Ayesha Gamiet Art, Illustration and Design

34th Worldwide Sketchcrawl at the Natural History Museum, London

Ayesha — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:05:00 +0000

'Dodo' from the Natural History Museum, London. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Last Saturday, I attended my first ever “sketchcrawl” at the Natural History Museum in London. If you don’t know what a sketchcrawl is, take a look at the Urban Sketchers blog, where artists (both amateur and professional) share their sketches of everyday life from around the world. The aim of the site is to encourage the art of drawing on location – i.e. not from photographs or memory. Artists simply try to capture their environments in a sketchbook, and share these visual stories with others.

A “sketchcrawl” is a day when a group of artists meet up and draw on location together. The London Urban Sketchers group decided to spend the day at the Natural History Museum – an excellent choice! Not only are the exhibits fantastic, but the architecture of the museum is simply breathtaking. In fact, the building is my favourite in London.

Our first stop was the bird gallery, where I couldn’t resist the replica dodo (above). Its feathers are so soft and fluffy, it looks like a sheep-bird. How sad to think that such a beautiful animal is now extinct. For this sketch, I used pencil, 0.2 waterproof marker and Chinese stick ink on khadi paper. It was a challenge to keep my inks and materials balanced on my sketchbook while painting – but all part of the fun!

Stained glass panel at the Natural History Museum

After sharing our sketches over lunch in the museum cafe, everybody headed off to different areas of the museum. I was enchanted by the stained glass, and spent the remainder of the afternoon sketching this panel. It took me some time to work out the geometry, but it was very satisfying.

As the afternoon wore on, the light began to fade and the glass changed colour. I haven’t done it justice, but I hope that a little of that subtlety is captured in this sketch.

'Plesiosaur', from the Natural History Museum, London. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Finally, I am adding this sketch that I made of a Plesiosaur at the Natural History Museum in November last year. It proved quite a challenge, and as you can see, it’s unfinished. I love the texture of the fossils, and the way the shapes of the bones create patterns.

Thank you to all of the Urban Sketchers for such a fun and inspiring day! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next sketchcrawl!

Bird studies

Ayesha — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:44:56 +0000

Bird sketches. Pencil and 0.2 marker on moleskine paper. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2011.

Just a few sketches that I have been doing in preparation for a project that I hope to be starting next year. More on this soon!

For anyone looking for a great resource of wildlife images, the National Geographic website has a fantastic online gallery of animal photography. Enjoy!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Happy holidays!

Sketching

Ayesha — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:09:49 +0000

A sketch of the neighbour's house. Chinese stick ink, pencil and 0.2 marker on khadi paper (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2011.

A few weeks ago I was feeling a little worn out and tired. Do you ever get that feeling when you’re just too sluggish to focus on your work? Perhaps the cold and lack of sunlight was taking it’s toll. Whatever the reason, I could feel that I needed a break that afternoon, so I dug out my Chinese stick ink and a new pad of khadi paper in order to do some sketching.

I haven’t sketched on location in a long while, so eased myself into the process by simply sketching the neighbour’s house. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, or how the sketch might turn out, but now that it’s finished I’m actually quite pleased with the result. I’m making an effort to use less colour, so that I can focus on line and tone… it’s amazing the amount of variation you can achieve with just one colour, and how it forces you to find new ways of describing a surface or texture.

The idea of sketching on location was inspired by this fantastic blog called Urban Sketchers. Members, including artists, illustrators and many other creative people share their sketches of everyday life from around the globe. It is a great website to look at for some daily inspiration… I especially love the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes, and picking up new techniques!

I think that leaves me with a good New Year’s resolution for 2012 – do more Urban Sketching!

Hello, Mr President!

Ayesha — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 17:54:56 +0000

(L-R) The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, the Turkish President and First Lady at Clarence House.

Two weeks ago, I had the honour of being asked to give a demonstration of my illumination work to the Turkish President and First Lady, who were on a state visit to the UK. The demonstration took place at Clarence House where it was also attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Although the official visit was actually very short (it must have lasted around 20 minutes or so), we spent most of the day at Clarence House preparing our equipment and setting everything up. Afterwards, the staff laid out some much-welcomed tea and refreshments for us. So now I can say that I’ve had tea at Clarence House, and just in case you were wondering – it was delicious!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos – this one was taken by the press. Look carefully and you can just see the side of my face in the top-left corner!

It was a fun, but very busy day!

