Happy Purim!

Yesterday I was sketching during traditional Purim's parade - Adloyada - Jewish version of carnival.

people at the side of the street waiting for the parade performers

girl in the costume of Chinese

little fairy and little bee

tough security guy

The perils of the subway, F line: Manhattan to Brooklyn.

(Instructions for survival are everywhere.)

It's become a ritual: unwinding with sketching on the long subway ride home from Spanish class: my brain still spinning in Spanish (class is long and intense)

Sketchblog: DayBooks

Hill Streets

...just north of Sunset Blvd. between the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Echo Park and Silver Lake have these roller-coaster views...it was a beautiful weekend, with lovely pre-spring weather...

Quick sketches while out and about...

We were up and out the door early yesterday, so I squeezed in a bit of sketching while we were out.  This is a view of the top of Liberty, Missouri's museum building, through the trees.  It's an old town founded in the mid-19th C. with lots of interesting buildings and the sense to preserve them, mostly!

Urban Monoprint

A couple of monoprints of the Empire State Building in New York City. It was a beautiful sunny day, and these were fun to do.

The idea is based off an exercise in our Studio 1482 One Drawing A Day book. You can see the step-by-step on the Etsy blog's "How-Tuesday" post here.

If you will be in the Brooklyn area, please join me and the other Studio 1482 illustrators for a "Hands-On" drawing event at the Etsy labs. Click here for details. Hope to see some of you urban sketchers there!

Posted by Veronica Lawlor.

Alliance Francaise Children's Day

Our sketching group went to the Alliance Francaise where they were having a children's day, with marionettes and story-telling drum workshops. We tucked ourselves into corners of the room and enjoyed with the kids the expert puppeteer, Alida van Deventer, who made her characters come completely to life. I wished I was watching her more attentively, as I missed a lot of the show while recording some of the puppets and the children's reactions. It can't be easy to entertain children who've grown up with exciting, amazingly illustrated movies, computer and TV games, but they were enthralled.

Then came the drums and tales to go with them, each child joining in with the rhythm and chorus of the drumbeats - I felt like doing that too! But sketching them was a good second option.

One dad who was looking over my shoulder asked if I'd sketch his two children, which I did very quickly, trying to remain calm as I worried more about likenesses - I got the little boy's eyes a bit squiffy as they darted from the storyteller to me, but Dad was happy and invited me to his restaurant in exchange after I gave him the sketch. You never know where sketching will take you next!

Paul Revere Park

On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was rowed across the Charles River, from Boston to Charlestown, to begin his midnight ride. The famous trip was for the purpose of alerting John Hancock and Samuel Adams (in Lexington) of the approaching British Army. But he didn't land where Paul Revere Park is now, on the shore of Charlestown. The Park is closer to where the HMS Somerset (a British Navy ship) was anchored and filled with enemy soldiers. Revere slipped behind the Somerset and landed further along the waterfront near the Charlestown Navy Yard, hurrying in to town to get a horse for his mission. 

Paul Revere Park is young, built on land that was gained from the Central Artery/ Tunnel Project (also known as the "Big Dig") which relocated an entire elevated highway underground through downtown Boston. The Big Dig disrupted the city for well over a decade around the turn of this century, and was the most expensive highway project in American history. The park continues to be a work in progress, as are many of the other Big Dig properties, such as the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway over the river in Boston. Politics and a stagnant economy have slowed these projects' progress.

Besides a playground, a performance stage and a large circular lawn, the park features a mosaic wall, on which the story of Paul Revere is written and mapped. On the cold February day when I drew there, the place was deserted with only a few dog walkers briskly passing by.

From the park, you can see the Leonard P. Zakim Memorial Bunker Hill Bridge, better known as the Zakim Bridge, which is perhaps the most striking result of the Big Dig. The new bridge became an instant landmark for the city and with its obelisks and rigging, it echos the nearby Bunker Hill Monument and USS Constitution. Bathed in luminous blue light after dark, the Zakim Bridge is, like Paul Revere, a creature of the night.

You can follow my drawing project, Paul Revere's Ride Revisited, at my new blog.

Tavira beach

Year after year in Tavira beach - Tavira is a beautiful town in Algarve, south of Portugal - someone collects odd things delivered by the sea and builds a great art installation that grows up during the summer months.
Year after year I love walking along the beach and finding this scene.
I've never been there at night but I think this is a kind of a summer camp where people come to sleep after everybody else has left for their houses and hotels.
More sketches of Tavira here.

Recent Sketches on Public Transport in London (March)

These are some recent sketches on public transport in London and a live video of me sketching on public transport. I'm also recording with one hand, so it's not perfect but good enough to see my process.




