Not quite Demonte Colony

Last Sunday I joined the CWA group to sketch at Demonte colony. Due to litigation the two residential streets have been abandoned for may years and wears a somewhat haunted, deserted look. We thought we would see plenty of old crumbling buildings and abandoned vehicles, but unfortunately our luck was out.

Recently there was a movie released by the same name, a horror flick, and some scenes were shot here. Droves of tourists have apparently been stopping by and neighbours have complained resulting in the place being sealed off.

We were only allowed into a corporation park next to which stood an abandoned jeep. Further down the pavement was a lady selling idlis in a make-shift food stall. I managed to try out my water soluble graphite pencils a little more in both these sketches. After that I switched to my trusty Pigma graphic-1. A quick capture of a sleeping man on a park bench.

After that the group converged at the park and started doing portrait studies. They got a young boy to pose and several sketchers attempted to capture him. I tried to capture the sketchers.

Young boys playing cricket kept drifting in and out of my frame. They ended up looking ghostly in my sketches.

Francis sketched away rapidly with the sketchbook propped up against his waist. And finally it was time to lay down all our sketchbooks on the paved pathway but not before getting in a last impression of the group huddling together.

Exposed on the roof

This is the terrace at the top of my office building. It's funny how we architects try our level best to conceal the vital innards of our buildings. The water supply pipes, the rain water drains, the electrical, telephone and TV cables but finally up on the terrace all these things burst forth and cry "Here we are!!"

Sometimes you try to go that extra mile to be extra neat even up on the roof but then your neighbour's cable TV line will somehow snake past your terrace to the next building.

This sketch is also my first try with water soluble graphite pencils. Earlier this week I went into my favourite art supply store to by a gift for someone else and ended up as usual like a kid in a candy store! Can't wait to try these out some more this weekend.