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...
It’s taken me 8 or so months to finally get this prototype booklet of my sketches made in Kerala earlier last year. It’s A5 size and 56 pages featuring sketches made in Fort Kochi, Thrissur Pooram and Sketchgala, Munnar and Kumarakom.
The process gave me the opportunity to try a few experimental layouts as a test, comparing cropped sketches with full sketchbook with shadow spreads. The really hard part was figuring out what to leave out as I had filled a large kraft sketchbook, cover to cover, with over 70 sketches, some good, some not so much!
I'm fairly happy with the layout so far but to finish it off I need to add some maps. And a hard cover would be nice too.
I'll let you know when they are available to purchase.
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