The students who joined me for my third annual Day of the Dead sketching workshop…

Hola! I’m back from Spain & Portugal tour
After three weeks of sketching in the Iberian Peninsula, I’m eager to catch up. Let’s begin with Barcelona, the only city on this trip that I had visited before—22 years ago. The moderniste architecture was even more amazing than I remembered. Variable thickness lines in the sketch above were done with a Sailor bent nib fountain pen. When the pen dried up, I searched for waterproof ink all over Barcelona, with my new friend…Maria Picasso, a fellow member of ISCA, the International Society of Caricature Artists.
This Barcelona skyline was improvised from the terrace at our hotel. The elements were all there, but I moved them around and changed their size. Notice the Sagrada Familia cathedral in the background…it’s still not finished! The playful forms at Parc Guell are some of Antonin Gaudi’s most delightful creations.