Sunday, March 28, 2010

Hamed El Nil tomb, Omdurman, Sudan

I have come to the conclusion that my tolerance to observers depends on how tired and/or fragile I feel. In Abu Dhabi airport last Friday, I abandoned my drawing due to the comments of the man sat next to me... mind, he was commentating after every stroke. However, it was a different situation this Friday afternoon.

I went to a big Sufi ceremony in the north of the city. Having arrived early, I wanted to draw the  tomb, which was to be the backdrop for the  ceremony. When I sat, on a crate kindly provided by my driver Mohammed (hired for the afternoon), I already had a little girl who had been following me around, and Mohammed stood next to me. Within minutes I was surrounded by curious people, and Mohammed  made them give me some space. Like the previous week, I stopped at the outline, but this time it was because I had decided beforehand to colour it at home, and unlike the previous week I only stopped when I thought I had drawn enough.

Right is how I left the sketch, whereas above is with the colour added yesterday. The photo was taken towards the end of the ceremony with a glimpse of the tomb.

Please excuse the quality of copies, my scanner is in UK and the colours look fine on my laptop, but not on the computer I am using to upload things on (for some reason my laptop will not connect).