Little India

Sunday morning was sunny and a bit chilly, perfect for a stroll at Manama suq. The Mrs and I decided to have a quick breakfast at one of the new hip cafes in the suq, Barastea, and then check out Little India, a project launched by Bahrain Authority of Culture and Antiquities (BACA). Opened in December 2015, the project features some road upgrade works, splashes of colours on building facades, artworks displayed on the streets, and small public spaces for weekly events.



I picked a corner that I thought was an ideal spot for a quick sketch, which eventually took me 3 hours to complete while the Mrs checked out the jewellery shops nearby (Thank God I have a sensible wife). The thing about sketching on spot for hours during lunch break, is that the perspective changes as people and cars come and go, shops close, shutters come down...etc. I started while the street was busy, and by the time I finished, the street was empty and you can can tell what's for lunch by the smell on the street!





I thought I'd share my sketching process in this post, which starts with a pencil drawing outlining the key features of the view. The next phase I use a black ink pen to draw clean lines and detail the drawing. Finally, I take out the colouring markers to give the sketch the final touch. In this case, I thought I'd concentrate on the work done by BACA; the facade painting that really gave the street a new special character.