Final sketches from Sudan - for now

For the first time in my life, when I reached the airport on Friday the feeling that I didn't want to leave did not go. In fact, I felt devastated to be leaving Sudan. A country has never affected me like it has. I do not know when I will return as I chose the sensible option for my next contract - Doha, Qatar - rather than to follow my heart and struggle financially with a job in Khartoum.

On my penultimate evening, I did the sketches above, which I think reflect the randomness and flightiness of my thoughts as I skipped from subject to subject. Bottom right is a candy floss/ice cream seller at a totally different scale from the people. The people are washing at a tap in the park ready for Mahgrib prayers, the ones at sunset, so the light was bad. In the picture below, done a week earlier, the people are doing the same thing.

From the same park, throughout you can see couples sitting, without touching, and talking, as in my sketch.

Finally, a quick sketch done from a parked bus, whilst a friend shopped at the market, of the women sellers sitting on the floor.

 BTW - I've been reunited with my scanner, at least for the summer ;D

"Is that supposed to be me?"

As many of your know, I battled with EDM challenge 20 in order to do a portrait for my dad. The result is here.
I returned to UK for the summer yesterday and gave it to him. The response was:

"Is that supposed to be me?"

I guess that puts me in my place. I doubt I will do another portrait of someone I know again.

Escorted by the police - the photos

The story of my adventure this morning, which ended with me being driven to the hotel between two policemen,  and the embarrassment of walking into the hotel reception side-by-side with them is on my other blog here. Below are some photos of Khartoum taken this morning before this all happened.

A shop

A street cleaner

Nasty plastic bags, which are every where

Ingenious sunshade attached to a kiosk (Closed because it's Friday morning)

A college courtyard

The adjacent church

 A mosque

Why would anyone paint a building florescent green and orange?

Lime green in its proper place

Chai ladies under a tree

Faculty of medicine

A portrait in orange

Finally, the reason for my escort.

THE STORY IS HERE .

Please remember all photos are © and all rights reserved by Sue Pownall.

Contact me if you wish to use any images, thank you.

Waiting for a bus

The hotel I have been in for the last two weeks (I changed due to the appalling food and service at the other one, but that's a tale for my other blog) is on a busy down-town junction. Following writing exams, I got to come back early to mark the papers. Before starting, I'm great at procrastination, I had lunch and was watching the people opposite catching buses. Masses of people would appear, as if from no-where, stand for no more than 5 or 6 minutes and then get swallowed up by a bus. The three women in my sketch were not standing there at the same time, but are representational of the groups that were. I drew them in consecutively left to right. Sometimes they were all women of mixed ages, sometimes old married women in their thobes, and at other times young women in their denim skirts and bright colours. Men were also waiting.

The traditional wear for married women is the thobe, and it can look really beautiful and elegant. However, some of the larger ladies allow it to slip underneath their bellies and get wrapped around their shoulders, as the lady on the left of the sketch and in this bottom photo.

Back in my room and after doing half the marking, I worked with the resistance of the moleskin paper, using a virtually dry brush, to add the colour. I also took the photos out of my 5th floor window.   

Top - people disappearing into a bus, middle - a daisy-print thobe & traditional jelabiah, bottom- how thobes often end up. Can you imagine what it looks like face on?

Classroom sketches

The ladies writing.

Heads & hands.

I hate my moleskin!

I haven't sketched anything for a few days as I have been completely exhausted. On top of that all mental energy has been taken up with trying to secure the immediate future.

Last night I walked to the park whilst watching storm clouds overhead and hearing distant thunder rumbling above the city. The air is permanently full of dust and with sunset it just went yellower. Being early to meet my friend, I pulled out my moleskin and watercolours, started to try and capture the amazing clouds and cried out "why won't a moleskin take watercolours????" With fading light I did the best I could to capture the storm in colour and to ink in the kiosk in the park and the surroundings.

It is such a shame moleskins do not take washes as the size is perfect to pop in a bag or even pocket. Mind, before it I had a similar sized small sketchbook, half the price, and it took washes. Back to that brand for me I think, if I can find it.

BTW it didn't rain where I was, but apparently did in other parts of the city. However, the storm brought a delicious breeze and a drop in temperature. It was hort-lived relief as today has been boiling again!!! Or as Al Jazeera International's forecast - Extremely Hot.

Tue		Afternoon clouds. Extremely hot.  41°C
Wed		More sun than clouds. Extremely hot.  43°C

EDM #18 Draw the view from a window... V2

As I wrote in my last post, with the second exam on Monday I drew the view out of the window. It was only a class test and not part of the evaluation, so if someone looked sideways it was not too important.

I know a bad workman blames his tools, but I struggled with this. I'm still using the horrible Koh-i-noor 0.05, which I don't like for it's lack of blackness. I've injured my last Staedtlar 0.1, so it's working like a 0.5 or fatter. Finally, there's the small moleskin. I've never had one before, and I know there is a watercolour version available (in a strange landscape format), but I hate how the normal sketchbook does not take washes well. Anyway, I added the colour at the hotel and then did some more drawing on site on Tuesday morning.

Exam sketches

Doing their weekly exam on Monday, I first drew El Tigani with his very upright posture, when I noticed Ahmed was struggling with the test. Moving frequently, Ahmed's most unusual position was wrapping his right arm across his face and onto his left shoulder (he's left handed) and I tried to capture this every time he moved into that position. (portrait sketch top right) He has beautiful hands, which were full of tension, but they moved so frequently I was unable to capture them. I think the bottom portrait has captured his sadness at the difficulty of the paper.

With the second class, I sketched the view out of the window, but was unable to finish it within the time, so I intend to either finish it at break tomorrow or the day after and post it then.

Moved on by the police!!!!

On Saturday, finding a tree that gave shade to rest under and a beautiful trunk to draw seemed the perfect solution to my blue mood, which I was walking off. I leant against a wall and started to draw.Working from the pavement up and across I got the main lines in. I then outlined the road and gate opposite with the framing leaves. Relaxing nicely, I started to detail the trunk, trying to emphasis the twists and turns, when along came a police guard. I showed him what I was doing, uninterested he asked for my passport, which was not on me. So I gave him my driver's license, which he pretended to read as I'm sure he couldn't read English. Then, he told me I could not stay there, even drawing a tree. He had a fair point as the wall I was leaning against both is for the Republican museum and the Presidential Palace. Shame though as I think it would have been a good sketch when finished.

Migraine induced meltdown mitigated by mosque's Magrib prayer.

In the early hours of Sunday, I awoke with the worst migraine imaginable. At 7am, I crawled into the shower when my head-splitting alarm went off after a sleepless night. With the room spinning and the light causing intense nausea I called in sick and returned to bed. Generally, I am happy with my own company, but feeling sick, alone, and with Muslim restrictions meaning friends couldn't visit me in my rooms, not even to drop off Panadol, resulted in some very childish tears, which didn't help. 

A day later, having gone to work to be told I looked dreadful (I knew that), that evening whilst still feeling the after effects of the migraine I sketched my local mosque. I started at sunset with the Magrib call for prayer and it swiftly got dark. I love the fluorescent green tubes around the minaret and used a highlighter pen to try to get them to stand out, as they do in the night sky. Being pleased with the results, and loving the sound that came from the mosque, I felt a smile return.

I forgot to post the sketch above from Friday evening. Whilst waiting for a friend, I did this quick sketch of some Sudanese women watching their children playing. I had my coloured pens on me as I had intended to sketch the England match. The colour on the tree was added later, as it is such a distinctive colour here I wanted to record it accurately.