Barcelona and Rome: A Week Of Sketches

Using this Hahnemuhle Cappuccino Sketchbook as my sketch journal, I, together with my mom and dad, went to Barcelona and Rome for a week. It was my second time in Barcelona and first time in Rome but my parents are both first-timers in both cities. Since travelling with the elderly gave us enough time for rest, I took the opportunity to record sketches of places we visited.

Burma: Sketching Colonial Buildings and Temples

Burma, or modernly called as Myanmar, is a country I have been fascinated to come to and in December of 2018, I was able to visit 4 major cities and the outskirts of these cities. Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake. These four places are very unique from each other. Yangon, the colonial capital of Burma boasts with a number of well-maintained and still-in-use colorful colonial buildings. Mandalay, with it's paralleled streets and blocks much like the way New York City's streets and avenues were urban-planned, is a quiet old kingdom and is your gateway to the outskirts that will lead you to Sagain, Innwa and Amarapura. Inle Lake, a very remote tranquil lake city on the highlands of Naungshwe, is paradise and not to forget a local vineyard where you can sip your wine on a hill top over looking the surroundings. Bagan, my favorite of all, is a vast flat lands with droplets of ancient temple all over. One can go around on an electric bike and find your own spot in any of the temples and have your own tranquil time.

Here are some of the works from my sketchbook while travelling in Burma.

More of San Francisco

Every where I go in San Francisco, there are so many things to see that inspires me to sketch. If I could, I would do an on the spot sketching. I have joined some of the sketchwalks organized by Urban Sketchers San Francisco/Bay Area. I met the very lovely Laurie Wigham, one of the pioneers of urban sketching in San Francisco. I have been to a couple of the sketch walks she organized and it was great to see fellow urban sketching enthusiasts Apart from urban sketching, I also try other ways of illustrations like taking a photo of a place and sketching it and sketching the interior of a coffee shop or restaurant.

Here are more San Francisco sketches I made:

Sketching Los Angeles

I visited Los Angeles for the first time during spring break last month and I had a great time walking the city and finding great places to sketch. Food was great too. I am thankful for my friend for adopting me for 3 days and touring me around L.A.

Here are sketches I did while I was there.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall . . . . #urbansketchers #urbansketch #urbansketches #usk #waltdisney #illustration #illustrations #sketch #sketchdaily #sketches #waltdisneyconcerthall #losangeles #california #disney

A post shared by J. Gerald Legaspi (@sigeraldto) on Apr 2, 2018 at 2:11pm PDT

San Francisco Sketches

In the past months, I have been quite active in making sketches of San Francisco and most of them were done on the spot at places like Mission-Dolores Park, The Ferry Building, The Presidio and at the Marina.

Here are some of my recent sketches. Follow my on Instagram @sigeraldto

Back in SF. This was sketched during a hike at the Presidio yesterday. . . . . . #urbansketchers #urbansketch #urbansketches #usk #waltdisney #illustration #illustrations #sketch #sketchdaily #sketches #art #dailyart #sketchaday #anartfeature #youtubers #igers #instagram #instasketch

A post shared by J. Gerald Legaspi (@sigeraldto) on Apr 6, 2018 at 5:45pm PDT

The Sketchbook Project: Jeepney Sketches

I made a series of sketches about jeepneys back in 2014. I remember how fascinated I was to make an artwork with a twist of my heritage. Being a Filipino who grew up in the Philippines, commuting in a jeepney is one's basic way of life. If your parents never let you ride a jeepney, you must belong to an affluent family or a clan of the first class but in one way or another, one will still find a way to ride one no matter which walk of life you belong to.

In this sketchbook, I signed up with The Brooklyn Art Library where the Sketchbook Project is in partner with. I have long waited to be a part of this community and now that I finished the sketches, I finally submitted it and hoping it would join the U.S. tour of their mobile library. The sketchbook will then become part of the The Brooklyn Art Library long list of sketch catalogue.

New York City Sketches

Last December, during one of the coldest winter the east coast has experienced, I went travelling in New York city and created a 3-part sketchbook. New York city is such an inspiring place full of architecture that you would want to recreate. Sketchbooks have always been my go-to souvenirs of my travel aside from photographs and postcards. I hope this becomes into a book someday.

A post shared by J. Gerald Legaspi (@sigeraldto) on Jan 20, 2018 at 3:30pm PST