Handbag portraits

Mahir. A6 sketchbook 23 Sept

I carry a small A6 sketchbook in my handbag; most of the time it doesn't get taken out. Over the last few months it appears I have used it for portraits and thought I would share them today. They are all of young Omani BP trainees.

Hatem, A6 sketchbook, 4th August

Mahmoud, A6 sketchbook, 4th July

Salim, A6 sketchbook, 17th Sept

What do you think? Do you have a sketchbook you carry around all the time? What do you sketch in it? Why not leave a comment and let me know.

Fishy Tales

Ink in A4 sketchbook ©Sue Pownall 2013

I have a friend who lives in a beautiful fishing village just east of Muscat; I sketched there on 12.12.12 at 12.12. I stayed with her last night, going to sleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shore and listening to them again when we had our leisurely breakfast in her garden. After such a lovely start, I headed to the beach with my sketchbooks and camera.

Pencil sketch A4 sketchbook ©Sue Pownall 2013

Qantab is unique as it is the only village in Oman, so I was told, that still uses old traditional wooden winches to drag the fishing boats ashore to their berths on the sand. I tried to verify the fact, but google comes up with so many results that after an hour I gave up. Despite the slow, chatty breakfast I was still there early enough for some fishermen to be bringing their boats back after the night/dawn fish. Checking quickly that photos were ok, I snapped some shots of the men winching a boat ashore, then grabbed my regular sketchbook (A5) and a pencil, the first drawing instrument which came to hand. There was too much movement, they winch quickly, so I swopped to my A4 sketchbook and captured what I could.

Pencil A4 ©Sue Pownall 2013

After two boats were brought ashore side-by-side, using adjacent winches, activity ceased at the top of the beach and the elderly fisherman sat on some nets in the shade to rest. He has a lovely face and only 2 or 3 teeth and was happy to sit drinking his water whilst I drew him. I showed him the drawings afterwards and was met with a toothless smile. I then paddled along the beach and back noting 100s of things I wanted to draw... mmm maybe a future project sketching and drawing the village... and sat down on a boat rest to draw the winch (top). I love how old fishing nets have been recycled as rope to lash some pieces together. The sketch took an hour, a really long time for me, and I stopped as I couldn't decide whether to add colour nor could I sit in the sun any longer. It maybe the end of winter but it was around 26c.

Pencil A4 ©Sue Pownall 2013

 I foresee more mornings being spent drawing in this village.

Asifa Ramliyya - Festival Face #6

Asifa Ramliyya. Pen & ink. 32x26 cm. © Sue Pownall 2012

This is the sixth portrait of my Festival Face series, which was finished yesterday.
The title is an Arabic transliteration for sandstorm عاصفة رملية

What do you think?
Please leave me a comment. Thank you.

*******
Photograph used with permission of the photographer: Aziz (AbdulAziz) Al Jahdhami.

The Grandfather

The Grandfather. 240 x 330mm, Pen & ink. ©Sue Pownall 2012

 Started on the 10th June, I finished the 5th Festival Face on the 29th, so it took about the same amount of time as the 1st one, His Brother's Musar.

The WIP photos are below. I've been using Instagram to record all recent drawings, and thought I'd share them here too.

WIP 10th June.

WIP 20th June.

Almost finished 28th June. ©Sue Pownall 2012

 *****

Photo reference supplied and used with the permission of Waleed Mohammed.

WaleedMohmeedPhotographer

Silver & pearls

Silver & pearls. 170x200mm © Sue Pownall 2012

I was asked to draw some more Arabic jewellery and chose this necklace, which I was given when I lived in Oman before. Building on earlier work produced for QMA, I decided to follow the same style. With this the outline and 90% of the drawing was drawn with a 0.3 nib. My usual work, like the portraits and landscapes are drawn using a 0.1 and 0.05 with a 0.3 being used only for dark accents. Drawing first with an 0.3 gives me a very scary feeling. However, I battled past the nerves and this drawing was mainly finished on the day I started it, but it's had a 2 week wait to finish it due to some commissions, which obviously took precedence. This morning I was awoken at 5.30 and after refusing to be awake until 6am - eyes tightly screwed shut, whilst chanting I am not awake - I gave up and finished this over my first cuppa. Do you like it?

*******

Edit: To answer the question asked below by Mimi & John, this was drawn entirely using Rotring pens. I'm not a traditionalist and I'm very messy, so rarely use fountain or dip pens, although I occassionally use brushes. My pen of choice is a Staedtler Pigment liner.

oops just realised it's almost time for my summer newsletter. There will be a special offer, so make sure you have signed up for it using the tab above.

Festival Faces: The Woodman

The Woodman, Pen & ink 230x330mm ©Sue Pownall 2012

Here is the third in my Festival Faces series of drawings inspired by the Muscat Festival.

*****

My quarterly newsletter is now out.

  Have you received your copy? 

If you haven't subscribed yet, the form's under the Newsletter tab above.

International Women's Day 2012

Meskina - Quiet Wisdom. Pen & ink 350x230mm ©Sue Pownall 2012

Observed since the early 1900s, International Women's Day is annually held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. You can read more about it here.  

