Jaffa Street

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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Downtown Jerusalem has a long street shared by pedestrians, stores, sidewalk cafes, street musician, and light rail, but not cars. I was puzzled at first by what looked like a lack of barriers between the light rail and people but have become a big fan of its comfortable, fluid design. Jaffa Street is about 20 minutes from our apartment by light rail and a great place for a quick bite, long cup of coffee, and a sketch or two.

I wanted to convey the dynamic feel of Jaffa Street so I used gesture lines and washes and avoided details.

This is a watercolor and ink sketch on multimedia paper.

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Sderot HaMuze’onim

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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This is a sketch of a street near the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem.

The more I draw the different types of stone around Jerusalem, the more I realize how little I know about showing texture and irregular shape. I think part of the problem for me I don’t usually add much texture to my sketches and stones are all about conveying texture. This week I am building my experience with stone by including it in most of my sketches.

This is a watercolor and ink sketch on multimedia paper. I used Procreate to try to improve the stonewall.

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Bus Stop

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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My learning goal for this week is to understand how to draw stone walls and stone buildings, which is pretty important if you want to do landscapes in Jerusalem. After a long morning of sketching stone without much progress, I sat near a bus stop outside the Israeli Museum.  My eye was caught by the movement of people and vehicles and I began to sketch. I enjoyed the change from slow study of rocks to quick decisions about what to include. I like this sketch because the three figures at the bus stop convey the feeling of waiting. (Sketches featuring stone should be forthcoming later this week, if all goes according to plan.)

This is a pen and watercolor sketch. The border was added with Procreate.

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A Hedge and a Path

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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Jerusalem has a system of shortcuts for pedestrians, walkways that keep you out of traffic and let you cut across huge blocks. This particular footpath is near our apartment and one of my favorites now that its massive aloe hedge is in bloom.

This is an ink and watercolor sketch on watercolor paper. My marker is nearly out of ink and I really like the kind of sketchy lines it made today, more like my soluble pencil than a normal marker. I made some adjustments later to the sketch at the apartment with Procreate.

 

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Garden at Hebrew University

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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I did several versions of this statue on the university lawn. The bare earth with the beginnings of a flower garden attracted me but then I got distracted by the statue against the winter sky. I  am not sure if this is a sketch about a statue or a garden but this is my best for the day, which is nearly over here in Israel.

This began as a watercolor and ink drawing but I made changes to it in Procreate.

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Another Coffee Shop

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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There is no doubt about it, I like to be warm when sketching. Temperatures in the low 50’s are just too cold for my California bones. This is a scene in the warm library coffee shop at Hebrew University. The challenge was to convey its movement and interactions so I used an exaggerated gesture line and left a lot of white space.

I used a pen and watercolor wash on multimedia paper. Later at the appartment I darkened a few areas with a watercolor pencil.

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The Old City Walls again

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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Yesterday’s sketch bothered me. One of my goals is to use image to tell a story and yesterday’s sketch did not do so. I woke up thinking that it would have been better if I had included awestruck people. Besides telling a story about how people are moved by seeing the Old City, placing people into the sketch would help show the impressive scale of the walls.

Although I had not drawn anyone looking at the Old City, I remembered that last September I drew a group of three zoo goers looking with awe up at giraffes and thought they could be used for the Old City sketch. I combined the sketches from yesterday and from September 30 into this new sketch. While I was at it, I lightened the sky and added texture to the walls to make them look more weathered.

Both of the original sketches were ink and watercolor. I combined and changed them using Procreate, an app on my iPad.

 

 

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