The other Surprise of the Day !

Sorry for focusing on France while our Sketchtravel challenge is running over borders but France began choosing a new president today after a frenzied campaign among a dozen contenders in a race with unpredictable results... So how to catch attention on our lucky international Sketchbook when all french internet users cannot stop talking about politics online ? Political implication is a very good thing actually. And I am very happy to notice that many people go voting this time, comparing to the last race (five years ago). Voting is a duty. Too many people die to get this right on this planet. What would be my choice about the perfect president ? well...I personaly vote for HIM. A great incontrovertible free Artist who officially joins us in the Sketchtravel challenge. Can you imagine him as our leader :-) That would be awesome ! Anyway, we are very excited about meeting him and also seeing what he will draw. Welcome Mister Plympton and thank you very much for sharing this experience !! Big thank to God Peter de Sève and Master Daisuke Tsutsumi for the connection.

Treasure Chest !

Lou Romano and Daniel Lopez Munoz discovering the holy sketchbook rising, in the now famous beautiful case (designed and made by Daniel Lopez Munoz from A to Z)
As you can see, they take place in front of a painting by Dominique Louis for Ratatouille.
Thank you so much for being part of this adventure amazing Artists !
No doubt that LOU ROMANO will bring us a masterpiece very soon. I am dying to see it ! Don't you ?

Between Knights.

The holy sketchbook continues his life among huge artits at Pixar. I cannot thank you enough Daniel "Woodman" Lopez Munoz for being so involved in the Sketchtravel adventure. Once again he sent me fabulous pictures, full of humor and creativity. Here you can see Daniel (left) offering the now famous Sketchtravel Red Oak Case with the sketchbook inside to Lou Romano (right). The "Hand Off" takes place in Pixar's studios, in front of painting for Ratatouille by the french Dominique Louis who will participate to Sketchtravel in the following weeks. I cannot wait to discover Lou Romano painting !

A Warrior joins SKETCHTRAVEL challenge...

A few weeks ago I announced officially the famous master of pastel and lights : Dominique Louis was joining the SKETCHTRAVEL challenge.
I mentioned that Dominique was the voice of the character "Bomb Voyage" in the famous movie : "The Incredibles". Apparently, artists working at Pixar are not only among the best in the world
but also very good actors...It's the "Pixar season" on this blog and for our lucky sketchbook who currently lives there. Yesterday Daniel Genious Lopez Munoz offered us the most beautiful case ever designed for a sketchbook (see above) and a masterpiece of Poetry with his amazing painting created for Sketchtravel, in the sketchbook. Today, I am very proud to announce officially a new great artist joins us in this awesome adventure. He was the voice of the Teacher Bernie Kropp in the "Incredibles", the voice of Snotrod in "Cars", he played a Cop and a Psycharist in " Monkeybone" (all people working in animation should watch this strange movie, the scene with Brendan Fraser running and loosing his guts, hilarious and you can see paintings by the great Mark Ryden ), He used to be story-boarder on "Dexter's laboratory", background designer on "Powerpuff Girls" his beautiful art can be seen in "the Art of the Incredibles", he will be the voice of Linguini in the upcoming "Ratatouille" . Lou Romano was the production designer of the Incredibles. He was responsible for the look of the master piece. He currently art directs for the movie Dan Lopez is working on. He recently brought us his remarquable gouache touch in "The Ancient Book of Myth and War". As you can see, he is an accomplished artist. Ladies and gentlemen : Mister LOU ROMANO , warm welcome on board

Daniel Lopez Munoz (part 5) THE VELLUM.

Daniel also placed protective Vellum between pages....Thank you so much Daniel !

Daniel Lopez Munoz (part 4) THE CASE.

And you think that's all ? hum...well...how to say that ? People might think I am hysterical. The thing is, since we have launched this project, I daily go from a big surprise to another. All artists are so involved, that's impressive. Following the adventure of this Sketchbook is more and more unbelievable each day. But today, we make a serious bound with Daniel 's implication...Daniel has BUILT with his own hands the most beautiful CASE ever. Made from red Oak and solid brass hardware. The front of the box, engraved with the logo, is made from antique Oak. Circa 1920's. The interior is lined with protective black felt material.The case also has a brass handle for easy carriage...As an accomplished woodsman (not a sunday handyman) and designer he even has drawn a plan before building it. Plus, Daniel placed protective vellum between pages ! Personaly, I don't only considering him as a Great Artist, but also an impressive perfectionist, a high level professional, in a word a VIRTUOSO. The Sketchbook of "SKETCHTRAVEL" was a jewel, by adding his remarquable Dan's Touch with both his amazing painting and this incredible case, he turned it into a Treasure.
Thank you so much Daniel. We owe you a lot. What about coming home for the Ratatouille premiere in PAris this summer ? (act of kindness by John L is welcome ;-)

Daniel Lopez Munoz (part 3) THE PLAN.

