Sketches of fauna: a surprise to myself

I can not emphasize enough how beautiful a blessing urbansketchers and inktober have been to me. They have so subtly and profoundly changed my approach to life, words won't be enough to express it. It has been long time I have been trying to sketch every day. I am definitely not there yet. But my frequency has improved from about two per year during the dip of the 2000s, to at least one in a week. I think it will take me at least an year to move towards sketching every single day, but I am confident that one day I will reach there.

For someone, who by nature and by conditioning tries to make a perfect piece, shifting to just doing something has been challenging. Lot of unlearning, remembering, and relearning is going into that. On many moments where I sat down to sketch, and did not have anything in particular in mind, I some how picked up a creature. It has surprised myself a lot, because I do not consider myself as an animal lover. The fact that I instinctively reach out for an animal surprises me a lot. It is a weird feeling, "Really? hmm.. interesting, but how?"  I have not still sorted the puzzle, but it is a good discovery for myself. Here are some of the sketches. Most of them are photo references, a few are sketches from real-life animals. Now, at this moment, I realised, I don't go for animals when I am out and doing urbansketching. I go for them when I am trying to sketch some idea. Hmm... interesting :)

The kangaroo was a start. I have by now, become really comfortable with the light yet bright undertone of orange pencil color followed by black pen style of sketches, although I have tried every now and then with different undertones. It allows me to let loose and later hide the trials, gives an illusion of color, and yet give a sense of completeness. I think, I am going to stick with this style for long time.

 

 

The horse and two images of a barn dog are real-life sketches. A colleague of mine was kind enough to invite me to her horse-riding session. This was the horse she was grooming before taking her for a ride. I was surprised that this does actually look like the horse I sketched. After doing a few gesture sketches during the horse-riding session, I got bored and came out to sketch the barn dog. He was so fat, overfed, and lazy! He would sleep, and then turn around, and sleep again! There were two cats too, but did not get enough time to sketch them.

 

 

The weaver bird (Baii Chadhei in Odia) and Greater Coucal (Kumbhatua in Odia) are an attempt to participate in Worldwatercolormonth in June of 2018. I did the sketches entirely using watercolor brushes, without and pencil and pens. That kind of surprised me about my muscle memory. I had learned such painting when I was a kid, and lost the habit since then. I loved both the paintings and had a great time painting them. But a few more paintings later, I stopped participating in the month long painting challenge. And funnily enough, I am not ashamed about it , like "whatever..".

I love watching squirrels. I think squirrel-watching deserves to be a hobby in itself :) They also bring fond memories of drinking juice in the huts near canteen in IIIT, the backyard of our village, the coconut trees in our Aunt's backyard.

I don't remember why I wanted to sketch a panda, but its outcome was impactful. Everyone agrees that Instagram likes are kind of addicting. There have been many sketches in which I have spent significant amount of effort, but have got much fewer likes than the panda and squirrel, into which I put very little effort. They made me appreciate the lack of connection between effort and outcome. It happened around the same time, when I was puzzled by similar scenarios at work. What I considered hard work was not being appreciated so much, but what I did not give much thought into, and just did without thinking much, garnered a lot of appreciation. And when I discussed this with my manager, he said, "Just take it when it comes". And I am slowly learning to appreciate outcomes as they come and not read too much into them.

 

I kept thinking of a herd of elephants for some reason, and was compelled to pull out my sketchbook and sketch them one day. It was not perfect, I did not have the right pen with me, but "Hey! At least I did it!"

 

One day, I went to an urbansketcher meetup at Westlake Station, Seattle. While I was sitting in a corner and sketching, a lone explorer pigeon kept coming close to us. I did a few gestures of the bird, but could not do any proper sketches because of its constant rapid movement. So, I had the remainder of the page empty, adding "sketch a pigeon" to my TODO list. I sketched it recently, after many many days.

I am still not over the "its interesting...." mode. Let's see if I am sketching more of animals in future :)

"Game of Thrones": apprehension to curiosity to obsession to withdrawl symptoms

Disclaimer: Like the books and the TV series, this blogpost is also gonna be long and windy. Read at your own risk.

