Sketch Muscat for Charity / WWSkC #34

Watercolour only, no under drawing.

 On Thursday 11th April, I held my annual sketching event for charity. As with previous years, the date was chosen to coincide with the April Worldwide SketchCrawl (see www.sketchcrawl.com for more info).

Robin's excellent ship

About 15 of us turned up including a couple of families who had super-enthusiastic children.

 Several young Omanis joined in, never having sketched like this before. Along with Aziz and myself they were then interviewed for the local press (but it's not been published so far).

Hatem, Ahmed, Aziz & I being interviewed.

Photo of me at Ghalyas Museum by Ahmed Al Habsi

I am still collecting money from people who sponsored me, but it looks like I have raised 205 Omani rials ($535), which I shall give to the charity next week.

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My next post will explain the delay in posting, unless you follow me on facebook (www.facebook.com/SuePownallArtist), then you will already know.

Dubai doodles

Burj Al Arab from Costa's - Friday.Water colour & ink A5 sketchbook.

Two weekends ago I went to Dubai as I'd received a invite to the opening day of Art Dubai. Having never attended this event I thought it would be an interesting opportunity, especially as the Global Art Forum is run in conjunction with it. Naturally I took my sketchbook and camera, and these are the pictures from the 3 days I was there.

Lemon mint juice in Dome - Wednesday after arrival.Watercolour on pencil A5 sketchbook.

 After checking into my hotel, I had some lunch which was served with a beautiful acid green lemonmint drink, which cried out to be painted. I grabbed a pencil from my bag and then used watercolours to try to capture the colours, whilst eating a scrummy sandwich and chips. It looks better in the original, my scanner's washed it out a bit.

Rough seas on Jumeriah Beach Thursday.

Global Art Forum - Thursday Ink A5 sketchbook.

The next day we had a dust storm in the morning and afterwards was a lovely refreshing wind. Although it was a bit overcast, I went to the beach near the Art Dubai site and after sitting watching the waves for awhile I tried to paint them. (My scanner couldn't cope with this, so it was lucky I took a photo). From the beach I went to the Global Art Forum where there were really interesting discussions and talks.

Global Art Forum - Friday. Ink A5 sketchbook

 I returned to the forum on Friday, after I checked out and left my bag for the afternoon, I was a little early so investigated Souq Madinate Jumeriah. Sitting in Costas for their free wifi, I painted the stunning view of the iconic Burj Al Arab. Finishing off the weekend, I sketched a couple of pages at the forum before heading to collect my bag on route to the airport.

Sketch Muscat for charity

My annual sketching event for charity is coming up on the 11th April. I'm trying to beat the totals from the last two years and encouraging people to attend and/or donate as much as possible.

This year, I am again raising money for an Omani charity. Awladna promotes children's safety whether on the roads or in the home. 

More details are on the facebook event page: Sketch Muscat for charity

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.

Persian plums.

The Aloo Tree,  ink © Sue Pownall 2013

 I'm really enjoying being an illustrator for the short story site, The Story Shack. Not only do I get different subject matter to illustrate, but I get the opportunity to use different styles. Above is this month's illustration, The Aloo Tree, whilst below is February's, How to Fail at Telemarketing. 

Pen & watercolour wash illustration.© Sue Pownall 2013

Finally, here is January's illustration.

Coffee. Pen & coffee © Sue Pownall 2013

You can see more of my illustrations for The Story Shack by following this link: StoryShack illustrations.

Also, you can read the stories How to fail at Telemarketing  and Coffee by clicking the titles, whilst you'll have to wait to read The Aloo Tree until it's published on the 18th.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I always appreciate the comments left.

Sue

Seminar sketches

Speakers and audience members, ink, 26 Feb. ©Sue Pownall 2013

This year as part of the Muscat Festival (you can see my 2012 festival sketches here, here, here, here, all posts in between until...  here), there was a Art Festival consisting of exhibitions and seminars/talks. I was able to attend four of the seminars, and took my A5 sketchbook to them all.

