I had a very quiet day at home today, so I did "figure drawing practice" for my daily drawing. It has been weeks since I painted from one of my friend Bunny's India travel photos, and I was attracted to the quiet pose of this seated woman.
I'm still enjoying my friend Bunny's photos from her recent trip to India and using them for inspiration for my figure drawing practice at least weekly. Here are 3 more paintings. In the first one, it appears as if this young boy was posing for a single photo. The second one appears to be a market. The vendor has two children playing on the ground next to her. The 3rd is one figure from a group photo. I was very drawn to this image as I was in the middle of rereading Khalid Hosseini's second book A Thousand Splendid Suns and the two women in the story were in burqas whenever they left their home. Although this is not a classic burqa, I was drawn to this figure walking along the street and just had to draw and paint her image. Next week - mujahideen and women in blue burqas from Afghani photos I'm collecting from the web.
I am still inspired by the India photos from my friend Bunny's recent trip to India. This is a photo from the bus of 3 men sitting on a bench in Jaipur, in front of an open side building.
Today I had 5 minutes to sketch between my haircut and picking up our grandson at Nursery School. I sat on the base of a wall, in the sun, and sketched a turret on the Southwestern corner of the Natural History Museum - using pen with a watercolor wash. It is really fast and really, really loose.
One of my goals for 2009 is to continue to sketch/paint at least one face and figure each week. I was delighted when my friend shared all of her photos from a recent trip to India and I'm having a wonderful using them for inspiration. I think this might be a snake charmer - at Amber Fort - but there is no photo of a basket and snake.
This is one of several camel carts in a procession in Jaipur on the road to Ranthambore. The photo was taken from a bus window as they passed. I'm not sure that I have sketched a camel before and couldn't wait until I found a photo taken at just the right angle. This was painted across two pages.
As always, thank you Bunny for your wonderful collection of photos. The wonderful animal photos from the National Park can even be another series of practice drawings.
I'm still thoroughly enjoying my dear friend Bunny's photos from Jaipur India and this week sketched one face and 3 figures. The man was photographed at Samode Palace, now a luxury hotel.
The women were working at the Amber Fort carrying pieces of rocks from place to place on their heads.
I love my friend Bunny's photos from her trip to India and look forward to sketching and painting some of these interesting people in their beautifully colored clothes. It is a joy to look at her albums for specific photos for my figure drawing practice. This year, as I practice, I will continue to add faces to my figures. Older readers of this blog may remember that I sketched figures or faces, but never together, through much of 2008.
View from the Bus - Delhi to Jaipur Road:
Man in Village Next to Samode Palace:
Jaipur - Elephant Ride to Amber Fort:
I still have several more figures that I would like to paint from Album #3 - and then 12 more albums to go! Thanks again Bunny.
One of my dear friends and her husband spent at least a month visiting their son and his family in India. I know we will never be there on vacation, so I asked her to share all of her wonderful photos with me. I plan to slowly look at all of the digital photo albums she shared and to draw and paint some of the people. Here are my favorite photos from the first 2 albums.
Dehli:
