Gran Telescopio Canarias

The Gran Telescopio Canarias is a 10.4 m (410 in) reflecting telescope undertaking commissioning observations at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma.^[1] As of 2009, it is the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope.^[2]

There is a gallery of astronomical images where it can be seeing the kind of images acquired by the telescope. The images are representations in color of the received data. The colors are assigned using different schemes. Usually it depends on the data they want to represent although sometimes they use purely aesthetic criteria.

Roque de los Muchachos

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in La Palma. The seeing statistics make it the second best location for astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. The site has some of the premier astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere, including the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias which is the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope as of July 2009.

My current technical skills for drawing do not allow to show the so-called sea of clouds. Roque de los Muchachos and many other places in the island are above the clouds, thus it is possible seeing the cloud top. At some periods during the day, the clouds show a bluish color and some people mistake them for the sea.

More litter bins

Perhaps you remember an old post with an Irish litter bin. Litter bins, garbage cans and many other urban elements are good subjects to draw. Usually they have simple forms.

Today I am pretty happy with the results I achieved with the garbage cans. I am happy with the litter bins, too. However, I prefer the garbage cans. Maybe it is because of the bright colors or the own composition.

Brown and blue balconies

More houses in the same avenue in Santa Cruz de la Palma. Those people keep the balconies perfectly clean and tidy. The flowers add a nice contrast. I am not happy with those drawings, probably they look better in the sketchbook.

Red and green balconies

These houses are located in a small avenue in front of the sea in La Palma. It is a peaceful environment. Surely the drawing does not represent the colorful and exuberant plants with all the multicolored flowers.

Have a great St Patrick’s Day!

Fire hydrant

It is the first pen and ink drawing made with dip pen nib. If you read my previous post, I used the copy of the Perry 1141. As it is mainly for writing and it is low elastic, I guessed it would be easier to use than the others. And probably it was.

Carl asked on drips, blobs and spatters… Well, here is an nice example of them. I could have easily removed it digitally but I have preferred to leave in the drawing, it will be a reminder. The overall result was quite satisfactory. More sketches to come.

Chained door

I knew I wanted to draw this door. And I also knew I wanted to draw the blue house. However, it was hard to decide if they should share the same drawing. Finally they do it. Probably the house makes a nice contrast with the environment —mainly greens and browns— but it would not be very interesting for drawing it alone. Maybe next time.

Meanwhile, a picture. The use of a high focal length generates this sort of flattened perspective effect: plants and house look closer each other than they actually are.

Nitrato de Chile

Not sure what Nitrato de Chile is. It seems it is a fertilizer product. The sketch corresponds to an advertising board for this product that is located very near to the Post Office Building in La Palma. These advertising boards can be viewed in Spain and Portugal. They were placed during 1920s and 1930s. The funny thing is that this guy collects photos of them!