Purim in Jaffa

For Purim, I went to the Arabo-Jewish cultural center of Jaffa with my kids to enjoy a bit the festivities and to see the costumes of the other kids…

Hip hop show and little princesses were a quite inspiring environment to draw

Hip hop show for the kids

Hip hop show for the kids

Neve Sha'anan, Tel Aviv - A journey in Eritrea

For the last scketchcrawl in Tel Aviv, we met in a neighborhood called Neve Sha'anan.
It's actually the name of a street and an area where I like to go from time to time to eat food from Eritrea. A lot of people from this part of the world are living there and it's nice to see hairdresser shops specialised in african draids and their beautiful typography written on the window of the shops.

This one I made it few months ago, in the restaurant I usually go to have lunch

Ink & Beer

Ink & Beer

Thursday evening, rushing from work to pick up my "tools" and then to no.18 bus to get to Jaffa on time to meet the rest of the sketchers. Getting lost in maze of streets surrounding the market and finally arriving to "Sifo" on Nahman 3 st. to find the group busy and quite, each in his own sketchbook. Man, I'm late again :( 

Sitting, greeting the those who are deep into their work (and second glass of "Goldstar"), taking a big breath and starting the fight. A strong espresso suppose to lift my energy up but the 500ml beer gets me all mellow. Its been a long week and I'm tired. So, I'm letting my mind taking a nap and allowing my new Lamy Safari pen do the work for me. And it does. The ink flows freely, the beer follows. 

Bamboo, driftwood and chopstick

I like a lot to work with ink but it's not always easy to find the right tool to express the atmospher of a scene and to feel comfortable with… I often got mad at my bamboo for dripping too fast the ink and having to dip it after each line, then I decided to test other tools, home made this time !

Here is a post with different techniques I used lately to work with ink…

Bamboo - Jerusalem - Musrara

Bamboo - Mr Bubble in Jaffa park

Bamboo, some are home made

Driftwood - Sarona Center, Tel Aviv

Driftwood found on Jabaliya beach in Jaffa and cut

Chopstick - Neve Sha'anan, Tel Aviv

Chopstick and ball pen - Poua, Jaffa

Chopstick - Poua, Jaffa

Chopstick cut and prepared with sand paper to get different sizes

The flea market of Yafo

Here are the drawings I did for the sketchcrawl in Yafo. Because it is my town of adoption, I know it quite well but it's always an interesting experience to seat and observe from closer in order to draw places you passed by a thousand times.

We started at the restaurant Pooha

I went to draw this very nice building which is actually the youth hostel of Yafo

Then I met my friends and co-sketchers drawing, eating cakes and drinking cold coffees... because it's always nicer to get few pleasures at the same time !

Later on the same day, I did this one of a nice family in Montarey restaurant

Me, myself and I

Ok I know, I am a little bit over present on this blog since few posts ! But I swair I will stop posting until next sketchcrawl (which is only at the end of the week… !).
Then, to complete this self centred serie, here is an attempt of self portrait…
See you on saturday everybody !

Attempt of self portrait - "It looks like someone that looks like you"

Portrait of Ronan - "I wouldn't have married you if you looked like this drawing !"

Coptic Monastry in Jaffa

This Coptic Monastry in Yafo is in a very bad shape... Only one monk is living in and keeping the place, they don't have the financial possibility to renovate this huge and beautiful place. 

Ein Kerem - Jerusalem

Here are the drawings that I made in Ein Kerem with the group of Urban sketcher Israel… It's always a pleasure to meet and share this passion of sketching, to discover the interpretation of a same spot by other persons, specially when the area is that beautiful