Park Guell

This is a little drawing I did while hanging out one afternoon at Park Guell in Barcelona during my recent vacation there this August. Although the park is normally very crowded with tourists, especially in the summer, I enjoyed this site thoroughly and decided to revisit on another day in order to just relax and draw pictures, rather than explore it as most tourists would (or as I had done so previously). This park was my first introduction to Antoni Gaudi's work, thanks to my good friend Teresa who insisted this be one of the first places in Barcelona I should visit. Like all his work that I saw, it was designed for Barcelona's aristocracy to enjoy back in the day. Now the park is free for anyone to enjoy and it's an example of artistic and architectural genius, inspired by nature.

On my second visit, I sat near the famous dragon, listened to live musicians and the din of many passing tourists. Because I was in a high-traffic area, I myself got a lot of attention from people passing through, flattering me with compliments as they walked by. One woman from the UK asked if she could take photos of me while I was drawing as she was documenting the many ways people choose to enjoy the park. I find it amusing to think about how both myself and my drawing have been part of the stories she's telling her friends and family in the UK about her own visit to Barcelona.

I drew one of the buildings at the park that reminds me of a gingerbread house, like something out of a fairy tale, that's now been converted to a souvenir shop. Because of the level of detail I wanted and the limited size of my sketchbook, I had to distort the size of the building, notably it's tower, to get it to fit the page as I wanted it to. Here it is: