Saturday, January 28, 2012

Sketching Muscat Festival 2012

Drummers, pen in A5 sketchbook © Sue Pownall 2012
Muscat Festival, a month long annual event, started this weekend. These sketches were done on the Qurum Park site, at the festival's Heritage Village. This is my favourite area at the festival as I enjoy the different groups with their traditional dances and music.
Preparing wool, pen in A5 sketchbook © Sue Pownall 2012
I also really like seeing the traditional method of producing things such as the ladies who were preparing wool prior to spinning.

Painting the women preparing wool.
WIP Drummers.
It's funny as I went to get these images of Omanis, but I ended up with as much interest  as some of the performers. I had guys taking photographs of me painting the performers, with both professional cameras and iphones, as well as crowds of onlookers watching my every brushstroke.

Despite the spotlights, I only stayed a couple of hours as I found it hard to focus and draw in that light. In that time I had 2 pages of people sketches in ink and these 3 watercolours, so I had been productive. I plan to return on Monday and have already chosen a few traditional activities I want to draw.

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Edit: 1 Feb slightly better colour scans from a local printer.
Performers waiting to enter the Heritage Village ©Sue Pownall 2012
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NB: All sketches are completed 100% at the Muscat Festival and are drawn from life.