I was introduced to the concept of TV Series when I moved to IIIT Hyderabad, and had access to large amount of free media via local network. "Friends" and "The Big Bang Theory" were already series taken for granted. Although "Dexter" was the series every one around me was obsessed about, "Game of Thrones" had started gaining my friends' interest, and people would talk about it every now and then. I, knowing my obsessive nature, tried to consciously stay away from watching any of the TV series. From my initial exploration, I found it bizzare, animalistic, depressing and gross. I did not understand why anybody should watch it. But I decided to read the books, since everyone said it has good content. I went to the library and got one of the book. I tried reading upto first 50 or 100 pages, but could not understand a thing. The book lay there next to my pillow for days without being touched. So I realized it is not my cup of tea, and returned to the library. (I realized , may years later, I perhaps picked a book in the middle of the series. No wonder it did not make sense to me.) That was the end of the chapter, .... for the time.

Then I moved to Boston. There I felt the craze among people over the series and the books. One of my colleague said, that he likes the depth of the characters and that no one is completely good or bad. Although I took a mental note of it, I knew I can not take the violence. Nope.

Then some time later, I started preparing for job interviews. I was doing this weird thing, that even I do not understand. I would play some youtube video on the side while practicing my codes. It kind of made me think faster. One fine midnight, while I was at it, I stumbled upon Emilia Clark's interview on Ellen's show. That led me to the episode where Daenerys burns the Dothraki and starts her own Dothraki army. It was so cool! And I was hooked! I obsessively watched all her episodes and read as much as I could. Then I would find another character interesting, and would repeat the same. Before long, I was up-to-date with the whole series. Then season 6 of the series released, and, I and my friend watched it obsessively.  

Then I moved to Seattle. I was determined to make the best use of Seattle Public Library. And I am proud to say, I am successful at doing so. The "A Song of Ice and Fire" series (the book series that the show "Game of Thrones" follows was so in-demand that I could not find a hard copy. So I borrowed the e-books. I obsessively read them, surprised myself at the speed at which I could read them. Boy! Was it engaging! I also was surprised how I developed tolerance towards reading violence. Everyone who knows the term "Game of Thrones" can be divided into two categories: the major category of maniacs who want to convert every one into the religion of GameOfThrones, and the minor category who couldn't care less about it. At this point, I successfully converted my religion from the minority to the majority. A few weeks after I finished reading all the books, the season 7 released to much fanfare, helping me quench my withdrawl symptoms. 

Meanwhile, a few interesting thing happened to me. I got introduced to urbansketchers and inktober thereafter. Soon it was October 2017, and was time to sketch one sketch every day of the October. Somehow most of the prompts reminded Game of Thrones themes. And I was not alone. There were quite a few sketchers who thought the same way, and sketched many Game of Thrones sketches. And for the prompts for which I could not find a picture immediately, I hunted down in youtube, and google books to find the right picture. Some of them were just ok, some of them surprised me, and some of them made me feel accomplished. Here are my sketches based on the prompts. I have adapted Jake Parker's style of sketching with a orange pencil at first, followed by applying ink. I liked that it allowed me to keep the sketch quick, and also let me go rough. That's why you will find orange and black sketches in most of them.

SWIFT

                      

I saw the word, and immediately thought of the phrase, "Swift as a deer". This picture is of Arya Stark from the TV series played by Maisie Williams practicing sword fight when she was kidnapped by the Hound. The character of Arya Stark, like almost all the characters, is much more nuanced and subtle in the book than the series. While in the TV, she is portrayed as a fiesty girl turned into cold-blooded assassin, the book shows her as a much more three-dimensional person. She is fiesty, and cold-blooded when comes to art of fighting, but she is emotional, and feels deeply in contrast with her rival sister Sansa. She gets angry, and forces people around her to get her way, but her father's death has not made her cold. She mingles with people very easily (unlike how it is shown in the series), and it is shown that this ability of her helps her in forming disguises. She is grounded, and focuses on the work needed to be done in order to survive, and does not even makes any big deal about it, even though she is a royal. This poem is a set of quotes taught to her by her Sword master Syrio Forel as fighting techniques. And as tragedy ensues her life, she uses these quotes at different times to face her fear at dangerous times. The quotes keep appearing throughout the book at appropriate context making Arya's story line interesting.

DIVIDED

            

I confess, I forced the fabled "Wall" into this prompt.  The giant wall made of ice to protect the realm from what lies beyond is the core of the book. What lies beyond starts as a part of myths, stories, rumours, superstitions and proceeds to reveal itself as the narrative progresses. My sketch of this one is really basic. I think I just made this one for the sake of sticking to the timeline, and was not interested in putting much effort onto it. It is funny that at that time people were drawing lot of parallels between this wall to the wall Donald Trump wanted to make between USA and Mexico border. 

