ultraMARIN Sketch

It have been a long time I wanted to set meeting for the Sketchcrawl at Dizengof Center - crazy urban Tel-Avivian labyrinth. Our last Sketchcrawl of the end of summer were needed air conditioned place, we met at the second flour and I saw excited and a bit scared gazes of the arriving sketchers - so many things, angles, subjects... what to start from? how to choose the scene, the tools, the time to invest? Indeed, the place like the Center, with so many irritations, more than any place, deserves time for loitering, understanding the space, its energy, what attracts us here. While waiting for the other sketchers, I tried to think what I want to start from. I wanted very much to start from the space, black and white drawing which will deal with the monster building. But when I saw the "parliament" - the group of old men sitting around the table in MacDonald's, I couldn't resist! Sketching with markers is something I don't do very often, and I felt that this scene f...

One of the biggest questions I asked myself while packing tools for the Manchester USk Symposium trip was which sketchbook to take. I decided to prepare an accordion sketchbook - format I love, but use for special occasions only. This format allows to tell stories in continuations, as if invites you to build narratives. So here it is - two-sided accordion from Manchester and London - some great memories from such a great trip! It's almost impossible mission - to find the right balance between sketching, socializing, teaching, travelling... I wish I could sketch all I experienced, saw, felt.. Sometimes I felt greedy - "if I only could sketch this building/view/person!", and forced myself to put the sketchbook aside and to enjoy the moment without sketching it. So, here it is, the rest will remain in my memory. You can see my entire sketchbook on Flickr.

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'...