Sultans and Tourists

I'm back, and I'm uploading ALL THE THINGS AT ONCE!
I did this while I was in Turkey with Atlantic Institute -- which was AMAZING by the way!!

The left panel is a street in Kayseri, and the right is the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. I noticed that the faded historical buildings in the upper half of my surroundings were often obscured by colorful storefronts and excited tourists in the lower half; this pattern holds true in historical cities all over the world. This painting is supposed to illustrate the way tourism changes the culture of a place, for better or for worse.

Black pen, white gel pen, acrylic, and silver brush ink on illustration board. July 2014.
Process pictures here: tarantellino.deviantart.com/ar…