Drawings

Here is a page from a sketchbook I carried with me when Charles and I visited Pau, France.  The drawings are in a style I use for capturing people out  in public; it’s a little cartoon-y, a little primitive and flat, but it captures the spirit of the time and place well enough for my purposes.

If you look in the section called Travel Journals, you find lots of examples of this kind of thing.

Pau, France

Pau, France

Below are some portraits in a formal narrative style, which is one I don’t often use for the simple reason that it’s hard to get people to sit motionless for the time it takes to draw this detailed a portrait.  I like the looser sketches better than these formal drawing, but every once in awhile, I just have to remind myself that I can work in this mode.

Bamana Muso

Bamana Muso

This is from a photograph my husband Charles took in Djeni, Mali, in 1980.  I supplied the background, which represents bogolan fini or mudcloth, a indigenous art.   The woman is ethnically Bambara;  she was one of the four wives of our host.

Mali Muso

Mali Muso

This woman is from a  village called Souena, in Mauretania.  The high head wrap is a characteristic of Soninke dress.  I drew this picture from one of Charles’s photographs so that I could include it in the book I made for him.

I made this sketch of Charles a couple of years ago when he was watching t.v. with his friend Thomas.  Charles doesn’t sit still all that often, except when he’s reading, so it isn’t that easy to get a complete sketch of him.
Charles watching TV

Charles watching TV

This sketch is also the result of Charles and Thomas getting together to watch football, in this case the Super Bowl.  Since football bores me stupid, I always bring a sketchpad.

Superbowl

Super Bowl