the blend of moods

These are the few sketches I did at different point of times when I was in a bad mood, just to lighten myself up. The first two were done using oil pastels and the last two using sketch pens. I loved the way the pastel colours blended with each other smoothly and softly allowing me to experiment with variety of strokes. The sketch pens let me make textures and sharp points. Well, as I said earlier, each of them managed to magically lighten up my mood :) When I shared them with my friends, I got some amazing comments that surprised me and made me look at them again.

the stressbuster

It was a stressful night. I was finding it tough to handle myself. But didn't want to spend the rest of the night brooding over my issue. So, I picked a paper and started scratching arcs randomly. By the time I filled the sheet with arcs, I could gain my calm and was tired too... did not have the energy or idea to do more. So I decided to do the rest next day. Again, I planned this whole sketch and succeeded in implementing it :) I decided to decorate one set of arcs every day and not more than that. But there is something else I want to mention here too... Until I finished it, or... lets put it this way, until I was satisfied that I do not want/need to do more scribbles, I was constantly thinking what more can I add to it? How should I add such that it will look elegant, not messy.  That made me feel good :)

When I was done with this one, I told to myself, "No matter where I go, no matter what I do, what I become, with which people I will live with, this is one thing that will never leave my side."

Don't mess with me.

This picture of the actor Vidya Balan is a screenshot of Hindi movie Ishqiya. Although I have not watched the movie, I love its songs (Listen to Dil to baccha hai ji by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan)and love the expressions of Vidya that are so natural and makes us connect to the emotion instantly.  So on one irritable moment, I decided to sketch this portrait of hers. Liked the tough yet gentle look on her face. It was a difficult task and required a whole day and not to mention, lot of patience. Hmm...so I decided to do a particular portion everyday and won't spend more than half-an hour to complete that portion. The entire plan was clear in my head, where to start, where to end, how much time which portion will take...everything. And I completed the portrait on time! I wish, I could do such meticulous and spontaneous planning for my work... The portrait looked lady like and real, but not like Vidya Balan...Many could guess it though...but, yeah...I need to work more on facial features...

cheer up!

I woke up one morning, had to get set and go to work...but somehow my moody mind was not gearing up. My mind was shattered into many pieces of thoughts and was adamant not to focus. Then I started this sketch in an attempt to get rid of the noise these thoughts were making inside my head. I used sketch pens in this one...chose to use colours on that day just for the fact that they have this mood-brightening effect on me as I said before... I started without any prior idea about what I was going to do. But it was not as random as some of the recent ones where I just went for scribbling. And I did this in one shot. :) I liked the berries and leaves a lot, but was somehow disappointed on myself for the way the bird developed. 

That's it! My thoughts were gathered into one piece, random thoughts vanished and I was set for work :)

some other distracted moments...

Well, nothing much to say this time. This is the compilation of scribbles at some more distracted moments in an attempt to calm myself down and relax a bit... :)

I must say, the pressure of pencil tip on paper, the continuous and broken motion of pencil, the evolving lines have an amazing  effect on me in relaxing...

In a beautiful afternoon...

Mmm  ... where should I begin? Well, this is my first 'online' picture of our beautiful campus :P. The day I came to the campus, I wished to sketch certain beautiful spots. Those spots always reminded me when I pass by them that I need to sketch them. The beautiful white benches were always inviting... but I always hesitated. Sometimes I was conscious about the movement of people around me, some other times unsure of my capability. And the other day, I came out of lab with my notebook, frustrated about the fact that my experiment is not working and started walking until I got tired. Then I sat on one of the beautiful benches. It was a beautiful afternoon, the cloudy weather, the cool breeze, bringing relief in the hot summer ... and I wanted to sit there for some more time. It was then I started sketching this. That moment gave me the courage to do what I could not do for almost 2 years!

I found that it was tougher to observe the patterns and depict it when watching it in real than when copying from a photograph. Many times, I was not sure how to sketch the details, for example the intricate folds of the trunks. Another thing I would like to point out is the branches shooting vertically upwards. This is not the only tree in the campus, there are many such trees whose branches shoot straight up! I could not stop admiring Nature. She has made things so intricate yet so simple.

I tried my best to maintain the perspective, although I need to improve at depths and many more aspects I do not know yet. While I was sketching, I needed to sit and complete it as I knew that if I leave it incomplete, I would never complete it again. There was a fight going on between the Perfectionist Me and the Impatient Me ... I kept sketching until the Impatient Me won :) It was like a treat to me :) . Now I am more confident of sketching on the spot :)

Distraction

Well, as I said, I have developed this habit of drawing zigzag lines whenever I am distracted. So, this time I thought of drawing them on a single piece of paper instead of drawing here and there. So here it is ... I did not do this in one shot. Whenever I felt like scribbling, I opened this sheet and started scribbling. I went where my pencil took me with absolutely no intention of creating anything. And I went on till I calmed down. This is nothing but a compilation of random scribbles in different distracted moments isolated from each other. In the end, it looked good to me :). Looking forward to do more such sketches :)

You are free to interpret it the way you want to... :)