STATUE OF CARLOS III, MADRID SPAIN

This is a sketch I did of the statue of King Carlos III on the palace grounds in Madrid. While in the Prado Museum I was studying the features of the kings painted by Valesquez and the young princes and princess had full lips and a heavy chin compliments of their mother who was a Hapsburg (German) Carlos II was one, I believe. Anyway, there was another room in the museum with additional royalty and there was the painting of Carlos III. Well, poor Carlos inherited a weak chin and a nose to rival those of my mother's family! He was the only Spanish king with this distinction. Jimmy Durante would have been proud. So, Carlos III is the only king I can actually remember. Turned out he was a great monarch that did wonderful things for the people of Spain and there were statues dedicated to him eveywhere we went.

Speaking of Spanish Kings, I googled last night to find out which one had the famous lisp. There was a king with a lisp but I was surprised to learn that idea that the King introduced a lisping sound into the language is an urban legend. Darn! I thought that was such a great story.

Check out today's Urban Sketcher's blog. Some wonderful sketches of Barcelona and Madrid and the most fantastic sketch of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. The guy didn't even go into the church so he had enough time to sketch the towers outside. I spent an hour sketching the same thing and I am in awe of this guy's ability to capture the detail.