L’amitié (Friendship) — 14x17" pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski

Drawing on Culture, Part 1:

L’amitié (Friendship)

(this post is a part of my “Visual Anthropology: West Africa” series, made possible by support from my awesome patrons on Patreon.)

In the winter of 2016, I returned to West Africa to reconnect with friends and teachers, and had the opportunity to continue my practice of drawing fundamentals while I was there.

With no electricity or lights in my makeshift studio in Kouroussa, Guinea, I worked from sunrise to sunset as the light filtered through a single window. The sounds of the village outside were the soundtrack to my drawings. With just pencil and paper, I aimed to see how far I could take a simple drawing. What resulted is the series of artwork here…

About the Artwork:

L’amitié (Friendship)
14x17” pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski
from my series depicting the people and culture of Guinea, West Africa

“L’amitié est l’un des beaux cadeaux de la vie” — Friendship is one of the greatest gifts in life. Friendship is a universal thing. There’s something about visiting another culture, where the language and customs seem so different from your own, and seeing two friends walking together, hands interlocked and beaming with joy, to make you realize that we are all the same.

I came across these young friends walking down one of the dusty paths in the village. Even though we did not speak the same language and had grown up an ocean apart, in some way I felt connected to them because I understood how friendship feels; it’s a feeling we can all experience and share. A real friend can make all your troubles seem small and the world feel brighter. “To be without a friend is to be poor indeed.” The people in this simple village have a great wealth of friendship and family. All the money and material possessions we have in the West pale in comparison.

L’amitié (Friendship), 2016. 14x17” pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski.

The Process:

Here’s a little bit of the drawing process.

Step 1: the loose lay-in of the major shapes and forms.

Step 2: honing in on the main features and blocking in the main areas of light and dark.

Step 3: adding some details and defining the “edges” of the core shadows

Step 4: beginning to define shadow regions

Step 5: pushing the tonal range

Step 6: The finished artwork!

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The artwork here is made available for free thanks to my awesome supporters on Patreon. Learn more here!

Originally published at davekobrenski.com.