARE my job, the most important part of it. I had some commissioned sketchbooks about some village in France, more recently about the Sagrada Familia of Gaudi in Barcelona (coming soon), and I'm working secretly on a personal guide of Barcelona, and this will be a very long job, there is so much to tell about this lovely city.
I could tell you a scoop, I will publish my very fresh Istanbul's sketchbook, but don’t tell it.
Q. - Other thoughts? Whatever else you feel is more important, personally, to YOU...

A. I like the way sketching every day what I have in front of me keep me curious and attentive to the most simple details of my life. It’s also a spontaneous way to meet any kind of people everywhere!

Lapin's sketch of correspondent Nina Johansson

Lapin gets to meet up with a number of other sketchers, many of whom are devoted to travel sketching.  He's met our own Laura Frankstone (Interview # 5, here), Liz Steel (Interview #2), and again, Nina Johansson, Interview #10!  (Click on the links if you missed them or would like to revisit!)

Don't miss Lapin's blog, with new work all the time...it's HERE.

And thank you, Lapin, for sharing with us, here an in the upcoming book!

sketching from photos

last pages . . ., a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

One morning in Arkansas, Bill called me out to the backyard, which slopes down to a heavily forested area between our friends' home and Norfolk Lake. On the other side of the fence was this newborn fawn, still a bit damp. Bill had noticed a movement and briefly saw the mother, then found this baby laying against the fence.

We kept an eye on the little deer all day but no more sign of the mother. We know she was watching us; we just did not see her. Early the next morning, both were gone. There was an impression in the grass where the mother had lain next to the fawn during the night before moving it to a more hidden spot.

I sketched this from a photograph instead of working on the spot. I didn't want to hang around the baby deer too long to avoid upsetting the mother. So I took photos and moved on. Though working plein air is preferable, I've given myself permission to work from photos also. I used to feel "condemned" or less authentic as an artist if working from photos, but sometimes it works better for me.

The Amish buggy was also from a photo, taken from a moving car.

Drawing Garden Decor

Drawing Garden Decor, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

Waiting? Not a Problem :)

I so love having a small journal in my purse. Doctor visits are rarely without a wait.

I don't often sketch people and welcome the opportunity to practice. I'm getting more and more comfortable sketching faces and all in the comfort of my journal :)

Travel Kits for Journaling

Very short and sweet - so you can still concentrate on Cathy's wonderful post today.

See my blog for some great KIT ideas including my favorite - and a new workshop that starts tomorrow:

Artist Journaling Travel Kits

jessica

Working on Toned Paper

Have you tried toned paper in your journal?  All those in the montage above are from various of my own journals, and as you can see, it is an interesting and very dimensional effect!  I bind my own journals so I can have paper I enjoy working on, but you can buy toned paper sketchbooks or journals too.  (Fabriano makes one that has REALLY bright colors in it!)

Gouache works well on toned paper, of course...I have a small kit I carry with me that lets me work on the spot.  This is a wild geranium in our local park (I can never see the detail from a photo as I can in person.)

This is Prismacolor colored pencil on black...my spoiled kitty Merlin!

Watercolor pencil makes an interesting effect on toned paper too...it's a bit translucent, but nice...

I used a bit more color on this fountain sketch, but not much...again, this was colored pencil, with a bit of white gouache for the water.

You can use only two sketching tools, a dark and a light, to make your images pop!  These were just quick sketches at a family birthday party.  That's what I used on the sketch of my husband, wearing glasses in the montage--a dark colored pencil and a white one, from Prismacolor--and on the little parking-lot people at lower left in that same image.

And of course, you can tone your own paper, with watercolor, ink, or acrylics, if you're working in an existing journal!  You've got even more freedom in that case...

A very quick way to bring your journal sketches to life!  Give it a try...




*Note:  By the way that bottom sketch was from a live concert we attended, Acoustic Eidolon!  Here's the link to their webpage, with a bit of their music...wonderful.

Yet another new pen...

This one's the Platinum Carbon desk pen I found at Jetpens (and now available at Goulet Pens as well!)...someone here recommended it, and thank you!

It IS a desk pen, so it has the long handle that some enjoy--for instance our correspondents Liz Steel and Alissa Duke!  Both like the long, elegant lines of the Lamy Joy pen, much like Rotring's Art Pen.

I like the idea IF the cap will stay put on the end of the pen when it's in use, but in this case it doesn't. (Lamy Joy and Rotring both do.)

So I decided to throw caution to the winds and tweak it.

The pen comes with a Platinum Carbon ink cartridge, so I just unscrewed the barrel and marked how far down the cartridge came, and used my little fine toothed saw to cut below that mark...

 

You can see the length of the cartridge here...

Ooops. It broke a bit 'cause my saw got cattywompus (you know what that is, right?)  So I just filed it off an a rather rakish angle, and polished it...it's a very handy size now, very portable...

The cap stays on EITHER end beautifully now, so I don't have to worry about losing it...it's faceted so it won't roll off my page when capped, either...and yep, it's a shortie, but the cap extends it to a comfortable working length.

It's got a very nice extra fine nib, so I got lots of detail on this old piece of weathered wood...not much flex, which would be nice, but still...makes a nice effect.

This is pretty inexpensive for a fountain pen--$12--so I don't worry about making it work FOR me, and taking the saw to it.  Now I love it, and plan to get a couple more, one for my travel kit!

Platinum carbon cartridges come with a little ball-bearing in them to keep the ink stirred up, too...nice, since it IS carbon and the heavier particles can settle if you use it in ink bottle form...

The ink is waterproof under most circumstances, so you can add watercolor almost immediately.