Drawing Club: Matrix Part 2

 

Drawing Club: Matrix Part 1

 

  

 

Drawing Club: Santa Claus 2

 

  

The rest of my Santa sketches. See what the other artists came up with here.

Drawing Club: Santa Part 1

 

Look, it's Santa!

Drawing Club: Bladerunner Part 2

Here are the rest of the sketches from that session. Check out some of the other artists' work here.

Drawing Club: Bladerunner Part 1

This Bladerunner theme was a lot of fun to draw.

Drawing Club: Leyendecker Part 2

Here is another batch of sketches from the same session. See what other artists came up with here.

Drawing Club: Leyendecker Part 1

Here are the first set of drawings from the Leyendecker theme at the Drawing Club.

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.

Drawing Club Boxer Part 4

  

Eventually, I hope to bring more of this quality to the sketches I do at shows or out and about. These drawing sessions help a lot, because we have such hard working models who hold poses. It becomes a lot more difficult to capture that essence elsewhere, when people are in constant motion. See what some of my fellow artists came up with at this session here.

Drawing Club Boxer Part 3

As usual, you can see multiple interpretations of most of the poses from this session. When I really get going, I just let go and speed up to reduce the amount of thought I put in each. For me, I find the work gains more spontaneity as I feel the work instead of thinking too much about it. Working this way creates more excitement for me, which I hope translates into the work. All of this, is of course pulled from the amazing energy that the model provides.

Drawing Club Boxer Part 2

Second set of drawings from the session. All watercolor and calligraphy markers. This was a very productive set for me. Productive = oh so much fun!

Drawing Club Boxer Part 1

Here are the first set of sketches from this weeks drawing club session.

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!

Drawing Club Country Girl Part 2

The second set of drawings from the drawing club. Take a look at the amazing work that some of the other artists produced at this session here.

Drawing Club Country Girl Part 1

After the zoo, we head to the drawing club.

Noon time Dance at UCLA

I went to see my friends Sandra and Shyamala of Post Natyam perform with a number of other dancers at a noon time dance program at UCLA. I drew these watercolor sketches while watching.

Sufi Soul

My mom had video taped a show off of Pakistan Television called Sufi Soul which features sufi musicians from all over Pakistan (including Qawwals like Meher and Seher Ali as well as other singers of the verses of saints like Saeen Zahoor) who perform live in an intimate setting. I can watch that show for hours. Here are some sketches I threw together while I did just that. The watercolor is from a skit comedy show.

Grand Ave. Festival and Eagle Rock Musical Festival

Checked out a lot of music today. I wanted to continue the ink and watercolor thing, but my pen just wasn't flowing..so I just switched to watercolor only or I never would have got anything done today. Got to find a proper fountain pen...not the ones with cartridges!

I started at the Grand Ave. Festival. The first two are of MC Rai (who I've raved about before) and his band. The third one is of Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra (you can see some of the mcs, dancers and orchestra members). I didn't get any sketches of Kinky, but they were amazing! I couldn't stop moving long enough to paint! After that, I went to the Eagle Rock Music Fesival and saw two fun bands. The fourth picture is of a band called Restaurant and the last is called the Element Band.

Abida Parveen - Tu Han Sakhi, Mai Han Pyasi

Abida Parveen is a Pakistani singer whom I've wanted to sketch for a while, but could not pull off anything I was willing to post until tonight. She is known for singing the poetry of many Sufi Saints from all over Pakistan and India in a number of languages. Her singing is beautiful and the poetry she chooses equally so. I'd like to share translations of this type of poetry more in the future, but for now a taste.(poetry by Bulleh Shah with translated subtitles)Kithe Mehr AliDamadam Mast Qalandar (traditional Sindhi song about Lal Shahbaz Qalander with mention of Jhulelal)Mahi Yaar Di GharoliTo me, many of these songs are mysteries to be unravelled. Names and titles mentioned in this poetry is often the starting point of discovering where the song came from and what the social context is, though the meanings tend to be universal themes. The context simply makes it that much more rich.