Three tools sketch

I wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, so I decided to sketch close to home and to simplify my setup. I was feeling the “Toulouse Blues” (where you’re part of the urban sketchers community but miss out on the urban sketchers symposium in Toulouse), so I wanted to sketch to cheer myself up.

The setup was unusual for me on all counts:

The notebook is a Leuccchturm1917 sketchbook that I’ve had since my first urban sketchers symposium in Porto back in 2018. It was Leucchturm’s first foray into sketchbooks, and so the paper isn’t the best. They have since improved it somewhat, even though it’s still far from a high end sketchbook. In this case I wanted something simple and serviceable, and it helped that this evoked fond memories of symposiums past.
The pen is a Sailor Fude Mannen fountain pen with De Atramentis Black Document ink. I usually don’t bother with the Fude pen and use fineliners but in this case I wanted something more expressive.
Two colors only – the green is a Faber Castell Polychromo earth green (172) and the Sienna is a Daniel Smith Quinacridone Sienna watercolor stick. That with a waterbrush provided the reddish earth tones on the tree trunk. The stick was a gift from the Poznan symposium goody bag, and I still find it very cumbersome and messy to use.

I kind of like the result, and I’ll try to create more experiments like it in the future.

It’s been a while

The last post I made was a month and half ago. My life has gone through quite a lot of turmoil in the interim.

I lost my job due to downsizing in the small startup that I was working in. This was a shock to the system that has still left me reeling. I’m good at my job and a dedicated worker, so I didn’t see it coming – but I’m also highly paid, and I guess that I should have seen the signs that the company wasn’t doing as well as it should have. I’m deep in the job search process, and learning a lot about myself and the industry as I go along. I enjoy the challenge of technical interviews and I enjoy meeting and talking to new people, but I wish that I could have done this under different circumstances. This is just a reminder that no, it doesn’t matter if you’re the best at what you do, and no, the company isn’t your family. It’s a business interest that sees you as a number, and it is your responsibility to ensure that your worth and your identity is never in their hands, but only in yours.

I lost my remaining grandparents – both my father’s mother and father died just three weeks apart. They were old and in poor health so it wasn’t a shock, but it’s still a “memento mori” sort of moment.

We’ve had more rockets, on-again off-again peace agreements, and are now in constant existential murk of “what does the future hold?” The only clarity from all this is that if we want a future here, we absolutely must have a new and better government come autumn.

My journaling practice has become patchy – the more stress I’m under the more I need it, and the more stress I’m under the less likely I am to pick up a pen and actually journal. I am still trying to figure out how to get back into the habit.

I got a cold, so the past two weeks my training has suffered. I only just got back to weight lifting, and I’ll see if my battered lungs can handle a bit of run and swim this weekend. Ever since my chemotherapy upper respiratory infections have been taking me longer to recover from (it’s a known long term side effect of the treatment), and as my mood is directly tied to how much exercise I manage to get in, it’s been rough.

I have been rucking more, to make up for not being able to run or swim. Rucking is just a fancy name for walking with weight on your back. As a treat for finishing my certification earlier in the year, I bought myself a GoRuck Basic Rucker and a 10lb ruck plate. I’ve been using it a few times a week to get more out of walks in my neighbourhood.

I’ve been using social media to numb some of these anxieties, and it’s not a good thing. It’s time for a
“detox” and to get back to using my free time for things that actually benefit me and the world, not a group of billionaires.

Quick Cafe Sketches

Quick cafe sketches done between the rocket alerts.

One Week 100 People 2026 Day 5

Last day of the challenge and I got all 100 (well, 101) people done. Today includes people in the streets near my house as well as people in the shelter.

Field Notes sketchbook and Faber Castell Pitt pens.

The bottom panel was supposed to a panorama in fountain pen ink but this is very unfountain pen friendly paper

As usual this was a fun and challenging challenge to do, and I hope to get to do it again next year.

One Week 100 People 2026 Day 4

Still lagging behind a bit since I’m still sick, but these are today’s batch. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Field Notes sketchbook and Faber Castell Pitt pens

One Week 100 People 2026 Day 3

We had a rocket attack every three hours last night so I was very tired today. Got only 10 sketches out of the 20, although I may be able to get some more tonight.

