On the Monday after the Symposium there were maybe 18 of us left in Santo Domingo, so guess what we did... we went sketching! We went to the Mercado, where Melanie Reim and Nathalie Ramirez had taught a workshop, but I didn't get to go to that one so I was excited to have a chance to see the market and to walk around more of Santo Domingo.
I did a little pencil sketch to warm up (it is sideways), and then busted out the colored pencils, having been heavily influenced by Lynne Chapman! There's some Pitt pen in there, too. Alanna Randall and I went upstairs where she talked to people in Spanish and I nodded and smiled, and we sat and made some drawings.
The interior of this space was pretty amazing, but you could only see it from upstairs. I was excited to get to draw it since I didn't get to draw in the cathedral. (That statement makes sense to me.) What is difficult to convey in a sketch is that you can see below to the first floor where all of the market stalls are, and it is complete chaos. There are wires EVERYWHERE, and if I had had more time, and if it hadn't been 100 degrees, I would have drawn every one of them. But I did as much as I could as my glasses slipped down my nose from the sweating.
Alanna and I both sketched this butcher's stall. That's a pig's head, and some feet. Alanna is a vegetarian, and she thought it was weird to be sketching a pig's head, but once you see it you just kind of have to draw it.
These animals were still alive, outside in the open air part of the market.
We found our group again, on the yellow steps of the market. That's Kalina Wilson in her awesome green hat. I finally openly sketched a person - the man in the lower right corner - and showed it to him and asked his name. Click for more detail and to see what happened.
More sketchers joined us on the steps until we were all there, sketching, sketching, sketching.
After that we all went to lunch together, and more joined us. And we kept sketching. It was a really wonderful lunch with amazing company. After that I said goodbye for real to everyone there and was quite sad, but so happy to have had the experience and the time with these wonderful people.
3 comments:
I don't think it's too weird to sketch anything that's hanging in a window... but Pete Scully once got kicked off the sidewalk for sketching a SF Giants jersey through a window.
http://petescully.com/2011/07/01/get-shirty/
Great to see these, Elizabeth -
I thought that the butcher was one of the most interesting vendors and never got back there- that is great that you did!
Pete - what a trouble maker ;) I remember him posting about that. I think he posted information about photographers'/sketchers' rights that I saved just in case I ever need to have the same argument.
The butcher was definitely interesting. It was on the second floor and so hot, but it was worth it to draw that pig's head.
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