POISON

 

There are lot of discussions about poisons throughout the book in the series, which is natural when the book is about scheming and killing people for power. While a lot of people dismiss poison as "women's weapon", people from the cool Dorne, study extensively on poisons, and use as an essential part of their warfare. This sketch turned out to be dull despite my sincere attempt. Still, I would like to explain a little bit about the two sketches and the quote. Tears of Lys, is the poison that was used to kill a very able prime minister (The Hand, in "A Song of Ice and Fire" terminiology), which creates chaos like a wildfire. It is used throughout the series for killing various people and when people detect it, they deduct that a woman or an eunuch used it.

Manticore is a poisonous mythical creature, probably inspired by preying mantis. Its specialty is that its tail looks like a human face.  I sketched from the Game of Thrones episode where a manticore was about to attack Daenerys, and the cool Barristan Selmy saved her. This is one of the scenes where the TV series shines over the book. It was a cool introduction to Ser Barristan Selmy, the bad-ass fighter of the seven kingdoms. Here is the clip.

UNDERWATER

Ah! I so wish this character were in the TV series! The sketch is a fan made sketch of the weird character "Patchface". He is named so because his face is tattooed into patches (grids) of red and green. He was supposed to be the funniest clown to entertain the King's court, but he gets lost and mysteriously reappears after few days of storm. Since then he is slow-witted, funny and weird. But he keeps singing some bizzare out-of-the-context songs every now and then out of nowhere, only to realise few chapters later that he was foreshadowing some important events yet to happen. His songs are a brilliant way of the author to foreshadow the events to the readers while the characters around him are clueless about it. Only Melisandre, the fire worshipper, keeps suspecting him, and finds herself uneasy around him. But even she is not able to focus her thought around him or make any sense of his songs. I think,  what Melisandre did to Princess Sireen in the TV series, will be carried by Patchface in the book. Ah! When is the next book of the series coming along?

LONG

I guess I must have had debated between Longclaw (Jon Snow's sword) and Long night. I am super proud of this sketch. I have taken this picture from one of the scenes in the TV series, where the nanny (named as Old Nan) tells these bizzare stories of long night to Bran, one of the pivotal characters. At the beginning, the stories appear as simply magical stories (Kuhuka Kahani as said in Odia) that a eccentric child is interested in. But as the story unfolds, the meaning behind them gets more and more obvious. I took quite a bit of time to do the sketch and lot of effort to write the whole story, and it was fun. Although in the series Old Nan appears only few times, the book makes good use of her as a clue. No one knows how old she is. It appears as if she has been living for really long long time. Like the European rulers, there have been many Brandons in the stark family history and Old Nan confuses between all the different Brandons. Also there is the first Brandon, Brandon the builder who has built the wall and other cool structures many many centuries ago. Throughout the book, there are scattered brief mentions about Bran the Builder, and allusion that the current Bran may be the same person as Bran the Builder, although the author remains deliberately vague about it.

SWORD

I am so glad I did not follow the series from the season 1. Ned Stark or Eddard Stark, is the ideal hero, who follows rules, has integrity, and a good ruler, a perfect man in all sense, yet ends up with a tragic, humiliating death. I can imagine, how heartbroken his fans would have been when he died, because  he was the obvious hero of the story! His brutal death is a warning from George RR Martin to readers not to root for any character. As you read his narrative, you admire him, you want to idolize him, you want him to succeed, you sympathize with him, you berate him for taking idealized impractical decisions leading to his doom, your heart breaks when he dies, and you learn that being good will kill you in this world.  Everyone dismisses him for being too ideal, and inviting death upon himself, but people subtly envy his integrity. Each one of his children aspires to match up to his ideals, constantly asks themselves the question, "What would father have done?" while tackling difficult situations. Even his enemies think of what he would have done every now and then. That is the legacy a strong person leaves behind.

Any way, why did I sketch Ned Stark (played by Sean Bean) ? I actually wanted to sketch the famous sword "Ice" which was the signature ancient sword owned by the House of Starks. It was one of the many fabled swords in the story. It is funny how the author gives names and personalities to the swords as if they had a life of their own, and the sword has its own story-line!

SHY

 

I actually wanted to sketch Brienne of the Tarth for this prompt. But I could not find a single adjective associated with her as "shy" in the book series. Every time I searched for the word "shy", I found Podrick Payne instead.  I think, this is one of my best sketches of the Game of Thrones sketches. I was surprised that it did look much like the actual picture of Daniel Portman, who played the character Podrick Payne. While in the TV series he is added for adorable comic timing, in the books he is mostly mentioned from the point of view of Tyrion Lannister and Brienne of the Tarth, and mentioned as a painfully shy person, but with a strong reflex and good fighting skills. This character is also a representative of George RR Martin's superlative story-telling skills where no single character is there for the sake of it.  Every small or big character helps move the story line further.

