Notes from the USk Symposium Manchester 2016

It was a very hot and busy month! Only now I finally starting to put together my impressions and thoughts and finishing to scan my sketches from the Manchester Symposium's trip.
So, after the long period of preparations, planning and expectations it is over!
Manchester was for me the forth time I participated in the USk Symposium, third time as an instructor. No doubt, it felt like an annual reunion, and of course it was different experience - in different place, different time and many new people.

Being Symposium instructor is a big responsibility - people are coming from all over the world to learn and to get an unique experience, with a lot of expectations and some fears. You never know who is coming to your workshop, the level and the background of the participants is different, the outside conditions are unpredictable, and so is the general energy and the atmosphere of  the each workshop.
This year my workshop was different from my usual people-sketching program. It's true, that people is my favorite subject, but his time I wanted to try to understand the whole process. How it works? What differentiates between the exciting and communicative work and the boring one? What attracts us to a particular subject? How we make decisions? How to create works with impact and meaning? Being by myself very spontaneous and expressive sketcher, I tried to freeze every step in my process and to force myself to analyze my decisions, which wasn't easy at all. Finally, I got to my last workshop, named "What and How" and dealing with two one-million-dollar questions: what do I want to say and how can I best say it?
The process of drawing even the tiniest sketch involves making countless decisions - it's impossible to touch all the steps, so I was needed to choose the most essential. Our first exercise was dealing with "what" - idea, message, feeling. By getting the same list of subjects and trying to find them around, the participants learned to observe their surroundings differently, and maybe to understand that there are no boring spots – it is all about the point of view.

Following exercises tried to touch at different "hows" - composition rules and the tools choice.

choosing the format

trying static and dynamic compositions

limiting the use of tools

all we have is lines and shapes

In the last and longest exercise we tried to apply what we learned in the previous exercises, but didn't forget to improvise, to be spontaneous and to enjoy the process!

After all, the secret is probably in keeping balance between the considering the rules and breaking them in order to be spontaneous, and to leave room for chance and "mistakes", because that's the beauty of sketching from observation!

You can download my workshop's flyer here.

I'll be happy to hear from you - please tell me about your experience!

Layers with colored pencils

Here are the last illustrations I did for the story in "Einaiym" (Eyes) magazine. This time I wanted to do it in colored pencils only, playing a bit with overlay of different layers. It was fun!

 

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 ;)

London by kids - process of illustration

A few days ago I got a commission - cover illustration for the "Maslul ", supplement of Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

The article was the review of London attraction by two Israeli kids. I wanted to give to the illustration the feeling of on-location sketch, but, of course, you never can get the spontaneity of a sketch in a based on reference illustration.

Here are some sketches, few of them I used in the final illustration.

the b&w sketch

the final illustration

It was my first experience of working with a daily newspaper, I was needed to work fast.

Sometimes there is something good in a tight deadline - you don't have a time for a doubts :)

Together in the One Tent

Together in the One Tent - is the name of the short story for children by Moshe Kron I illustrated for the last issue of Einayim magazine. It tells about Syrian family that going to leave Damascus and to live in the refugee's camp. It shows how every family member deal with the coming change, their expectations and fears. Here are bit of the process of working on illustration.

Illustrations - the process and the result

Illustrating short stories for children's magazine "Einayim" (Eyes) - is a job that I always enjoy. The process for sure, the result - sometimes :)

First one - the funny story about a horse. Here are sketches of the some characters:

... and here are the final article with illustrations:

Second one - the article about phenomenon of spiritualism, which took me to an interesting direction.
The sketch:

...and the final article and illustration, which based on pencil drawing + adding some textures in Photoshop.

Happy New Beginnings!

New Year, new beginnings, new studio... 

My colleague Hagit and me decided to combine our knowledge and skills into one team and launched the TANDEM - creative graphic design studio. This greeting card is our first common project.
It is not so easy to work in tandem, but I think at least we've succeeded. 
Here are some process - sketches, different proposals for character design and illustration style and so on:

 On the occasion of the coming 2013, I'm wishing you very happy, creative and prosper New Year!

At the heart of the public garden

I want to share some process of illustrating  the story for the last "Einayim" magazine. The issue subject was "garden". This time the writer Shoham Smith invited me to come with her together to look for the story. We met in Gan Meir in the heart of Tel Aviv and strolled in the garden together, trying to find the story. Shoham shared with me her ideas and I tried to sketch them up and also I've took a lot of pictures. It was fun!
Next step was making sketches in the studio:

After series of sketches the final illustration was approved. The story is about a homeless, sitting on the bench and feeling invisible for the visitors of the garden.
Here is the final illustrations.

As usual, the process is more enjoyable than seeing the finished illustration printed. But that's what's stay with as at least - the result.

Old buttons shop

The last illustration I did for the column in "Hapinkas" was for a song about an old buttons shop. The hero of the column - a little boy, discover an old buttons shop, peak inside and  see very old lady over the counter, that looks a bit like a magician with boxes full of spells and magics behind her. There is something nostalgic and magic in buttons for me also. I'm still keeping at home my grandma's old wooden box full of color buttons, everyone in different shapes and materials. They remind me my childhood, and still seem to me as a box full of treasure!

sketch of the Buttons' Lady

one of the sketches

the final illustration

 I wish you to find some magic in everyday life!

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: