At the moment we (myself and the team from Edicions Lynx) are finishing off the final lay-out of the fourth volume of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (Lynx Edicions), dedicated to marine mammals – basically,  pinnipeds (seals, etc.) and cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises). As a result, I have had to put aside for a while the drawings for the fifth volume dedicated to the marsupials.

The task of concluding the plates requires a great deal of precision and care to ensure that there are no errors – no matter how small – in the scales, colouration and details of the drawings. The editorial support from Albert Martínez-Vilalta at Lynx is key in guaranteeing that the plates are not only attractive but also highly exact. A typical e-mail from him contains phrases such as “Are you sure that the dorsal fin of the female Inia geoffrensis shouldn’t be slightly higher and wider?”

Part of the problems I’ve had in this latest volume of this handbook is that I have had to work almost as a forensic artist. For volume 2 of this handbook, dedicated to the ungulates, I had to work with, amongst other sources, hundreds of photos of animals killed by trophy hunters (the typical first-world nouveau-riche pictured next to the beautiful animal he has just slaughtered).

With the cetaceans, I have sometimes had to resort to photographs of animals stranded on beaches, often somewhat putrid, or of animal parts photographed in a Japanese ‘fish’ market. Sometimes, the main reference material is just a skull.

Fortunately (or otherwise), many of these rare species are still unknown to most people – and may be forever. There are bound to be fewer readers of the HMW – always incredibly demanding – who will canalize the illustrations of this volume with as much zeal as the average can comment drawings of wolves, zebras or gorillas!!

We are, at last, entering the home stretch in the work for the EmpordàNA’T exhibition.

My role in this – in my opinion – grandiose project is to multi-task: original idea, content, concept, images and texts. Fortunately, I have worked in close harmony with Eric Milet, a master of graphic design, spaces, branding, naming and, above all, organization.

And timing, which is the hardest thing of all to control!

I’ve been lucky too to come across on the way other excellent people such as the incombustible Guille Góngora, who has organized the exhibition space. Likewise, I’m thankful to Abdon Jordà for helping solve problems with the models, to Mike Lockwood for his precise English translation, and to numerous collaborators including photographers and photographic ‘extras’, as well as to many friends and family. And, of course, nothing would have been possible without the positive spirit of the natural parks involved!

The posters are at the printing press – Roger, in Figueres – where they have treated this megaproject with the respect it deserves and it will soon be open to the public in the Ecomuseu-Farinera in Castelló d’Empúries.

EmpordàNA’T will be – rather, is about to become – a permanent exhibition in which visitors can get a taste of the Empordà’s protected areas and discover their rich natural and cultural heritage, the products of its soils and the leisure activities on offer. Four protected areas in one!

In all, a vast panorama of almost 70 m in length unites the landscapes of the four natural parks in L’Empordà. Over 40 days of fieldwork were needed to take the photographs, as well as I’ve-no-idea how-many-and-don’t-want-to-know days (weeks and months) of projections, concepts, design, writing of texts, meetings, retouching of photographs, illustration and painting.

The project was made possible by the energies of Anna Colomer, when she was in charge of public use in the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Park. Now, she has started her own new project, a small hotel in Castelló d’Empúries, Casa Clarà, which blends the best of the town’s past with ‘feel’ that it is expected of the tourism of the twenty-first century.

This is the logo that I have designed with Valentina for our ‘consume-local’ and ecological group in our village and surrounding area.

I like the visual impact of the design, which riffs on the inherent humour in the name by effectively ‘catalanizing’ the concept -and sound- “SLOW” (that sounds like “ÉS L’OU”, which stands for “it’s the egg” in Catalan). We support the Slow Food movement and, above all, the organic aspect of the type of daily consumption that we aim for: what better way than to illustrate it withn hybrid of a snail, one of the thousands of such creatures that infest our gardens and eat our artichokes, and an egg, the best of methaphors of a new life about to begin?!

Our ‘local-food’ group progresses in consonance with its logo … The initial meetings took place in spring 2013 under the shade of the oaks of the village square, with a typically Mediterranean supper to boot! Now, in winter, it’s harder to persuade people to leave their homes when evenings are so dark and cold. But, like snails, I’m sure we’ll be out and about again come the spring.

I’ve now illustrated almost half the species for the next volume of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World, devoted to the marsupials, and so far I’ve not done any kangaroos!

The marsupials are a very heterodox group and we should not think just of the classic kangaroo or the famous koala when marsupials are mentioned.

In fact, many marsupials do not live in Australia but in America and on both continents they seem to fill all the different ecological niches available to small-to-medium-size mammals in these continents’ ecosystems. When I draw these marsupials I can’t help but think that I’m just drawing shrews, mice, weasels, squirrels, moles, genets, monkeys or dormice!!

Here you have a few examples:

These are some of the drawings that I have done for the book Guide des CÉPAGES et TERROIRS, by Charles Frankel, published by Delachaux & Niestlé and on the shelves last summer.

Despite a few drawings of grapes, most of the drawings in this book are geological cross-sections of various singular French vineyards –  or terroirs. They weren’t easy to draw and I had to use as a reference a mix of maps, sketches by the author, 2-dimensional cross-sections and numerous images from Google Earth.

Geology is not my speciality, but it was a stimulating exercise. The way in which different strata are represented graphically in geological texts has always intrigued me (stripes, dots, hatching, etc.) and now I find myself using the same techniques. I have to confess that it was a slightly strange task, but it is a technique that is very practical for separating different types of rock.

The differences in scale of the landscapes was an added handicap – the books includes terroirs of just a few hectares, as well as others that stretch over numerous square kilometres. Nevertheless, I think the result is convincing and easy to understand.

My friend Anna from Celler Espelt, a truly discerning enologist, likes my drawings and says that she would like to have some panoramas/geological cross-sections for her vineyards in the Empordà, from Rabós to Roses. I’ll drink to that!