I’ve been putting in an 8-to-10 hour day in the studio lately, working on a series of portraits of the fellows here. They begin with photos Fiona takes on my iPhone — the expressions of the subjects, I have found, are entirely different when being photographed by a child — and then I rework them in Brushes. Once I’ve examined every millimeter and eliminated every pixel, I print them out and paint them for real: the early ones were in gouache on paper, but I’m gradually moving to oil on linen, which I much prefer.

An example of the method that is my madnesss after the jump.

By the steps of the temple in Udaipur, men and women pose for pictures while awaiting a handout. (We did the former but not the latter.) Inside the temple, a group sat chanting and playing music with handmade instruments —tambourines and bells. The temple was built in the mid-sixteenth century and sits at the center of the city’s bustling marketplace, where we were particularly taken with the sellers of miniatures. One man gave us a demonstration, and FIona and I were mesmerized by, among other things, his paintbrush made of squirrel hair.

The sun blazes all day here and the sky is a saturated blue. Like Ahmedabad, the streets in Udaipur are heavily trafficked by swirling pedestrians and rickshaws and cows. But the palaces are something different: epic in scale, serene and majestic, they’re other-worldly. (We’ll post more photos when we have a better internet connection.) We’re in Devi Garh now, worthy of its own post, enroute to Shahpura this morning. Details to follow.