Re-visiting Morocco 2001 (again)

Many moons ago, in the final few months of my Geography degree, I went on a field-trip to southern Morocco. 

We were only there for about a week but the memories have really stuck with me, because we were asked to keep a field notebook to record observations and sketches. I’m not sure if my drawings of the lovely views and colours were exactly what my tutors were looking for, but I had an amazing time :) 

(click to view a larger image of the original field sketches)

I’m experimenting with materials at the moment, in an attempt to whittle down my travel kit and loosen up my sketching for drawing on location, so I thought I’d revisit and draw from a couple of my Morocco sketches using some of the techniques I’ve learned or re-learned in the last couple of months. 

The first is a rocky slope in the tiny Berber village of Agadir-Oujgal in the High Atlas mountains, where a rare sub-species of dragon tree grows. The second is an unfinished but picturesque visitor centre in the Souss-Massa National Park, between Agadir and Tiznit. I used a combination of Schminke watercolour, Inktense pencils and Neocolor II. 

Here’s a close up of the visitor centre. I wonder if they’ve finished it yet? 

By the way, if you’re on Instagram, find me @siansburys – I share lots more sketches (and photos of my cat) there!