Guess what is the brillant idea of Daniel lopez Munoz ? That's the plan (forget Michael Scofield) Yes. He did it...A CASE for protecting the holy sketchbook...

Daniel Lopez Munoz (part 2) THE MASTERPIECE.

Daniel Lopez Munoz is very very very busy at Pixar (Thank you John for letting him play with us) Daniel took some pictures of the Sketchtravel visiting Pixar Studio (like the dwarf in Amelie). The amazing spanish Genious took also times to paint a masterpiece of Poetry in the sketchbook (see next article below and above). His wonderful painting was made using Gouache and ink. It is one of the characters he is developing for his new story for Out of Picture 2. You will see soon Daniel painting in the Vitual sketchbook, available in the "see the sketches" part in the official website.

Daniel Lopez Munoz (part 1) INTRODUCTION.

The first time I met Daniel Lopez Munoz (thank to our incontrovertible famous Master Dice who personaly knows all the genius, including him, on earth) we obviously talked about animation industry in Europe, (Daniel was born in Spain) what both of us expected from the spanish movie "Nocturna" and other things about creativity process. We didn't know at this time we would share the Sketchtravel Sketchbook with Enrique Fernandez (artistic director on Nocturna, coming soon in the sketchbook). I already knew Daniel artworks thank to the "The Art of Robots" and it was a great pleasure, despite the fact I am not fluent in english or spanish to talk with him about art and life. I was aware of being in presence of a special and rare artist without bad ego. Five months after this meeting, Daniel quited Bluesky...and went to Pixar. Then Daniel showed us his comic autor side with the brillant "Silent Echoes", honored by the Society of Illustrators, in the indispensable Out of Picture collective comics book. Nothing can't stop his exponential imagination.You can measure the talent of Daniel by visiting his awesome Blog and... seeing what he is capable of creating for SKETCHTRAVEL by reading the next articles. Daniel is a genious, No dout about it.

Visiting Pixar (part 2) having a break with superfriends.

Picture of our lucky Sketchbook visiting Pixar, having a break with superfriends.Picture By his current owner : Daniel Lopez Munoz, artist from Pixar. Please, notice that SKETCHTRAVEL does respect the dress code.


FR-En famille, une petite pause, tranquille quoi.

Visiting Pixar (part 1) Promenade...

Picture of our lucky Sketchbook visiting Pixar, nicely taken by his current owner : Daniel Lopez Munoz, artist from Pixar.

FR- Le carnet en promenade de santé chez Pixar, à la cool (trop de pression).

ROCA rolls

Many people asked me where is it possible to have a look at François ROCA astonishing oils paintings. Actually you don't find him only on www.amazon.com. François doesn't have any personal website...but a french parisian gallery "Frédéric Bosser " shows and represents a part of his work. By selecting the "auteurs" section you can find him in the illustration section. François will have soon his own new exhibition in this Gallery. We'll add an article about it in the following weeks. François is currently working on his next book. This time, the story deals with Dinosaurs (written as usual by his old pal Fred Bernard). A theme he never explored before and he will process in a very unexpected way. To be continued...

Suite à de nombreux mails demandant où il était possible de trouver des illustrations de François ROCA ailleurs que sur Amazon, et parce qu'il n'a pas de site internet, il convient de mentionner la Galerie parisienne "Frédéric Bosser" qui représente l'artiste et lui consacrera d'ailleurs une nouvelle exposition très bientôt. Le héros du prochain livre du fameux duo François ROCA/Fred Bernard sera un Dinosaure, avec à la clé une surprise de taille (thème oblige) dans le traitement... Affaire à suivre.

CALL TO ARTISTS By Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen & Maverix Crew

That blog is supposed to talk about what happens weekly to a sketchbook shared between artists but not only. SKETCHTRAVEL is also about what artists from all over the globe can do when they join forces. Please, take a break and read carefully this note.
Thank you very much !

CALL TO ARTISTS - BENEFIT ART AUCTION
By Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen & Maverix Crew

Sketchcrawl and Maverix Studios will be hosting a benefit
art auction on sunday May 20th in San Francisco.
We are hoping you'd be interested in donating a piece of art for
this fundraiser event.

All proceeds will be going to "Emergency- life support for civilian
war victims Organization".

