The good, the bad and the ugly - sketching at Atarim Square

There are some places in Tel Aviv I connected to. They aren't the prettiest ones, but they got some special mood or energy. Atarim Square is one of them. Weird and almost ugly square, located near the beach in Tel Aviv, two levels above sea level, connected to the promenade and to Sderot Ben-Gurion. The square was build in the late 1970s, today almost abandoned, filled by graffiti, being crossed by tourists, joggers, dog walkers and prostitutes - all these add to the atmosphere.
We met at the square for our last Sketchcrawl, and it was interesting to hear people's personal connections to this place - some of them remembered the times when it was build!
And of course, it was so cool to see how different everyone see this place through theirs sketches!
Here are my points of view on this place:

everybody included in their sketches those strange mushrooms

soldier checking on his cellphone, who left after a few minutes, and the "Colosseum" on the background

steps leading to the promenade

sketch I did a few weeks before, capturing one of the colorful graffiti

September full of events

September is coming to its end - it was the month full of sketching events. This month Urban Sketchers Israel had their second group exhibition, taking part in Illustration Week Tel Aviv. The expo was called "Sketch It @ Loveat" and it told the story of the coffee shop "Loveat" through sketches made on location in different areas of the coffee shop, inside and outside.
27 members of USk Israel gave their authentic view and told their story about the place. The expo took place in one of the central branches of the coffee shop, so both the sketching team and customers could recognize themselves in the sketches.

During Illustration Week the group also held 3 sketchcrawls for the wider audience. At the opening event, visitors were invited to do spontaneous on-location sketches and to take part in the expo on a special "live" wall.

It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it! It felt like our annual party - celebrating another great year of sketching together, mutual passion and friendship.

Here are the sketches I did during the last sketchcrawls:

Now, back to the routine!

Neve Sha'anan - sketching the invisible citizens

Tel Aviv has many faces. As every big city, it has his respectable areas, new-build neighborhoods or nicely renovated historic areas. Sketching there is always nice, but sometimes you have a feeling of being in a well designed museum, lacking real life. 

For our last Sketchcrawl we met at Neve Sha'anan street. This place isn't featured on the postcards or "must see" lists, many Israelis tend to avoid it. Just a few blocks from Tel Aviv’s luxury hotels and popular tourist locations you suddenly feel you're in different country, only Israeli that you see on the street are "tourists" - groups of photographers, looking for "nice" poverty pictures, bourgeois couples from North Tel Aviv, looking for authentic places to eat. Its real citizens are foreign workers mostly from Africa and Asia, the invisible residents we usually trying to ignore.

I wasn't sure if by bringing here our group of sketchers wouldn't make the Neve Sha'anan residents feeling a bit like an animals in the zoo. But as sketching is less piercing and more integrated with surroundings, often invites interacting, I was hoping we'll be accepted ok. And we did.

We started sketching trying to be together as a group, little by little spreading up over the street. All "local" residents where very friendly, looking at what we doing, some of them even asked us to draw them.

It was really special day of sketching and interacting, here are what I succeed to capture.

Romanian Island in the African sea

the Eritrean barbershops are so great!

I did these three sketches one week before, when I came here with Aurore to check the place.

Hot Sketchcrawl in Old Jaffa

Summer is here and it isn't going to leave us for the next few months. People are hiding in air-conditioned places or at beaches and swimming pools, getting out at nights, when it starts to be cooler.
You needed to be real sketchers for not give up and come to our last sketchcrawl in Old Jaffa.
Bright blue sky and shinning white stones of the streets gave a strong contrast to everything. Heavy heat made the contrast look even stronger. Groups of tourists filled the square from time to time, and gave me a feeling that I'm traveling far away. But anyway, sketching takes me to the trip every time I open my sketchbook.

We ended as usual in coffee shop with some drink and food and more sketching, of course!

Pictures from the expo

Our first exhibition is going to close at the end of this week. Now it's time to take a breath. It was a great experience. Urban Sketching is something that turned over my second nature for the last 8 years, I can't imagine myself without a sketchbook and pencils in my bag, always ready to capture small and big moments, turning my regular life to a journey. When I've established almost 3 years ago Israel branch of USk, I didn't suspect to nothing, just to find some local sketchers to share with them my addiction. Now, after 22 Sketchcrawls, active blog, 680 members in constantly growing FB group,  I can say we have a real community, where I met wonderful sketchers, and some of them turned to be my good friends!
This exhibition gives an opportunity to peak into our sketchbooks. It built not by artists, but by geographical areas of Tel Aviv - city we sketched most, still open for a last few days until the 6.6.14.
Thanks to everybody who made it happen, thanks to those who came to see it, and see you at the one of the corners the city with the sketchbook!

more photos are here.

Urban Sketchers Israel's first expo is coming!

I'm excited to invite you to our, Urban Sketches Israel, first expo, as a part of Illustration Week 2014. 
For the past two and a half years, we have been meeting once a month at different sites around the city to sketch together and observe with an attentive and fresh look at this unique urban landscape and its residents.  
At the exhibition you'll be able to see works from 25 sketchers, each one with his own style and unique point of view.
A lot of work had already done, there is still a lot preparation left. If you're in Israel - hope to see you at the opening: 22.05, 20:00.
Come and see Tel Aviv, one drawing at a time!

Our event on FB.

For more info (in Hebrew).

Collaborative sketching at Rabin Square

We opened our last sketchcrawl by sketching together on the long roll of paper - the idea that I wanted to try long time ago and finally we did it! It was really fun to loosen up and to interact together, it was refreshing to sketch on a big format and... in public :)

After sketching together (and chatting with my fellows, of course) I did these two sketches. It wasn't easy to transfer the great atmosphere that was that Friday morning at the Rabin Square - parents with children, carriers with elderly persons, couples, bicycle riders - everything was moving, changing, interacting...

 At the end I couldn't resist not to sketch Nathan sketching :)

It was really fun sketchcrawl, with a lot of positive energies!

Sketchcrawl at Tel Aviv port

Last Friday our Israel USk group met for sketchcrawl at the Tel Aviv port. Hot August days, melting everything on their's way, didn't leave us much choice, we needed to meet at some air conditioned place. We set our meeting at a coffee shop inside of a big book store, but very soon our group dared to get out and occupied a pretty big space under umbrellas near tables. I brought some materials and stories to share from the Barcelona Symposium. I knew it was an impossible mission, but I wanted so much to share a bit of that incredible atmosphere, enthusiasm, and feelings we had at BCN.
Then we started to warm up by sketching each other.

Nathan and Reuven sketching

After warming up, we spread over the port. I was encouraging people to go sketching to the port market, after getting inspired by colorful La Boqueria, where Ea's and my workshop took place:

At the end, as usual, we gathered together to share our sketches, more chatting and the final photo:

Waiting for the next sketchcrawl!