When i forgot my stall...

     Today, i forgot my stool and started to drew when i'm standing, but then i exhausted and sat on sidewalk and tried to complete my picture in that position. It was not hard to see what people thinking about me in that moment. After three year in urban sketching, i got used to such situations. People will always find something weird, but an urban sketcher must keep drawing. 

Village Houses From Boyali-Akhisar

     It was very nice to draw village houses because of their simple shapes. As always happened, when i'm waiting for my father, took my sketchbook and recorded these houses. 

Fener Roman Orthadox Church

     When i drawing that picture, i learned something, the important thing is not just recording an important building alone, the matter is capturing whole scene as much as i can. This building belongs to Fener Roman Orthadox Church in Istanbul. After i complete the sketch, result was a huge disappointment for me, because it doesn't reflect the scene. There was nothing to help observers to scale building. Event it's large dimensions, the building in my sketch was not enormous enough. 

     There was another thing in my sketches, this building located on a hill and apparently this hill making this scene much more impressive. Next time, i will take care of this matters and try to capture this church in a more effective way. After that, when waiting for bus, drew a cormorant bird.

Sketcher Of Krakatoa's Weather Affects

     Did you ever asked yourselves why are we calling ourselves urban sketchers, instead of plein air painters? What is the difference between urban sketching and plein air painting. If you read our manifesto one more time, you will see these two clause:

•      Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.

•      Our drawings are a record of time and place.

     Result of these two clause is, we must act like a journalist and here is the main difference. (If you want to read detailed article about differences between Plein Air Painting and Urban Sketching, here there is a good article ). Today i was thinking about that when i looking at a Victorian artist William Ashcoft's oil pastel sketches. 

     In 1883 August, whole world lived a mega disaster because of a strato volcano in Krakatoa eruption between Java and Sumatra. But this eruption was massive and affected whole world. Even the Northern hemisphere, weathers changed and bloody skies dominated everywhere. In these days, technology does not allow to take colored photographs, but there was painters. In England, Royal Society let William Ashcroft to paint these scenes and between 1883 to 1886, he paint hundreds of scenes everyday. Now, London Science Museum conserving these sketches. I think men like Ashcorf are our ancestors, he drew to serve same purpose. Here, some of his sketches below.

For the one who wants to read more:

• http://urbansketchers-chicago.blogspot.com.tr/2015/10/how-urban-sketching-and-plein-air.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa
• http://collectionsonline.nmsi.ac.uk/info.php?s=ascroft&type=all&t=objects

Among The Olive Trees

     As i mentioned before, i'm originally from Manisa. In our neighbourhood, nowadays our most important job is olive tree prunin. Me, my father and sister had to do same thing last week. During the prunning job, i drew some sketches.

     After our work had finished, suprisingly we found something nearby our field. There is an old fountain there, probably made by my ancestors in 1950's. After a tiring shift, i sat on a stone nearby the fountain and noticed some letters on it, but most of it was vanished. To find out the letters lefted behind, i throw some dust on it and brushed with olive leaves and the letters revealed, then took my sketchbook and bring it to you. 

Sketching In The Car

    Day by day, i'm getting used to vibrations in the vehicles. In first days, it was very hard to draw something, then i realised that, i didn't have to draw perfect lines, this is just for capturing my moments and vibration could not stop recording my moments.