End of Summer Sea View Sketch

I started this one yesterday on location and then discovered that I needed a proper brush to finish it and not just a waterbrush, so I finished it at home today. The flowers are squills, which have a dreadful name in English but they are magnificent flowers and the heralds of autumn.

This was drawn using a very limited and somewhat unusual palette – the Roman Szmal Aquarius mini watercolour set for urban sketchers. I purchased it and the 50th anniversary special edition Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Lush set at the Urban Sketchers Poznan Symposium‘s art market. It was a real challenge to work with a set that didn’t include any of the colours that I’m used to using, and combine it with a medium (Neocolors II) that I’ve only used once or twice before. I like the results enough to challenge myself to create more of these in the future.

This is what was done on location:

Big Celebratory Birthday Update Part 1

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted a weekly update, and it’s my birthday week, so to celebrate I decided to write 43 points (split up to several posts to make them more manageable), in no practical order:

After a bit of drama I have managed to enrol to the 2025 Urban Sketchers’ Symposium in Poznan, Poland. I will be posting about my sketchbook and art supplies packing list later on, but do let me know in the comments if you’ll be there.
Rising tariffs and shipping costs have made online pen, ink and paper purchases prohibitively expensive for me. This may not be a bad thing, as it should encourage me to use the large stash of “stuff” that I already have.
I have been gifting people nice notebooks and pens lately, and it’s been a surprisingly heartwarming success. Giving people a notebook that matches their style and needs, coupled with a pen that suites them and an encouragement to start journaling about their lives has been one of the joys of my life in recent months.
Moleskine came out with a cool Peanuts collection of notebooks and Blackwing pencils (plus a backpack and set of pins). It’s refreshing to see them use the XL cahiers for a limited edition, as I don’t think they’ve done that since the Art collection about a decade ago.
Lightening Book Review #1 (I have a huge pile of books to review and not enough time to write a dedicated post for all of them): When the Moon Hits Your Eye, John Scalzi. Scalzi is normally very good at humorous sci-fi, but this book is not one of his successes. It’s an overtly silly, very lightweight book that is not on par with the other books he groups in this loosely thematic trilogy, The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain. It really suffers from the constant jumping around amongst a giant cast – the plot loses momentum, and you find it hard to connect to any set of characters. While it was not great hardship reading it and it’s a decent light read, feel free to skip this one and wait for the next instalment of his “Old Man’s War” series.
It’s OK to splurge and buy yourself flowers every once in a while, if you enjoy flowers.
I’ve started rucking, which is basically walking at a brisk pace outside with weight on your back. I use an Osprey hiking daypack weighed down mostly with water, but also with a giant cookbook, my journal and kindle, which brings it to around 10kg of weight. I take a break about 15 minutes into my session to sit outside and journal or meditate. If you’re curious, start with a bag that has a waist belt and not too much weight for too long, and skip the $400 overhyped specialized bags and weight plates.
Go see a play (not a musical or comedy) at your local theatre. It’s a great way to open yourself to new ideas and perspectives – especially those that you don’t agree with.
Lightening Book Review #2: Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus. I really wanted to like this book, but the combination of graphic, repetitive and unrelenting “period piece” misogyny and sexual assault coupled with a frankly unbelievable, non-relatable and largely unlikable heroine made it impossible. Couple this with an even less believable daughter and dog (though the dog is cute), lots of didactic and condescending lecturing that is so blatantly not period true and can at times be needlessly offensive (was the vegetarian bashing necessary?) and this was a book that I didn’t really enjoy. The cooking show, dog and rowing bits were nice, though.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts*/New Avengerts is a delightful, touching, thrilling and generally great movie. It’s well worth the cinema visit, and I plan to rewatch it once it lands on Disney+.
Please don’t do things just so that you can post about them on social media. That’s no way to live your life. It’s the equivalent of voluntarily turning yourself into one of the Matrix human batteries – for AI training models’ and advertisers' use.
Here’s a recent sketch that I did:

Have a great week and see you in part 2.

Weekly Update: One Week 100 People, Newly Inked Pens and Preparing for a Doctor’s Visit

I finished the One Week 100 People challenge on day 4, but kept going for day 5 (which was yesterday) and added a few sketches on day 6 (even though the official challenge is 5 days long). It was the first time that I sketched only live subjects and not from photos, and it really pushed me to find ways to work fast.

Today I added a few final sketches to my Field Notes sketchbook, this time using Faber Castell Pitt brush pens for blocks of colour and a Pilot brush pen for the sketches themselves. I was trying to work mainly with silhouettes and capture people in movement. It took me longer than I thought to capture a mere 6 subjects, mostly because what people do when they walk around nowadays is stare at their phones.

As I wrote two fountain pens dry this week, I filled six new fountain pens, bringing my rotation up to nine pens. Next week I’ll write a post about the pens and inks that I chose, but I will say that there are some pretty rare ones in the rotation this time.

Next week is pretty stressful as I have some tests and a checkup coming up with my hemato-oncologist (that’s a cancer doctor that specializes in blood cancers, which is the kind of cancer that I’m in remission from). I will give out one important tip for anyone who is going to see a doctor for any reason:

Write down ahead of time whatever it is that is bothering you/you need help with, and make sure that it’s in order of importance. There’s a good chance that if you won’t do this you will forget things, or you’ll focus on the least important thing, or you’ll have trouble articulating the issue. A doctor’s office is a stressful location, so you want to take the time and prepare this list in advance when you are sitting calmly at home. Make sure that the first 2-3 items on that list are really the most important things that you want to focus on because there’s a good chance that you’ll only get to focus on these items (your time in there is going to be limited). Reference the list when in the doctor’s office (don’t be embarrassed, there’s nothing embarrassing about being prepared). Be clear and specific, and insist on getting all your questions answered when it comes to these things. Double check before you leave that all the medications you discussed and tests that the doctor ordered were properly documented. Doctors are people too and the electronic medical record systems they work with aren’t the best, so it’s worth checking that everything is in order before you leave (even if you do the check with the medical secretary, just so long as you’re still in the doctor’s office and any errors and omissions can be fixed).

