In February I was given the exciting opportunity to travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to play with TaikOz. A huge honour, considering I’m not one of their more dedicated students. It was a unique advenutre and a bit of an insight into the life of a professional touring musician, and it was to a part of the world I’m not sure I would have visited in my own time.
So I hope you enjoy my sketchbook slideshow of my time in Abu Dhabi. Please click on any image for a larger view.
There was plenty of time waiting in our portable dressing room, so I’m thankful I brought along my sketchbook. Most of these sketches were done during this period – waiting to do a rehearsal or sound check, waiting to go on, waiting to go to lunch, waiting for the bus to take us back to the hotel. There weren’t any windows looking out onto anything either, so all my inspiration came from within the room.
We had afternoons and evenings free so we managed to do some sightseeing and shopping whenever we could.
I found the Mosque to be one of the more visually appealing and challenging sights for me. Because of its clean white exteriors the light reflections, especially as the sun set, was quite interesting. So I stayed to try and capture the sunset, and made a second visit to capture it at night. These were done with watercolour/brush and ink/dip pen.
We had most of one day to ourselves so we headed off to do a 4WD Safari.
An international security and defence expo was on at the Exhibition Centre.
The last day before we hit the malls, I did some sketching around Emirates Palace.
And back home… sorting out the souvenirs from the shopping.
