Musicians in the park

With the rest of my day off I decided to visit a park I had spotted when "misplaced" last week from the knight in shining armour aka a rickshaw. Families & couples were sitting on the grass and benches, relaxing or having picnics. There was a small zoo with gazelles, but I couldn't work out how to enter, so I continued walking around. I came across a group of young boys setting up a band. A young man was sat on a bench strumming a guitar (detail above) and in a space in front of a turquoise building they were setting up a drum kit and electric guitars.

I sat at a vacant picnic table sketching them; I even added colour on site (photo left). It soon became clear that they were using the park as a place for band practice. When I left, they had regrouped now with the drummer had his back to me and he was joined by 3 or 4 electric guitar players and a keyboard. The short parts of tunes they played sounded quite good, especially the guitarists, and there was lots of fun and laughter. What a fabulous thing to hear and witness. I am thankful for seeing this slice of normal Khartoum life.

Right is the sketch of the drummer.

Below is the whole page of my A5 sketchbook.

Finally a photo of the beautiful turquoise building.

Virtual Paintout - Canary Islands April 2010

I was getting ready for work this morning when I got a phone call telling me the day had been declared a holiday. It was given in order for people to have opportunity to vote in the first Sudanese elections in 24 years. So, inspired by Terry, check out his pictures here, I thought I would do a quick painting.

Virtual paintout is an idea hosted by Bill Guffey and aims to use:

"Google Street View as a resource for traveling the world to find interesting locations and subjects to paint."

Having seen cyber buddies posting interesting paintings, I thought this would be where I would start today. One of the most difficult things was finding the view I wanted to paint. The other thing was that my watercolour pad is quiet old and it seems as if the paper has deteriorated and does not take the water well anymore (soaks it up etc). Oh, and I managed to dunk my brushes in my tea more than once ugh. 

Left  Is the google map I used, the link is here.
My original painting is 200x125mm on old  W&N Cotman 140lb paper.

Checkout other pictures at virtualpaintout.

A couple of sketches

Yesterday I went to the pool, which is not my favourite way to spend a day, but we are a bit limited here in Khartoum. To pass some time I drew some of the people in and around the pool. The guy on the lounge has a friend with the most amazing tattoo, but as he was looking my way I couldn't draw it. Maybe next week?

 On Thursday, at work I drew this quick pencil sketch of a student.

EDM Challenge #268 - Draw something you need

Right now, I need someone to hold my hand and to give me a hug, as I'm feeling a little lonely.

I drew this first thing this morning and I may add tone later, but for now I will leave it as it is and have some breakfast.

Alone in a city...

OZone 3
Originally uploaded by travelingsuep

...is great for my sketching, as I draw whilst drinking tea or juice, but occasionally I would like some company. Still early days here and I have met a few people already. Let's hope I can draw and chat, so I can keep drawing so much.

Right This was drawn in ink Saturday evening as I ate an ice-cream. I was trying to get the idea of the greenery and space in this popular cafe.

Left I did this ink sketch whilst sitting by the pool at the German-Sudanese club last Friday. The touches of colour were added later.

Below Yesterday, I was sitting drinking tea in the lobby lounge of the Grand Holiday Villa Hotel when I started this sketch in pencil. I stopped drawing when I finished my tea, so have been left with only the outline.

One of one milllion giraffes

Whilst wandering through posts from my cyber-artist friends Friday morning, I clicked on someone, who led me to some else's blog, who in turn took me to this amazingly crazy project one million giraffes. Am I the only one who starts with bloglines and 3 hours later can't remember with whom they started, or worse work out where the day went? Anyway I liked this crazy idea and above is my submission, although I may work on it a little more.  
Nb: I was surprised, when looking at the photo carefully, to notice that the giraffe has wrinkles on his neck and face. Left: is the reference pic I took in South Africa, Christmas 2008. I think he, or is it she, looks very regal in this position. Check out those wrinkles for yourself.

Below are two more giraffe pictures I took in Hluhluwe- iMfolozi national park, South Africa.

Edit: I have just been told that my giraffe is "now out on the field playing around with the other 707 675 giraffes" Click here to view it: http://www.onemilliongiraffes.com/?id=51978

An evening walk

As Thursday night is the beginning of the weekend, I went for a walk around the area armed with my camera & moleskin. Even at 6pm it was quite warm, summer timetables started today, and the temperatures obligingly rose to make it feel like summer. An old favourite subject of mine, some urban decay caught my eye, with a wonderful leaning electric pole with a spaghetti of wires. So I stood and sketched as the sun set.

Afterward, I stopped at OZone cafe again for a juice and sketched the deepening shadows under the trees.All in all, what with the paintings I did at work today, I had a very productive day.

Weekly tests

Today I gave my classes a short test, too short as it turned out, as my subjects in the second sketch all finished before I'd barely got the base colours down. As much as the second sketch is unfinished I feel the top one is over-worked.

This was the first time I'd used watercolour in my new moleskin, actually as the pic above is only the second sketch that's not really surprising. What was surprising was that the paper is very water-resistant, which shows most on the second sketch where it has repelled colour. I found that I had to use a virtually dry brush interesting. I may work up the 2nd sketch over the weekend and will post it if I do.

OZone Cafe, Khartoum

OZone is a green oasis in the city. Based on a roundabout, tables and chairs are set out under the trees, besides the grass & plants. Frequently the whole area is misted with water through an ingenious system of pipes & sprays, keeping the patrons cool as the eat ice creams or sip tea. 

I sketched the edge of the cafe on Saturday in ink, but added the mist later with watercolour.

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).