full, fat & happy

Terzo and I are back in California. Both of us are full, fat and happy. My plump status is a result of Thanksgiving gorging yesterday. Terzo's is a result of 6 weeks of sketching and travelling around Italy. It went by so fast but it also feels like I've been gone for ages now. And I actually filled Terzo. I repeat, I filled a sketchbook! In 6 weeks. Whoa...

Filling a sketchbook has always been a rare occasion for me. I usually get tired with one, need a change or a new size or some lame excuse to move on to the next blank page. But I actually filled my giant handmade beast, and it feels so good! I'm sad that our travels are finished but I'm so excited to start making some photos of the final spreads, sharing the sketches and stories behind the images and get to making prints for the Etsy shop. 

Full & oh so very fat. 

In other news, I'm now at 105 likers on Facebook. Crazy talk. And I'm just a couple of posts away from my 200th blog post. Even crazier. My first post was way back in November 2009 (oops, I missed the anniversary...) I started this blog as a way to start sharing my work from school, since I didn't have a proper website. It took 3 more years before I made a website but I still love posting on this little blog. With all these little anniversaries and accomplishments, I'm definitely going to do another giveaway like I mentioned before. I'm pretty sure it will be an art giveaway but I'd like to do something else as well... maybe two prizes? So watch the blog and the Facebook page for news on the giveaway, and keep an eye on the Etsy shop too. I'll be working as hard as I can to get prints from Terzo in the shop in time for Holiday shipping. 

Until then, here's some of the final sketches from Terzo and my Italy adventures. 

Went back and reworked this page with a skyline of Castiglion

Brick tunnel in Castiglion Fiorentino, and meloncino night!

Sketching during the blackout by the light of a cellphone

One of my favorite alleys in Castiglion

La cucina! 

The steepest road in town and the iconic church of Castiglion

The courtyard at Santa Chiara in vino!

The main piazza in Siena

Piazza Grande in Arezzo

7 hour layover in Moscow and last minute Rome watercolors at night

Russian cappuccino and the Colosseum at night  

The end...and an excellent quote on sketching I gleaned from another sketching friend...

è giunto il momento, disse il tricheco...

"The time has come," the Walrus said...to head back to California. I have 2 pages and a smattering of little blank spaces left empty in Terzo. As much as I don't want to go back, Terzo says it's time. Che palle... 

The weather has been gloomy these past few days so I haven't been able to take any photos of the latest sketches. I've also been running around like mad trying to see everybody one more time. I'll be updating on the final sketches once I get back to Cali, pending that Russia doesn't keep me longer than necessary again, customs at LAX aren't a nightmare the day before Thanksgiving and I don't sink into an epic food coma to sedate myself.

This afternoon I head to Rome to do some last bits of sketching, then I'll probably make some more between Moscow and LAX. Here's one last little sneak peek at Terzo until I fly back across the pond/tundra to the sweet Pacific...

Piazza Grande in Arezzo...this was one of the first sketching spots in my second Italy sketchbook so it's a very special location for me. I think it's come a long way since the first version...

l'autunno...

These walls...this light...I swoon...

I have a confession...I cheated on Terzo today! *gasp* I'm still pretty shocked that I did...

So, an explanation... For some reason this morning, after an epic stormy night of rain, hail, insanely loud thunder, lightening and a power outage, I woke up wanting to make some watercolor postcards. The purpose of them being specifically to sell in my Etsy shop as originals (or on ShopLocket...I'm slowly exploring that avenue) since I won't dismantle Terzo and sell those pages off. Or at least to have a collection of smaller pieces that will be easier to make prints of. Not too bad of an idea...or so I thought...

I did my chores around the apartment then headed for the art store, purchased a block of Fabriano watercolor paper the size of postcards, then went straight for the Amphitheater. I did a quick one there before I felt bad about working outside of Terzo. I then relocated across town to make a watercolor in my fat beast to apologize for cheating on him. 

But then this afternoon, I went up on the walls (oh the walls!) to watercolor the fall leaves. This is probably my first time actually watercoloring a real Autumn. The color changes don't really happen in California, at least not to this degree. It's kind of scary how pretty the trees are right now. So, in the midst of painting another postcard, that at the beginning I had every intention of selling, I was paid probably the nicest complement I've ever received by the sweetest little Italian man who is a musician here in Lucca. And lone behold, by the time I was finished with the postcard, I was too in love with it to even think about selling it. Oops. 

I'm in LOVE with this postcard/moment...sigh...

I'm not sure how this project will go, especially if I get too attached to every piece to even consider selling them. If nothing else, it's more practice on a smaller scale. Here's the work from today, as well as Firenze work yesterday. I'll be making another trip to Castiglion Fiorentino tomorrow so I will likely not update until Monday or so. A dopo...

I fell in love with that little patch of light on the corner of that building tucked in the dark alley...

The dreaded Duomo facade! That I will never be able to call "finished"

The b/w on the left is my favorite sculpture under the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria.

Terzo progress...

Sorry for the mini blogging hiatus. I took a trip back to Castiglion Fiorentino for Halloween and to visit with friends. What was supposed to be a 2 day trip turned into about 4.5 days of visiting, catching up, Antique Fair and shenanigans. Fantastic shenanigans but not as much sketching as I would have liked. But I still have some new sketches from right before the Venice/Bologna trip and this past week to share...

A FREEZING cold night sketch in the Anfiteatro and the view from the Guinigi Tower.  

Food wise. It's still pretty gloomy outside here in Lucca so today I did a bit of shopping and bought about €10 of cheeses and pancetta...which means carbonara is happening tonight! It's such a good cozy comfort food. Movie + vino + spaghetti carbonara = my lazy Monday night! Perfetto! 

