Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Sketching Maori taonga (treasure) at the Auckland Museum. On the left is the prow of the waka taua (war canoe), Te-taki-a-tapiri, and on the right a carved kumara (sweet potato) pit entrance guardian, right.
The waka is really impressive, it almost fills the whole gallery, it's carved from a single large Totara tree, is 25 meters long and reportedly carried around 100 warriors. Built in 1863 it's amazing it even still exists, according to this description, at one stage being partly dismantled and someone even tried unsuccessfully to blow it up!
I love drawing this stuff, it makes you slow down and observe all of the beautiful details, but trying to capture all of this detail in dimly lit museum conditions is a real challenge. As a result, I had to finish the colour later at home.
Sketching Maori taonga (treasure) at the Auckland Museum. On the left is the prow of the waka taua (war canoe), Te-taki-a-tapiri, and on the right a carved kumara (sweet potato) pit entrance guardian, right.
The waka is really impressive, it almost fills the whole gallery, it's carved from a single large Totara tree, is 25 meters long and reportedly carried around 100 warriors. Built in 1863 it's amazing it even still exists, according to this description, at one stage being partly dismantled and someone even tried unsuccessfully to blow it up!
I love drawing this stuff, it makes you slow down and observe all of the beautiful details, but trying to capture all of this detail in dimly lit museum conditions is a real challenge. As a result, I had to finish the colour later at home.
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