Book Launch: Urban Sketch Book: Urban Sketchers in German speaking countries.

If you happen to be in Berlin next week come to the launch of this interesting book. 

The book portraits Urban Sketchers in German speaking countries. The list become so big that it was necessary to create two books. In band one  you have sketchers from the north area. Me and other sketcher will be signing your books. Come for  meet. talk or sign your copy. I will be happy to see you.

Digital sketchwalk in Apple Kurfürstendamm

A lot of people came to my sketch safari (Zeichensafari in German)  to the Apple Store Kurfürstendamm, Berlin. This was part of a collaboration between Apple and Urban Sketchers to celebrate 10 years of Urban Sketchers. Similar sketch walks  took place the same day in Hong Kong (with Rob Sketcherman) , Singapore  (with Don Low), and San Francisco  (with Uma Kelkar).

Apple provided all participants with an iPad pro and a pencil. After a short presentation about my work and some information about the app procreate we went to the Bikini mall to draw the area.

It was a sunny day but cold, but people seemed not to care much. We did a short exercise there and we finished the drawings back in the store. Thanks to Apple for this opportunity and all the people that came.

Drawing Human Figure with Ink

Lately I am looking in ways to abstract reality, to be able to tell a story in a different way. I love portraits and the human body, but I don't want to depend on how attractive is the person in order for my drawing to be appreciate by people.

In these portraits I used a twig and ink to draw the figure. The challenge was to draw with less lines and still get a recognisable image. It is difficult to find the balance. I added some washes of diluted ink and some marks with red pencil.

Here are some of the results. You can see the other drawings in this flickr album

My presentation at the Apple Store in Berlin

I have to thank Michael for the nice pictures and Binod for accepting to pose as a model for a portrait.

First I talked a little about myself an my travels

Then I talked about ten tips to draw portraits 

At the end I did a portrait with the iPad Pro and Pencil

And here you can see the video

Drawing portraits with the Ipad on the Apple Store Berlin

I invite you to come to this little free workshop where you can learn a few tricks how to draw with the app procreate. The workshop will take place at the Apple Store in Berlin.  Registration is required, since there are only few places available. To register click on the image:

Tausend Bar

I won't tell you where the Tausend Bar is. You can look for the address on internet, but nevertheless with out somebodies help, you won't be able to find it. It is a secret, one of Berlin secret places. When you get inside you get surprise but a very elegant futuristic atmosphere like a James Bond movie.

And there in the darkness was Miss Natasha Enquist singing,

 I had my last day of my dry twig workshop and I was still in the mood for that technic. The music and a mojito helped me a lot.

She leaning on a table.

Omar paints Odeon Platz

I arrived to Munich a little early for the second Germany Urban Sketchers Meeting. With a few hours to kill I went walking and stopped to draw the Odeon Platz. It was a good idea because the Sunday when we went back there was a street festival on the square blocking this view.



Let me know if you like the video and what do you want me to record.







Music: "Weltgeist by Miss Natasha Enquist.



Find her album "MNE" at: http://missnatashaenquist.bandcamp.com/album/mne
For more info: www.natashaenquist.com

Omar paints Miss Natasha Enquist

So finally I am using my new go pro camera. Here I had the opportunity to draw Miss Natasha Enquist.

It was suppose to be a digital drawing with my iPad,  however she is just a great model that I had to draw here with different techniques. This was with pen and watercolour, but I started with the watercolour first. Enjoy and please give me some feedback of what subjects you want me to draw.





Model/Recording Artist: Miss Natasha Enquist
Find her album "MNE" at: http://missnatashaenquist.bandcamp.com/album/mne
For more info: www.natashaenquist.com

Omar paint Iah Moontra

Recently I bought a go pro camera to record the way I paint. Here is a time lapse video I did last week.

This group Iah Moontra is really amazing, they really transform the space where they play...very Berlin in some way.





Here is the final drawing:

My Zanzibar Sketchbook

Wow! After I created the PDF of my Zanzibar sketchbook I forgot to share it here. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it.

Portrait delight

Lately I am more interested in portraits. My friends have to suffer

Karam is from Syria. We are doing a language exchange. I am teaching him German and he teaches me Arabic. I used  blue Caran D'Ache Watercolor Pencil to draw him, sprayed with water, let the colors fade a littel and thed apply watercolors. The hair is done with a dry brush technic. As paper I am use a Stillman & Birn Beta (for watercolor) sketchbook.


I went with Najeed and other friends to the lake on a sunny day. I drew him first with Pencil and added Watercolor. The skin color I created with Alizarim Crimson and some yellow, in parts I added cerulean blue to get the tones darker.Notice the red dots on eyes, nose, mouth corners and ears. These are color bridges and help to direct our eyes around the face.

Elvis is a dancer. we go together to the gym and sometimes later have a beer and enjoy the sun. I have drawn him many times. I drew the portrait with pencil and added watercolor later. For the lights of the hair I used a base purple and later cover it partially with sepia and dark blue.

Guido Westerwelle ist tot

That is the headline today in German Newspapers: Guido Westerwelle is dead. He was a German politician from the FDP Party. He became foreign minister and vice chancellor between 2009-2013 during the previous Merkel government.
I draw him 2013 during an "open door" day at the Foreign Affairs Building. He was there talking to the public, without any knowledge about his leukemia. A year later after he retired from politics, he got the diagnostic after doing some tests for a minor operation. What shock me about his death, is that he was young and he was suppose to start a new life, and from nowhere he got this illness. He was just 54. It could happen to me, it could happen to anybody. R.I.P

Drawing Tristan

My review from the paperworld fair

As some of you know, almost every year I visit Paperworld  / Creativeworld fair in Frankfurt. Sometimes I work there, sometimes I visit. This year I was working at the Caran d'Ache booth. On the last day I took some time to visit other booths and here is a review of some new products I found interesting this year.

