Culver City Photo Walk




Took a walk to force myself to stop working on my short for a bit. Walked down the street, took some photos, fell over on the sidewalk by the bridge somehow and watched my wide angle jump into the street. Well, it's a wide street..it is Culver City after all, so I took it and these, and these.

Drawing Club Princess



Went over to Bob Kato's Drawing Club. Now that I'm done with my work project, I'm taking time to focus on my own. I really have to keep up with the drawing, so I went to the Drawing Club class. I always loved Bob's class at Disney, and now that I have time I can make it to these sessions. So here's a batch from my first 3 hr session at the club. Some experimentation in terms of size and style. That first one is the last one I drew and the largest of the session. It took about half an hour at a relaxed pace, and was painted straight watercolors, with no pencils (which is how I paint most of my stuff). I used green, gold and black ink on a few and pencils first on two sketches. I think the green one is the most successful of the more exaggerated ones. This was a really fun session. Check out some of the other artist's work here.

Downtown LA Wide Angle and Night Time Photos



While in downtown, I took some more photos before and after the Kiran Ahluwalia concert (sketches to follow). This time I played around with a little wide angle lens, which really helped me get more interesting compositions of the buildings around me. The night time photos are still pretty dark, and I'm not too into the way the lights flare. I'm amazed at the large number of photos taken to glean even this small number I've uploaded. As always, there's more here.

Downtown LA Night Time Photos




After picking up a small, flexible tripod, I went downtown with my brother, Waqas and did some night time photography. Finally, I was able to take some clear photos at night. I do find it a bit limiting to use a tripod in terms of creating a composition, but I suppose I'll learn. So far I'm staying away from post work, but I might have to start combining multiple exposures to get more detail in dark areas. I may have to choose manual ISO settings to see if I can get a less grainy image. All in all though, the tripod definitely makes photography much more possible at night.

Blu Soul at the Good Hurt

I went to see my friend Shalini perform with her amazing band called Blu Soul at a little club just down the street from me called Club Good Hurt. I really wanted to do a better job of sketching them than last time. When people ask why I always do this, just look at those sketches from a year ago, then look at these. So, I'm glad to see that I have gotten better, but there's still so far to go.
I even managed a few sketches of a great band which I think is called Throw Away Gun who played after them. I look forward to the day when I can spend more time on paintings and not just quick sketches!

What? That's not a sketch...






...yeah I know. I want to work on my photography skills too. I bought a video camera as well as a new still camera, so I really want to get the hang of them. So, to that end, here are some attempts. Thanks to my talented pal Chris for some tips, and hangin' out at the Arboretum with me a couple weeks ago, and my friend Ammar for introducing me to his funky claw tripod months ago. After struggling to get that last shot without using a flash (my hands just aren't still enough for long exposures, so I finally rested it against a pole), I picked up that a funky claw tripod (not the actual name) up today for future use. As usual, feedback, tips appreciated and feel free to join on the next adventure! There's more on my flickr page.

Figure Drawing




This weeks figure drawing session was very productive. I remixed a lot of my colors. Several of them are much more opaque because I mixed white acrylics with watercolors. These are 3's, 5's and a few 8 minute sketches.

Not too late...

"The creation of the new state has placed a tremendous responsibility on the the citizens of Pakistan. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate to the world how a nation containing many elements can live in peace and amity and work for the betterment of all its citizens irrespective of caste or creed. Our object should be peace within, and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial friendly relations with our immediate neighbours and with the world at large." -Jinnah
Happy 60th!

Rock the Bells San Bernadino



I went to Rock the Bells, an amazing hip hop show in San Bernadino. The lineup was amazing. Out of all the performers, I managed sketches of Mos Def, a member of the Roots, Cypress Hill (all in the second last set), Public Enemy (third set of sketches) and Rage Against the Machine (first two sets). Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine were by far the most amazing performances. These two are Hip Hop with content and not the usual ego stroking nonsense. Rage's set was up there with the most intense and amazing performances of any band I have ever seen. The lineup went on far beyond the few acts I managed to sketch. I was pretty far from the stage, so the sketches are kind of quick and vague. By the time Rage went on, people had jumped the gates and poured into the isles, creating a mosh pit about 6 seats away from where I sat. We ended up balancing on folding chairs, to see the stage..and that's how I sketched them. Couldn't let a little madness keep me from that.
This song says it all:

Venice Sketchcrawl and Festival of Chariots



I went to the sketchcrawl that Alina put together at Venice Beach. It's always fun to hang out and draw with fellow artists. I can think of few places around LA with as many interesting things/people to draw as Venice Beach. I started off by sketching a girl at the cafe, then on to the Festival of Chariots which happened to be today as well. I drew various performers, including these very talented young dancers.