Attracting Onlookers

These photos were all taken in Vietnam:

The first time I found the nerve to draw the people close-up, this lady came and watched, with a huge grin. When I’d finished, she seemed to be asking me to draw her, so I did, then broke my usual rule and gave the drawing to her.

Here, I’m sketching roadside poultry traders: the baskets on the backs of the scooters were full of live chickens. Some hung from their feet from pushbikes, like panniers. Women crouched on the floor, weighing tethered chickens with hand-held, metal scales. I started on the periphery, but quickly got drawn in by people’s attention. There was much giggling about those I had drawn.

I sat drawing beside this river in Hoi An. It must have been the school’s lunch hour, as I quickly attracted a handful of little boys in uniform, who talked animatedly to one another, obviously about me. I wished I could understand. This photo was taken a couple of minutes later…

This last is in the Mekong Delta. I’m the one in the conical hat, looking through the opening bottom right. More than fifty people were sitting in the shade of a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by flat, woven trays. These were 2-3 feet across and contained round things, the size of marbles, which they were shelling with paring knives.

I soon had an audience. Somebody indicated that the marbles were longan (he wrote this carefully in the corner of my sketch) and gave me one to taste. It looked like a tiny, discoloured lychee, with less flesh but a more concentrated flavour.

You can see some of my Vietnam sketches, and more photos, on my blog entry Illustrator Eaten By Python!!