The sketch above is started and finished in the video below

Prop 8 on Trial

Beth Marshal Presents brought Prop 8 to the Orlando Shakes. Prop 8 was passed in California stating that marriage can only be defined as the union of a man and woman with the goal being to procreate. Protesters lined the entry walkway towards the theater entrance. They shouted their protests of equal rights to love. There was a surreal irony to the demonstration since most Prop 8 demonstrators would be shouting their judgements and hatred.

This play, written by Lisa Cordes, used court documents in the case to overturn Prop 8. When I got to the theater, Beth showed me where I would be sitting, right next to other bloggers and tweeters on the sidelines. I didn't have a good line of sight to the judge, so I ended up sitting on my artist's stool a bit further away from the stage. Daily City blogger Mark Baratelli had been out in the lobby curious about what was going on. He had been at an event across the parking lot at the Orlando Museum of Art but he was drawn to the hubbub at the shakes. I was alone in the theater blocking in my sketch before the actors got on stage. I texted Mark suggesting he join me in the bloggers section. When the play started, I finally realized that the bloggers were actually actors. Silly me. Their fingers floated above the keyboards to make it look like they were typing without creating noise. As it turns out, I was the court artist.

Lisa Cordes herself played a witness and I caught her in my sketch. Her wit and irony made it clear that she believed in the cause of any one's right to marry. The lawyers who defended Prop 8 did a very poor job and defense witnesses were often weak minded bigots. The bloggers were able to summarize otherwise mind numbing testimony so it could be easily digested with humor and wit. The most compelling testimony came from witnesses who longed to be able to publicly celebrate their love yet were denied by law.

In the end, the play remained unresolved since legislation is still pending. The testimony and evidence certainly left us all with hope that love could outlast bigotry. Chad Lewis and Jason R. Donnelly were to be married in the theater after the performance. Members of their families took up much of the second row of the theater. We all were asked to wait in the lobby as the theater was converted into a chapel. Nicki Equality Drumb and Rachel Equality Gardiner stopped over to say hello. An actor came over and thanked Rachel for being such a good audience member. He explained that he had been exhausted near the end of the play, but her enthusiasm fueled a second wind. She was a bit embarrassed, but that is what makes theater in a small town like Orlando special. The actors truly appreciate the audience. Every year on Valentines day they host "The Human Heart." Hundreds of people gather in Lock Haven park holding hands and forming a large heart shape. Candles are lit in the name of love and equality. I also love this couple since they go to the courthouse regularly to ask for the right to be married. Hopefully someday soon the tide will turn and the court clerk will finally say "yes."

first sketch of March

(Sketched on an A4 Moleskine from the parking lot area near the school in Wollbach.)

some sketches at Ssamzigil building, Insa-dong, Seoul

 Ssamzigil building viewed from the court-yard, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm 

another view of the Ssamzigil building, pen, 24.5 x 35cm

another view of the Ssamzigil building, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Folk dancing musicians playing in front of the Ssamzigil building at the Insa street, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

looking down the court-yard from the roof terrace, pen, 21 x 29.5cm

neighboring buildings over Ssamzigil building, pencil, 21 x 29.5cm

The Central Temple of Chondokyo and Soowoon building viewed from the Insa Art Center located 

across the Ssamzigil, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm 

YMCA Building (completed in 1967) located on an approach to Insa-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

.

Last Saturday, we Seoul sketchers visited to Ssamzigil in Insa-dong. The Ssamzigil is a square building, not a street. It has four floors and is consist of a Korean rice cake shop, a paper hanger, an antique shop and Korean restaurants, etc. It's a quite low rise structure made out of concrete, metal, glass and wood definitely feeling modern yet warm and approachable by having open ramp style passage ways with a very slight slope. It is seen as a Korean culture complex, what is more it's so unique and has set a sort of new direction for good old Insadong. The weather was so fine and we amused ourselves by looking on the variegated sceneries and sketching here and there in the fantastic building.

兩張

有時候對一家店有好感
跟食物無關
跟座位無關
跟老闆無關
而是因為迎客狗

iphone出現前
捷運是什麼景況？
已經很難回想了

現在捷運裡很多人捧著神主牌似的
⋯⋯
改變很難逆回
我也可能加入捧神主排的行列
不久的未來

starting of summer..

Its summer time in pune,my place in india.The afternoons are really hot ,with hot air currents blowing the dry leaves of trees.The skies are clear blue and shadows are sharp..its fun to sit under a shade and draw some sketches on sunday mornings.this is exactly what i did on this sunday...posting some sketches..

Urban Sketchers London blog launches

James Hobbs, London Skyline

We are happy to announce that the new Urban Sketchers London blog has now gone live, opening with posts over the coming weeks by the six London-based correspondents: Adebanji Alade, James Hobbs, Barry Jackson, Olha Pryymak, Katherine Tyrrell and Zhenia Vasiliev. There are plenty of great artists working in and around London, and we are looking forward to seeing their work on the blog.
Drop in and pay us a visit at:
www.urbansketchers-london.blogspot.com