Marriage in my traditional African culture is always a 3 part event which starts with the man coming to see the girl’s father with some elders in his family and ends with the exchange of palm wine between the man and the girl.  To cut cost, many people do everything at the same time while most split them up into 3 different occasions.

Even though marriage in a Church is important……the traditional marriage is the most important because without it the marriage cannot be recognized by the family elders. And recognition by the family elders is very important because of the way the African family is structured. Their is a very strong sense of family in Africa and it is very common to see families living together in one compound. When getting married, young people always know and understand that with marriage comes the addition of a whole new family.

Part of the highlights of every traditional marriage ceremony is the presence of traditional singers and drummers. These people are always colorfully dressed and add a lot color and fun to the whole event.

With this post I will be starting a painting of a group of African drummers who were present during my traditional marriage ceremony. I will be using a reference photograph from the set of pictures taken during the ceremony.

I usually start off my paintings with a sketch (sometimes I paint straight on the canvas without a sketch!! ). Below is the sketch I made with Charcoal pencil on canvas cloth.

Sketch made with Charcoal pencil

Size is 16″ x 20″

Please be sure to check back to watch how the painting develops.

Tags: African tradition, charcoal, Marriage, sketch