Tomatoes With Stories!

My local farmer's market has several vegetable stands that sell tomatoes that are very tasty. Some of the stands also sell tomatoes that are worth drawing. These two circles do not overlap completely, but recently a new entry into my Venn diagram materialized! An unexplored stand appeared on the corner of the market and immediately caught my attention: their tomatoes had stories! And people were very much interested in reading all about what taste to expect, pairings that would work best, and such. 

Somehow, after a couple of weeks, the stall disappeared - but I got some interesting tomatoes to try! Which reminded me that I have a family member who is cultivating tomatoes - even during war - in Kharkiv Ukraine - perhaps one day I get to draw all her amazing tomatoes! 

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 9: City - Shorter Sketches

In the first part of my "City Sketches" report, I collected longer sketches which required more time and more space for my materials. 

This is the second part of my report - sketches that were done with a minimum amount of tools which I could whip up in seconds. A few markers, a marker and my pocket printmaking kit, or a few pencils - all had to fit in a little pouch attached to my sketchbook with an elastic band. 

And these sketches covered everything - from sketching from a moving boat to a quick stop in a cathedral or sketching while eating an ice cream. By the way, I highly recommend this technique as a timing device - given a choice of overworking a sketch or losing part of my ice cream portion due to melting, I choose saving my ice cream every day!

I like the limited color range, and it is interesting for me to see (again) which sketches were done early in the trip (still stiff, jet-lagged, etc.) and how things opened up one-by-one. Some of these sketches were done at night - I wish I did more night sketching - something to think about! 

I hope to use more of this "extended pocket set" of tools - it is very small but more than what I usually have in my pocket (one pen), and it brought me a lot of joy this summer! Here is to a super portable kit that is more than one pen!

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 8: City - Longer Sketches

I decided to split all my "Toulouse city" sketches into two posts. Mostly because when I look through them, I see two very different approaches and two different things to learn from them. 

This is part 1:

These sketches took longer; they are mostly painted with gouache and mixed media, and I used different papers. I can definitely see which ones were done at the beginning of the trip and which ones came later - with a more relaxed and "in the groove" feeling I developed by the end of the trip. Looking at them now - after almost a month since I was there - I wish I could re-do them all :)  It is obvious that there were several sketches that had to happen only so that better sketches had a chance. There is a long list of "what is wrong" in my head, but I am working on focusing on positive things in each sketch. So here they are: 

• I am grateful for the idea of pre-mixing certain gouache colors to take with me. 
• And that there were not too many of them. 
• I am glad I thought about pairing my paints with other media in terms of colors and how they work together. 
• I liked the overlapping, and leaning into a more gestural/dancing approach to composing my pages.
• I like how white space worked in the bridge sketch. 
• And I remember how I enjoyed adding typographical elements - even is it is ineligible mostly now. 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 7: Markets

While in Toulouse, I visited a couple of outdoor markets and a famous covered market named after Victor Hugo. All the tour guides suggested having breakfast or a branch of lunch there, but somehow I only drew :)

There are very colorful meat and seafood stalls, as well as bread and cheese. Fruit, flowers, wine, and coffee ones I did not get to sketch - will have to tackle them next time! 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Sketching at the Farmer's Market!

People sketching is not quite back to my sketchbook life - there are many reasons, main one being pandemic. It first caused the lack of large spaces filled with people and then changed all the routines. So when the opportunity presents itself - I jump on it! This quick visit to the San Jose farmer's market with Suhita was a chance to draw some colorful produce - and people. And I found some mushrooms which I am always happy to draw :)

Little Everyday Things

I picked up a bunch of dahlias at the farmers market last week and still enjoy their company. There is a little story about this particular pink one - written in the sketch.

Also, there is a shortage of magnolia seed pods this year: I looked at my sketchbook from a year ago and saw that I had plenty to draw by this time. But this year I see only old or half-eaten ones. 

A little video about me painting the seed pods here:

Sketchbook #98: Treasures