Take care of yourself and have a great week!

One Week 100 People 2025: Day Five

Last official day of the challenge, though I plan on doing a few more sketches tomorrow. These were all done at the gym, from 102-112, including a failed sketch.

My favourite on this page is 111. What’s yours?

One Week 100 People 2025: Day Four

I have a super busy day so I took my sketchbook (Moleskine pocket watercolour) to the gym and did sketches 79-90 there, and then I completed 91-101 sitting on a bench on my way home.

So 100 people completed – the fastest ever I’ve done this challenge, and all of them sketched from life. I plan to complete this page tomorrow and then go back to my Field Notes sketchbook to try another style of sketching people on the move.

As usual, pick which one you like best. I am having trouble choosing.

One Week 100 People 2025: Day Three

It was dark and cold once I finished, and my fingers had trouble grasping the pen because of my neuropathy. My original plan was to finish all 100 today, but I only got to 78. Tomorrow I have very little time to sketch, but I am getting faster and better and capturing quick moving targets.

I am using the watercolour “blobs” mostly as general guides for the size of each sketch. I create them first and then sketch over them later.

These were done on a Moleskine pocket watercolour sketchbook using Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolours, a water brush and a Staedtler 0.3 pigment liner pen. They each took only a few seconds to sketch.

As usual – pick your favourite. Mine is 56.

One Week 100 People 2025: Day Two

I went out for 45 minutes after work and sketched all of these as fast as I could. I only stopped when it got too dark outside. Yesterday’s sketches were done with a Staedtler 0.5 pigment liner on a Field Notes sketchbook. Today’s sketches were done on a pocket Moleskine watercolour sketchbook using a 0.3 Staedtler pigment liner, a water brush and watercolour.

First batch when it was still light outside

People moved by in the street so I had seconds to capture each figure (the more detailed ones stopped for a minute or two). As this is what normally happens when you urban sketch, I found this exercise to be very useful.

Which one is your favourite?

One Week 100 People 2025: Day 1

I didn’t have much time to sketch today so I only got 8 sketches done, but I’m more concerned with getting the sketches done from observation than with getting them done in time.

Weekly Update: Ink Swaps and Quick Sketches

Earlier this week I went to a standup gig – a NY comedian was trying out new material, and it was an interesting (and funny) experience to see him work. Before the show I had about 5 minutes to sketch the people in a nearby cafe, so I sketched this couple using a Staedtler 0.5 Pigment Liner.

In terms of fountain pens the Parker Vacumatic is out of rotation, though I may give Diamine Writer’s Blood a try in another pen soon enough. I decided that I want to have the nib tuned on it, in terms of flow, though I don’t know who I’ll be able to find to do the tuning for me.

I also dumped out the Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Budo out of my Parker 51 as I couldn’t get it to not bleed and feather on practically any paper. I cleaned out the pen and refilled it with Waterman (Tender) Purple ink and it’s been wonderful to use since. Waterman inks are not only fantastically well behaved, beautiful, cheap and very, very easy to clean out of pens, they’re also dry inks. As Parker 51 generally have a generous ink flow, and this one is no different, a dry ink serves particularly well with this pen.

I’ve been reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (the British novelist, not the famous actress) and it’s a wonderful study of character, age and aging.

Next week is the Tel Aviv marathon, which is sold out for the very first time. There were no big local running events last year, and there’s clearly a hunger for them.

This week has been crushing from both a personal and a national perspective. I’ve taken solace in friends and in reading, but there have been times where it’s been a struggle. It’s at times like this when I need to remind myself to stop, take a breath, allow myself to feel what I need to feel, and only then pick myself up and move on.

Be kind to yourself and others, and have a great week.

Weekly Update: Model Sketches Take 2

It’s nice to have new pens and inks in rotation. I’m enjoying Diamine’s Writer’s Blood more than I expected, Diamine Autumn Oak is fantastic with a Waterman superflex nib, and Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo is becoming one of my favourite inks.

Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes are hosting the OneWeek100People challenge again this year, and I intend to participate again. The challenge starts on the 3rd of March and officially lasts 5 days. I normally sketch from photos, but this time I want to see if I can do the entire challenge from observation only. It may take me more than 5 days, but I’m OK with that. Are you planning on joining the challenge?

I went to the local art museum again this week, to sketch models in the museum. This was the last time this event was run, and the place was packed with sketchers. I didn’t have the best of locations, but I made the most of it. I sketched with Faber Castell 9000 2B and 3B pencils mostly, and added a touch of colour with Faber Castell Polychromos. The ink sketches were done with a Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.5. The sketchbook I used was once again the French Pascale Éditions. The models did fewer 20 minute poses and more 10 minute ones, which meant scrambling a lot. I wanted to visit the museum after the event, but I was so tired from 3 hours of non-stop sketching that I just went home.

Harman Photo just came out with a brand new colour film, Harman Red. It’s a red-scale film, and I’m curious enough to try and buy a roll or two and test them out. I love the wild, wild results I got with Harman Phoenix and the Harman Red is basically Phoenix pushed even more into red-scale.

Here are the sketches from today, and I hope that you have a great week!