Practice sketches done while riding the train to Philly and back to Delaware. #commuters #pencil #urbansketching

Here are a couple sketches I did last week in Old San Juan. The first one was done with pencil and watercolor, the second was done with a Sharpie, water soluble graphite and watercolors. Both were done on a cheap, 8.5 x 11 Mead Academie sketchbook. #sketching #PuertoRico #Sharpie #pencil #watersolublegraphite #OldSanJuan #Yarka #Watercolor

We spent this past weekend participating in the event called “La Campechada”, a multi-disciplinary union of artists, musicians, performers, urban artists and actors remembering José Campeche y Jordán, considered one of Americas most important artists of the 18th century. It was celebrated in Old San Juan, where Campeche spent his life. It was a very well planned event, so kudos to the creators from the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Our sketching group “Garabateando.com” spent

This week I’ve re-taken sketching at lunchtime, practicing with graphite some non-architectural subjects. These sketches were done in about 5 minutes each, except the last one, that took me twenty minutes. #sketching #loose #PuertoRico #garabatos #pencil #bocetos #sketch #graphite #dibujo #drawing

#Trees #sketching #loose #PuertoRico #garabatos #pencil #bocetos #sketch #graphite #dibujo #drawing

Yesterday we met at the Cathedral in Old San Juan.  Sketchcrawl 33 was also held yesterday, so we participated in it as well.  We also sketched some of the neighboring buildings. I was using a few new tube watercolors I had filled half pans with and put in my travel tin.  I am looking to make brighter and more colorful sketches, so I changed my palette a bit.  Let’s see how it goes. Here are some of my sketches: Catedral de San Juan Catedral de San Juan- Interior Hotel El Con

Yesterday our sketching group, Garabateando.com, met at Galería Paseos, a shopping center in San Juan.  We had been invited by the owner of Celestino Art Gallery, Junior Ortiz, to meet them while some of the exposing artists had a painting session right there in the mall.  Junior is also known in the local air waves as Junior Celestino, a radio show host I have been listening for years.  What I didn’t know is that he was an artist as well as an entrepreneur.  His gallery and

We had planned to go sketch at the historic Cemetery of San Juan, but it happens that it is closed on Saturdays at noon.  We tried to sketch it from the nearby hills, after all it is a wonderful view of the Atlantic Ocean, the San Felipe del Morro fort and part of the cemetery viewed from above.  I hadn’t finished my first sketch when it started to rain really  intense.  We took shelter at the nearby Cuartel de Ballajá, and did a few sketches there.  Today I went again to Old

I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy sketching with pencil, same old #2 pencil we were forced to use for math classes in grade school.  I’ll be using pencil a bit more, to practice value, shades and shadows.  Call me crazy, but I do love the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil and the whisper it makes when shading on paper.  Yes, there is the downside of the smudging, especially for us lefties, but it is cheap, versatile and easy to get.  By the way, my favorites were Bero

I’m in love with the iPad2… I just downloaded an app called ASKetch after reading a review of it. This was my first sketch with it; the app is extremely simple and it just simply works. It feels like if you were using graphite. You control the darkness by pinching: a small circle draws very dark and vice versa. It isn’t pretentious, only a handful of tools, but it gave me a very good first impression. And for $0.99, it is a bargain. Maybe the iPad won’t replace my sketchbo

Well, I found a name for my blog… I updated the header image to include a scan of the title, handwritten with a Sharpie.  The symbol below is part of my signature, representing the first three letters of my last name, Aparicio.  Virtually all my friends (my wife included) know me as Apa.  In fact, when my wife calls me by me whole name I know she is really mad at me.  Anyways, I liked the title and had to sign it. For the past four months I’ve tried to sketch something every

The other day I invited my whole class to go out and sketch at Old San Juan.  It’s true that I told them attendance wasn’t required, but I didn’t expect no one would come.  One of my students, who happens to be a very good friend since I was a student, was the only one who finally came.  I still can’t believe it.  If one of my professors invited me to go out and sketch I was the first one there!  And so were my friends in college.  More than 10 years after graduating we still

Hello everyone!  My name is Luis E. Aparicio and I am from San Juan, Puerto Rico.  I’m new to this community, and to this point I have been enjoying it very much.  This blog will be about one of my passions, sketching.  Please join me even if you’ve never picked up a pencil in 30 years.  When you learn to relax while sketching you will find that it is a wonderful therapy.  You will find that time flies by and you will appreciate your world much more. When I started studying a