Calzada Fray Antonio de San Miguel, Morelia

Yesterday we went to El Callejon del Romance again, Romance Alley. An alley known by locals to be narrow and secretive, where young couples find moments of privacy to express their love through sighs, whispers, exchange of shy glances, sweating hands, hugs and perhaps kisses.

I sat at a planter near one end and started to sketch this view.

If you look close enough, there's a fountain at the end of this alley in the sketch above. The loud music coming from a bar on the second floor above me made me move to the other end, where I had a closer look to the fountain.

Here, there wasn't only one but three fountains, two shown above. A couple can be seen by the right fountain. It looks to me like any girl is happy to be taken here, to the romance alley, as a way to her boyfriend to profess his love for her. The couples I saw were teenagers, so tender, it inspired me to paint this sketch in pastel colors, sort of. Why? It reminds me of babies, pink and blue?

We left the alley to continue to the Calzada Fray Antonio de San Miguel, a pedestrian walk way so old, it still remains the same since it's construction. The blocks of stone, eroded through the years, make the floor uneven but still walk-able. This Calzada was built to connect to wonderful landmarks, La fuente de las Tarascas, which I intend to sketch, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Calzada host tens if not hundreds of people walking by, sitting, talking, relaxing.

The Shrine is at the end of the Calzada. I took my mini Moleskine to make a thumbnail to tackle the difficult perspective in the interior. I must confess a sneaked at times at the photo I took to help with  all confusing angles, even with the photo reference, I caught some mistakes in my sketch!

I was carried away by the praying group and instead of stopping I went on and on with detail, yes, in a 3x5 inches page. I enjoyed it though, very much. I hope I can return before I leave this city to try again and try to make justice to the incredible architectural details  of this church.