CROOKED

This prompt was obvious. I read the word "crooked alley" so many times to explain the city of Braavos, that I did not have to think twice before sketching this one. I sketched this from one of the scenes of Braavos, shot in Croatia. I think my disinterest and wish for quickly doing something and finish the sketch shows here.

SCREECH

Trust me, I so wanted to sketch the dragons for this prompt! I searched, and searched,  and searched, but could not find a single reference to the dragons' sound as "screech"! They were always of referred as music and song. "What the hell! Have you heard of their sound in the TV! How could they ever be songs? What's wrong with Daenerys?" That was the thought in my mind while I was desperately searching for the prompt in the book series. However, I always found the "others" consistently recurring with the term "screech". Finally I begrudgingly settled for the scene and sketched it. I found this sketch very difficult to sketch, and was not satisfied by the way it turned out. Although the TV series does a great job of depicting whitewalkers or the others, I found their description in the book much more creepy, nerve wracking, scary and bone-chilling. This is a scene where the cowardly Sam kills a whitewalker accidentally in a desperate attempt to save himself and his crush, and discovers secret weapon to kill the whitewalkers. More on Sam coming soon.

GIGANTIC

The titan of Braavos is the gatekeeper statue of the ancient city of Braavos. In the series, it is shown occasionally, when Arya enters the city for the first time, and looks at it with wonder. But that's about it. In the book, (I forgot who narrates), it is told that the giant is sleeping (or something like that, Oh. time to read the books again!) and will wake up when the city is under external threat. However, practically, the statue acts as a fort inside which soldiers can hide and attack the enemies from a safe vantage point. That's so cool!

RUN

Poor Arya. She had to keep running from one danger to another. They were two instances where she found amazing persons as guardians, and in the face of danger, they goaded her to "Run" a few moments before they had to sacrifice their own lives. First the teacher Syrio Forel, and then Yoren. The scenes were too similar with each other. The moments of her escape are profound and heart wrenching.

FIERCE

Khal Drogo is the quintessential bad guy everyone loves. He is the formidable leader of the Dothrakis, a nomadic tribe inspired by Mongolian warlords, and Native American warrior clans, well played by the actor Jason Momoa.  He is also one of the larger-than-life heroes who experiences a miserable, pathetic death. I think George RR Martin likes to give miserable deaths to heroes. There is a lot of controversy around his relationship with Daenerys among fans, where one faction swoons over their fairy tale love story, whereas the other dismisses it as stockholm syndrome. One has to read the books to take a decision. However, I hated the fact that in the TV series, his consummation with Daenerys was so brutal. I don't see any reason to discard the beautiful narrative of the novel and go for such brutality, other than a higher degree of blood-thirstiness of the directors.

MYSTERIOUS

 

Quaithe, a mysterious woman who keeps appearing in front of Daenerys, every now and then, to warn her. I picked this picture from the series, in which she appears only once while wearing a red mask representing her mystery. But in the books, she is much more mysterious, and ethereal. She keeps appearing to Daenerys  in mysterious ways and gives her warnings through prophecies, and acts as a guardian angel to her.  Now I think, I should have also written some of her prophecies. One of her prophecies that is my favourite:

"To go north, you must journey south, to reach the west you must go east. To go forward you must go back and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

FAT

Well, Samwell Tarly was the obvious choice for the prompt "fat". I took this picture from the scene of his first appearance in the TV series. I tried to capture his scared look, it turned out to be scary look instead :). He kind of looks like Kung Fu Panda here.

Introduced as a fat, cowardly boy to the story, he quickly forms a crucial part in finding the solution to the whole whitewalker problem. The actor John Bradely does a perfect portrayal of the character. He is a character about whom I won't compare between book and TV. In addition to acting as a voice of reason to Jon Snow, he provides comic relief both in TV and the books. In the books, his chapters are the most fun to read.

On a digressing note, his character gave me an idea about medieval Europe and their attitude towards scholars. Ancient and medieval Indian society put lot of importance to intelligence and knowledge. Scholars and scientists highest position in the social hierarchy. The ridicule  and dismissive attitude thrown at the fat, book-loving Samwell reflects the attitude of medieval Europe towards knowledge and science, which I find quite regressive and backwards, and dissapointing.

