Memories from Vor Ort - expo and workshop in Mainz

It was really wonderful experience - I was honored to take a part in Vor Ort - an exhibition and a workshop project organized and hosted by Landesmuseum Mainz and Jenny Adam in association with Urban Sketchers, Teaching and exhibiting with such a great group of sketchers and friends: Lapin Barcelona, Sebastian Koch, Johanna Krimmel, Inma Serrano, and Felix Scheinberger.

Now, when I'm back home, left with my sketches and memories, which remind me this fabulous weekend - perfect combination of exhibition, workshops and, the most fun - a lot of great interactions between us, sketchers, coming from different backgrounds, different countries, but having so much in common! ♥

Here you can see some photos from my workshop "Face to Face" - all the participants did just great, practicing portraits in not traditional approach, trying to get real likeness, connecting to the emotional side, seeing personality in each character and, finally, finding and telling stories with the portrait!!! it was so fun!
Now, I'm warmed up very well for Porto USk Symposium - see you there!!!!!

Christmas in Vienna

Last weekend my sister and I spend a long weekend in Vienna - elegant, classical, and so artistic capital of Austria. So we tasted some Schiele, Klimt and Breigel. And some Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss. And apple-strudel for the dessert, of course! ;)
Here are some sketches I managed to "steal".

our first supper

beautiful concert in Mozart's house

having some drinks after the concert

my beautiful sister listening to the live singer in the bar

poor horses! I'm not sure they so happy to dance waltz...

I didn't dare to skate, but it was fun to watch!

charming small concert in our hotel, called "Beethoven" 

in the local jazz club "Porgy&Bess"

wonderful show by "Marina and the Kats" Marina and her band were just electrifying!

I wish I could sketch much much more! But still, it was so nice, and I have some taste for coming again!

Drink&draw at "Suzanna"

Here are some sketches I did during our small drink&draw we had with with a bunch of friends-sketchers in "Suzanna" - coffee shop at Neve Zedek. Few hours flied as a one minute - I think I could do it all the day along - chatting, drinking and sketching with my friends.

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!

Eat & Draw - sketchrawl in Aurore's yard

Sketchcrawl at Aurore's beautiful yard at Jaffa, including food and drinks everybody brought along was a big success. It was so pleasant to start the morning with eating and drinking (and chatting, of course) that I barely was needed to sketch ;)

Anyway, we should do it from time to time, here are some sketches that I succeed to manage.

Drink&Draw sketchcrawl

I don't know who invited this perfect combination - Drink&Draw, if anybody. As my sketchbook is always in my bag, it's natural for me to pull it out at coffee shops and bars. These places are perfect for sketching - people are sunk in food and chatting and don't pay attention to the fact that they're turning to models ;)
So summer heat forced us to move our sketchcrawl to the nigh time and we met at one of the restaurants at the Jaffa flea market - bubbly and fun place.
It was a sketchcrawl in a bit different atmosphere - night lighting, a lot of noise and action around and... a bit of alcohol, which for me, personally, helps to "loosen up".
It was so fun, perfect combination, looks like we are going to come back to "Drink&Draw" from time to time.

the first sketch - before it got dark

my fellow sketchers are busy

and here some more

Girls night out!

Last Thursday I had a great girls night out with my two friends-sketchers Aurore ans Irirt. We met at the flea market area at the old Jaffa. We strolled at the narrow streets full of small bars and coffee shops, which took out tables and chairs and turned streets to the one big party, crowded by chatting and laughing young people.
Finally, we found for us a perfect place - on a side, a bit up, so we had a perfect view on everything. Beers and sea food were ordered and the waiter barely found place on our table loaded by sketching tools. We started with big collaborative sketch, it was so fun!

After the warming up, we just dived into the surrounding and times flied so fast!
At the some point group of girls that was sitting opposite us finally noticed that we are sketching them. They asked us to see the sketches and was shocked to see theirself drawn! They took photos of our sketches and asked us who we are and why we are doing it. It was very nice interaction!

So, here is the perfect formula we'd discovered at this night: friends+beer+sketching=happiness!
Waiting for the next girls-out-night!