Urban Sketching: Dafu Fang

Xiao Nan Men area of Shanghai is mostly where a lot of old neighbourhood still remain, a maze of longtangs and old houses, in some areas, some “new” houses have been built. Part of this neighbourhood is up for demolition, reconstruction or in limbo. These old neighbourhoods are my favourite places to sketch because I can record a bit of the local life while sketching; sights, sounds, and smells.

For this outing, I decided to stick to pen and ink sketches and journaling on the side. It was tricky to do any watercolour around where we were sketching.

Top is my first or warmup sketch, a vignette of a house’s entry way. The bottom is a sketch of the storefront that has a lopsided shape.
This is my favourite sketch because I was able to incorporate in the old women chatting and the old man inside the house.
Wandering down Heshunjie, I found this cool entry way that I thought would be great to sketch. I found a chair and sketched while an old man came with his portable speaker playing traditional Chinese opera music.

Location: Around Xiaonanmen 小南门; specifically Dafufang 大夫坊 and Heshunjie 和顺街

Thank you for reading.
signed

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