Istanbul

Ayesha — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:03:32 +0000

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul

About a month ago, I returned home from a 3-week research trip to Istanbul. Istanbul is a beautiful city and I love spending time there, so although I was working very hard, this visit was an absolute pleasure. I was in Turkey to continue my studies in Islamic manuscript illumination(or tezhip / tezhib as it is called in Turkish and Arabic). It had been quite a while since my last visit and I was a little anxious that I might be out of practice. However, once I started classes, everything seemed to come back to me and I think I made pretty good progress!

Sticking the calligraphy on to a handmade paper, using a mixture of starch and water.

I bought a piece of calligraphy out to Istanbul that I planned to illuminate. I was very lucky, as it was written by the very talented Dr. Nassar Mansour (and I am now going to shamelessly plug Nassar’s new calligraphy book on Amazon!) Some time ago, Nassar and I decided to do an exchange with our artwork – he received two of my hand-painted silk scarves in return for a piece of his calligraphy… I am convinced I got the better deal!

“What would you like me to write? Asked Nassar.

“Hmmm… Well, I think I’d like to gift the calligraphy to my parents to say “thank you” for all of the love and support they’ve shown me over the years”, I replied.

“I like this idea! Why not choose one of their favourite verses from the Qur’an?”

A little detail of the work-in-progress. I have applied three different colours of shell-gold paint, gouache and calligraphy ink to the illumination.

And so I chose verse 177 from the second chapter of the Qur’an. Here is the translation:

“In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces towards East or West;
But it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers;
To spend of your substance out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves;
To be steadfast in prayer, and practise regular charity, to fulfil the contracts which ye have made;
And to be firm and patient in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God-fearing.”

Illuminated painting, a work-in-progress. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2011. This is a picture of the work to date. I will keep you updated on my progress!

I chose this verse, partly because I know that it is very beloved to both my parents, but also because for me, it encapsulates the way they live their lives, and the values that they have instilled within us, their children.

Wish me luck in completing it!

Eid treats!

Ayesha — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:20:14 +0000

Eid gifts for my family: hand-bound books made by me!

Firstly, a belated Eid Mubarak to all of my blog readers! I hope that you all had a very blessed and peaceful Eid and Ramadan. Mine was wonderful. I spent most of Ramadan busy with PhD work, and Eid was spent with my family. This year, I decided to make everyone personalised Eid gifts in the form of hand-bound notebooks! As you can see from the image above, they turned out pretty well (at least, I think so for a novice bookbinder like me!)

I thought that you might be interested to see the books in a little more detail, but before I start, I should mention that the instructions for the bookbinding project came from a fantastic tutorial that I found on Molly Brooks’ blog post. Very highly recommended! Read through Molly’s post, and you will begin to appreciate the effort that went into each book – a labour of love!

Notebook for my brother.

This bookbinding technique is called “open spine binding” because the book’s spine is exposed. In her tutorial, Molly suggests using bookbinder’s tape to secure the covers – I have used decorative ribbon instead. I hope it will be resilient enough! I also threaded a long piece of ribbon through the central “tape”. This is purely for ornamental purposes, and can be used as a bookmark, or to tie the book shut. The book above is for my brother, and I filled it with parchment papers so that he can use it to scribble down his notes and thoughts.

Japanese and Nepalese papers for the covers and endpapers.

I wish I could take credit for the beautifully patterned covers, but the designs come from printed Japanese papers that I bought at Falkiner’s on Southampton Row in London. In fact, you can buy all of your papers and bookbinding equipment from here. For the endpapers, I used some vibrant handmade Nepalese paper that I bought a long time ago and have been itching to use for ages!

Book signatures (interior pages) and cover.

Having cut and measured my signatures (interior pages of the book) and the board for my cover…

Sewing the pages to the cover.

I proceed to sewing my signatures to the book’s cover. Ok, I have skipped out quite a few stages here, but you can get the detailed instructions in Molly’s blog post. Here are some more pictures of the finished books:

My mother's book.

My Mother’s book contains handmade pages that are infused with marigold and bougainvillea flowers! She was thrilled with her gift. It may be just my imagination, but I’m sure that the pages give off a faint flowery scent as you open the book.

Books for my Mother and Sisters-in-law.

Above are the books that I made for my Mother and Sisters-in-law. My Sister-in-law’s book (on the right) contains pages that have been infused with cornflowers.

Books for my Brother and Father.

