Behind this fashionable anglicism lies an old need to capture in notebooks the perceptions of reality we discover in each era.
Painters, scientists and architects have long used drawing as a tool to unravel what surrounds us. Leonardo da Vinci's ingenious prototypes, the naturalist illustrations of Maria Sibylla Merian or the botanical studies of Carl Linnaeus are examples of naturalists who methodically recorded the fruits of their research in their notebooks.
In Catalonia, Josep Lluís Pellicer was probably our first sketcher, leaving behind striking drawings made in the thick of the battlefield during the Third Carlist War or the Russo-Turkish War, which were published in outlets such as La Vanguardia, L'Illustration or Le Monde Illustré.
Barcelona, city of sketchers
Ten years ago, Gabriel Campanario, a Catalan living in Seattle, had the brilliant idea of creating a group in November 2007 to share drawings made “on the spot” over the internet. The success went beyond his expectations. This first urban drawing gathering undoubtedly helped popularise “sketching” in Barcelona and put our city on the map of the global movement. Thousands of artists in cities across the five continents meet regularly, united by the urbansketchers motto: «See the world, one drawing at a time.»
Barcelona is a pioneering city in promoting this discipline and is one of the few cities to have hosted the International Urban Sketching Symposium; in 2013 the event brought together more than 600 artists from all over the world. Today the city of Barcelona has several groups that meet regularly to draw.
What is Descobrint Barcelona?
Since the very beginning of our activity, Quei15/Espai creatiu has had the collaboration of Pedro Espinosa, one of the city's most active sketchers. A cartoonist, illustrator and caricaturist “bitten” by the passion for live drawing, Pedro is the driving force behind the outings we hold every Saturday at different locations.
Descobrint Barcelona keeps the public, informal spirit that characterises the sketching movement, but unlike other meet-ups and events, interested people have our academic support to put into practice graphic techniques aimed at improving spatial perception, depth and composition in drawing; vision and framing adapted to the best creative solutions indoors and outdoors.
The outings also let us work on portraiture, gazes and gestures; the complicity between landscape and people, as in the series Figura humana en movimiento or Mercados de la ciudad.
Check our website for the outings, prices and events scheduled for the IV edition of Descobrint Barcelona
WHERE: Quei15bcn/espaicreatiu, Calle Wellington 15 – Barcelona
WHEN: every Saturday from 10am to 1pm
SEE: Descobrint Barcelona on Facebook
Phone/WhatsApp: 619 00 45 15
+INFO?
Sketching meet-ups in Barcelona
Inky Fingers https://www.facebook.com/inkyfingers.barcelona/
Retrats del Primer Dijous https://www.flickr.com/groups/retratsprimerdijous/
Trobada del Tercer Dissabte https://www.facebook.com/events/1772576289694149/
Sketcrawl BCN http://barcelonasketchcrawl.blogspot.com
Sketching Commuters https://www.facebook.com/events/113620042515302/
Dibuja y Pedalea https://www.facebook.com/dibujaYpedalea
La Plaça Dibuixa http://www.fundaciosetba.org/es/la-plaza-dibuja-2018/
Trobada USK Catalunya https://www.facebook.com/events/777294572372348/
USK Girona http://gironaurbansketchers.blogspot.com
… elsewhere
Madrid a Trazos https://madridatrazos.blogspot.com Cuadernistas http://www.cuadernistas.com (Madrid)
De vuelta con el cuaderno devueltaconelcuaderno.blogspot.com/ (Huesca)
CompostelaIlustrada https://www.compostelailustrada.com (Santiago)
Bosquexo http://sende.co/bosquexo/ (Ourense)
Dibujatolrato https://dibujatolrato.com (Bilbao)
Malagráfica https://www.flickr.com/groups/2832323@N23/ (Málaga)
Dibujando La Rioja
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1465165236855105/?fb_dtsg_ag=AdzcPAvXEAr56VZMSlUjGLZ3kpYpl23ZcBSnh_f6wEG5fQ%3AAdw4JyQUFCw3Cj2CghDbMrysg5pSmMyJ3TxnbPdkeSjBSA (Logroño)
Some sketchers and sketchbook artists you can follow:
Pedro Sánchez Guerra, Santi Sallés,Víctor Swasky, Lapin, Lluisot, Merce Guiu Prats Miguel Herranz, Isabel Carmona, Toni Santiago, Eli Mañas, Juan Linares, Anna Isthar, Mekaely Eklu-Natey, Sagar, Alejandro, Raúl Deamo, Lluís Bruguera, Cesc Farré, Pedro Espinosa.
