An Afternoon in the City

Today many people were off and businesses closed because of the observance of Australia Day. The actual date was this past Saturday, but of course when something falls on a weekend it would be a shame to deprive yourself of a day off. Although I'm not working yet, I was momentarily relieved of my volunteer duties at Lyell McEwin. Chad and I went into the city to visit the Botanic Gardens and grab some lunch. 

Initially it seemed that we didn't pick the best day to go out as it was windy and rainy when we arrived in town. As a compromise, instead of going straight to the Gardens we headed to Piatto for lunch in lieu of Kishi Sushi, which seemed to be waiting for a later time to open. I'm never inspired to order much more than pizza at an Italian restaurant so we shared a Little Italy pizza. Since we had to wait quite awhile for our order (due to mishap with someone not putting it in the system), I had time to sketch, something which I haven't been doing recently. 

Diners at Piatto

The sun came out by the time we were finished. The Botanic Gardens were nice. I brought my colored pencils with me as well but there wasn't a color that represented the pink of these lotus flowers, the first and favorite of the species displayed. There were quite a few dusky moorhens in the area as well taking advantage of the marshy conditions. 

With this blog I try to post things that I've drawn on location but this past Saturday I also had the chance to march in the Australia Day parade they had in the city. I took some less than quality photos with my phone but they may do with some artistic rendering, if so I'll post them here. 

I hope all is well with everyone's 2013 so far. One month is practically gone! 

It's obviously been awhile since I've posted last. Over a month in fact. If anyone is still out there I don't know. But here I am, out of the abyss for the time being. I've reached a point in my stay in Australia where time is going by much quicker than it has previously. I've had a birthday, been steadily volunteering at two different places a few days a week, been looking for work, being of service to others, running errands around town, among other things. Unfortunately, that means that I haven't been doing too much drawing. Hopefully that'll change and I can be a bit more regular than I have been. Otherwise, maybe I'll just count it as a shift in priorities.

It's spring now here in Australia and the weather continues to fluctuate, however this past weekend was a fairly nice day so my husband and I decided to take a walk around Parra Wirra, one of the local recreational parks that has different hikes you can go on. The sun wasn't very bright but at least it was warm. It's nice to get back to nature a bit in order to decompress. Sometimes you just need a break.

Woman in Black

Did another drawing this afternoon using my Staedtler glasochrom pencil. While I dream about different types of inks and nibs and their various uses, traditional dry media still holds my attention. What I like about doing sketches with that pencil is the moody feel they have to them in the end. Working with toned paper might make things more dramatic. Strathmore just started making them in sketchbook form, though I'm sure other companies do as well. Now all I need is a representative from there to send me a sample to test it out ;) Hey, it's worth a shot but I know I'll probably just go out and get my own.

Still Here

I feel like I've been a bit absent lately. For all those Americans out there, happy 4th of July. While you are all BBQ'ing and watching fireworks in the heat, it's winter in Australia, albeit mild compared to a winter in the Midwest.

I've been doodling recently but not so much sketching on location like I have done in the past few months. I'm thinking of directions I may want to go, not only with drawing but other things as well. Here are a couple of sketches I did some months ago around the gardens in Haifa.

I'm also on the hunt for a new sketchbook. The ecosystem notebook I bought earlier this year worked out well enough but I'm looking for something different. While I would love to buy everything in an art store, I end up paralyzed by choice, leaving wanting everything but buying nothing. Oh well, it's probably for the best :) 

Up from Under

It's been a week since I've landed in Australia. Early last Saturday morning I contemplated my arrival at the airport in Melbourne, before my flight to Adelaide, over a Krispy Kreme doughnut and a cappuccino. Any time I arrive at a new a place and I'm just gathering my bearings, the days merge one into the other, the particular name of which becomes unimportant.  Time instead gets organized around specific activities, or a lack thereof.  Fortunately, jet lag was barely an issue, and I felt acclimated to the new location within a few days.

Of course there are some things that are different.  Two things I reminded myself of today were 1.) if I'm going to make a purchase, I'm not going to get one of those environment enriching plastic bags. Bring your own reusable one. 2.) Meal sizes are a little bit different from the U.S.  Some would say that they're more reasonable. If you're going to order a small meal at McDonalds, rest assured it'll be the size of a Happy Meal. There's also the steering wheel on the other side of the car and the ol' season switcheroo. All superficial but noticeable differences to a new arrival from the States. Deeper observations to come later.

What other fun things will I learn from this continent/island/nation? I haven't reignited a regular sketching habit yet but in the road to productivity this Sunday, I worked out how to use one of the scanners in the house. I can see that the scanner is is more suitable for drawings than the document scanner I used in Haifa.  Below are a few sketches, two pages from my travels this time around, the other a quick one of some of the backyard.

Waiting at the airport

View from a window at Incheon International Airport

 

Pencil sketch of the backyard

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!

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.

Before the Weekend

Husband napping on the couch

It's getting kind of late here in ol' Haifa so it seems fitting to post this drawing. It's been a laid back sort of day. Earlier this morning I headed out towards the port, mainly in search of a particular art store but also as an excuse to get out and enjoy the weather. It was a nice change to walk around a different part of the city and to get away from the renovations that have been happening in the building all day. While I did find the store in question, I couldn't decide on much of anything to buy and wasn't too confident in my ability to convert prices from shekels to dollars so I more or less came away empty handed. Alternatively, I found a new location to stalk. Results of the day's sketchcapades to be posted later.

