Hyderabad Musicians

 

  

Here are some Musicians I sketched in Hyderabad. I met them while searching for folk musicians for my short film "Gul" (flower).

China Sketches

 

  

Here are some sketches created during travels in China last summer.

Elephants with Guns

 

Here's a sketch of Elephants with Guns Performing at Seva Cafe in Long Beach. The second sketch is of band member Andy Bauer.

Lake Issyk-Kol day 2

  

We woke up in the home that Gulbubu had found us a room in. The guys slowly got out of bed and we played some music for the family. The kids started dancing and it was a lot of fun just watching the funny things they did as we sang. Gulbubu kept explaining things to us in Russian and some of the grade school children who knew some English tried to translate bits of it. Either way, she had such a sweet and friendly laugh, like one of my aunts. She was so warm and sweet to us, that even after trying very hard to explain something to us, and then just receiving a blank look with no understanding from us, she would start laughing and try some more. It was a little sad saying goodbye to these sweet people, but I did record some video of something Gulbubu was trying to tell me. I'll try and find someone to translate it for me. Enjoy this video of our biggest fan, dancing away. Watch as her assistant comes in during the clip.

After that, we grabbed some food, played for the people in the restaurant then walked over to the beach and enjoyed a quick dip in the super cold water. The beach had some rides in an amusement park and typical fair type game stalls and food vendors. There was a weird pizza guy selling gross looking pizzas out of a box who didn't seem to take a hint or like it when I mimed that his pizza looked like barf. But he left eventually and so did we, catching a bus leaving for Bishkek. We played lots of music on the way back in the bus, and got here around evening. We head to the internet cafe, then barely made it back to the hostel for some beds that were not gauranteed. So plenty of stress later, we slept in our many times slept in by others beds, and enjoyed the sweet scent of stranger's sweat (one of many times) as we fell asleep.

Al-Archa

 

 

We woke up and head out of the hostel to Andy's friend's place. She had very graciously offered to let us stay in her apartment. She seemed worried that the place would be too small, but I don't think she'd seen most of the places we have stayed at. Anyway, it always feels so much better to stay in a place where there is the warmth of friends. So we dropped our things off and head out to meet up with a few Turkish guy that Omar and Mike had met the previous day.Ali showed up at the bus station for us. He took us to a Turkish restaurant, and invited his friend Yusuf to join us. We ate some amazing Turkish food and got to know each other a bit better. We decided to go to Al-Archa where there was a beautiful canyon and river. It took us a while to figure it all out, but Ali was tired apparently from a long night of video games, so Yusuf who spoke English, joined us in a cab and the rest of us squeezed in the back seat. After about an hour or so we reached the outer gate and were convinced that we should walk the rest of the way.So, we started walking along a road for a bit, then Yusuf ran back to get the taxi to come take us the rest of the way. Reluctantly, the cab took us up to the river. We sat down next to it, relaxed and started playing some music. There was a Kyrgyz family having a picnic close by. The children came to check us out, then the grandfather came by and invited us to join them. We sat down at their picnic and they shared their food with us and we played more music. Some other people nearby came with cameras and there was a bit of a crowd there with young and old. It was so much fun playing for them. I don't really care much about singing for everyone in LA. I mean, it is fun, but I don't care for attention and there's shyness too when you're put on the spot in a group, but here with my friends playing music is a joy. Just like when I did it with friends back in high school, it was never about attention. To play music to people here is fun because there is a real sweetness that we share with people when we connect that way, across language and cultures. In many ways, to me it feels like we are saying thanks for being so nice or in other situations, just breaking down that barrier between being consumers on this trip and getting a bit more connected just as people.After a while, we parted ways, head back to the taxi and drove back to the Turkish restaurant. The cab guy wanted to charge us extra again, and we were all sick of getting overcharged by people, so we refused. We could tell that Yusuf was going to pay the guy to avoid any issues, and more than not wanting to pay the jerk, we didn't want Yusuf to pay him, so we paid the extra 100 som and walked back toward the restaurant. Omar and Andy sat down on the steps to play some music, Mike went off to use the restroom, and I walked down a couple stores to get over that annoyance. As I was walking, I heard some men speaking in Urdu. I turned and saw a group of men sitting at a table in front of a burger joint. I introduced myself and asked if they were from Pakistan. They were and invited me to sit with them. A few moments later so ice cream was brought out and I was offered one. I wasn't about to leave after that. I explained that the music they heard in the distance was from my other friends. We talked a bit and I shared some stories from our travels and they shared their stories as well. One man was visiting and the others all worked in Bishkek for a number of years. The ice cream was great and so was the company. Omar, Andy and Mike came looking for me and found me there at the table. The too were invited to join. So we put some tables together and sat down. They even placed an order at the Pakistani owned fast food place which does not serve Pakistani food, for some Pakistani food. Apparently the group hangs our there every day and they have the restaurant cook up some Pakistani dishes for them. Usually on this day they go out for a hike, but as our luck would have it, they didn't go today and so we were lucky enough to meet them.We sat for hours talking, playing songs, then eating, and talking and singing some more. Another wonderful experience with music.Afterwards, we head back to Andy's friend's place, gave her a run down of the day's adventures and went to sleep.

