I had a bit of fun this weekend trying some new outings. All these sketches were done in pen and I added watercolor at home. I went to the Mall of America yesterday to do some sketching of the Chinese New Year celebration. Held in a large rotunda with people watching over railings three floors above, my stationary sketches don’t really do it justice. Red paper lanterns decorated the space above us. I was mesmerized by the variety of performers of Chinese arts and heritage. Two emcees would get up and describe what we in the audience would see next, both in English and in Chinese. Various performers gathered on the sides of the large stage for their acts to go on. A huge TV screen and a cameraman projected the acts so all could see. I saw a ballet dancer, singers, dancers (I drew some girls in green with drums around their necks) and a dragon dance that several people did. They came running in with the long dragon on sticks and ran around and danced to the music.
My favorite was a woman in red who played a guitar-like instrument. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of it. But she did a short demo on how to play it with all five fingers instead of strumming like a guitar. She demonstrated how she could make a variety of sounds with it, including laughter, voices, tinkling water, and other noises. Then she played a couple pieces of very complicated music, her head bobbing to the music. She was incredible!
Another stop at the Mall was to get a picture taken with Sonic the Hedgehog, a full-sized human in a furry blue costume. My daughter couldn’t resist, and after our photo, she went off to other stores and I stood and sketched Sonic for a few minutes. I cut up pieces of a word search they had for kids to include in my sketch.
My husband and I went out to dinner and decided to try a local Asian fusion restaurant, Bambu. The food and atmosphere were good and quiet. I tried a coconut curry dish with carrots, pea pods, onions, and bamboo shoots. It had a greenish yellow sauce and tasted delicious. My hubby tried a spicy dish with hot peppers on top. I sketched a family eating as well as my food and containers of condiments and added logos and added text, the logo, and the fortune cookie paper when I got home. I like sketching in restaurants, you just have to work quickly!