Backgammon "club" at the flea market

Jaffa Flea market is one of the most colorful places in Tel Aviv, full of authentic characters, patterns, smells, sounds and stories.
After I came back from Singapore, where I was fascinated by the chess players "club" in the middle of the Chinatown, I was looking for opportunity to sketch street games players here in Israel. This week I found them at the Jaffa . Small table and two chairs in the middle of the street, two players surrounded by the group of men - was really the best show in the city! I think that Olympic Games competitors need to learn the worrier's spirit from these backgammon players!

Suddenly we saw at the opposite site of the street group of men organizing something... What are they up to? They turned to Jerusalem direction and started to pray:

Of course, there is no sketching day without food - we couldn't resist to have some humus!

Small cup of black coffee and Nathan, very concentrated by sketching people around :)

 It was perfect sketching day!

Singapore - here I come!

One week is left until the beginning of the USk 2015 Symposium in Singapore, and I'm very excited toward the trip! I'm honored to be one of the instructors of the symposium, I will lead together with my friend from Denmark Ea Ejersbo a workshop dedicated to sketching people in action.
It'll be my third symposium, and even if I'm more or less prepared for this celebration of sketching, for meeting sketchers all over the world - old friends and sketchers I never met in person - you never know what surprises are waiting for you during this 3 crazy days. In addition, it's my first visit in Singapore, so I think my excitement is understandable :)
Here are fresh giveaways I collected today from the printers - looking forward to give them to my old and new friends-sketchers!

After collecting the goodies in Tel Aviv, I met my fellow sketcher Nathan and we spent a few hours by... some sketching, as you could guess!
I drew the two first sketches with my new pastel pencils - tool that still I need to learn to work with, but I love the feeling of being unsure with the new tool, it always lead me to the new directions!

I allowed to myself to relax in the last sketch with my favorite - graphite pencil!

Singapore, here I (and my sketchbook) come!

Champs-Élysées in Tel Aviv

Sitting at  the coffee shop near the French Institute, at the corner of Herzel and Rotschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, having a cup of coffee and listening to the calm music playing on the background, I felt a bit like sitting in the middle of Champs-Élysées in Paris :)

Sketch-trip to Lisbon - part 2

I'm continuing my report about the sketch-trip to Lisbon.
After the successful master-class evening, I had two free days to travel and sketch as I wish. I rarely have an opportunity to be on my own for a while - when you have a big family you're always on duty ;)
I didn't wanted to do "V" at any touristic lists, just to walk at the beautiful city's streets and to sketch where I would wish. And that's what I did.
Here are some sketches from a different corners of the beautiful Lisbon. It was strange to be able to stop and sketch any time I wanted without being told: "we don't have time", "we need to go there and there" or something like that.

 

 

Of course, flights and waiting for connection in the airport were also a part of the journey:

Here you can find all my sketches from the Lisbon trip.
I'll write about how went my Freedom Revolution Workshop in the next post.

Before the Passover

I had a free hour between running errands before the Passover evening, to sketch at the main street of Ra'anana.
The street was full of all kinds of people, running, stopping, eating, chatting, yelling on their children... I had a plenty of stories to sketch, feeling a bit like in the movie ;)

"what's your lucky number?" - written on the lottery kiosk

family eating falafel

the line to the kosher for Passover falafel

couple eating falafel

Red blooming tree

Spring is here in all its beauty and there are a lot of blooming everywhere. 

I love especially this red blooming tree in my neighborhood - its huge beautiful flowers grow before its leaves, which emphasizes even stronger the bright splashes of red on the bare tree branches.

Here are three quick sketches of the same tree I did during the month. The last one done a few days ago, when only few red flowers left on my tree :(

Luckily, I have my sketches. And I can wait until the next spring ;)

Sunny Sketchcrawl at Jaffa

I upload here my sketches from the last Sketchcrawl at Jaffa, done at that sunny Friday after rain period.
We enjoyed a lot as always - the weather and the nice company!

entrance to the Casino San Remo

the square and the sketchers

Jerusalem Boulevard

 We finished as usual with food and... more sketching ;)

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

Hot Sketchcrawl in Old Jaffa

Summer is here and it isn't going to leave us for the next few months. People are hiding in air-conditioned places or at beaches and swimming pools, getting out at nights, when it starts to be cooler.
You needed to be real sketchers for not give up and come to our last sketchcrawl in Old Jaffa.
Bright blue sky and shinning white stones of the streets gave a strong contrast to everything. Heavy heat made the contrast look even stronger. Groups of tourists filled the square from time to time, and gave me a feeling that I'm traveling far away. But anyway, sketching takes me to the trip every time I open my sketchbook.

We ended as usual in coffee shop with some drink and food and more sketching, of course!

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!

His Majesty Graphite Pensil

I love to try different techniques, play around mixing professional tools and cheep children's art supply. I feel that that it prevents my hands from working automatically and force my eyes to see better. When I want to rest, I come back to the basic - old good graphite pencil. It can express a lot and I never get bored of it!

All the square's a stage

Our last Sketchcrawl took a place at Magen Daviv Square - very busy point in Tel Aviv, which turns at Friday mornings to one of the best shows in the city! People that rush to shop at the Carmel Market, or to hang around at artist's market Nahalat Benyamin, or to drink a cup of coffee at Shenkin street, cross the square, which surrounded by buildings in various architecture styles. Street performers, beggars, orthodox Jews offering to put tefillin, armed policemen - everything mixed into one never ending show, bizarre and real simultaneously...
All that urban sketcher need to do at that place - is to sit down, to observe, and to try to capture the stories as fast as he can.

It was so fun, as always, to meet our constantly growing sketchers group, to chat, to share, to get some inspiration!