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21 July 2015

Drawing Tuesday - African gallery, British Museum

It wasn't my plan to draw all these masquerade head dresses - just one or two, with their shadows. It became a matter of getting a clear sightline.

At this point most of the struggle was over, and it only remained to make a few adjustments and fill in the details.
"The Bijogo [of Guinea-Bissau] divide males into different age-grades, each with masks appropriate to its character. Young boys may dress as calves and fish but older uninitiated youths assume the form of dangerous and uncontrolled beasts such as sharks, wild bulls, and - as here - sawfish. Their dances are exuberant and aggressive and are expressive of their own undomesticated nature."

To fill in a few minutes, blind drawings of other head-dresses -
 Objects that other people were looking at -



... and some of the drawings -
Michelle's sculptural pot, Woyo people, Congo

Janet's terracotta head, Benin

Pat's  colourful carving

Cathy's  wooden figures, Azande people, Sudan

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