Lapin
Teaches Urban Sketching
Lapin is a French illustrator based in Barcelona and one of the pioneers of the Urban Sketchers movement. He describes himself as a mobile illustrator who carries his sketchbook and drawing tools with him on the street, in a bar, on the subway—from Cuba to Tokyo.
Lapin has published more than 50 books, facsimiles of his sketchbooks, on cities such as Barcelona, Zaragoza, Paris, and Berlin, as well as for institutions like the Musée des Arts et Métiers or the Deutsches Museum. He was appointed official painter of the French Air Force in 2019, under the nickname “Captain Lapin.”
“Since my first field-sketch assignment in 2009, I have developed my own method: artistic residencies to document a destination, a museum, or an institution. This process of intensive drawing leads me into a state of automatic drawing, where the eye connects directly with the hand, taking me to live unusual experiences—documenting a humanitarian mission in Cape Verde, national museums in several countries, Poblenou, my changing neighborhood in Barcelona, and places as unique as the island of Ouessant or an air base.”
