Spectatorial Fascination and Things: Post-Holland Summer

So here's a sample of sketches during most of the summer shuttling between Dubai and India. Not much human figure drawing done during this period except from books because I prefer to be a little more conservative with what I keep lying around on paper with respect to the culture. This turned out fine because it gave me a chance to explore more animal figures and work on developing a style. And I've been blessed this year to have so much inspiration around me in terms of graphic novels, food for thought, and meeting some local artists who have published their own graphic novels; overall, i hope these experiences, and even the little events that moved my life this summer subconsciously is put into these explorations.
I'm a sucker for subtle organic detailing, and as grateful as I am to own a digital camera, mine doesn't seem to do much for the lighting, so every time I increase the brightness of the picture so it's visible, so much detail is lost! So the next challenge is to figure out a solution to this. Perhaps a portable scanner? Or a travel light-box?

These two are excerpts from Marcos Mateu-Mestre's Trail of Steel. I respect this man so much on his ink work and illustrations and constantly ogle his blog. This book is heavy on contrast and I am blown away by the sketchy accuracy of the facial expressions, and the vastness in detail to form the subconscious figure.

These were done based on the graphic novel called Pride of Baghdad illustrated by Niko Henrichon, to thank for some glorious layout work animal forms. Incidentally this book was written by the author of Ex Machina.