"Every year the United Nations choose a different worldwide theme for Women’s Day and many events take place... marking the economic, political and social achievements of women. Their theme for March 8th 2012 “Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty”." Source LindyLou at News From Italy

Whilst this year I am not involved with an event, I am posting my latest Festival Face portrait, which is of a woman who has had a very hard life and matches the UN theme. The title has been elusive, despite lots of good suggestions in response to my competition - thank you - apart from Meskina (Arabic for poor woman) which has remained in my head.

As in the tradition of all competitions, I picked a winner.

& the winner is...

Esther Hardman with Quiet Wisdom.

Esther please use the contact form above to send me your snail mail (postal) address, 

so I can get your prize in the post.

*****

Photo reference supplied and used with the permission of Ahmed S. Al-Harthy.

Please check out his fabulous photos at Ahmed S. Al-Harthy Photography

A splash of colour & a competition

First, a splash of colour. At my last night of Muscat Festival, I took a photo of some women clapping and dancing and capturing the movement and as I took it I told a friend I’m going to paint that. Not having brought any acrylics to Oman, they are at my flat in Italy, I did this small study in watercolour and gold leaf. I’ve got some acrylics now thanks to the generousity of artist Yousuf Al Nahwi, who gave me some of his supplies and will be tackling a canvas soon.
My 2nd Festival Face is this half-blind Omani woman. At an earlier stage it looked like Voldemort meets Mother Teresa as I’d only draw the scarf, necessary as it defines the face, and her eyes, my starting point. The title is a problem: as JK Rowlings has copyright on the name Voldemort I can’t use that in the title, and I feel “Blind Omani Woman” is on par with “Untitled”. I received the proposal of calling it “Meskina” which is Arabic for poor woman, but that doesn’t feel right.

Any suggestions? 

Leave your title in the comment box below, then like my facebook page, and you could win a prize. If I like your suggestion the best, you will receive 5 of my Secret Garden greeting cards, but you must like my facebook page as well as comment here. I look forward to receiving the titles. I will post the finished portrait, it's new title and the winner on March 8th, International Women's Day. btw Secret Garden is on the top right of the banner.


This second WIP has been hanging around for a while. It’s part of the Decay Series: Scottish Ruins series, which you can see here. I did the pencil placement in UK back in November. I inked the outline when I moved into this flat mid-Jan and started the initial shading. Then this week, I started on the details of the castle as a counter to the precision of the portrait. Not sure, when I’ll next work on it, so you will have to check back again.

*****

Don't forget to enter the competition:

Leave your title suggestions here, 

then pop over to my facebook page and click like.

Festival faces

His brother's musar,  230 x 330mm, Pen & ink. ©Sue Pownall 2012

Inspired by Muscat Festival I have started a series of drawings I am calling Festival Faces.
The first one is of a man from Jalaan, called His brother's musar.

I started posting the WIP stages on my Facebook page after tweeting "Over-confidence meets reality?! New drawing stuck on wall while I get past the omg #canIreallydrawthis panic" on February 10th. The next day I posted the first stage to show I'd moved on and explained the panic had been because the man has partial cataracts and wasn't working in the drawing. As you can see I drew fairly normal old eyes, but as I am an artist, and this is my interpretation of the subject that's my choice.

Sorry about the picture quality, it was snapped on my phone at night, not a good combination. 

WIP #1 10th February

I have been inspired by this picture and so have put in lots of hours in order to complete it so fast. As the drawing is on A3 and my new scanner is only A4 these WIP are all photos taken with my phone.

WIP #2

WIP #3 13th February

WIP Thursday am 16th Feb

WIP Thursday later 16th Feb

WIP 17th Feb

Later 17th

*****

Photo reference supplied and used with the permission of Ahmed Al-Shukaili.

ahmedshukaili.com

Sketching Muscat Festival VIII

 Traditional game near central stage in Heritage Village A4 sketchbook © Sue Pownall 

Having decided I wanted to capture some complete scenes from the Festival, I took my A4  sketchbook with me last night. I really like sketching this size now, but I have found it's not convenient for grabbing quick sketches of people. On arrival I headed straight to the men's seating area and inked then painted the central area, leaving the rest of the paper blank. Under the blue tarpaulin are the seats where the tv presenters sit when the area goes live at 6.30 every night. The Festival was strangely quiet, maybe due to it being St Valentine's day, partially as there were less participants from the night's region. Whilst I sat there several people took my photo, again, and at one point two Iranian artist sat either side of me so their friend could take a picture of the 3 of us. By that stage I had inked in some boys playing a traditional game and the troupe of gentlemen, who came past singing and drumming, but I had lost concentration through trying to talk to the Iranians and smiling for their photos, so went to get my usual cup of tea. Therefore, I broke my own rule and added the colour to the figures when I got home making this only 90% completed on site.

I'd like to thank everyone who has been commenting on this series of sketches. I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by. The festival still has a week to run, so there are lots of sketching opportunities to come and so lots more posts.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I am enjoying the sketching.