Trainmen of Jerusalem

Friday morning of the middle of August. Streets of Jerusalem are hot and blinding. Movement of people holding drawing pads flows to the direction of Clal building. After while they spread out at the train station and start to draw the surroundings.
It looks like a beginning of the regular sketchcrawl, but still, around of 30 people, mostly not from Jerusalem, took trouble and went up to the capital at the morning of this very summery Friday, and are sketching with a lot of energy among the burning Jerusalem crowd.
It was very special and exiting meeting, an initiative of the organizers of "Outline - Illustration and Words in Jerusalem." We came to draw toward the group exhibition "The Trainmen" - cooperation with City Pass - the light rail in Jerusalem. This time the exhibition will not be displayed in the gallery, but will be integrated into the urban space - our drawings will be printed enlarged and displayed at the light rail stations, which fits perfectly the spirit of urban sketching.
It was so fun to sink slowly into the surroundings, to feel for a while that I belonged to this movie too - I'm waiting for the train, listening to street musicians, rushing to the market to do the shopping before the Sabbath... In Jerusalem everyone is a little strange, so it seemed to me very natural to stand in the middle of the street, between the Chabad stand that invited to put on tefillin, beggars, a blues singer, and draw all this.
"How much do you cost to draw me?" "Madam, this is a restaurant, do you think it's okay for you to sit down and dirty the table with your colors?" "You drew me! am I so fat?" These are just some of the turns I received that day.
Here's what I've caught. Time passed at the speed of light. I have to go back!

newspaper man busy with his phone

Arkadi from Gomel (Belarus) spoke endlessly, complained to me that he was no longer young to go to play at weddings and parties at night, and that being a musician is not easy, asked me what I do with the drawings. Accordion - this is the tool in his opinion!

The old Chabadnik with the white beard approached me and asked to see the drawing. "Am I so fat?" offended. The boy also jumped to see - "And that's me?" He was actually pleased :)

There was an old man with a kippah and a cool T-shirt with a print of Indian sitting across from me, when I started drawing him, he suddenly decided to get up. I asked to stay a little longer and he agreed. He told me he was a man of the world when he was young - he went to America and stayed there for 20 years. He lived in various cities - from the east to the west, there is no city he had not visited. "What are you do for living?" I asked. "I'm Jack of all trades! I was good there!" "So why did you come back?" "My wife died ... I had a good wife ... I'm going to America again soon." He asked to see the drawing. "You've also painted the Indian!"