Sketching People

Muscians pencil by Meera Rao

I was not going to participate in the #OneWeek100People challenge this year.  But as the social media started filling up with artists sharing their sketches, I decided I will sketch as many as possible and now I have 46 sketches that I would not otherwise have  in my sketchbook :) 

I sketched these musicians watching/listening to an online concert from the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art.  I now know after sketching all these people that I need to work on drawing hands :)   

Sketches 27-29 By Meera Rao

Sketches 38-44 By Meera Rao

These sketches were mostly from the news on TV and newspaper.  They are all from different places and times and I enjoyed putting them together like this. The guy with the umbrella and the girl leaning is from my phone camera roll. 

Sketches 35-37  By Meera Rao

These are from my phone from when I was at a doctor's office a few months ago. I Had originally sketched them on my iphone but because of #shelteringinplace and #socialdistancing decided to sketch them again in my sketchbook :)

drummers #30-34  By Meera Rao 

These drummers were sketched from a video I took in November  during NYC Marathon. We were cheering my daughter as well as all the runners and these drummers were too!  

Sketches #21-26 By Meera Rao

These sketches were from the Newspaper and TV :) 

Sketches #11-15 by Meera Rao

Sketches #16-20 By Meera Rao 

These are from watching Basketball games before there were all cancelled! I had to refer to still photos to get them right. It became clear early on I need to study and practice hands :) 

Sketches 1-10 By Meera Rao 

I really had hopes of being able to do the 100 in 10 days at this rate when I did 10 sketches one the first day! But then life got in the way as I had suspected it would confirming my initial decision not to participate in the challenge! But I am really glad I did as many as I could. I am getting faster in getting the shapes down.  Next challenge is to get comfortable sketching hands and also capturing values.  

Ni Hao Part 13 Shanghai By Night

Shanghai Skyline Financial District At Night View from the River  Watercolor&Ink by Meera Rao  

 

Bund Old Shanghai Skyline Night view from River  Watercolor and Ink by Meera Rao

The 2-page spread of Night View 

The Night River Cruise was a wonderful light show! Our guide informed us that all the buildings are required to participate and show their loyalty. It is a big tourist draw and thousands fill hundreds of  lavishly decorated cruise boats.  The ride started at dusk and lasted close to two hours. We oohed and ahed at the magic of millions of colored blinking and dancing lights that changed and morphed every other second ! 

Buddhist monks checking their  phones at the Financial district  Sketch by Meera Rao 

Earlier in the evening we walked around the area where I saw many buddhist monks enjoying the city lights and scenes just like us.  A couple of chefs taking a break down an alley near the Food Mall caught my eye as we were searching for a place to eat. 

Pause In The Day #DirectWatercolor #nosketching by Meera Rao 

Below is a straggler sketch of an Incense burner from Imperial city at Beijing- one of our very first stops during this china trip. I painted it much later as a part of the #30x30directwatercolor challenge and therefore got left out of the earlier post on Beijing. I decided to include it in this last post on my  travel sketchbook.  

Incense Burner At The Imperial city, Beijing #30x30directwatercolor #nosketching By Meera Rao 

I had a couple of really beautiful ticket stubs that I decided were the just the right thing to grace the front and back covers of my sketchbook.  The front cover is the part of the ticket to the silk museum in Shanghai.  I used gold gel pen to write the title. 

Cover of China Travel Sketchbook Journal By Meera Rao 

The outside back cover is the ticket stub from the Sun Moon Temple at Guillin. 

Back Cover of China Travel Sketchbook Journal  by Meera Rao 

I decorated the back  inside cover with the business card for the resturant where we enjoyed delicious fresh hot Dim sums and a couple of beautiful wrappers from some chocolates I bought and enjoyed :)  

Inside Back Cover of Sketchbook Journal.  By Meera Rao 

Thats the end of my journal sketches but I hope to paint a few more full scale paintings in the next few months :) 

再見中國  Zaijian zhongguo- bye bye China  for now!!