Last week I returned to the US after being away for 5 weeks. I visited Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar in Tanzania, Ahmedabad, Udaipur and Mumbair in India, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (during my 20 hour lay-over). I left the US with a half used sketchbook, a brand new watercolor sketchbook (60 pages?), and two watercolor paper blocks.
The last time I went to Tanzania I had packed too many art supplies and hardly used them, so this time I packed fewer after careful calculation..."careful." I didn't take into consideration that I enjoy drawing on location so much more than I did in early 2009 and therefore draw a lot more than I did in early 2009. Barely the end of week 2 of the trip, I had breezed through the second half of the sketchbook and already filled in the first quarter of the new one. By week 3 I had to really stop my self before drawing and ask whether or not the subject was worth using up the precious 8-10 pages left of the book. Generally I don't really sketch on paper blocks because then I'd have a pile of loose sheets to keep in order, but at the rate I was churning out drawings, I had no choice.
Drawings from Zanzibar can be viewed
here. The following drawings I created using a Rotring pen and watercolors in my sketchbook or on watercolor paper blocks.
Old man next to a road-side fruit stand. I'm 99% sure that the stand did not belong to him for he left after a little while and there was also a younger man tending it the whole time we were there. My dad stopped to buy mangoes for us to take to the beach. We were parked next to the stand for maybe 10 minutes or so and I thought it was a enough time to make a quick drawing.
Every time I go home to Tanzania, I HAVE to go to Bongoyo Island at least twice. Bongoyo is a marine reserve island right out side Msasani Bay in Dar es Salaam (north of city center "town"). To get to the island you have to buy a ticket for a charter boat at The Slipway, which is a shopping center type place, but much nicer than any shopping center in the US since it's located right on the water. The boat ride to and from the island is about 45 minutes. On the way back, I drew the folks who were sitting across from me.
This is a long shelf in my aunt's pantry.
India:
My dad and I went on a 24-hour trip to Udaipur, Rajasthan. We hired a taxi in Ahmedabad and started the 4-hour drive at 6:30am. When we got there, the drive dropped us off in the old city area and we walked the narrow streets, shopped, window shopped, took some pictures and drew some scooters and a vegetable cart.
On the second day, my dad and I did a tour of the Palace Museum. This drawing is of the palace post office. The case at the bottom is the original, antique pigeon roost, and the hanging cages are the more recent cages. The palace became a museum in the 70s, so I'm pretty sure this postal room is no longer in use.
The following weekend my whole family and I took a sleeper train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. We stayed at my great aunt's flat. This is the view from her dining room window.
The day after we got back from Mumbai, my mom, sister, nephew and I were invited to accompany a very close family friend to her organic farm, a 45-minute drive outside Ahmedabad. I drew the buffalo from the farm next door.
I left India to return to the US on December 29th. I had a 20 hour lay-over in Dubai so the airline booked me a hotel. After resting up, I ventured into Dubai to Meena Bazaar, the textile market. Dubai is split over Dubai Creek. Meena Bazaar is on one side, and the Gold Souk is across from it. This illustration shows the creek, the ferries, and the Gold Souk.
This drawing is of Meena Bazaar itself.
I visited the Dubai Museum and drew the taxidermied birds that hung in the entrance to the galleries.
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