17 Feb Muscat projects & architects I ©Sue Pownall 2013

They were all very inspiring, I especially liked the talks given by architects with projects in the Sultanate. On another evening, artist Dominique Malarde was very interesting and I am a little annoyed that I missed her workshop due to water issues in my flat.

18 Feb Muscat projects & architects II ©Sue Pownall 2013

21 Feb ©Sue Pownall 2013

The talks were held in the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque meeting hall, which is why all women, including myself, wore scarves.

My photo (in orange) in Al Watan listening to Dominique Malarde

A bonus for going to the talks in the mosque was I got to see the mosque up close at night, something a non-Muslim normally gets to do.

©Sue Pownall 2013

©Sue Pownall 2013

Mad Hatter's Arty Tea Party

Eat me cakes, Chedi macaroons, & tarts.

 Spring 2012, I read about a Mad Hatter's Tea Party arranged by illustrator Lynn Chapman (Lynn's blog is here). I was so inspired by the drawings the group produced I decided to arrange my own tea party, which I held last weekend.

Planning started this January, whilst I was home in UK, and saw me making a dormouse, which inspired us all at the tea, as our drawings below show.

3 dormouses or is that dormice?

In a UK charity shop, I bought a silver tiered cake stand, which conveniently screwed apart so I could pack it easily. At the tea, I added tarts (custard not jam) and cakes I iced with "eat me". Some macaroons from the Chedi hotel were added later. I attempted to captured them all in the sketch at the top of this post. The other thing I did in the UK was to get material for my Hatter's hat and planned how to make it, with a great suggestion from mum.

Homemade hat and roses

In Muscat, I made my hat, paper roses - painting some white ones red, but the scones were bought at a local deli.
 
My flat is small so it was a small but select group of us who participated. Unfortunately one lady got lost and never arrived.

I for one had great fun and think the others did too.

The group shot thanks to the magic of a self-timer - just

Hidden Beauty. Festival Face No.7

Hidden Beauty. Ink. 36x26cm ©Sue Pownall 2013

On 21st November I made the first guide pencil marks on this drawing and it has been lurking ever since.
From starting it, I've ...

  finished Festival Face #6, you can see her here,

drawn and donated a drawing for a charity exhibition,

had a commission to do,

arranged & attended 2 sketching events,

had a stall for my art at a winter fair,

produced 2 illustrations for The Story Shack,

and spent 3 weeks on holiday in UK.

I guess that's enough reasons for it to have taken so long. 

Chinese New Year: the year of the snake

Year of the snake © Sue Pownall 2013

Just for fun, a drawing to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which since Sunday is the year of the snake.

Reference photo from BBC Nature site.
Chinese followers- I apologise for the bad calligraphy.


Last year's Chinese New Year's drawing can be viewed here: Year of the dragon

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Over on my site, you can see my first drawing of 2013, a commission, in Gallery 1 (just click the link).

Dreads & tats

Gaby, Charcoal A3© Sue Pownall 2013

Whilst in the UK I went to 2 more life drawing classes. As with drawing Terry I took charcoal to draw with as I'd had such fun before. In the 2nd class, I also tried using watercolours directly without under-drawing. I think as a side-effect of drawing portaits for my Festival Faces series, with both models I ended up drawing portraits during the long poses. Gaby was so pleased with my drawing of her that she took a photo of it. Below are other drawings of Gaby.

Gaby reclining. A3 Direct painting with Payne's Grey watercolour

Gaby A3 watercolour.

The day before I left UK, I got to draw Rachel and her tattoos again. I drew her before in September 2011 and you can see those drawings here. With the first long pose I drew the charcoal portrait below, which I think is a fair likeness. Then did the rough full body drawing. Can you tell I was pre-occupied with what I had to do before my flight the next morning?

Rachel Charcoal A3 © Sue Pownall 2013

Rachel in charcoal A3

Finally,  I drew another portrait of Rachel as a concerted effort to focus and relax.

Portrait in sepia pencil on A3

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Please note: I am switching over to blogging through my site, www.suepownallartist.co.uk/blog-art-of-a-nomad and plan to stop duplicating posts here. May I suggest you adjust your RSS feeds and readers to follow there?