a m e l i a   f a i s   h a r n a s

My rule for sketchbooking while I was in Europe was to always sketch directly in pen. No pencil allowed. This meant that any mistakes would present the challenge of creative correction: how do I save the drawing despite error?

I started this page on the second day in the Prado and finished it during my fourth day in the Louvre. The top right hand drawing went terribly, so to cover up my mangled drawing of a mouth, I resorted to big guns (my black copic calligraphy pen) and added the black background. But then that looked pretty cool, so I went with it, drawing with the idea of black entering into the composition.... and I'm quite pleased with the results!

The Uffizi itself was very noisy. In my sketchbook, I wrote, "Ridiculously loud humming in the Tintoretto Room." It seemed like almost every floorboard had its own squeaking sound, like no two snowflakes are the same. Then add the tour groups to this equation.

However, nowadays, technology enables the more privileged tour groups to listen through headphones while the tour guide (always with the brightly-colored excalibur-wielded umbrella-beacon!) rambles on into a tiny head-mounted microphone. While sketching a lovely Raphael self-portrait, stubbornly standing my ground as close to the painting as the shinguard would allow, a large tour group closed in around me. I heard the tour guide call me, "the lady in front," in a well-EXCUSE-me Miss Piggy tone. I knew at least the front half of the tour group was looking at me drawing and not looking at the painting. No pressure. As always.

From Firenze, I took 3 days of trains up through Italy, up into Switzerland again, over to Lyon, then down and across the southern border of France, finally dipping down into Madrid. There, I met up with a former collaborator/dear friend of mine. I was thrilled to see him again, as he is one of my favorite people in the world--all the more so in Spain, since he spoke Spanish.

Here, I must admit that one of the 50+ museums that I visited was, in fact, not what you would think of as a museum. This place is called Museo del Jamón (Museum of Ham).

We had breakfast here as much as we could since €3.60 got you 1 fresh orange juice that was the best fresh orange juice in the world, 1 cup of coffee and 1 crusty/fluffy roll with a couple slices of cured ham. Perfection.