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...
A scene from Thrissur's Shakthan Market back in April. The banana stalls are incredibly colourful! I got a great video capturing the action posted over on Instagram here.
Sketched after a busy day of workshops and on the way to Farrah Irani's night sketching demo followed by fireworks in the Swaraj Round a few of us squeezed in a market sketch.
The stall holders were very funny, checking out their likeness in the sketches and calling out to each other across the market in laughter.
Here's Ch'ng Kiah Kiean below left, hard at work. I've previously sketched him taking a workshop at the SingaporeUrban Sketchers Symposium in 2015. An amazing artist from Penang, if you don't know his work, check him out here.
And on the right, Anil asked for a portrait...
Refreshing drink discovery of the day – cold spiced buttermilk! After the initial shock to a kiwi palate the subtle sour masala tang is very refreshing...
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