"My Favorite Place" sketchbook - finally finished!

So, it took a while... But finally, it is done! And it's really beautiful to see the complete sketchbook, full of different favorite places, different styles, but common vibe :)
Here are Nathan's and my entries, we sketch together a lot, mostly in Tel Aviv, so our sketches have something in common :)

One of my favorite places is... yes, how not? the beach! This on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, you can see the Tel Aviv high buildings on the background, and just beside it is the Old City of Jaffa.

The second one is my favorite ice cream - Anita. There is always a line. But it moves fast. And it is delicious!

These days Nathan is busy by watching Fifa world cup. So he sketched while watching ;)

 But the beach is our common love - so here is one of Nathan's views on the beach.

My favorite places • Aurore

To fill up the sketchbook of Detlef with the subject "My favorite places" I choose first to draw the southern entry of the old city of Yafo (or Jaffa in arabic). My gallery is located just behind this line of buildings and this is the view I see whenever I go to do my shift in the studio. Each time, it reminds me of the chance I have to be in such a beautiful environment, so inspiring for a urban sketcher !

This old city was first buid by the Ottoman empire and the stairs we see on the sketch divide in 2 parts the old city. It seems to me to be a bit large and "royal" path for the small amount of streets that are around. Each street has the name of an astrological sign, it means that there are more or less only 12 streets in the historical part of Tel Aviv.

For the second sketch, I went in a fancy bar restaurant called the Kandinof House, on the other side of the old city, still in Jaffa. This place seems to be a patio that had been covered with glass and a sort of metal design that makes a contrast with the original arabic architecture. I like this place very much, we eat well, we can drink at the bar… But they also created different spaces and corners inside rooms and whatever it is where they exhibit art, host lectures or artistic events. A place to be in contact with maybe for a future exhibition of our common project !

Detlef's sketchbook is now in the hand of Marina, who will pass it on to Nathan. Again, I am sorry for the delay ! Aurore

People on the way • Aurore

It's been a long time I wanted to sketch the Eritrean community coming to celebrate its weddings in the park of the old city and on Jaffa beach !

Every week end almost, a new group appears, always dressed in white with architectural hair style.
They are all dressed in white in the same costume with a pattern that define them as a group, only the groom and the bride has a different color of pattern.

They are simply beautiful…

People on the way • Aurore

It's been a long time I wanted to sketch the Eritrean community coming to celebrate its weddings in the park of the old city and on Jaffa beach !

Every week end almost, a new group appears, always dressed in white with architectural hair style.
They are all dressed in white in the same costume with a pattern that define them as a group, only the groom and the bride has a different color of pattern.

They are simply beautiful…

"Your city - your story" from Marina and Nathan

Katrin's book is full!

Last week I invited my friend Nathan to meet in Tel Aviv and to try to fill our entries.

As we do some sketching projects together, Nathan and I meet very often, almost always in Tel Aviv, so my story of Tel Aviv naturally includes... Nathan ;)

We started our meeting with a good plate of humus, sitting at on of the corners of the HaCarmel Market in Tel Aviv.

 Here I captured one of the streets near the market, were you can still meet old professions, like this shoemaker, repairing shoes and bags on the street:

 Here are Nathan's entries, he sketched... me! eating the humus ;)

 and another character from the same street - the barber taking a rest and drinking some coffee.

The sketchbook is coming with me to Manchester, where I'm going to give it to Omar.

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 !