Start of a New Painting Year! in Málaga

Finally got a chance to visit the quintessential winter vacation spot for Northern European dwellers. The flight time was more difficult to negotiate and I ended up taking 2 days off and spent 2.5 useful days in Malaga. Another colleague of mine also happened to spend his weekend here with his daughter and every step I took I dreaded bumping into him. Thankfully the city was big enough and we never crossed path.

I headed out just before 10AM and was setting myself up in front of some closed shop fronts. Just as I was starting however, one by one, the shop keepers came by and started opening shop (ooops). Thankfully the keeper of the jewelry shop (the entrance of which I was temporarily obscuring) was very nice: said good morning to me and then proceeded to leave the open shop for me to keep (?) for 10 whole minutes.

I barely made it one block away before I was distracted by a diagonal shadow (I'm always distracted by diagonal shadows). The church itself is not a popular tourist destination and traffic was light in front of me.

I then made my way to the somewhat crowded Plaza de la Constitución. There was some set up going on for an event later that day (I think?) and a transparent container was set up in the middle. Some menacing security guys were also present.

Before heading home for lunch break, I decided to sit down in a sunny spot along Paseo del Parque and sketch the city hall. I was in shadows almost all morning and was definitely shivering by this point. Alcazaba was directly behind this building (in red) but I never made it there...

In the afternoon I finally sketched one of the main attractions here: the Cathedral of Málaga. I'm usually terrible at warping perspective to fit tall buildings, but I think this time kind of...worked?? There was a work crew at the right side 

I kind of settled myself behind the main flow of tourists in front of the roman theatre. Some crew was setting up the blockade and posters for Malaga festival (film festival), so I also drew them in! When I was painting, a couple stopped in front of me and just asked "Picasso??" I was stunned a little, having some wild thoughts like "am I Picasso? do I even draw like Picasso??" Anyway, turns out they were just looking for directions to Picasso museum, which is actually just behind me. I noticed that they were German tourists, but spoke English to them anyways...since every time I speak German in non-German speaking countries I tend to cause sheer panic.

Day 2! I started with the morning light right outside my Airbnb. Technically it is supposed to be a bridge across a river...but "river" is just some dry grass land?? Anyway, the light was beautiful and I really liked the mountains framing the scene from behind

I decided to re-do the cathedral, but from the garden side. I basically settled my water jar on somebody's window sill...thankfully nobody got mad at me...(I debated drawing this scene the day before, but the afternoon sun was way too strong at this location)

A bit of a chaotic one done on the climb towards Castillo de Gibralfaro. In the end I didn't go further up from here because there were just too many people for it to be worth it...

After lunch break I went for the harbour and did some simpler pieces with clear shapes! It was starting to drizzle at this point, but not hard enough for me to call it a day. The big cruise ship was actually behind a tree, so I got its left end completely wrong. Instead of angular, it is actually kind of flat...oh well

Looking back from the end of the harbour front walkway. Didn't bother with the cruise ship this time because I already drew it on the previous page

I was exhausted and just wanted to get some groceries before heading home, but this perfect scene and a perfect spot to sit presented itself to me. So I had no choice but pull out my big sketchbook. The moving shadows of the cloud on the distant coastline was really a sight to behold...unfortunately I was not able to capture that...