India 2019: Quiet Places & Not-so-Quiet ones

You don’t have to go any place special to draw action and crowds in India. I love that.

But to find peace and quiet takes a special place. This is the front veranda of the lovely home of friends in Pune. Green, peaceful, inviting. And a dog to sit at my feet.

Another home in the lovely neighborhood they live in. This one sketched over morning chai and biscuits.

These next two sketches are done from relatively quiet places too, even though there’s lots of action to sketch. The first one from a veranda overlooking Dona Paula jetty in Goa. This might be the only crow I drew, and that’s odd considering how ubiquitous crows are.

This group of men hang out outside the church in Caranzalem, Goa every day. They sometimes chat, but mostly they just sit there and watch the traffic passing by and enjoy the evening sea breeze.

For not-to-be-missed action, though, a visit to a market is a must. This is the Panjim fish market.

The real challenge here is not so much the crowds or the fact that you sketch standing up. It’s that the view you’re drawing keeps appearing and disappearing and you just have to catch it in bits between things. And you cannot draw it from a distance: that would be putting too many layers of people between you and the view, which means the chances of you catching a glimpse of the scene are further diminished…

This is what I ended up with after that peek-a-boo sketching session. It’s a challenge sketching in markets but there’s something to the energy of the place that so easily translates into a sketch. And that makes it worth it.

One last post from India, coming up soon.

For earlier post in this series, go here:
Sketching and Food
People in Airports
Kid’s Art Camp
Little Sketches