I'm going to make a day trip to Florence tomorrow to properly visit/sketch that lovely city. No bags to haul, no trains to catch, no rush. Just me and Terzo on a date in Firenze. 

Gelato count...I've been slacking. 

Bit of collaging and more night sketching/quotes

The walls of Lucca on a lovely rainy day. 

More wall sketching, I could spend all day up there...

One of my new favorite Italian words, studio leaves and a 5 minute sunset watercolor

Rainy day sketch crawl through Castiglion Fiorentino down one of my favorite alleys... 

Meloncino sketches at La Piazzetta

Arezzo Antique Fair sketching

Late night sketch at Velvet Underground, then another favorite quote...

"start listening to the silent spaces in your thoughts 

and enjoy the wells of peace that exist within them"

Terzo goes to Venezia & Bologna

Terzo is becoming a very fat and happy sketchbook. (That's pretty applicable to my stomach too actually...) I just got back late last night from a quick trip with a friend to Venice and Bologna. 

Venice is one of my favorite cities in Italy so it's rare for me to pass up a trip to such a lovely spot, especially when the Bienalle is happening too. My friend Jen loves the islands Burano and Torcello too so those were quickly added to the list of places to sketch while up in Venice. Bologna has been on my list of places to visit/eat at in Italy so it was time to check that one off the list. And with an epic restaurant recommendation to investigate as well, the potential for lots of awesome sketching spots and places to eat were high! 

The trip to Venice started very early on Tuesday morning so we could get to Venice as early as possible. We stayed at the house of a sweet little old "nonna" which was a very happy surprise. Our room looked right out over a canal, which made for early mornings of noise and lots of mosquito attacks ma vabbè. Afternoon 1 was for exploring and sketching. Day 2 was dedicated to Bienalle and Arsenalle. And the morning of day 3 we jumped on the vaporetti to get to Burano and Torcello. We found an awesome little pastry shop right by nonna's house but pretty much all the epic food spots were found in Bologna.

Watercolors at sunset on the first day

St. Marks

Night sketches/watercolors

Burano, a lace making island off of Venice covered in rainbow houses.

Torcello, another little island off of Venice

At the end of day 3 we left Venice and headed south to Bologna. We found a neat spot for some aperitivo and hit up a language exchange recommended by our hostel. Day 4 we headed straight for a little hole in the wall shop, Pasta Fresca Naldi, that you can snag a some fresh made pasta for cheap. Polenta al ragu, gnocchi con gorgonzola and tortelloni di zucca. Ridiculously good. We were also given a ton of killer gelato spots to check out, none of which disappointed either...considering we ate about 3 gelato each that day. Unfortunately, it was rainy weather in Bologna so sketching was a bit dismal but we ended the night at an epic restaurant recommendation, da Fabio. 

Dinner at da Fabio consisted of the following:

Antipasti- baked Scamorza cheese, fresh ricotta, giant mozzarella di buffalo, baked tomatos, celery/Parmasean salad, grilled endives, spinach quiche, grilled zucchini

Primo- Tagliatelle with Bolognese

Secondo- Osso Bucco

Dolce- fresh made ice cream, chocolate tart, creme caramelle, FRESH marscapone, mousse/meringue cake, fresh chocolate sauce, apple tart, berry crostata and a bowl of clementines. 

All followed by limoncello. Whoa. And yes, we ate all of it. The happy food stupor that followed was ridiculous.  The entire dinner lasted almost 5 hours too. Double whoa. 

The next day we somehow found room to revisit the pasta shop and get some lasagne verde and fresh tagliatelle al ragu. Then some more sketching around town before it was time to catch some trains back home. Epic food/sketching trip complete. 

Quick rainy day sketches around Bologna

The list of epicness from da Fabio

Late night aperitivo sketches

Neptune fountain in the center of Bologna

Train sketching on the way home to Lucca

a (giant) Terzo update

This might possibly be the most productive I've been with sketching since...college maybe? Ever? Seriously, I've been in Italy for a week now and I've sketched at least once nearly every day. That's huge for me! I've always loved sketching but this level of productivity is new to me...

It's also a very different trip to Italy this time. I've never been in Italy without a real purpose, other than to sketch/eat/explore. It's strange being able to start a sketch and say, "I think I'll get some lunch and come back to finish this tomorrow." Ma che dici?! I'm so used to having to crank out a drawing before the bus/train leaves, the tour moves on, the work shift starts, the kiddo wakes up or the reality I might not see this place for a long time occurs. It's a really strange sensation and I don't want to get to used to it for fear of not taking advantage of every minute here. 

Anyways, on to the sketches! I love them so far. It's also strange to do multiple places on one page, and also not sketch sequentially, but if a spot calls for a watercolor I am helpless to oblige and skip ahead a few pages. A few still aren't quite finished, but I guess there's always tomorrow. I still want to do some more collaging in the beast too. But I'm making a quick trip to Viareggio today to get a dose of salt water and sand so the collage making might have to wait until tomorrow. 

Ever growing text collage and a bit of aglio

Piazza San Michele in the center of town and a couple quotes

My obligatory "For this is wisdom..." quote, and some new favorite places to eat/drink

40 stairs, eep! Love every one though, most days... and the neighbor cat that spends his day posing on the roof. Trying to draw him atleast once a day

There he is again! And an old tunnel under the walls of Lucca

Madonna dello Stellario nearby. She may take a while...

The Amphitheatre in town, where my fountain pen decided to change colors on me mid drawing?

Illuminated manuscript letters! I'm planning on going back to this museum to sketch a few more...

Part of the walls. And my favorite quote at the moment. 

Emporio del Sale

Lists and the Ilaria del Carretto. 

Piazza San Michele sights at night. 

Hopefully a map of Lucca one day...too many little streets...