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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In Living Colour


Chalk pastels done from photo reference. The colors are obviously brighter than the original scene. Not really sure what kind of result I was looking for, but I just wanted to do something with color for a change.

I await my Thursday evening flight with anticipation. While flights in and of themselves are typically non-eventful (one always hopes) there's still something about airport culture that I find intriguing.  I start wondering where people are going and why. Do they feel lonely, trapped, liberated or nothing in particular? I guess I'm just a people watcher.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Junayn Gardens

The days are getting busier as the month wears on. The end of next week I trade Israel for Australia, so my schedule is blowing up just a bit. In between everything else is packing and updating my resume. This weekend I went to the Junayn Gardens, one of the places Baha'u'llah would frequent, which was in the 19th century property acquired by the Bahai's and used for farming. The land used to extend much further but at the moment there's a lot of development going on around the property. Besides that I don't know too much about this place.


I figured I would have trouble scanning the drawing so I took a photo of it instead -- pre fixing up and erasing.





Oh, I recently ordered and received the book The Art of Urban Sketching.  I've read most of it so far. It makes a nice reference!



Monday, May 14, 2012

Weekend wrap up


 Bahji
This past weekend I had both Friday and Saturday off, what a novelty. Since my husband and I are leaving Haifa soon, our schedules are quickly filling up, more than when we left the first time last year. I'm glad to have a second chance at connecting with people who I may not even had gotten to know very well before. Yesterday we went to Bahji, which was nice. I'll miss those peaceful moments.

One of the things I like doing is taking note of any new birds I come across in my routine. When we were walking back to the Bahji Visitors' Centre, we came across some bird tracks in the sand.


Not much further away were the same ones but tiny!


Well, it is spring, isn't it? On our way back out to the road a pair of Spur-winged Lapwings swooped at us after we got too close trying to take their photo. It quickly occurred to us that they must have built their nest on the mulch covered traffic island. Funny that they chose there of all places. 











Saturday, May 12, 2012

Work in Progress


On Thursdays we have an hour and a half lunch period versus the usual hour. I wanted to get out a little  so I ate lunch quickly and walked a bit up the mountain to try to get in a quick sketch. Couldn't finish everything I wanted so I'll have to go back sometime soon to complete it. Will post final product once it's done :)

Monday, May 7, 2012

Just down the street


Went out early afternoon on Saturday. Didn't go much further than going down the street, but I at least wanted to take advantage of the weather and keep up the intended goal of doing one longer drawing per week. After awhile the sun got too intense for me, and I lost the motivation to do anything else in depth. I was probably out for about an hour or so before going back home. Drawn first in pencil and then inked later.

There's some people out there with pretty awesome stuff. They keep me inspired and push me to expand my abilities -- hopefully without debilitating comparison. Some people draw on location for the sake of capturing a moment, much like keeping a regular diary or taking a photograph. Others are committed to a form of reportage, visually creating eyewitness accounts of events.  Here is but a sample of the things out there: 
Veronica Lawlor







kiezflohmarkt_3_050512
Rolf Schroeter
Masjid Jamae
Don Low
Alcázar de Sevilla. Patio de las Doncellas
Inma Serrano
coffe club
Ekaterina Khozatskaya



Peter's Yard
Wil Freeborn

Friday, May 4, 2012

'Akka

Went to the old city of 'Akka on Wednesday as we haven't been to the city proper since our return to Israel in March. Although a little windy, the weather was pleasant for walking around. The streets were mainly occupied by school groups, tour groups, and other travellers as it was the middle of the week. Here are some photos and sketches from that day.








Tuesday, May 1, 2012

In Retrospect

Rehov Ha-Atzma'ut (Independence Street)


Zebra Cafe
Had a longer weekend this past week, which meant that we got to start our work week on Monday instead of Sunday. How novel. Went out to a few places, taking advantage of the good weather. My body was sore from all the walking up and down the mountain. It's all good though. Managed to do a bit of sketching. The first being after my art store errand. Of course I keep carrying around the faded out brush pen. *That's* what I should have bought. The second is from this little burger joint on one of the more eclectic streets in Haifa. The owners are French. The food is good and cheap and they have a good dessert--tarte tatin! My camera battery needed a good charging. Of course I couldn't locate the charger which equals lack of real time photos.

I only have one more month left in Israel. These past two months have gone where? Hoping to make the most of it--seeing, sketching, and exploring all the things I can before I change locations again.