Info on EMERGENCY:
Here's the official website
http://www.emergencyusa.org/
Watch this video to get an idea of what we are talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0I7Ql5uLqA&eurl=

In warthorne countries 7% of victims are soldiers, 93% are civilians,
34% of victims of war are children.
"Emergency" is an organization that is trying to do something about
this difficult and sad reality.

As part of the fundraiser ,on may 19th (on the same weekend)
we scheduled the 14th World Wide SketchCrawl.
We'll sketch through out that day around the world to raise funds.
more info on sketchcrawl event here:
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=29
The art auction will be held the following day, sunday the 20th.

Here is what we would need for the auction :

- pieces and info sent or delivered by May 5th.
- only framed pieces ( we need ready to hang art)
- e-mail us your bio
- e-mail title and media of the piece
- e-mail a scan or photo of the piece

email to sketchcrawlmaverix@gmail.com

Send or drop off pieces at

Maverix Studios
1717 17th st suite 108
SF , CA 94103

Event details:

Sunday May 20th, SketchCrawl/Maverix Benefit Auction
where: Maverix Studios
when: 5pm to 9pm
how: silent bidding, Final bids at 7:30pm.
We will also have a benefit raffle with special prices.

There's no better reason to join in as a community of artists and
friends than to give together.
We believe this humanitarian organization can be a meaningful and
peaceful cause to give our support to.
We hope that with both the World Wide SketchCrawl and the art auction
we'll be raising a good amount of donations,
and maybe even more importantly some awareness for these issues.
Let's make a little difference ...

Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen & Maverix Crew

Dominique BERTAIL exhibition at Arludik Gallery

La Galerie Arludik, partenaire de l'opération SKETCHTRAVEL à le plaisir de vous convier Jeudi 19 Avril au vernissage de l'exposition consacrée à Dominique Bertail, artiste bientôt présent dans le Sketchbook. Dominique y dédicacera ses albums à cette occasion de 18H à 22h. Venez nombreux !

The Arludik Gallery, partner of SKETCHTRAVEL invit you on Thursday 19th of April at the "vernissage" of the Dominique Bertail special exhibition. Dominique bertail will draw in the sketchbook as soon as it goes back in Paris.

Vincent Di NGuyen has his own blog !

Vincent Di N'Guyen who already painted such an amazing Bug in the sketchbook hasn't only gold fingers with brushes, a great sense of humor, a very good appetite with a chubby belly, a gorgeous girlfriend with mesmeric blue eyes, a very talented brother but now his own blog ! And when you know how his schedule can be crazy and his nights short and busy, you have to check it daily to make sure this is not just a dream. Vincent just can't stop creating both at Bluesky studios and for Children Books. The Next one will his best..until the next one. Etc.

Have you heard about her ?

Who is this beautiful winning woman ? Well, don't look for a huge illustrator for a change but keep thinking she is a great Artist.
Her name is Marie Zidi. She is a comedian. French people know her voice very well (TV, Radio) Marie is the "Voice" of Sketchtravel both in English and French. You will soon discover her warm and funny voice ( I should say one of her voices)by watching the "Sketchtravel Movie Clip". Coming soon online, directed by the French Maud Remy and your servant, recorded at Talkover studios in Paris thanks to Redha Zaim and Tom Gres generosity. Jerry Montet is currently working on the final touch by adding his magic sounds design touch. Why a movie clip ? Because we don't want you to get bored by following this sketchbook adventure, we also want to make sure everybody understand the whole concept...and animation is obvious to tell our goal(s). It's, with internet, the most appropriated medium to talk about this challenge.

Mais qui est donc cette charmante dame ? Ne cherchez pas une illustratrice pour changer mais continuez de penser à une grande Artiste.
Son nom est Marie Zidi, comédienne. Vous avez certainement entendu sa magnifique voix à la radio ou à la télé. Marie est la voix de "Sketchtravel" en Anglais et en Français. Vous découvrirez bientôt la chaleur séduisante et le timbre rieur de sa voix (ou devrais-je dire d'"une" de ses voix) en regardant "Sketchtravel, le clip". Bientôt en ligne, réalisé par Maud Remy et votre serviteur, enregistré au studio Talkover à Paris grâce à la générosité de Redha Zaim et Tom Gres. L'ingénieur Jerry Montet est actuellement en train d'apporter sa touche magique finale aux sons. Pourquoi un Clip ? Parce qu'on ne veut pas que vous vous ennuyez en suivant les aventures de ce carnet. Nous voulons également être sûrs que chacun comprenne le but de ce projet, et puis l'animation est le medium le plus efficace et le plus évident pour raconter ce défi.