Although these two books have the same cover, the interior pages are very different. I have used a handmade watercolour paper for my Brother’s book (with the black ribbon, on the left), as he is quite arty! My Dad’s book contains parchment papers for note-making.

Matching gift tags made from the off-cuts!

I then got a little carried away, and started making matching gift tags from the off-cuts of the cover papers. You can see the results below:

Completed gift tags.

All in all, my family were thrilled with their Eid presents and a great day was had by all. If you would like to try your hand at making a book like the ones in this post, don’t forget to take a look at the instructions on Molly Brooks’ site. And good luck! Happy bookbinding!

Got a facebook account? Follow my work in your newsfeed.

Ayesha — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:15:24 +0000

You can now follow my work in facebook by clicking "like" on my page.

I have been very slow in using social networks to promote my work, but this week I finally set up a facebook page for Ayesha Gamiet: art, illustration and design. If you have a facebook account and would like to receive updates on my courses, exhibitions, books and other projects, simply click “like” on my facebook page, and you will see my posts in your newsfeed.

Please share the link with your friends!

I have no plans to create a twitter account as yet…

Islamic manuscript illumination course at the PSTA

Ayesha — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:39:27 +0000

I will be teaching a new course in Islamic manuscript illumination at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. The course will run over 4 Saturdays from the 22nd of October – 12th November 2011, from 10am – 4.30pm. Enrolment details can be found on the PSTA website.

You can also read about my previous courses, and see student’s work by clicking here.

I look forward to seeing you there!

My first hand-made book!

Ayesha — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:51:30 +0000

Detail of my first hand-bound book! I love the decorative header (green and yellow stripy fabric).

Continuing my obsession with all things related to books, paper and illustration / illumination… Last weekend, I completed a 1-day course in bookbinding at Falkiners – a beautiful shop specialising in handmade papers and bookbinding materials based in London. For anybody interested in learning about bookbinding, I would highly recommend their courses. I learnt so much and had a fantastic day! Plus, I had a beautiful hand-bound book to take home with me. My niece has fallen in love with this notebook, so I think that I’ll gift this one to her. The rest of my family are already putting in their orders! I am planning on hand-binding my sketchpads and notebooks for my PhD work, but we’ll see how it goes… perhaps I’m being a little over-ambitious! Details of the classes at Falkiners on Southampton Row (Holborn) can be found here.

Take a look at the pictures below to give you an idea of how my book was constructed:

Bookbinding materials are laid out on the workspace before the start of the course.

Me, sewing the signatures (inside pages of the book).

Making the book cover, using printed Japanese paper, board and fabric.

Gluing on the decorative cover.

Securing the book block (the stack of signatures) and adding the endpapers.

The completed notebook! I wish I could take credit for the cover design, but I used a beautifully printed Japanese paper. Next stage will be to design and print my own covers – watch this space!

May-June 2011 Abu Dhabi workshops

Ayesha — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:16:21 +0000

Student's work from the Higher College of Technology, Abu Dhabi.

Firstly, to all of my blog readers – I am so sorry for the delay in updating my posts! These past few months have been crazy busy, and it’s been difficult to find the time and space to sit down and write about what I’ve been up to. To give you an idea of how much has been going on – over the past 6 weeks, I’ve completed and handed in all of the artwork for my children’s book (and the publishers and pleased, so YAY!) I’ve been preparing for workshops and teaching in Abu Dhabi (lots of hard work, but also lots of fun). I have also had my end-of-year PhD assessment (scary, but it went better than I thought). Sorry if you have been missing my posts! I hope to write more about my children’s book and PhD work soon.

Last month, I spent 2 weeks teaching Islamic art classes in Abu Dhabi with the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. Myself, along with 2 other teachers from the School were asked to deliver workshops at Shaykh Zayed University, the Higher College of Technology and Shaykh Zayed Girl’s Academy.

Both of the images above are examples of the student’s work from the Higher College of Technology. They worked on group projects over 3 sessions (each session lasting approx. 1 and a half hours). In the first session, students were taught principles of traditional Islamic design, such as geometry and arabesque patterning. The remainder of the time was spent painting their group projects – large illuminated pages, intended to mimic traditional illuminated Qur’anic frontispieces.

Below are 2 mihrab designs (prayer niches) from the classes that we taught at Shaykh Zayed University. The first is a design for wood, while the second is a design for plaster.

I hope to be back with more posts, soon!