Drawing on Culture, Part 2:

Ibrahim et son petit-fils

(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:

Ibrahim et son petit-fils (Ibrahim and his grand-son)
 14x17" pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski
 from my series depicting the people and culture of Guinea, West Africa

Ibrahim is a friend of mine from a small village in the Kouroussa region of Guinea. Something about him fascinated me. He had an aura of knowing something, or perhaps seeking to know something that was just beyond knowable. His eyes always held a faraway look, but also had a glimmer and a light. He’s lived quite the life, and told me many stories. He left the village when he was younger in search of work, and spent 15 years as a merchant marine, and saw the world…before returning home to the village to be with his family. He was worldly and kind; children always flocked to him.

The Process:

Here’s a little bit of the drawing process!

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