Porto USk Symposium - part V (Lisbon)

Last post about my Portugal trip dedicated to my love - Lisbon!
Since the first Urban Sketchers Symposium I attended was in Lisbon, streets of Lisbon will always be connected for me to the sketches I did and sketchers I met there for the first time. Discovering this wonderful community 7 years ago for the first time in real, not online, was amazing revelation! I visited this beautiful city a few years later, when I was invited by the local branch of USk to give a workshop, so I had another opportunity to know the city better, and to add more sketchers to my Lisbon collection.
So now it was like visiting an old friend - exiting, nostalgic, full of emotions.
This time I came there with my husband, who came to Lisbon for the first time, so I was kind of a guide for him :)
We strolled the streets a lot, and sometimes I just wanted to be there, without sketching. Some places that looked to me too iconic were the most difficult for me for sketching, as for example, the Belem  district, with all its touristic sites, where I did no sketch. From the other hand, there are places I sketched during my previous visits, and I wanted to make another take on the same location.

Following sketches were done during our last day in Lisbon, when we joined to sketching tour to anti-touristic places leaded by Mário Linhares. It was just perfect ending to the whole Portugal tour!

Miss this time and this place, grateful that I have with me my memory-keepers - my sketches! Every sketch is like a concentrated capsule full of views and faces, words and sounds, smells, moods, and so much more - magic of sketching that forces us really observe and feel the surrounding!   

Porto USk Symposium - part III (post Symposium)

So, the Symposium was over, and after the last evening with a lot of hugs, kisses and good-buys, I woke up at the next morning, finally having time to explore the city on my own. Many of urban sketchers were still staying in the city, so I had a calming feeling that the party is not over. We went with my friend Rachel to a sketching walk.
Are you familiar with this phenomenon? All the busy days during the symposium, I was "eating" with my eyes beautiful views of Porto, thinking to myself: "If I just had half an hour!" Now, when I had a free day, suddenly I couldn't find a spot to sketch at...
Anyway, here is the first "after-symposium" sketch, done after we crossed the river from
Jardim do Morro:

 One more while meeting some friends-sketchers for the dinner:

And more sketches staying in Porto few more days, after my husband Marcos arrived to accompany me at the rest of the Portugal trip:

Porto USk Symposium - part II

I'm continuing sharing my experience from the Porto USk Symposium (here is my first post).
The next day Symposium has started, but before that, I met my wonderful colleagues -  another two correspondents, with whom together we were supposed to cover everything. I din't get to know them yet, I din't know what an amazing experience of being in one team with Rita Sabler and Paulo Mendes is waiting for me! And so they flied - four unforgettable days! A lot of faces, hands and sketchbooks, a lot of colors and monochromes, a lot of laughter, exclamations and quiet intimate conversations, sardines,vine and extremely tasty pastéis de natas ... and all these running up and down hilly and breathtaking beautiful Porto.
You can see my posts on the main Blog, covering workshops,  demos,drink&draws, opening and closing receptions, and etc...:   day 1   day 2    day 3    day 4

Here are few sketches I didn't share - one very fast sketch of one of the amazing panoramic views on Porto, done after having a lunch in a nice company of Lapin and Richard Briggs.

Here are some from the very last drink&draw, when we realized that in the restaurant we're sitting for a while is no food to serve, just drinks :D

 and some more drinks....

It's always like that - waiting for this  whole year and it ends just when you enjoy the most!

So, just to summarize - being a Symposium correspondent was for me a terrific experience - really challenging and tough, but really rewarding and fun! I miss you, Rita and Paulo!

exhausted but happy - with collaborative sketch during the closing reception

Will be continued - more post-symposium sketches from my Portugal trip!

Porto USk Symposium - part I

It have been a while, since I got to post on my blog... Busy summer was planned and busy summer it was indeed! A lot of sketchbooks piled up waiting for scanning, but other projects postpone developing them. Finally, all my Portugal trip sketches are ready to post!
I was so exited toward the Porto USk Symposium - meeting the world wide family of sketchers again! and in addition to this, taking this time new for me job of correspondent of the symposium! A lot of butterflies of expectations, excitement, joy and fear were flying inside my stomach :)
This time I was coming to the symposium in a company of my good friends-sketchers from Israel, which was especially fun. Here are some of the "Israeli team" on the plain to Porto :) :

 I arrived a day before the beginning, so I could to afford to myself morning alone - just to absorb the city by myself, before the madness of sketchers everywhere begins.

Later at the same day I took a part in the Faculty Tour to Pocas Wine Cellar - meeting finally my old friends-sketchers and officially starting to my job . You can see my first post as correspondent on the USk global blog.

Gouache in Jaffa again

I'm in Jaffa again, having some sketching time with my friend Nathan. We're looking for the perfect spot, were we can combine drinking coffee and sketching. When we pass near Dr. Narghile shop, the decision comes to us simultaneously. We sat down in front of the shop on the heavy old chairs padded with red and black stripped cloth. I'm starting to sketch three men smoking narghile near me, but they're taking out their wallets and paying - what a pity! I need to wait for a new victim. It comes immediately - young bearded guy, looking for some calm moments and the last rays of the spring sun.

My second sketch - glance to the opposite side, to the busy junction with Jeffet street. There is so much going on all the time - tourists, locals, Arabs, Jews... looks like everybody have enough place and understand each other in different languages. 

I'm looking for the spot for the another sketch, decide to sketch the view just opposite me. It looks boring, big motorcycle is blocking my view, but I want to find a story in what I see. Suddenly interesting couple entering to my frame. Big blond woman wearing long black dress with a big split and red high heel shoes and red bag which complete the look. "Please, stay here for a while!" - I'm whispering. And what a gift - looks like the woman asking her man to take a photo of her, they are staying there for a few minuets, talking one to another and looking for a nice spot, finally leaving the place without taking a picture. But I got my few minuets to add them to my sketch and have the story I looked for!

I decide to do my last sketch inside my new sketchbook, which has horizontal panoramic format. Asian guy, obviously tourist, sitting down near us and ordering narghile. It turns out that the guy is from Hong Kong and he's narghile lover, have one at his home. Everything is global now ;)

Few hours passed like a one minute. Street is full of stories, all you need is to sit down in one place enough time, and all the stories will come to you :)

Sun, coffee and gouache in Jaffa

Sunny spring afternoon, we're having coffee at one of the corners of Jaffa. I'm pulling out my gouache set and starting to arrange the colors on the palette. "And what about the paints?"- the waitress is asking me while she brings ours coffee. "What about them?" - I'm asking her. "They wouldn't dirt the table?" "No, please don't worry! They are water based!"
Recently I'm in love with gouache and acrylic. I want to back to painting, the real one, as I did in the art school, but I don't have proper time for it. So I'm trying to bring it to my Urban Sketching. It requires more arrangements than just watercolor and pencils. And my bag is getting heavy. But I don't give up, and it pays back - I enjoy it a lot.

In my first sketch I'm trying to capture the whole scene - the street, the coffee drinkers and especially the sun coming from theirs back and giving all the characters kind of  aureole.
The couple on the left were speaking Italian, on the right - Russian. I felt abroad.

The group that came after were German tourists.

This girl with high hairdo arrived suddenly, drunk her coffee along, and continued on her way. I barely had time to capture her.

 And at the end - how not? My friends Nathan and Shai, smoking and chatting.

Home gouaches

I love gouache, but it's difficult to manage it and all the equipment when I sketch outside.

At home it's easier, and I have always have plenty of models.