Drawing Club Arabian Nights

The theme for the drawing club this week was Arabian Nights. Three hours of focused drawings with an amazing model. What more could I ask for? He's so good at playing rogues. I've drawn him as a gangster several times. I used pencils on a number of these as well as ink and watercolor. I'm trying to loosen up the proportions and expressions, hoping to capture that much more. As always, criticisms and suggestions are more than welcome and appreciated! See some of my fellow artists' work from this session here.

Almost walked right past...

...this beautiful peacock at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Sea Lions and San Fernando

Here's a sketch of a Sea Lion basking in the evening sun in the Los Angeles Zoo. I also ran into my friend Mark there, surprisingly uncaged. Afterwards, I did that second sketch at the intersection of Fletcher and San Fernando.

Culver City Photo Walk

Took a walk to force myself to stop working on my short for a bit. Walked down the street, took some photos, fell over on the sidewalk by the bridge somehow and watched my wide angle jump into the street. Well, it's a wide street..it is Culver City after all, so I took it and these, and these.

Drawing Club Princess

Went over to Bob Kato's Drawing Club. Now that I'm done with my work project, I'm taking time to focus on my own. I really have to keep up with the drawing, so I went to the Drawing Club class. I always loved Bob's class at Disney, and now that I have time I can make it to these sessions. So here's a batch from my first 3 hr session at the club. Some experimentation in terms of size and style. That first one is the last one I drew and the largest of the session. It took about half an hour at a relaxed pace, and was painted straight watercolors, with no pencils (which is how I paint most of my stuff). I used green, gold and black ink on a few and pencils first on two sketches. I think the green one is the most successful of the more exaggerated ones. This was a really fun session. Check out some of the other artist's work here.

Kiran Ahluwalia at Grand Performances

I saw Kiran Ahluwalia at Grand Performances. The free show was a lot of fun, as was the one I went to last year. Here are some sketches.

Downtown LA Wide Angle and Night Time Photos

While in downtown, I took some more photos before and after the Kiran Ahluwalia concert (sketches to follow). This time I played around with a little wide angle lens, which really helped me get more interesting compositions of the buildings around me. The night time photos are still pretty dark, and I'm not too into the way the lights flare. I'm amazed at the large number of photos taken to glean even this small number I've uploaded. As always, there's more here.

Rupa and the April Fishes at the Temple Bar

I went to see Rupa and the April Fishes, followed by MC Rai at the Temple Bar. It was really dark, there was no elbow room...and I didn't let that one of Rupa dry before stuffing it away in my pocket and dancing. Oh well. Sometimes you just draw to draw.

I do like the middle one though. It was a great show!

Downtown LA Night Time Photos

After picking up a small, flexible tripod, I went downtown with my brother, Waqas and did some night time photography. Finally, I was able to take some clear photos at night. I do find it a bit limiting to use a tripod in terms of creating a composition, but I suppose I'll learn. So far I'm staying away from post work, but I might have to start combining multiple exposures to get more detail in dark areas. I may have to choose manual ISO settings to see if I can get a less grainy image. All in all though, the tripod definitely makes photography much more possible at night.

Wednesday Figures 1s,2s,3s,5s

Arthi Meera at the Hotel Cafe

I went to see my friend Arthi Meera perform at the Hotel Cafe. I didn't really manage to catch her likeness in these sketches, but they were fun to draw and it was great to hear her beautiful songs live! Check out her album on CD Baby and iTunes.

Wednesday Figures 3s, 5s, 8s and 1s

This week's figure drawings.

Crowded House and Pete Yorn

Here are some sketches I did in the dark of Crowded House (first three) and Pete Yorn and his band (last three) from the Greek Theatre. Great show!

Blu Soul at the Good Hurt

I went to see my friend Shalini perform with her amazing band called Blu Soul at a little club just down the street from me called Club Good Hurt. I really wanted to do a better job of sketching them than last time. When people ask why I always do this, just look at those sketches from a year ago, then look at these. So, I'm glad to see that I have gotten better, but there's still so far to go.

I even managed a few sketches of a great band which I think is called Throw Away Gun who played after them. I look forward to the day when I can spend more time on paintings and not just quick sketches!

What? That's not a sketch...

...yeah I know. I want to work on my photography skills too. I bought a video camera as well as a new still camera, so I really want to get the hang of them. So, to that end, here are some attempts. Thanks to my talented pal Chris for some tips, and hangin' out at the Arboretum with me a couple weeks ago, and my friend Ammar for introducing me to his funky claw tripod months ago. After struggling to get that last shot without using a flash (my hands just aren't still enough for long exposures, so I finally rested it against a pole), I picked up that a funky claw tripod (not the actual name) up today for future use. As usual, feedback, tips appreciated and feel free to join on the next adventure! There's more on my flickr page.

Saints and Sinners after OT dinners

Sketch from a little bar called Saints and Sinners after another long day. One of our own is making her triumphant escape. Good for you Britt! Almost there.

Wednesday Figures

Some 2s, 5s and 1s.

Figure Drawing

This weeks figure drawing session was very productive. I remixed a lot of my colors. Several of them are much more opaque because I mixed white acrylics with watercolors. These are 3's, 5's and a few 8 minute sketches.

India Splendor

I went to the closing night gala for a 5 day program called India Splendor at UCLA's Royce Hall, on the occasion of India's 60th anniversary. The show was a glimpse of some of the ideas and opportunities that India has to offer to the world. There were awards and performances. I drew some of the performers including Nishat Khan, Sonu Niigaam, Bipasha Basu and some Los Angeles based dancers. Happy 60th!

Not too late...

"The creation of the new state has placed a tremendous responsibility on the the citizens of Pakistan. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate to the world how a nation containing many elements can live in peace and amity and work for the betterment of all its citizens irrespective of caste or creed. Our object should be peace within, and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial friendly relations with our immediate neighbours and with the world at large." -Jinnah

Happy 60th!