#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!

The memories of Tokyo trip: "a sketch at the airport" and "the night at the hotel"

It was my first international trip, a year and a month ago, to be precise. I was excited and nervous. Everybody has their own worry during travel to a foreign land. But all I worried about was having stomach problem. I just prayed not to have a stomach trouble during the trip. :P I was surprised at my confidence on traveling alone, living in a hotel alone, being in a foreign land where people do not speak a language you can understand. And the trip was wonderfully rewarding ... I managed to grab my notebook and sketch these two sketches during the week-long trip that kind of passed in fast-forward manner. 

A sketch at the airport

  

The above one was at Hyderabad airport. Sitting right next to the terminal gate, waiting for the announcement to board the flight. Hmm... I am on time. Check. I have all my stuff with me. Check. I got the calling card. Check. Now what to do? Open the sketchbook! As I sketched this semi-bald man sitting in front of me, I was totally scared... What if he gets up and puts a punch on my face? And I was also conscious of people sitting behind me watching me ... ehh.. I don't like that guilty feeling. Anyway, I managed to pass my time. Later on, a passenger while I was traveling on train, saw this and made a comment, "It lacks depth.  Everything seems to be on one plane." Totally agree. and working on it!

The night at the hotel

 

This one is very close to my heart. I returned back from the conference venue soon enough. It was my presentation day. Things were fine. But as soon as I came out onto the street, everything was silent, not many people on the road, train was empty, it was getting dark quickly, the atmosphere was foggy, as if some one put a dark curtain ( I have experienced fog before ... but this was different) ... Everything was gloomy and depressing. I had to prepare for the next day. But I could not. It was an awful feeling, I wish no one ever experiences. I could not go out at night too, since it was getting late and cold, plus Japan being a morning country, people went to bed early. So I sat down and sketched my room. And thankfully, I felt relaxed and could afford a good night's sleep after sketching it. 

While I was booking hotel room, I read from many internet sources that Japanese rooms are really small. But I did not expect them to be this small! It was hi-tech, but small. Even smaller than my IIIT-hostel room. The room was pretty much what is in the scene. Behind the wall, there was this tiny bathroom, with a tiny hi-tech basin, a tiny tub and a tiny hi-tech toilet. To the left, there was a small TV and a narrow desk attached to the wall. The room ended with the bed. :) My small cozy home for the week :)

Anyway, the next morning, fog lifted, like someone lifted up a curtain from stage. And the rest of the days (and nights) were just fine :) 

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