Casa Enrique

Back in mid September I was contacted again by Jesus Diaz, associate art director for The Village Voice.  He wanted a spot illustration for a Robert Sietsema article about a restaurant called Casa Enrique in Brooklyn.  The restaurant's logo is a shaggy dog wearing a sombrero and Jesus wanted the dog incorporated into the illustration.  After reading the article I was practically drooling all over the place because the dishes sounded so tasty.  These are the final illustration and the sketches.  Personally I loved the cooking ones and so did Jesus, but the team at The Village Voice didn't quite like the idea of a dog cooking.

Airplanes, people, and animals

It's been a while since my last real post.  I finally got time and my act together today to scan (and color) some sketches that I've done in the past month in Tanzania.

The first two were done on two different flights on Coastal Aviation to Zanzibar.  The first drawing a view from my seat in the back.  The second is from sitting behind the two captains seats.

The next two are of my friend, Dana, fly fishing in Zanzibar.  Unfortunately, he didn't catch anything, but I did get the opportunity to draw someone fishing for the first time!

The next set of drawings were made in Ruaha National Park, which is southwest of Dar es Salaam, about 625 kilometers away.

A Hard Day's Night - film poster

A Hard Day's Night - film poster
Pen, watercolor, digital
20 x 30 inches

The first assignment in Poster Design class with Mohamed Danawi was to create a film poster.  This is my take on The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, 1964.  The movie is a bit like a mockumentary of their lives at the time at height of Beatlemania.  The film has some hilarious dialog and lots of screaming girls.

Drawn: Dar es Salaam, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Mumbai, Dubai

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.

Drawings from Zanzibar

The first weekend of December my parents, my sister, my nephew, and I flew over to Zanzibar for a weekend of hanging out at the newly opened hotel that my parents designed - Sea Cliff Resort and Spa Zanzibar.  It was a ton of fun and even more fun because I started a new sketchbook!  The sketching began at Dar es Salaam Airport Terminal 1 (domestic flights), continued through the weekend and ended on the plane ride back to Dar.

 Since the flight to Zanzibar is 25 minutes (I think it's about 50 miles north) the planes used are the tiny 12 passenger planes - Cessna Caravan planes.  The above drawing I did while standing outside the departure lounge.

The second pilot seat is almost never used by a second pilot, usually a passenger can sit there if you ask.  So I ended up sitting there and drew the dashboard.  It was hard to resist pushing the buttons.

Sunday morning my dad and I took a cab into Stone Town (built by Omani merchants in the early/mid 1800s) so that I could draw the old buildings, narrow streets, muhogo (cassava) roaster, sugar cane juice maker, people sitting on stoops and scooters, and all the jumble of wires and cables that connect one building to the next.

These two buildings are on Kenyatta Street.  The one on the left belongs to Eric and Saada (folks we know) and the one on the right has a carpenter's workshop on the ground floor and a Goan family living on the first floor.  The balconies of both houses are have great detail in them.

 This is the front of Beit el Ajaib (Arabic for House of Wonders).  It was built in 1883 for the second sultan of Zanzibar, then was rebuilt after it was damaged during the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 (the world's shortest war; it lasted 45 minutes).  I believe it was called the House of Wonders because it had electricity and an elevator, probably other fancy things too.  It's now a museum.  Look it up in Wikipedia for more info :D

Flying back I sat up front again, this time I drew the whole dashboard and the pilot's hand.  The pilot was quite mesmerized by the fact that I draw and paint an entire image in the 20-25 minute plane ride.  My sister said that she was worried we'd end up in Tanga with the amount of glancing he did while flying us back!

This last one was drawn on location but painted at home.  We'd gone to Addis In Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner (the best restaurant in Dar and one of my all time favourites).  It's located in an old house's terrace.  Mood lighting is provided by fabric umbrellas lamps every few feet along the railing and the tall, free standing candle holders.  The tee-pee like objects are the table covers.  Eating Ethiopian food is a communal activity.  Food is brought out on a large plate lined with ingera (looks a bit like a crepe but made from fermented teff batter) and everyone eats from the same large platter.  The food is delicious.

Professor Powers

I decided to draw my professor, Daniel Powers, during a book binding demo in class a month or so ago.  This is that drawing.  He looks like he's wearing a camo print shirt but it's actually leaves in various shades of green.

Self Portrait

Through out the summer a few of us were trying to figure out a way to help the newbies in the grad program get acquainted with us and our work.  Lis came up with the idea to draw self portraits in our respective style with a few stats (name, hometown, fav thing to do in Sav, under grad uni).  This is my portrait, after many failed ones.  I've decided self portraits aren't for me.

Savannah Illustrated

One of the projects I'm currently working on is an artists book.  The title will be something along the lines of "Savannah Illustrated" and will be a compilation of drawings I've done around Savannah in the past few weeks.

Here's are a few of the drawings.

Broughton St, view from Leopold's Ice Cream Parlor,  the beige building on the far left is the front corner of the SCAD library.

The visitor center at Forsyth Park.

The Daughters of the American Republic Cemetery (D.A.R.)

Inside D.A.R. - apparently if you were buried there, you were a big deal.

"Century Plant" in D.A.R.. It's actually not a century plant at all, its a 30 year plant.

On Location - Keller's Flea Market

On Location #5 - Keller's Flea Market - final location drawing field trip.

They had this garden area with old rusty garden things and chairs.  Was a great place to sit and draw and observe the interesting people visiting the market.

watercolor and pen in Moleskine watercolor folio
8.5 x 12 inches

On Location - Tybee Lighthouse

Location #4 Tybee Lighthouse and other buildings
The sailor is a mannequin they had in a display case.  

After the class/field trip was over, my friends (Jeff, Bri, Erin and Yi) and I went to the beach for a couple hours.  Yi and I didn't have swimsuits with us so we sat and drew on the beach.

watercolor and pen in Moleskine watercolor folio
8.5 x 12 inches

On Location - SCAD Equestrian Center

Location #3 - SCAD Equestrian Center.  Drew some horses and come classmates.

watercolor and pen in Moleskine watercolor folio
8.5 x 12 inches