Rally against "Culture Loyalty Law"

Sketches from rally against "Culture Loyalty Law" - bill conditioning arts funding on ‘loyalty’, which advance our Minister of Culture. 

More than thousand artists from different areas gathered yesterday night to say that they will not give up on freedom of expression. "Nobody can't take from us the right to think, to imagine, to create..." - were words of one of the speakers. I want to believe that such a law can't pass here.

My new Etsy shop is on!

It was a busy month, full of various events I'll tell about later.

Finally I had a little break and was able to set up my Etsy shop - something I wanted to try long ago.
I'm sketching on daily base and obviously have a huge amount of sketches done for no particular purpose.
I can talk non stop about why I sketch. When I started, it was almost physical need to move my fingers, the most accessible way to keep myself in shape for drawing. As time passed, sketching turned to be kind of obsession, part of my way of experiencing my daily routine. But most of all, sketching for me is a way to enjoy the pleasure of drawing for its own sake and a very fun way to go to a journey every day without travelling far. When I sketch I really observe the surroundings, watch what's happening, enter strangers' lives, and discover their stories.
I had doubts about offering my sketches for sell. I'm an illustrator working with clients and creating a lot of images on demand. I wanted to keep sketching being my "just for fun" part of my art. Hope it'll stay like this even if I'll let other people to purchase some prints of my sketches. I hope this way I will be able to share with other people my feelings, to show them my excitement from a scene I was sketching - a summer beach, street corner, and, of course, many different people and their stories!

So, here is my shop - you're very welcome to enter, to have a look and tell me if there are particular sketches you would like to see there in the future.

And feel free to tell about the shop to your friends ;)
https://www.etsy.com/il-en/shop/ultramarinSketch

Participating in USk first group show!

I'm excited to participate in USk first group show at the Ackland Museum Store. The exhibit features ninety sketches in a variety of media, by thirty-eight of the group’s one hundred contributors. All work shown will be available for purchase and a majority of the proceeds from the sale of the sketches will go directly to Urban Sketchers to support their educational programs.
Here are my contribution, various sketches from the last period:

Tel Aviv port

coffee shop at old Jaffo

playground near my home

Special thanks to Laura Frankstone for her hard work in putting this amazing show together.
The show will be on view through October 6 - come to visit if you're in North Carolina!

Etching course - the end of the year

My etching course is ending this month. I enjoyed it very much, even if the process - slow, and planned ahead with always a bit unexpected results is opposite to my favorite art media  - spontaneous and quick sketching.

dry point

soap ground and sugar lift aquatint

sugar lift and soft ground etching

hard ground etching + watercolor

I'm already waiting for the next year!

Shared Illustration

Here is my entry to my friend's Aurore illustrated song book. The idea is to make illustration of a song on long piece of paper folded like accordion by group of artists, where each one will draw on a spread (2 or 3 pages) then pass it on to the next and so on until the book is full. Group illustration is fun, because it cause interaction and influence and an unexpected result. Promise to upload the finished book when it'll be done!   

The street hear the houses

I enjoy very much to illustrate poetic texts of the writer Iris Argaman for the column in "Hapinkas" - internet magazine on children's literature. The column tells about little boy, exploring the streets. This time the boy is scrolling the streets at night, observing every details, listening to every little rustle. I love especially the last verse:

At day
The houses hear the street,
But at night
The street hear the houses.

Etching - more works

I'm continuing to enjoy my etching course very much! For now results are less important for me, the process is what matters. But, what's left with me finally, are the prints. So here they are.

You can see more examples on my Flickr.

Blue & red - having fun

Here are a few pages from my new "imagination + observation" sketchbook - having fun with blue and red stumps and so on...

Abandoned teddy bear and the process of illustration

I wanted to share here an another process of creating an illustration. Every time I illustrate, I'm trying to keep in a final work the freshness and spontaneity of sketch, that done on location. The illustration was for the "street" column in internet magazine Hapinkas, series of a short stories about a little boy that explore streets around him.This one was about a teddy bear abandoned on a street. So I took my sketchbook and got out to look for a nice location for the story. I found it in one of the neighborhood's gardens - bench with sleeping cat surrounded by trees and buildings.

Then I've back to the studio and continued to work on the illustration, looking for the right character of the boy - the hero of the story.

Here is the final illustration:

Here is another one I did later for the same column - the boy continuing to explore the street and found the reflection of the blue bird in the puddle:

Fun day with my sister

A  few days before I spent a fun day with my sister at Tel Aviv promenade. What can I say? The life is beautiful and the summer is already here!

Rainy day at home + blue ink

Graphite sketches + Photoshop coloring

I was playing with some of my sketches by adding color and textures in Photoshop.

original sketch - my boys playing FIFA

changed layout

adding color and texture

original sketch - corner at Alharizi street in Tel Aviv

adding color and texture

Plain graphite pencil can be very rich and colorful, for my opinion. But color and texture can emphasis different details and to show drawing in a different way.
So, what option do you prefer?

To draw from an imagination

Last week my youngest daughter was sick, so we spent a lot of time at home doing various activities, among others - drawing together. As I used to, I was drawing from observation, when my daughter, of course, was drawing "from the head". At some point she told me: "Mom, stop drawing by looking, draw from your imagination!" It wasn't easy at all!

Here are some sketches I did while waiting with my daughter for a doctor.

For some reason the coffee shop area was full of old ladies

Take care of yourself and keep on drawing!

Etching - going deeper and deeper

This year I started a course of etching - technique I've never tried and always wanted to learn. The first etching I made was drypoint on acetate sheet. I simply wanted to imitate my sketching line with burin like if it was a pencil. I was a bit disappointed by its different, less flexible nature. But totally charmed when my first print have come out - really little miracle!

my first etching -drypoint on acetate sheet

As far as I continued to learn the technique, I started to understand that there is no reason for etching if all I want is to get my free and expressive sketching line. Actually, etching process is totally opposite to sketching on location. Drawing from direct observation is spontaneous and sometimes coincidental. Etching requires preliminary planning and thinking. Sketching on location should be done fast. Etching includes long process of preparing plate, covering it with ground, scratching off the ground, dipping it in a bath of acid, washing, and so on... The possibility of combinations of different techniques is almost endless, and as I go deeper and deeper and discovering more, I understand how much is left.

hard ground etching on cooper

hard ground etching + aquatint on cooper

I always loved short paths, fast processes, instant results. Etching is different, and that's why it's good for me. I think, I'm starting to fall in love with it!
You can see some more examples on my Flickr.

Rainy Sutarday in an art museum