Friday, November 28, 2014

three guys


This is my recent finished water colour painting at Boston.  I followed the process of painting this like finishing a project... ya, in a no-so-timely manner though .. but I was constantly nagging myself, "I know, you're gonna leave it half-way! " ... good that I finished it  ... :)

In recent times, I have started observing people more closely, trying to note down their postures, activities and expressions. This painting is one of such imaginations, which perhaps reflects all these observations. The imagination of three guys sitting on a bench chatting with each other, was quite clear. But I could not remember a particular source of it. As I started making a rough sketch of it, I made sure I  made them look masculine. In addition, I did not want the three guys to look same. So I put effort to make them look different in posture and clothing. As I did so, it turned out I, kind of, carved out three different personalities. I was happy with this development. The left one looked like a shy person, who likes to listen more than talk, be in a corner and observe than being on the center-stage. The center one, was an extrovert, more of bratty person, loud and bright. The right one, an uptight person, proper, someone who goes by plan and ambitious, somewhat in the middle between introvert and extrovert. 

And as I went to apply colours, I had to put real effort on what colours their attires should look to reflect their personalities. And as I approached towards finishing the painting, I felt, a person does not have to be the way s/he appears. The shy person may actually be a confident and tough or even a cold person. The extrovert looking, sunshine guy might be an insecure person. The uptight, proper looking guy might actually be a wild person. Who knows? hmm... Does clothing and posture reveal everything about your personality? May be, more of how the person projects him/herself to the true world... consciously or unconsciously ... Who knows? With these thoughts, I decided not give a face to them and let the viewer perceive the characters as per their own will.

Too much philosophy, let me highlight some technical aspects. It has been a long time since I put down a character out of my mind. Most of these times, I was putting effort to watch, copy, learn skills. So the problem was too many vague lines. So I had to draw really light lines. That helped in cleaning later. So when I made a rought concept, I used these black permanent markers and outlined the lines I wanted to keep. It made easy for me to erase the rough noisy lines before painting. I feared if the black lines will look ugly against the water colours.... hmm ... but it looks ok :) 

So feeling happy that I did it, and it turned out ok and excited about my next art work ! :)


to the people of IIIT :)


This post is dedicated to some people I sketched during my stay in IIIT, a place I called home for 4 years... Confession: I know I need to work harder at making acccurate portraits, so forgive me for not bringing out the people properly :(



This is Rajvi, my senior at IIIT. And I sketched her on my last day at IIIT. She gave me a wonderful sketchbook as farewell gift. So this was her sketch on the first page of my new sketchbook! Rajvi, thank you for being there whenever I needed your advice and direction. You always inspire me, as a TA, as a senior, as a researcher and as a friend ! 



This is Tejaswini, one of the most energetic persons I have met. Her energy is really infectious. Although I got to know her in the last few days of being in IIIT, it is a pleasurable experience with her.. Keep spreading energy! 

This was at Lotus Pond, Hyderabad, when we went to sketch in the Anything Art Club. Tejaswini, sitting steady against the rocks while sketching, made a good subject for me. It was a great experience sitting in the serene environment, sketching in the evening with all the fellow artists. After returning, I asked myself many questions including why did not I go there before? and strangely, I did not have any answer to it! Unfortunately, I could not join the meetup again, since my last days in Hyderabad were approaching fast...


                                

Meet Praveen. I would call him the coolest guy in our lab. I remember, as I introduced him with this adjective to my friend, he literally blushed :P   I wanna say sorry for sketching you without your notice. I did not want to make you conscious and distract you from work :P On a serious note, thanks for all the help. Your composure, dedication and discipline will always inspire me.  Good luck with your research and PhD :) I am sure you are rocking!




 Meet Anusha. This is inside GH, while she was reading newspaper near guard table. As I passed by, I could quickly register her strong posture and curly hair. I was surprised at the strong image captured in my mind. And it came out pretty much like her... Girl, thanks for the company, helping me out in my work, listening to my frustration and the walks around campus and farm. The feeling is same here, I wish we were in IIIT for the same period, to combat the common enemies ... and good luck for all your endeavors!



Last but not the least, our very own BLN! One day, I watched him walking thumak thumak towards Vindhya and his image registered in my mind and here is his sketch. I think he looks slimmer here, but I seriously hope, he never finds it. I do not want to be the victim of his rage :P

stuffs


It has been more than a year since I posted anything on this blog... I did not realize this until recently! But, that does not mean I did not do anything.. In fact, I was more regular, and more sincere in this one year.  The perfectionist in me would not let me just sketch anything. So I found this notepad in a store and bought it right-away. Inspired by many youtube videos, especially Will Terrell's videos (watch them, you'll love them ! ), I too decided to keep a notebook and do sketches whenever I feel like :) But again, .... I safely kept it on my bed  for quite a long time. One day, a friend showed me Marcello Barenghi's realistic paintings and they were simply amazing! Then I told myself, why not start sketching the objects in my room, they won't complain for sure... But then again, I did not do anything ..


Then again, I found myself sitting in my room, doing nothing but killing time and fussing over things that don't exist. I decided to sketch the water bottle lying on my bed. And I started... I could realize how tough it is to sketch a stuff and make it look real only when I tried sketching a simple object like a water bottle! I did manage to make it look transparent, have 3d effect :) But yes, way to go in terms of making stuff look real. 
 


After the successful sketch of the water bottle, I felt motivated and started looking for objects to sketch and this made a suitable set of objects to sketch... It was a perfect treat sketching to make a day with smile :)

Then I felt even more motivated, and my next target object was my dell mouse. This was even more challenging because of its shining surface. It is supposed to be black, but then how will I make it look shiny? - this was the constant question in my mind when I was sketching it :)

By now, I was literally hunting for objects to sketch :) And this tiffin box lying on my table caught my attention one day... As I was sketching it, I tried to capture the translucency of the plastic material, the light coming from the window and the etched letters still readable from the odd angle and from a distance ... This one was a good learning experience ...


Again the perfectionist in me started nagging me... One day, I sat on my bed, staring at my utensils on the table, and kept thinking, "I wish I could sketch them... But they are metals, they look so difficult to sketch! May be later. " :-| I had to force myself into thinking, "Who is gonna look at them and punish you if they turn out to be bad? Things don't always have to be perfect all the time!" And I took the courage to pick up my notebook and started sketching it with a determination of not to make it perfect. I was happy with the way it turned out. For this sketch, it was important for me to just do it than make it perfect. I must say, the reflections on the metal surface are challenge both for artists and scientists... Nevertheless, it gave me an opportunity to see how the image of one object gets distorted on another's surface. The lunchbox reflected on the glass, the glass and the window reflected on the lunchbox. It was wonderful how the specular property of steel gave it many colors and shades and transformed it from being a mere grey object!


These sketches look terribly easy and careless, I know :P But I felt I should put them here... They remind me of my lab in CVIT. the chair and the bottle were the victim of my mood to sketch something and use my pencil colours on them, rather than learning anything ...


Slowly, I kind of got bored of sketching stuff. I do not have a strong explanation of why .... may be they are not as expressive ... or may be they demand  to sit and bring out each pixel properly ... or may be they do not give me much chance to communicate... who knows... may be ... some other time ...