Category Archives: Watercolor sketching

Back to blogging

I can’t believe it’s been two months since my last post.  And it’s not that I haven’t been sketching; on the contrary, I’ve been sketching a lot.  I’ve been trying new materials, new styles, practicing a lot.  Tonight I even been practicing caricatures.

I joined a Facebook group of Puerto Rican caricaturists and got inspired to try it out.  This week members submit their caricature of the chosen public figure, the legendary wrestler Carlitos Colón.  I grew up watching him wrestle and my late grandpa was a huge fan of his.  I tried diverse styles, first more cartoonish, with felt-tip pen and watercolors; then tried a more… elegant style?  I like more the latter, here are both:

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I also have been doing some Virtual Paintouts, last month at Valparaíso, Chile and last night at Vilnius, Lithuania.  Here are both:

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Also I’ve been sketching on location, especially people in action while I was participating in Festival Claridad.  Here are a few of my sketches there:

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Best of all is that I’m enjoying the process, learning a lot and having fun.


“Stick” figures

Today I sketched with sticks… I had a bamboo pen, kabob skewers and a sharpened chopstick, dipping into Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink. I really like the primitive feeling of sketching with sticks, will need to use china ink; the Noodler’s won’t dry unless it has contact with paper, so it kind of messed up a bit while watercoloring.

By the way, this was in a very nice beachside eatery, El Salpicón in Barceloneta. So, beside enjoying the sketching, I spent a nice afternoon with my family.

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Sketching at Abracadabra

I have sketched a few times while having a beer at one of my favorite spots in San Juan, “Abracadabra”. This time I was in a bit of a rush, but liked the looseness and sense of informality of the sketch. I did it with felt tip pen, markers and watercolors, 8.5″x5.5″.

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Back to sketching!

After returning from the USK Symposium a month ago I hadn’t gone sketching. Today, finally we had the chance, as we went to Plaza de Armas in Old San Juan. It started raining a couple minutes into my first sketch, so we took shelter in front of the Alcaldía and sketched from there. When it stopped raining I managed to go out and sketch some more in the Plaza. Here are my sketches:

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More from the Symposium

Here are some of the few color sketches I did in the USK Symposium in Santo Domingo. Two were done in Marc Taro Holmes’ Workshop, the other was done in the Sketchcrawl at Plaza de España.

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Re-visiting and re-sketching

This past couple of weeks I’ve been re-sketching some places I’ve sketched before. First, there is a Subway store I usually go for lunch. I’ve sketched the people in the line more than a dozen times, but as everyone is unique, I don’t get bored. Every patron strikes a different pose, and I quickly try to capture it, usually with pencil.

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A few minutes ago I was at a Tren Urbano station, the board announced the nex train arrived in 13 minutes. So I got out my sketchbook, a dark blue Sharpie and sketched the landscape. I’d done that same view before, but last time it was a beautiful, energetic sunset with striking colors. Today it is a hazy afternoon, with light showers on and off. This time colors are much more subdued, but I managed to finish right as the train arrived. Here is today’s effort:

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Back to reality

Well, I’m back home, lots of great memories and of course I need now like a week to rest. But no, I have to be back at work tomorrow. Anyway, here are other sketches that I did during the week and didn’t get to post.

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Sketching Pluto

Today we returned to Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Our vacations are almost over, we are dead tired but it was worth it. Today I made some more sketches, and ended with probably my favorite of the whole trip. Since our first day I was amazed by the topiaries shaped like everyone’s favorite characters, and this afternoon I had the chance (and the courage) to sketch one. It’s a Pluto topiary; what these guys do is simply amazing… I chose the easiest, done with pencil and watercolors.

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Some more vacation sketching

Here are some sketches I did the last two days while on Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I am now also venturing with colored pencils, and I like the effect, although it takes me longer.

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Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

Today we are at Epcot, an acronym of a very interesting proposal by Mr. Walt Disney, which wasn’t pursued by his company after his death. What we know as Epcot isn’t exactly what Mr. Disney had envisioned, although an awesome experience nonetheless.

We have made a few rest stops and I have taken the chance to do some sketching.

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