LA Zoo

I took a trip to the LA Zoo with my pal Tim. Mostly I just looked at the amazing animals and all the funny kids all over the place. I did manage this one sketch of a leopard.

A Sufi Celebration: Calling for the Beloved

I went to a show at UCLA last night called A Sufi Celebration: Calling for the Beloved. Put on by volunteers, it was an introduction to MTO and some of the concepts of that school of Sufism. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to get in a few sketches. The first one is of Brandon Hechinger for his wife Rudi who's always telling me about great Persian music shows to go to. The second sketch is of one of the backdrops on the very beautifully setup stage. The last is of another performer from that night. The food afterwards was really good too. All kinds of desserts and chicken, kabobs etc.

2 and 3 Minute Outdoor Figure Drawing



Today we got moved out of the usual room we draw in. We ended up drawing in one of the courtyards at work. The wind was blowing, and my drawings got blown all around, but these 2 and 3 minute sketches were a lot of fun! You can see the ones where the ink bottle flew over and assisted in the art creation process. Our model was amazing with her energetic poses, and that always makes it that much easier to create interesting drawings.

Venice Beach Drum Circle

Spent Sunday afternoon at Venice Beach, on the boardwalk and out on the beach in a drum circle. The first two are from the drum circle and the last sketch is of a talented singer who was playing at the north end of the boardwalk. I could spend all day there painting. Each of these is 6" x 4".

Les Nubians

Went to see a show at Fais Do Do last night. Les Nubians were performing and it was a lot of fun. I wanted to do some sketches of them, but the place was really packed and it's hard to paint with no elbow room. So, I just hung out and enjoyed some great company and music. I did manage this sketch from the side of the stage before it all began.

Wednesday Figures


Some drawing sessions you really feel like you did something. It's been a while, but this time I felt that way. These are 2 and 5 minute poses. A few are probably a minute or less since I would do one sketch and then knock out another before the time was up. Those are the really loose ones that are fun to do. As the red ink ran out, I did a few where I just poured a puddle of ink on the page and drew the entire figure out from that (first image middle crouching figure, fourth image first figure, fifth image first figure). Others were drawn in succession during the same pose, with the second being scribbled out very fast. First two figures in the third image and the first and last figures in the last image are good examples of that.

Manisha Shahane's Band and Amit Apte


I went to see Manisha Shahane and Amit Apte perform at the West LA Farmer's Market. I was glad to run into Mitra Martin and Stefan Fabry (two amazing tango teachers, whom I was lucky enough to enjoy taking classes with back when I had some time) as they performed on stage just before the musicians. I switched from watercolors to pencil and markers for these. These are also the first sketches in a lovely spiralbound sketchbook that my pal Eriko sent me from Japan. The first one is of Amit and the rest are of the amazing musicians who accompanied Manisha. Geoff Rakness on upright Bass (which I kinda shrunk), Delton Davis on some bongos perhaps and Dave Lewis on drums. I had to run off to another show downtoan so I didn't get a chance to draw Manisha this time around, but it was a lot of fun.

Wednesday Figures

At last I got a chance to scan these. I started falling asleep at one point, so some of these are from then. I ended up leaving a bit early, but it was a fun session.

Wednesday Figure Drawing

I tried out some really watery ink using only a wide dipping pen and my dwindling supply of watercolors. I'm not so sure that it matters whether I use waterproof ink or not at this point. These are so quick that the ink isn't dry by the time I lay down the watercolor anyway. I'll have to try regular ink and see how much of a mess I can make with that next time.

Iran and America Make Music

I went to a show called Iran and America Make Music, co-produced by the Levantine Cultural Center last night. Opening with John Densmore on percussion was a group called Reluctant Gurus with Donna Delory on vocals and Hani Naser on oud, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Ney Nava Dance Theatre did a dance performance followed by Reza Derakshani (vocals, tar, setar, kamancheh and ney) and John Densmore (percussionist) with Carlitos Del Puerto on bass, Dennis Hamm on keyboards, and percussionist Cristina Berio. Yeah..can't go wrong with that.

Faith Jam 2007


Thanks to my brother Waqas, I went to Faith Jam 2007 with a bunch of friends including cameraless Ammar, to see Junoon. It turned out to be Salman Ahmad and a really good tabla player Samir Chatterjee, instead of the full band. The whole night was a lot of fun, with some throat singing and tyco drumming from Om Ensemble, an energetic and fun Israeli band called missFlag, Junoon and then a church choir and band called Christ Our Redeemer, before the audience and all the musicians came together at the end. There were also two really funny comedians; Maz Jobrani and Eric Schwartz. I managed a sketch of Salman Ahmad and the tabla player Samir Chatterjee.

It's always fun checking out music and bumping into friendly faces, familiar and new.

Hip Hop for Education


I went to a show called Hip Hop for Education after work on Saturday. I think I just missed Quetzal, but I did see a bunch of other fun acts. Suheir Hammad and Saul Williams in particular were amazing. They both performed some very powerful spoken word, the kind that makes you hang on to every word. I didn't manage to get in a drawing of Suheir Hammad (sometimes you just have to listen), but pulled myself out enough to get in a sketch of Saul Williams (fourth sketch). I also drew Sabac Red (first sketch), X Clan (second sketch), a security guard, a hip hop fan and visual artist named Anthony (gave him the sketch) and a strange downtown LA skyline on a night with a full moon and lunar eclipse. Some of the performers I saw but didn't get to draw were Visionaries, Medusa, and a few others.

LA Contemporary Dance

Went to check out the LA Contemporary Dance group perform at LACMA. It was a lot of fun to see what they did inspired by the works of Magritte. It was family day, so there were tons of funny little kids all over. A woman next to me explained to two little girls that what the dancers were doing was surrealism. The little one sat quiet, then pointed and knowingly said "That's funny!" and she was right. Another kid was pushing chairs, and many others provided additional entertainment in their own confused and happy way. The dancers loaned us kids some cool green apple masks, wigs and scarves. I sported a curly blue clown wig. It was cool. It's pretty cool to see so many parents bringing their kids to check out art, and then to see them understand it and enjoy it in their own way. I always feel like that's how it should be. Afterwards, I grabbed some food then checked out the Crafts and Folk Art Museum with my brother Waqas. That place always has amazing stuff. This time I got to see works by Ramona Otto, who was there to tell all kinds of fun stories behind her pieces.