We spent quite a bit of time in Dublin this summer on two seperate trips. We use it as our staging ground on our european excursions. Plus, I can see some cousins. On our way back to america, we clear customs in Dublin which makes dealing with flying a lot easier. There’s a lot of cool buildings that don’t happen to be pubs. I chose this one to draw.
Toulouse Fence
Our friend, the art teacher Benoit Lacroix told Arnaud that he should draw this scene in Toulouse. All I saw was an iron fence and a garbage can. Benoit was convincing Aranud and Jean-Christophe that there was an enourmous building next door that they could jam into their long horizontal sketchbooks making it fabulous. I never would have chosen to draw this but I rolled up my sleeves and pulled a rabbit out of my hat. I love the challenge of making something out of nothing.
Shutters
Shutters are the thing I’m attracted to most in France. I sought some out pretty quickly. It took 3 to 4 hours to complete this, so my time was precious. While I drew, artists approached and wanted to talk. Therefore, I temporarily postpone my sketching. Sometimes while I’m conversing, other artists join the fray. Usually I have a few completed sketchbooks in my knapsack to show folks. I inject those into the show. The strangers get so ingrossed in the sketchbooks I’ve handed them and their conversation with each other that I can quietly go back to drawing after I’ve molified them. It takes a while before they notice I’m engrossed in illustrating shutters again. That’s how I deal with “Illustration Interuptus”.
Drawing Other Artists
Trying to regain strength in Toulouse, I had to resort to one of my drawing tricks. Jet-lagged, battered and melting in the heatwave, I knew I couldn’t draw the first location my european artist friends had chosen to draw. They started to draw a scene by a canal. Knowing I didn’t have the strength, I chose to draw a few of the artists sitting around us instead. I could take my time and only do a few and then add more over the coming days. When artists strolling on the street see me, they come over anticipating some elaborate, intensely detailed sketch. Instead they see this drawing taking shape and they leave me alone. This takes the pressure off and allows me to recouperate enough to get back to some normalcy. Plus, I eventually get this cool drawing out of my chicanery.
Toulouse Hotel
We arrived 2 hours early to JFK airport for our flight to Europe. It was delayed 5 hours. We boarded at 1:30 in the morning. The plane taxied the runway for half an hour until our flight was cancelled because the crew reached their maxium of work hours and had to be relieved from that shift. We got back home at 3:30 am. Slept. Back to JFK the next day for a rescheduled 4:00 pm flight. Two hour delay but finally took off. Arrived Dublin. I woke at 3:00 am for a 5:00 am flight to Paris. Four hour layover in Paris before flying to Toulouse. I crawled out of my cab at the hotel in Toulouse completely battered. Nintey five degree heat, no sleep and I was seeing double. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted these cute little buildings next to the hotel. I told myself, I’m going to draw that. I finally did but I never really was able to operate at full strength. I toughed it out as best I could.
Toulouse
I just spent a week in Toulouse with 900 fellow artists at a sketching symposium that overtook the entire French city. The streets were filled with many notable illustrators from around the globe. The heatwave added to the difficuly factor for me when drawing because my work is so labor intensive. Everyone was drawing live in public at all hours covering every inch of available space. Locals and tourists were dumbfounded as to what was happening. Many people approached me and asked if I was Tommy Kane which oddly enough turned out to be true.
Trophies
The Museum of Natural History in New York has a display of important sports trophies throughout the years. Some include baseball’s World Series trophy, Pro football’s Lombardi trophy, Olympic gold medals, basketball championship rings, and many tennis trophies. I sat and drew while people around me stared in wonder at all these treasures. They didn’t have a World Cup though.
Lux
In Luxembourg, the tram and buses are free. All day long you get to travel all over the place for no charge. The tram even goes to the airport for free. Plus, it’s totally modern and brand new. The best perk I’ve ever encountered in a city.
Grund
The architect and artist, Arnaud Meyer lives in Luxembourg. He invited Yun and I to dinner at his house along with some friends of ours. Of course, Mauro came and our pal Jean-Luc too. The dinner was full to the brim with architects. Not only is everyone in Luxembourg an architect but they can all draw excellently. All kidding aside, it was a very memorable evening at a friend’s house in a faraway land. The next day we drew together on the streets.
Mauro
After France, we ended up in Luxembourg. Turns out, I have people in that city. One of them is the artist and architect, Mauro Doro. He speaks like 4 languages but not english. We communicate through pantamime which actually works out pretty great and is often hilarious. When I wander the streets in Luxembourg with Mauro, It’s like being with George Clooney. Everyone mobs him. He looks at me with his sly smile and pantomimes with a shrug, “what can I do, people love me.” It cracks us up everytime.
Cathedral
My first morning in Rouen, I went with Jean-Christophe to sketch the Rouen Cathedral. It is the most elaborate decorated piece of architecture ever. As we began to draw, we thought maybe we bit off more than we could chew. We just kept at it because of our motto, “never give up.” Eventually we each got an illustration out of it. Jean-Christophe said it was like drawing lace.
Pink
Jean-Christophe Defline and I settled in front of this pink building in Rouen. The structure felt quite human. It seemed like the building could start talking to us as if we were in some live action, Studio Ghibli film. Due to the heat, I drank about 10 bottles of cold Perrier that afternoon. At every cafe we stopped in for refreshments, we seemed to know a dozen people. Jean-Christophe and I are very popular in France.
Heat
Jean-Christophe Defline and I found a cool little side street to draw in Rouen. Even though it was early in the morning, the temperatures were already approaching 90 degrees farenheit. There was a delivery truck parked where we had set up. When the driver opened the back to remove his products, it turned out to be a refridgerated truck. We were in heaven as cold air streamed out of the vehicle. This happened with two more trucks while we were there. We caught a break for once.