Caran d'Ache:

 As I mentioned before I worked three days at the Caran d'Ache booth. The quality of their products is outstanding. I spent most of the time drawings with the Museum watercolor pencils and Luminance 6901 permanent color pencils. The Luminance 6901 has the strongest lightfast resistance in the market. 

However my happy discover was the blender: a wax stick that blends colors together, blur edges and increase the intensity of colors and mixes. I made a test to explain it. You can use over permanent or watercolor pencils, but since it is a wax, it would mask watercolor pencils against water after applying it.

Carandache.com

PS: you can find many of my drawings with Caran d'Ache color pencils in Instagram omar_paint

ShinHan Art:

It is good to keep an eye on this korean company. Every year they have new products, with good quality, competitive prices and great packaging.

If you are an architect or designer probably know their alcohol based Touch Twin markers. I use  their watercolors so I was very happy to see this new watercolor palette, very robust, nice design, transparent acrylic interior, an extra small removable palette also comes inside, but was not available for the photo.

Shinhanart.com

Stillman & Birn:

Stillman & Birn keeps pointing towards paper and binding quality.

I finally could see their new range of softcover sketchbooks. I am happy to see the Gama, Beta and Zeta series also available in my favorite landscape format.

stillmanandbirn.com

Pentel:

If you are an Urban Sketcher you know Pentel. The black Manga Brush pen is a must and their waterbrushes...well you can't have enough of them. Besides the small, medium and large brushes, I discover this year that they also offer a flat brush. (left bottom)

pentel.com

Nevskaya Palitra (White Nigths):

Did I mentioned that I learnt to paint with White Nights watercolors? They offer  professional quality for a reasonable price.  They have now a small portable case practical for sketchers and what is great: Kolinsky sable brushes, very very affordable!! amazing !!!

You would find them under the name of the company Neskaya Palitra

http://www.nevskayapalitra.ru/eng

Super5:

Super5 is also in the fast track of innovation. They have now also their mix media sketchbooks in hardcover and what they call universal sketchbooks: you can use alcohol based markers as well as light washes of watercolors* (the paper bends a little with water, but it is still very robust to keep working on it) They are also launching new calligraphic pens with new nibs: 07 mm, 1 mm, 1.5 mm and ink rollers. 

Super5 

Leuchtturm1917

Leuchtturm1917 have many practical planners and notebooks in many colors, However this is my personal favorite: a business card holder. Isn't it cute?

Leuchtturm1917

Fish-eye perspectives

I am still learning it. I took Paul Heaston Workshop in Paraty two years ago and although I think I got the idea, I have to constantly practice to get it right. So every time I have a new material I try it again as an exercise.

Winter is coming in Berlin, or it just arrived since today (Sunday) was snowing. Time to escape to a Cafe. I find cafes very boring for drawing. So in order to make it interesting I tried the fish eye perspective again. This is my friend Alejandro by the way, We often meet to draw together. His drawing today was very good, the markers and his drawing style work well together. 

Market is no a place but a time

Stone Town is a city that changes according to time, in the morning before noon, there is market, a so in some streets and squares you will find people selling their products.


After walking close to the Market we stopped at a corner.

Stephanie was drawing an old guy, and when I finished my drawings I took some pictures with her camera.

She always attracts a crowd. Of course people are eager to comment.

Portrait in front of the Mural

A picture at the oficial opening of the new Santander Bank Building in Mönchengladbach. I was very proud posing in front of half of my mural (It is so big that there is no way to take a whole picture!)

Santander Bank, Nordpark, Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach in drawings

Mönchengladbach is a small city close to Düsseldorf, in the State of NordrheinWestfallen, Germany.
The Santander Bank has it German headquarters there. For their new building they commission me to draw on a 22 meter interor wall the most relevant places and buildings of Mönchengladbach .
It was hard work, with a tight deadline, but I am extremely satisfied with the result.

I went around the city to make fotos and sketches of the buildings. The sketches on site were very important since they helped me to notice important details. I used Molotow acrylic mark to paint the wall.

The madona of the cell phone.

It was so much fun to go around sketching with Stephanie Ledoux.. we stopped at this street to draw the door but at the same time fascinated by the people seating on the side.

Although we couldn't communicate when people noticed us drawing they started to interact with us in non verbal ways.

 
This guy was definitely posing as he realized that we started drawing him. He stayed in that position for have an hour..

The little Nabil came to us to watch what we were doing, His mother join him later he hold him with one arm and in the other texted with the phone. I like to portrait this kind of contrast in Africa, Technology is there but people keep their traditions. To hide technology would be to romanticize reality, like these colonial tourist postcards, something that I don't want

Jaw's corner

People mentioned many times "Joe's corner" as an important square on my way. and I was asking myself who could be this famous Joe. It turned out that they mean "Jaw's corner" because of a picture in the wall of a shark like in the Spielberg's film.

A funny note is the phone hanging on the palm... if it really work?

I started drawing maps to understand the space, I keep finding beautiful carved doors. Stone Town is famous for them. This one bellow is in Indian style, you can recognize because of his bronze peaks. In India they are used to stop elephants, in Zanzibar there are no elephants, so they only have a decorative purpose and therefore they are not so sharp.

I am kind of lazy, so I don't think I need to draw all the carving, specially if it is a pattern that repeat constantly.