#inktober

I tried to upload my pictures more regularly, but that does not seem to be the case. Its a week after October ended, and I have not yet shared my sketches in October. I did not do 31 sketches as part of inktober as well.  There were crazy days when I would be just running mechanically. I would wake up next day and remember, "Oh! I forgot!"

But the good news is, I sketched with maximum frequency possible. There were times when I did not want to sketch, but I did. There were times when I did not know what to sketch, and in order to fulfill the commitment, I chose a picture from Google Images and sketched. There were times I just started with a dot and went along with the memories it evoked. I lowered expectations from myself in terms of time and quality.

Let me take you through a quick tour of what I did in these days ...

12 Oct 2015: This is me standing near the glass wall of West Village H, while taking a break. It feels amazing to just stare out of the wall for a few minutes, before getting work to code.

13 Oct 2015

This idea came when I was in my class. There is this big office style clock hanging in the classroom wall. When I was in class, and it approached towards the end, I started to lose patience and wanted the class to end quickly. Just then I remembered just a few hours ago, how I wished time would slow down so that I get more time to finish my assignment. These two sketches represent the relative nature of time as we perceive :)

I enjoyed this one. This is the view in front of the glass wall of West Village H. It was pretty quick too :)

 14 Oct 2015

This was one of those moments when I was like, "ok ok I got to sketch", and did not know what do, and then "Quick, sketch your hand!". And this is my left hand :)



 15 Oct 2015

This is out of imagination. I don't think there was any particular memory that caused this imagination. Used the shortcut of negative space to do it quickly :P



 16 Oct 2015

I wanted to sketch a splash of water and ended up doing this. Looks more like a splash of blood or tomato ketchup. meh.

 

I like this one! Just make circles, draw lines inside... and keep doing it! peace. I was kind of addicted to it, and had to force myself to stop this :P




This sketch reminds me of the temple  in Mysore that I went with my sister this summer. Actually I started with a curve and then the story developed. This sketch also reminds me of many pictures of  Jahnamamu that we read as children.



 18 Oct 2015

I don't really know what is she doing, or what was I trying to do. This is a pretty awkward pose. I imagine her groaning in pain, "How long do I have to remain like this!"



 19 Oct 2015

How disfigured does he look! I was lazy today and was doing something that I do when I feel lazy, do binge watching in Youtube. I ended up watching a documentary and in the middle of it, I remembered, "I have to sketch!" So sketched the host instead ;)



20 Oct 2015

A dance step in Zumba class reminded of Charlie Chaplin. The thought of him evokes many memories and makes me nostalgic. I looked up for images, but did not have time and patience. It was a busy day. So I did a quick negative space sketch :) clever!



 23 Oct 2015
Today I wanted to draw some cartoon image. I liked this picture of Jasmine. It turned out good. I am impressed how well it turned out without any major mistake.




 24 Oct 2015
Inspired by yesterday's Google search for sketching, I search more and this time I end up searching for a deer. May be, I saw too many deer pictures shared on my Faecbook's wall. Did a quick copy from the image (source: Google Images). It was hard to do shading using ink pen though... Note to self: learn the technique to do shading using ink pen.



26 Oct 2015

It surprised how I started looking for animals to sketch. Animals are usually not my thing! This little hare is cuter and fiercer than I could sketch. (Source: Google Images)




 29 Oct 2015

I don't want to give up. But I am clueless about what should I sketch. Why worry when Google is there? I look up in Google and end up in searching for elephant images. Crazy! Why and how am I searching for elephants? And I end up reading a full article on elephants.




30 Oct 2015

Commitment calls. I pick up the pocket sketchbook and quickly sketch the building I see from the window in front of my workspace. It looks amazing in the morning, due to the play of light and shadow and the strong lines that the morning Sun creates :)

  


31 Oct 2015

Just enjoying the ink while scribbling the tree and the landscape :) bliss.

  

Ok. that's all for inktober 2015. The take away from this experience is how much wider range I explored just by forcing myself to sketch everyday! It indeed suprised me. I hope I participate in next year's inktober with more sincerity and commitment :) See you some other time with some more sketches :) Have an awesome day!

#inktober sketch 6

I did this today with the new fountain pen that I am impressed with. Nothing new about it, I got bored, picked up the sketchbook, started doodling, and then got lost in it, thinking of the next style to do, and this is it! It looks pretty though, although nothing dramatically exciting ...

#inktober sketch 5

It was time to go to bed, and I was thoughtless. My mind was tired, of may be not doing anything so-called "productive"... And I remembered, "I did not do inking today!". But the excitement was returned with a cold, disinterested response, "Ya... I got to do something...". This sketch is an outcome of when I  wanted to sketch, and my mind and imagination wanted to go on a vacation... I just sat on my bed, and sketched the scene in front of me me, i.e., the workspace in my room mechanically. It was good for a quick sketch, but there were some significant errors that only I know :) 

I am atleast happy that I did it despite the weird disinterest :)

#inktober sketch4

                                     

Ok. Although the day was dull and cloudy, I managed to do something for the day, and it turned out to be good!!