In other news I think I'm fairly satisfied with the current blog layout. What do you think?  Adding things as I think of them and trying not to go overboard in changing something if I don't need to.

Hope all you folks out there have a good weekend :)

A visit to Tel Aviv

distant view from the sea wall

Went to Tel Aviv today. My husband got wrapped up in the idea of visiting Old Jaffa, an ancient port city that was eventually incorporated into Tel Aviv proper in 1950. We didn't get around to going the first time we were in Israel and seeing as we had a day off, now was as good a time as ever. 

After coaxing ourselves out of bed this morning, we rode an hour on the train into the city, navigated our way through the bus terminal shortly after arriving and eventually ended up in the old city. It felt very much like 'Akka except on a slightly larger scale. We explored for a bit, ran into some people we knew, had lunch and then prepared to head back to Haifa. Although not quite intending to we ended up at the Azerali mall after catching a different bus back to what we thought would be the bus station. It was nice detour though, did some window shopping and rested a bit at CafeCafe. Something else to cross off my list of things to do.

               

enjoyed a lemon/passion fruit granita

A view from Ben Gurion Ave

a view from Ben Gurion Ave, a photo by moody_e on Flickr.

I spent a small part of my afternoon off sitting on one of the ledges on Ben Gurion Ave, one of streets that always seem to be busy with activity from hotels and restaurants and the like, and sketched a bit. Felt I should have done more in the time I spent but when I'm working with pen and I don't have much going on, what's the point in going quickly?

I did get a couple of looks and comments from people passing by, mainly from high schoolers who had just gotten off of class and were waiting for the bus. This time at least, I thought it nice to be noticed.

Adebanji Alade

Adebanji Alade is an artist from the UK who does a lot of portraiture but has been known to paint landscapes and frequently sketches others on the tube. I first became familiar with some of his sketches via the Urban Sketchers website, as I have with many other artists that have inspired me to think more about sketching on location. He recently created a post about tips on sketching people on public transport and about sketching in general.

One is acknowledging your uniqueness. Not everyone will draw the same, so do it often until you become yourself. It's fine to get inspiration from others but sometimes comparison can get in the way.

Feel good about what you've done and accomplished but don't be complacent, continue to strive. On the same token, if you look at what you've done and feel bad, don't let that stop you. Acknowledge where you are and keep going. There's no point in berating yourself.

There are also other things like trying to get an overall feel of a scene and to not necessarily get so caught in the details.

Even when you're really passionate about something there are moments when you wonder: what am I doing?  Dear readers, are there any rules or other things you try to keep in mind when trying to stay motivated?

Making our presence known

Listening to: Andreya Triana feat. Bonobo - Hatoa

Hello, I'm still here.

Because of the warmer than normal winter temps, you can see some of the plants outside beginning to bud and push themselves from beneath the soil a lil early. Not quite Spring, but it's well on it's way. I don't envy the complete opposite of last year's super snowfall. This past week I've just been working, de-cluttering, and making time for some recreation.  Dropped off more books at the library this evening and of course couldn't leave without picking up some more. This week's art-focused picks - Drawing on the Artist Within and The Creative License. I've only had time to flip through them but I look forward to actually reading them soon.

IF - Forward

This week's Illustration Friday theme is 'forward'. I kind of liked the light effect on the photo, suppose it makes it look like this penguin is enjoying a bit of the outside :) I took a quick look at the IF blog and discovered the They Draw & Travel website, where artists make illustrated maps of places they've been to. I like looking at different types of maps but I'm a bit hopeless when I'm actually using them, a little different from my husband who loves pulling them out and using them while travelling (don't even try to talk to me about north and south!) Either way, they're hosting a contest. The top nine entries win prizes. The deadline is a week from tomorrow so I don't think I'd be able to pull something off by then but it would be a nice project to try out.

A tree grows in the lobby

Part blind contour drawing, part my own elaboration of a tree planted in one of the buildings I work in. I'm thinking of giving illustrated journaling a try. One book I'm currently perusing is An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers. There's a lot of great examples of how it can be done. It's nice when you're starting or considering something new to see what's possible, for me anyway.

Flower Assortment

Quick sketch with oil pastels. I don't know if I'd use them as my main art medium, sometimes the results can be a bit garish. They are good for experimenting with though, and the colors easily blend with each other in interesting ways.

Found Drawings

While I was living in Israel I had my dad keep some of the things that I didn't need to take with me. He told me that during those few years some of the boxes got water damage. Assuming that he found what he could means the majority of my old journals, some magazines and probably a sketchbook or two, among other things are long gone. While I was spared having to go through them all and figure out what to keep and what not to keep, it would have been nice to look at them one more time. I found the two drawings above at the bottom of one of the salvaged boxes, illustrating my high school interest in mangas. Funny to think that I did these almost 12 years ago. They still look pretty decent, no?

Down time at work means an opportunity for a quick sketch of some markers on my desk. I'm getting a handle of the job but some things a bit slow in starting up. I guess that's just how things go. C'est la vie.

At the Last Minute

I'm finding myself doing things at the last minute in the same way that my husband did on occasion during his 365 photography project last year. When you're trying to do something on a daily basis, midnight's imminent approach becomes a big motivator on days when you're uninspired or simply lacking time. I randomly chose a reference photo and quickly got down to business.