Field Notes sketchbook, Faber Castell Pitt pens.

One Week 100 People 2026 Day 2

Shelter sketches today as well, on a battered Field Notes sketchbook using Faber Castell Pitt pens. I have a cold, so it was a struggle to get these done today.

One Week 100 People 2026 Day 1

It’s time for the yearly one week 100 people challenge. This year I’ll be doing most of it out of a bomb shelter.

The first three sketches were done at a morning zoom meeting on a Stillman and Birn Alpha.

The rest were done in the bomb shelter throughout the day, on a a Field Notes sketchbook that has seen some water damage.

Sketched with a Faber Castell Pitt 0.3 pen and brush pens.

Weekly Update – Sketches, Film Photography and a 10K Race

A hectic week but an interesting one.

I went to see a local production of Singer, a play by Peter Flannery. It was phenomenal but it kept me up at night, which meant that the following morning I headed straight to my local cafe. I sketched the barista but something didn’t work in terms of getting her face right – she turned out sadder than she is. Sketching tired is rough.

Here’s the rather messy pencil and pen sketch. I can tell just by the line quality that I was very, very tired.

A day later I went to sketch at the nearby park and you can see the difference in the line quality in this sketch:

Initial sketch:

Later that week the film photographs that I’d had developed were returned to me. Here are a few of my favourites:

The local community cat that I feed twice a day coming to say hi

I love the atmosphere that the film gives this simple photo:

All of these photos are unedited. I’ll likely clean them up later on.

Bridge over water at a nature reserve near Haifa

There was a fire on the roof of a nearby hotel. I took this photo a day after the fire, and you can see the damage:

Cat failing to hunt a crow:

A stall at the local farmer’s market:

A stall at the local farmer’s market. You can see the see in the background.

I was supposed to run at a 10k night race on Wednesday, but I wasn’t feeling too good and I was apprehensive about dealing with the crowds so I ran the distance by myself a few hours before the official race start. It was a good decision as I was really struggling during the first 3k – but I did manage to finish, and finish strong.

I finished reading “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie (a powerful narrative, but not as punchy as “With the Old Breed”), read “Death of a Nurse” by M.C. Beaton as a palate cleanser, and I’ve now started “The Shattering Peace”, John Scalzi’s long awaited sequel to his Old Man’s War series.

I’ve been overwhelmed with the responses to my Pelikan Hubs post. Thank you all for your kindness and for the thought and effort you put into your comments. I read them all, I just wasn’t able to respond to all of them this week.

Speaking of the Hubs, all of my pre-hubs inked pens have been written dry, which means that I currently have a 100% Pelikan rotation, plus some Platinum Preppy’s that I use for sketching.

Have a great week!

Weekly Update: Mars Yard 3.0

My Tom Sachs Nikecraft Mars Yard 3.0 sneakers arrived! I worked so hard to earn these and they were so expensive that for a moment I wondered if I’d ever wear them. But then I saw the bottom of the box:

The box is so well designed:

There are even hidden ten bullets:

There are two sets of sockliners that come with these shoes, one made of cork and one made of mesh:

And here are the shoes themselves:

Yes, I am wearing them, and yes, they are very comfortable. They aren’t in any way loud or attention grabbing, but that’s part of why I like them so much.

I’m nearing the end of reading “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie. It’s a powerful narrative, but I think that “With the Old Breed” packed more punch. I also went to the Pelikan Hubs 2025 and you can read all about that here. I’ve now only got Pelikans inked up (and one Platinum Preppy), which is an interesting experience.

I sketched a new barista at my favourite cafe. The customers kept cutting off the view so I gave up on sketching the rest of the counter at some point. I was using my arttoolkit palette, which is ultra portable and contains a different set of paints than what I’m used to using. The notebook is a Stillman and Birn pocket Beta:

I went to develop film last week, and also went to an artist’s open house and splurged on a new painting. Have good art on your walls. It makes a difference.