that girl WITHOUT sketchbook

Foto at the Parisian mosque tea house. Englishmen does not recognise gender of nouns.
In my language sketchbook is like a lover - it must be him.

Sometimes it happens. You leave home. You take everything you need. At least ...you think you have EVERYTHING. You close your door behind. You travel long way. You get to the place. You take out your pen. You want to sketch and.... it is not there! Drops of sweat come on your forehead, heart starts to beat faster, only one thing bothers you now...

How should I sketch now?

It happened to me so far only three times.

1# Coffee is always good 

Over a month ago in the plane - on the way from Gdańsk to Paris.

Thank you wizzair for white coffe cups!

The unexpected need to put on the paper what I see was stronger than anything. A paper cup of coffee, that you see above, did only well to me. My favourite rosa lipstick was actually accidental. Of course, I had to drink out my coffee before sketching! Stewardess gave me a weird look - cou-cou.

Lesson to learn: sketchbook is like lipstick - never take it out from your bag!
Or - at least - never refuse yourself a cup of tea or coffee! Vine, on contrary, is never good, because on plastic transparent glasses you cannot sketch.

 

2# Read'n'go or fill your book with inspirations

Last saturday my sister and her fiancé invited me over. Although we live in the same (Tri)city, it is still one hour of travel by public transport what successfully prevents me from frequent visits. Ultimately, I promised and off I went. Of course I planned to sketch in the tram, but my small moleskine sketchbook decided to stay home.

The only paper I had in my bag was a book of Jaume Cabre - Confessions (in Polish: "Wyznaję"). I rarely leave home without a book (you never know when it is going to save your life from boredom, when all stream goes down and you have nothing else to do). Luckily enough this one was my own book, not from a library.

I could start the process of destruction of the book.

Dear publishers! Never forget to leave empty pages for nasty sketchers! Not urban sketching this time but... I have probably read too big part of that book to not feel oblige to go deeper down into my thoughts and its content. 

Now, probably all book lovers, language teachers and librarians will shiver, I regret to admit - I have nothing against sketching in books... with ink... I hope that  Jaume Cabre, whose book I am bound to finish to read soon, will forgive me once this nasty profanation. Deep in my heart I hope he will give a thought one day to this idea and add some extra art to his works, namely illustrations. Those 750 pages full of music and beautiful verses would be even more pleasant with bunch of sketches every now and then.

I guess he would understand my emergency situation and forget me that addition of some extra lines on the first page that contained before just pure dedication to Margerida. Dear Margerida, you became part of my sketch. Please forgive me robbing you from that space.

3# Eiffel Tour is never enough

 This sketch was a sin against my sketchbook that I have committed quite deliberately. I have chosen a book again. As you know, I needed quite much of inner thinking to sketch the Eiffel Tour (read here). This one was only a tiny gift for a friend whose endless love to this building has never ceased to amaze me. If a sketch can bring a smile on someone's face, why not to doodle it? I sacrificed my aesthetic doubts and sketched the Eiffel Tour again.

Photo of poor quality, but as you can imagine, I do not own this sketch anymore.

As for place, it was done in a Parisian Mosque that is currently one of my top 10 location to go in Paris. Two-euro-mint-tea with a beautiful mosaics and stained-glass windows will satisfy not only photographers, sketchers, but simply anyone who is looking for a quite peaceful place with a beautiful surrounding. Delightful.

not taking any colours with you in this place it is another sin. Mosque in Paris.

4# real disaster


Have you realised that the third point was fake? I had my sketchbook with me!  I deliberately distroyed that book. Well... the real disaster happened some time after when I went to Amsterdam. I had tears in my eyes. But this story will be told another time.


5# dream place to sketch?

I have found one dream place with girls just this week! Unfortunately no picture this time as the camera in phone died. Hopefully I will improve this in the future.

If you could imagine perfect place for ANY sketcher or street art creator, it would be the pub  TABULA RASA in Gdynia in Tricity, Poland (Abraham street). What they did was - give people white walls and tell them - do whatever you like. For the results they did not have to wait too long. Walls soon started to be filled with various kind of doodles, scrawls ugly or and nice pieces of art. I felt in love with place from the first sight.

Why have I only forgot to take my pen?

grr.....