Checked out a performance of Six Characters in Search of an Author over at UCLA. My talented friend Meena was one of the actors. It was a lot of fun watching this really fun group play the scene in so many different ways, expanding and revealing more about each character as they went on. The shifts in emotions as the story progressed were really well done too. It's interesting to see that in a play where everything is created and performed in one go as opposed to a film. Here are some sketches.
Checked out a really fun Mexican folk dance performance called World City featuring the Pacifico Dance Theatre and Mariachi Divas. I quickly sketched these during the hour of the performance, then inked them later.
A watercolor from the UCLA Reggae Festival.
Here's a sketch from the UCLA Reggae Festival.
Here's a quick sketch I did at Venice Beach over the weekend.
Walked around Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Here is an ink sketch from outside the Santa Monica post office and some quick watercolor sketches from the boardwalk on Venice Beach.
Checked out the Organic Orchestra at Electric Lounge tonight. Here are some sketches. Check the schedule. They have several shows this week and next with a different group of musicians every night lead by Adam Rudolph. There were at least double the musicians performing as what I managed to draw.
Just a quick watercolor before bed.
Here's a quick practice watercolor face. Nice to do some painting again. I'm approaching these in a manner similar to the pen sketches, with some of the color layering I had done with markers in early posts. I may start going back toward that even rougher style. Let's see where I can take it from here.
I've wanted to do a sketch of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for a long time, but wanted to wait till I could conentrate on it. Did a quick search on google video to see if any kind souls had added more qawwali and sure enough here are two amazing examples.
Nusrat 1
Nusrat 2
Did this quick watercolor so I could sleep. The second clip has him singing some of Allama Iqbal's poetry. I'll have to do a sketch of him and talk a little about that when I get a chance.
Just put two practice faces on a page. I think it's time for another round of just drawing lots of faces like I did months ago.
Did a quick sketch from a photo I took in the bazar in Kasur, Pakistan last year. I'm trying to incorporate a bit more construction in the figures.
I drew some sketches of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan off of cd covers while listening to some music at a friend's place. He is perhaps the most famous Sarod player around, and deservedly so.
I also did this quick sketch of a mother with her children off a photo on the net.
Here are some sketches of a dance group called Viver Brasil and a really good band called Quetzal from the Santa Monica Festival over the weekend. I also did a quick watercolor sketch. That last pencil sketch is from a dance performance at UCLA...just scribbled down the audience.
The second set of sketches from Raj Rang. I had wanted to see some live Rajastani music for a couple of years now. I'm really glad that I finally got the chance!
Took a long lunch from work because I had to go see Raj Rang; a group of Rajastani musicians who performed a one hour noon concert at UCLA. These are all pretty quick sketches. I was so inspired that, well...hopefully the sketches speak for themselves. The pencil work was done during that hour as was some of the pen work. I did most of the pen work later on to finish the sketches. This is the first half. I'll post the rest later.
My friend Tim invited me to see a performance of Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons" at the Geffen Playhouse after work yesterday. It was very fun and quite an inspiring performance. It was too dark to draw, but I did scribble down enough to put this sketch together.
I 
also did a sketch of children from an Indian village from a photo off the net just for practice.
During the intermission, I also met a very talented little boy named Kavi and his parents. It turns out that little Kavi is quite an amazing artist himself. He too had been drawing at a concert just the day before. He came over and asked me if he could sit with me for the second half of the show and watch me draw. I was very flattered, and who doesn't want a cool sidekick?! Turns out he plays the mrdangam too. He gave me some great encouragement while I drew these sketches focusing on T. N. Krishnan who had this wonderful intensity about him as he played with his son Sriram Krishnan. I tried to do fewer, more detailed sketches, rather than the quick stuff I usually do at live shows. It's so much fun to watch musicians perform and have a great time feeding off the audience and vice versa.
Lastly, I drew a closeup of the amazing Vellore Rambabhadran who along with Vinod Venkatraman kept me moving with their percussion. Anyway, just wanted to share some of the fun I had. Hope you like it too.
It was a very special day, not only because there were several master musicians performing, but because it was also an extremely talented young violinist's introduction. Aishu Venkatraman started off the concert with her father Vinod Venkatraman on kanjira and Vellore Ramabhadran on mrdangam. I sat down right in front, because I love watching musicians play and of course drawing them. They spotted me real quick...I couldn't really pretend I wasn't drawing.
Another talented member of the family, Aishu's even younger sister Aparna complimented my drawing during the intermission. This sophisticated little lady told me that she was more talkative and not as good as her friend Kavi at drawing, but she did know how to draw a monkey. What could be a sweeter gift than this beautiful monkey she drew for me in my sketchbook! I love looking at her cute sketch even more than any of the pages I drew that day. Thanks Aparna!
I attended a Carnatic Violin 
concert by T. N. Krishnan presented by Music Circle 
here in Los Angeles. The music was amazing and it really inspired me to draw. The people were also very nice and it just made for a very fun concert. Usually it's a bit difficult to focus and draw for that long in a stretch, but I had no problem here. The time just kind of flew by. I'll post the rest in the coming days. For now, I'll start with the stage before the performance began and this sketch of Harihar Rao, co-founder of Music Circle. Thanks to all for a great time!