Who dis?

  

Okay...I don't remember who these bands are...but I have scanned and uploaded my backlog of sketches. Been working on animation only lately..but I think I'll be sketching again soon!

Saul Williams

Saul Williams at the Troubadour.

Rockstar Part 4

Last of the Rock star set of corel painter sketches from a live model on my gateway tabletpc.

Rockstar Part 3

Rock star set of corel painter sketches from a live model on my gateway tabletpc.

Rockstar Part 2

Rock star set of corel painter sketches from a live model on my gateway tabletpc.

Rockstar Part 1

I started to get bored with the watercolors. Not because I feel like I know a lot, rather I just needed a change of pace. I brought in my tablet pc (which I could draw on directly) for this session and created these in Painter and Photoshop. It was actually very difficult to do these very quick sketches. Every time I switch to something new, there is a learning curve. That is obvious in the varying quality of these sketches.

UCLA Indian Classical Students Show

Did some sketches in the dark at a cool little show put on by very talented traditional Indian Classical music and Dance students at UCLA.

Andal Tiruppavai Vaibhavam

  

I went to the Andal Tiruppavai Vaibhavam Sangeetha Upanyasam by Thiruvaiyaru Sri S. R. Krishnan. Say that three times as fast. During the sound check the musicians sounded amazing, but the actually performance was more of a lecture without any music. I'm sure it would gave been interesting, but I don't understand Tamil, so I did some drawings, and after two hours left. Still, it was very nice of the host family to open their home to complete strangers for enjoy the performance.

Odalan Bali: An Offering of Music and Dance

I went to an amazing show called Odalan Bali: An Offering of Music and Dance at UCLA's Royce Hall. During the first half I cobbled together this sketch of a very small fraction of performers on stage. During the second half, I sat in awe of the amazing dancers and muscians and drew nothing.

MIA at the Wiltern

Saw MIA again, this time at the Wiltern. It was a bigger show than the last one. I managed a few sketches in the dark. Sometimes you draw just for the sake of doing it. I liked the ones from last time more, but these were fun to do, and the show was great!

Aashish Khan Sarod and Swapan Choudhury Tabla

I went to a Music Circle concert to see Aashish Khan play Sarod with Swapan Choudhury on Tabla and David Goodheim on Tanpura. I love these concerts. I can't say enough in words to describe how much fun it was. I just sat there with a goofy grin until it felt like my mouth was going to drop off. I also did some painting. For one of them, I decided to try and draw it all in with pencil first. I guess one should bring an eraser...but I did without. Accuracy is not really the point here. Most of what I've been doing of late, or really for a while has been straight watercolor or straight ink and watercolor so there's no erasing anyway. It's a good way to try and train myself to make those first marks the right ones. The tree is from just outside the chapel where the concert took place. It was a quick sketch done before they let everyone in. Lastly, my friend Robin Sukhadia took some photos during the performance, and a few were of me :). Thanks!

Alex Theatre LA Chamber Orchestra

Went to a fun performance by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at the Alex Theatre courtesy of my pal Dan Read. I was just about to do a little study of the whole orchestra when the last song came to a dramatic end. I had two pencil lines down and poof. Gone. Next time...

Music Class and Show

Here's a green pen sketch of some musical instruments at my music teacher's place. Also, playing around with my new pocket sized sketchbook at the Madrid Theatre. Gotta get some kind of tiny light so I can draw in dark places like in the theatre, but for now, just the lobby.

Markers in Santa Monica

Just hanging out with Tim and Gary in Santa Monica. Walking around, watching "House of Flying Daggers" and trying out these markers some more.

Taal and Karsh Kale

These are some sketches from Taal and Karsh Kale's performance at the Grand Avenue Festival a while back. Sitting directly in front of the stage, doing quick sketches made me kind of feel like I was part of the performance. Lots of fun to feed off of that energy and try to express it in lines! It's always interesting when someone notices you drawing them..and even better when they don't mind. Definately check them out.