Bon appétit ! Humus & falafel - Drawings from Nathan Halpern

I post the drawings of Nathan Halpern in Marina's sketchbook because he's not at ease with his english and posting on blogs.

Nathan is an israeli ceramist and illustrator living in Tel Aviv, he used to illustrate for children books and work for architects, he is now teaching ceramic and is an obsessive urban sketcher ! The scenes he catched for Marina's sketchbook show small restaurants selling humus and falafel on King George, a very popular (and chaotic) street in the middle of Tel Aviv. 

Marina's sketchbook is now ready to fly to Berlin and find some German specialities!

Bon Appétit ! Souk ha Carmel

Here is what I did for Marina's sketchbook about the food in Israel.
Souk Ha Carmel (The Carmel Market) is a very famous market in the center of Tel Aviv, a whole street full of israeli specialities… of course fruits and vegetable but also spices and cakes, olives, cheese… etc.

This woman has a very bad caractere and tourists always want to take pictures of her with her colorful spices and olives… She send them away in the worse way possible. Happily she didn't objected when I stood for a while on the other side of the alley. I took notes with my pencil and then I did the coloring a bit further, somewhere I know I can sit with a glace of wine!

And here is what I miss the most when I am not in Israel, it's not the houmous or the falafel… it's the fresh juices ! My top 3 is mix orange-carot juice, apple-carot and pomegranate-orange. Full vitamin set to spend an healthy day !

Bon Appetit!

I always say that "food, drink & sketching" is my perfect happiness' formula. So, the theme of my sketchbook is "Local food and drink". Food defines a lot the character of the place, the local culture and tradition. Food connects people, always come together with nice conversations, laugh, emotions. I love sketch people that are busy by eating and drinking - they are great models!

the cover of my sketchbook

Humus is probably the food identified with Israel the most. This place with an excellent humus in the middle of the Jaffa's flea market was a perfect place for my first sketch (and yummy humus, of course!)

Fish and a lot of delicious salads - are the specials of another very famous place in Jaffa called "The Old Man and the Sea". The bright blue sea at the horizon is a perfect decoration of the restaurant.

Can't wait to see your delicious entries - Bon Appetit!

A walk in the flea market

Here is the subject of the sketchbook I have started for our exchange !

Let me introduce myself a little bit… I am a french graphic designer & illustrator from Paris. Since I married an Israeli, I have been living this past 8 years in Jaffa (you can say as well Yafo, the pretty), south part of Tel Aviv and also where take place the ancient port (2500 years old !), the old city and the flea market. I love to draw my neighborhood and I keep on finding inspiration after 8 years… I thought that it might be funny to compare our flea markets in Jaffa and in Berlin !

The Moleskine that has been sent by Omar has been lost on the way to Israel, so we are doing our own handmade sketchbooks… A good excuse to have fun as well on the covers !

Favorite places - Café Fleury and Tegeler See

Berlin ist a city full of nice cafés, but this one is the one I like best. Nice french tartes! Café Fleury, Weinbergsweg in Berlin-Mitte

Every time I go to my studio I have to stop on the bridge for this beautiful view over the Tegeler See (Borsigdamm, Lake Tegel):

"Favorite Places" - Berlin Heinrichplatz

I like this vivid square in Berlin Kreuzberg with it´s almost "French" atmosphere very much. /
Diesen lebendigen Platz mit seiner beinahe französischen Atmosphäre mag ich sehr gerne.

The last right page of the booklet

"Your City - Your Story" - Das Reichstagsgebäude / The Reichstag Building

Here in the Reichstag building lives "Karlchen Adler",
the little eagle character I draw for the German parliament, the "Deutsche Bundestag".