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.

Some last illustrations

This is the illustration I did for the last issue of children magazine "Einayim".

 I did in a bit different technique - gouache background and pencil lines, combined together in Photoshop.

But I think that my favorite technique in illustration is still watercolor&watercolor pencils - technique I use a lot in on-location sketches as well.
Lately I got for the first time to illustrate the gate for the magazine. It was the "leadership" issue and I was asked to illustrate a bunch of leaders from Israel and the world ;)

Sketching the "storm"

The year has started in Israel with "stormy" weather. Ok, it's probably regular European autumn weather, but here we're waiting for some "wind+rain+even snow" all the year. As a Russian-born girl, few drops of rain couldn't frighten me, and yesterday in company of two other brave fellow sketchers we went to sketch the storm ;)
We've set down in a coffee shop on the beach, and as the beach was totally erased by the wild waves, I felt like I was sitting directly by the sea.
It's so difficult to transform the atmosphere, the sounds, the salty smell... But it was a great experience, and that what's matter at the end!

Charming Sweden - part 01

A week ago we came back from a small family vacation in Sweden. Sweden isn't one of the hottest tourist destinations, and in our book store I couldn't even find a guide about it. There are a lot of places with much more spectacular and dramatic scenery and views, more attractions, and with richer histories. But all we wanted was a calm and cool place with simple nature close to our house, and a big city not very far away in case we missed urban life…. And, the most important element, a place where there was no need to rush around, nor run from attraction to attraction, but simply offered us the opportunity to escape from the heat and pressure here, and to find ourselves living in a different kind of world. In our farm cottage that we rented close to beautiful Stockholm we got this all, and much more! 

As usual on family trips I couldn't sketch everything I wanted to, but every page in my Swedish sketchbook reminds me of all those precious moments I had during this charming trip. 

I'll start with sketches done around or inside the house - honestly, I didn't need anything else: just to wake up every morning to this spectacular (for me!) view of the lake from our balcony, and to be minutes from a real forest full of smells, sounds, mushrooms, berries and memories of my childhood.

our charming cottage

during our first walk in the nearby forest - it was like going to back to the childhood!

not very successful fishing at our beautiful lake

on the right - view from our cottage window 

Here are some more sketches from the closest surrounding - small towns and villages, and again - lakes and forests!

center of Ekerö - small nearby town

drinking coffee in Ekerö main coffee shop - miss its bakery!

traveling around - at Tyresta National Park

Dalarö - one of the small villages on the Baltic sea 

 I'll tell you about our Stockholm trips in the next post. Meanwhile, you can find the entire Sweden sketchbook on flickr.

The routine of difficult times

I hate politics and don't like to listen to the news. I always joke that if the news will be important enough, they will find their way to me. Unfortunately, now the news found me and I found myself surfing at the news sites all over the web, desperate to find the answer. Actually, I'm tired to think and speak about it. I just hope so much that this war will end as soon as possible, that both sides will find another language except the language of force to talk to each other, I do believe there is a way to live together side by side.
You can say that sketching is a kind of escapism, but we all need to go on, so here they are, pieces of my routine.

yesterday cease-fire on the beach

playing games at home  

everyday alarms get us everywhere and they are part of our routine...

Home sweet home

Here are some recent sketches done without getting out of my home with my usual models - my children and their friends. When I'm sketching at home, I can choose any tools, it's easier to experiment and sometimes to try something less familiar. There is nothing like home :)