Post-Friday-Prayers/Pre-Lunch Sketch

So I had around an hour and a half after Friday Prayers and before I had to report back at my parent's house for lunch. I usually spend this time reading a book that I just can't get to finish. An interesting book about the man who built Singapore, entitled  "From Third World to First: The Singapore Store", by the man himself, Lee Kuan Yew. However, since the weather was amazing, I decided to take a quick sketch of this house, one of the few old traditional houses still around in East Riffa.

Sketch Season

We're a week in to November and still there is no sign of autumn/winter. However today was a bit ok and the weather seems to finally become somewhat bearable.

I decided to take my fishing chair, a large bottle of water, and my sketching gear to make the most out of this lovely Saturday morning. I decided to go to this beautiful small harbour at Zallaq, which lies just next to an old house that once belonged to a rich pearl merchant from Al Dossary family if I'm not mistaken.

Hopefully this will be the start of more outdoor sketching here in Bahrain this year.

Another Venetian Trip

Just came back from another trip to Venice, with this time paying more attention to sketching some of my surroundings when time permitted.

The first sketch I took was from our hotel's balcony. We stayed at the beautiful Bauer Hotel, overlooking the Grand Canal.



Next up is a sketch at cafe Naranzaria, a local cafe in Campo Erberia, San Polo, also overlooking the Grand Canal. We stayed for few hours trying to get the perspective lines correct. By the time the locals started coming in for dinner, we were asked to either order dinner or leave, so we left while still giving them a nice tip for allowing us to stay for hours. Before we got kicked out, I drew almost all of it in pencil and the major outlines in pen, so managed to finish it up when I got back to the hotel.



On our way back from the Biennale we often stopped by San Marco for a cup of coffee while listening to some live music. One evening I decided to do this quick sketch. I started outlining it in pencil but the sun was setting quickly so just started sketching it straight by pen. Didn't like the outcome that much but I guess its good practice.



In our evening walks we often pass by this restaurant with beautiful seats on window edges, so decided to have dinner and do a quick sketch while waiting for our food. The food wasn't that great, but the view, as everywhere else in Venice, was worth it.



This was my second trip to Venice, for my previous trip you can find out more here and here.

Desk/Workspace Sketch

Came across this interesting competition on Archdaily, to sketch your Desk/Workspace. So decided to submit a One-Hour sketch of one of our meeting rooms following a long conference call, after everyone left. 

Let's hope this makes the cut.

Atlantis The Palm

The wife decided to book us a trip to the Atlantis The Palm in Dubai. A quick weekend trip, which we spent most of it soaking under the sun, gliding through the water slides, and floating along the river lagoon. Following our check-out, I decided to do a quick goodbye sketch of the wonderful hotel building.

I walked around to look for a good spot with a nice wide perspective. I found a jetty just next to the water sports club cabin, which I thought was perfect. It turned out to be a mistake from my part, as I was trying to sketch under the blistering sun, at 1pm in the afternoon, when it was 40 Degrees Celsius, on a blazing jetty that burned my behind, with kids hopping on and off the jetty splashing seawater on my sketchbook and causing the jetty to wobble, making it challenging to draw a simple straight line. I persevered with the assistance of the water sports club staff, who provided me with an ice cold water bottle that got me going, and some encouraging words from a curious 7 years old girl and her mother. Below is the outcome following 2 hours of enduring the above.



In the comfort of my home, in an air-conditioned room with the temperature set at 23, sitting on my recliner, I tried embellishing the raw sketch, adding some shades and colors here and there. Below is the result.

USk Symposium - Manchester

The 7th International Urban Sketchers Symposium was held in Manchester, UK this year. A city that holds a special place in my heart and where I spent 7 years of my life. I was not fortunate enough to take part of this event that was held recently in July. Hopefully will be part of next year's symposium to be held at Chicago, USA.

My first sketch for my first assignment at my first day in my first year of architecture school in Manchester was Victoria Baths, a Grade II listed building. Sketch dated September 27, 2003.

20 minute sketch

A quick 20 minute sketch while the Mrs does her make-up. I usually draw an outline in pencil first to make sure that I got the proportions correct. Did not have the time this time so used a pen from the start.

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.