The Car Wash

Need to work on quick thumbnail sketches. I went to the car wash the other day and thought it would be interesting to sketch the building next to the car wash as I moved through the line. I had roughly 5 minutes for each sketch. I think by sketch #4 I'd figured out the pace I needed to work at to get it done right. Not sure why #3 took so long...

Nasrudin's Garden

Mulla Nasrudin decided to start a flower garden. He prepared the soil and planted the seeds of many beautiful flowers. But when they came up, his garden was filled not just with his chosen flowers but also overrun by dandelions. He sought out advice from gardeners all over and tried every method known to get rid of them but to no avail. Finally he walked all the way to the capitol to speak to the royal gardener at the sheik's palace. The wise old man had counseled many gardeners before and suggested a variety of remedies to expel the dandelions but Mulla had tried them all. They sat together in silence for some time and finally the gardener looked at Nasrudin and said, "Well, then I suggest you learn to love them."

Traditional Sufi story

Nasrudin Progress 2

This is turning into much more of a polished drawing than I had first intended but I am having lots of fun with it. I'm studying things much more closely than I do with sketching. Here I worked more on the mouth. I think I've drawn his mouth about 5 times now and I'm still not happy with it. Also worked on the turban...

Nasrudin Progress 1

So here is the first progress picture. I considered keeping it all in my sketchbook but I wanted to show the dandelion seeds floating among a night sky - like stars - and I don't know how to do that with watercolor. So I scanned the sketch and brought it into Artrage - a painting software I've been using. I'm still learning how to use all the painting and drawing tools. I'm OK with the composition now - just trying to work between getting things technically "correct" and finding the right feeling or expression in Nasrudin.