First, yesterday, I was afraid I would skip, but I managed to sketch. So am happy! 

Second, this is a sketch from memory. This step is one of the dance steps of one of the Zumba instructors at Marino center at Northeastern. This step was interesting and difficult, because, it required you to move the same side of leg and hand at the same time. Usually the steps were such that you move left hand-right leg, or right hand-left leg. And this kind of step where you stretch the same side of hand and leg at the same time, was confusing! I kept replaying the step in my head after the session to think it out how can someone do the step and switch from left to right, and that too so fast. That's how the image kind of registered in my head. The pose had something admirable about it too.. It was swift, feminine, full of grace and subtlety, and powerful! So I decided to try to print this out from the hard disk in my brain some day. And today, when I did it, I kind of pleased myself. Its not bad, for a sketch from memory! Good job :) Actually, I am kind of feeling more happy now, than when I actually sketched it..

< Disclaimer: I am going to blabber about philosophy below. It does not tell anything about the sketch. So ignore it if you feel like..> 

By the way, Zumba is a dance exercise routine which incorporates different dance forms from around the world into aerobics. The exercise has a noticeable effect after a day, that it requires you to start thinking differently, and kind of unwinds your head, and then rewinds it, as if rebooting your system. The music, the rhythm, and the act of moving yourself in sync, has a different effect on your mind, in addition to the benefits of exercise.  I recently figured out from an online course, that our brain has separate sections reserved for dealing with different sensory information. The way eye department works is completely different from the way ear department works. The brain has a map in place for our body parts. And the more regularly I am attending Zumba, the more I am able to realize that physical activities like dance and sports  require as much mental energy as the sitting and thinking work require. Its just that different parts of brain deal with the processes, and they do so in different ways.  To me, being terrible at foot work, and ok at study(Read math, computer, science, research) work, the instructors always seem to be genius people. I admire their skill, energy, and the ability to function in a way different from me. I feel like revisiting the term smartness here, its not about computers, science and mathematics. It can be in any field. It requires smartness to excel in any field. So if any parents are reading it, watch how your kid's mind functions. And help him/her excel in areas suitable for such work. Imagine a world where the toppers were supposed to be the ones who were good at arts, sports, dance, music etc., and it was alright if they were terrible in mathematics, science etc. I would be a below average student in such a world. So lets try to redefine smartness and think once more before labeling someone as "not smart" and hurting their self-esteem.

Ok! signing off now, and I hope that tomorrow will be a smooth ride :)

#inktober sketch3

After last night's blog, many pictures kept popping up in my head. When I woke up this morning, this picture was alive and was demanding me to sketch it right away. 

I took some 20 minutes to sketch it. The exciting thing about this sketch is that I used a fountain pen, the old-styled calligraphy pen which one has to keep dipping in ink while writing. The feeling while drawing was awesome. I was amazed by how long the nib could hold the ink... 

This sketch impressed me on how much I have improved on figure drawing. I managed to draw clean lines in one go, and nice proportions. Yes, there were two mistakes that are obvious to me. First, the ink bled near the elbow. A note to self to be careful about bleeding for ink pen drawing. I did forget to sketch the fingers initially, but I would consider that a minor mistake.  Looks like the MFA drawing sessions and Urban sketchers Boston Meetup are doing their magic !

Feeling the pressure tonight, and the want to give up is lurking somewhere close ... Tomorrow, do not let me disappoint you :)

#inktober sketch2

I woke up this morning  determined to accomplish day 2 of inktober.. So picked up my sketchbook right after waking up, and took out the sketch pen. By the way, I  have a bed-side sketchbook now! Its funny, but the bed-side sketchbook is kind of nice.. It lets me lower my expectations, lets me doodle right after waking up, or before going to bed, or basically at any time... And even though most of the time, its just meaningless doodles, sometimes some nice stuff do come up...

So, I took out the sketchbook and pen... and now what? I decided to put a dot. and then the circles built up ... Not great, but alright... nice :)

Tomorrow, what do you have for me? Lets see ...

#inktober sketch1

Thanks my fellow urban sketchers April and Smita, I am also in for inktober :) Although I started 6 days late, I hope I will catch up by making 31 ink sketches by the end of October.

A little about Inktober. It was an initiative by an artist Jake Parker who started the idea of inking once everyday for entire october month ( http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober ) . Isn't it simple and amazing!

So here is my aim for Inktober,

1. I will draw for 15 minutes everyday.
2. I will try to expect less from myself.
3. I will be more regular on the blog ...

Enough of motivation now... Lets know a little about this sketch ... This sketch is that of a cute purple colour mini-orchid plant I have at my workspace.  Its cute and pretty tough too... The flowers are blooming for more than a month now...

One more confession, I started sketching the plant because I thought this is the simplest thing that I could think of at that moment. But nope, it was not so easy ... Don't ever underestimate plants and their texture...

Anyway, looking forward to do more and surprise myself!