Drawing of Souk Jdid, Essaouira
Souk Jdid (new market). I drew this street in black ink and added detail using coloured pencils.
The reference image for this drawing of Essaouira’s market area was one of the last photos I took before taking a Pandemic rescue flight out of Morocco. It’s not a very well-off country and I knew the UK institutions would be there to care for me. As it happens, I didn’t get my first bout of Covid 19 until January 2025!
This street is basically the heart of Essaouira medina. At least for locals. It really is a busy market space, with everything to buy from live chickens to beautiful vegetables and tasty bread. As well as clothing and bright rayon blankets.
Despite that, the street already looks sparse on a drizzly day in early March of 2020. I like the man wrapped up warm in his fairly plain djellaba against what there is to come.
The blue carts (called “carossas”) can be found everywhere in a walled city that does not allow motor vehicles.
Drawing of Souk Skala, Essaouira
The Skala, in its grandest sense, is the battlement part of the Essaouira city wall. It faces the sea and all invaders. On the other hand, Skala is a namesake neighbourhood a mile away, right next to the North Beach. On Saturdays there is another market (“suq/ “souk” means market, it’s an everyday word). I was there one bright May morning in 2018, watching local people gossip and examine a stack of colourful acrylic blankets. I even took a couple home with me. Sidi Ali (you can see it on the leftmost parrasol) is the local bottled water.
Wherever in the world I go, I visit markets, so I can see where real people meet up and form communities. I certainly believe that is how our own market functions in Ely.
I love how this street fades off in the bright light towards Essaouira North Beach.
A tiny plant nursery and a small shop, Essaouira
Two entirely different businesses are neighbours in this coloured pencil drawing. On the right is a small local shop, selling anything you might need at short notice. There are shops like this in any town, not just in Morocco. I might call it a “corner shop”. The fridge display offers milk, yoghurt and cheese. The stacked boxes contain crisps. In front of the shop are gas canisters. Some are brigher red than others because they are constantly reused. I only wish that were true of the water bottles!
On the left, flanked by plants in pots made of reused plastic, is a mysterious and cobbled alleyway leading to a very small nursery. The garden door is blue, as are most doors in the medina of Esssaouira, and indeed the fishing boats.
The more you look around Essaouira and its neighbourhoods, the more you might notice that people really like to grow plants. Many shared roof terracces are divided up into small gardens. Other people, lucky enough to live on the ground floor, might have a plant collection around their front door. Of course this means species we consider delicate and shelter indoors, are right out in the open.
More drawings and sketches
Do go and have a look at the Sketches page of my portfolio for more drawings, whether in colour or otherwise.
Further inspiration
When I think of inspiration, it’s mostly about my own observations and experience. When I think of other artists, I will choose painters first. Nevertheless I certainly notice people who can handle a pencil, brush, pointed stick or any “drawing instrument”. Paul Janssens is a Cambridgeshire artist I have followed for years. He draws and paints in often rather large sketchbooks. These pages are swift, the drawing jagged but always putting the viewer right inside the landscape of street scene. He often develops paintings from these drawings. Highly recommended!