GRACEFUL

Sansa came to my mind immediately, after I read the word "Graceful". She is one of the most gray characters in the book, making your opinion on her constantly wavering.  Making a simple innocent girl's character as gray, shows the incredible ability of the author's to understand human nature. One moment, you love her and adore her, the next you pity her, then you almost hate her, then you want to scream at her "you stupid girl!", then you want to admire her for her cleverness. Although both the TV and books evoke same reactions from you, I felt her character is more two-dimensional in the TV, the same way Arya's character is portrayed. When I read the books,  it was more obvious to me, why she was the preferred child, the subtlety of why she and Arya hated each other, why she was blindly obsessed about getting married to a prince, why she did what she did. In the books, the arc of her transition from a self-victimizing damsel to standing up for herself and for others, and taking charge is beautiful. I must say, her initial chapters, were very difficult for me to digest. I would think, "How much one can victimize herself? Common!"

FILTHY

If you don't know how to feel pity for others, you need to watch or read the character of Theomn Greyjoy brilliantly portrayed by Alfie Allen. His story line is a striking parallel with Jon Snow, one of the characters leaning towards positive side of gray and slowly emerging to be the protagonist in the books, and quickly made famous in the TV series. It shows the power of inner strength, and how it shapes your life. Both of Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy go throught severe identity crises while growing up and face similar choices. Theon Greyjoy is given many options, and he takes the decisions that leads to his misery. He is one of the characters where the author shines at offering nuances. While reading his chapters, you see why he acts the way he does, you can reason why he is not right, or is right, yet you can see his perspective.

TRAIL

  

 This is the sketch of Jon Snow exploring the other side of the wall in the mission with other black brothers. Sigh, it does not look like Kit Harrington, one of the fan-favorites. While in show, he is shown as the brooding, melancholic hero (in the book too), the book has much more subtlety. I wish they had shown his bond with his dire-wolf Ghost, and his wolf-dreams and his green-seer abilities. I liked his arc in the book slightly better, because of showcase of extra skills and strengths of the characters. While the directors try to project him as a hero, the book does a honest attempt to display both his strengths and weaknesses. 

DAENERYS

This was not part of the prompts. Why I sketched her? Because I had to! How could I miss her out when I drew all these characters. While her rise was a kind of a story of an underdog is phenomenal, what I like about her character is how she silently watches while people go on and on waiting for the right moment, and then BAM! and she arrives, everything changes in a flash. Her major scenes in the movie are well-done, especially they are not yet there in the book. The last scene in the book series is where she is escaped with her dragon "Drogon" and is trying to find her way back. Ah! When will the next book come?! While the rest of the stories branch out with each of the stark children, Daenerys, and Tyrion, are the two other characters driving the major plotline. In fact, there is a lot of foreshadowing about her rise subtly indicating that she is one of the protagonists. Although I loved her character on TV, I found myself being disinterested in her initial chapters, and slowly gained interest on her story-arc in the books. Also, if one pays attention, you would find subtle connection between Jon Snow and Daenerys as complimentary personalities, and going through similar journeys. I feel disappointed on the tweaks done by the TV directors for her storyline. I feel they are confused about this character the most.

Well, I surprised myself at the number of sketches I have done for these characters, and how long this blogpost turned out to be. If you have managed to stay with me until now, thank you! And, I am glad to resume this blog after so long!

 

inktober 2016! Sketches 1 - 4

Wow, it has been more than a year already! This is how procrastination of a few days extends up to a year... But the good news is that I have been sketching more frequently, and more regularly and more industriously. I am on instagram (@swagatikamsj) now and it is very convenient to post my sketches on it. My goal is to sketch every day, for whatever time it may be. Although, I am yet to achieve that goal,  I think I am slowly making progress towards it, despite my resistance against discipline :D 

This year's inktober has been great ! This time Jake Parker had set up some inktober 2016 themes, one for each day.  At first, I did not like them because many of them had negative tone to them. But then, I thought, lately I have been focusing more on  watching and sketching or doodling. This would be a good chance to think, imagine, and put it on paper.  And I got started with lot of enthusiasm.

1.FAST I enjoyed doing the Cheetah. I could not think of anything else for "fast". I had exactly this posture in head, and I hunted for it in google images until I found what I was looking for. It took a while to get the proportions right.  I added the dots and lines to the end to create an illusion of motion. I signed off with excitement for the second day!

2.NOISY I was very excited about this theme. I got this idea when I was in Hyderabad. Evenings at Indira Nagar used to be crazy with high volume of traffic increasing pollution, noise and temperature.  The moment I entered IIIT campus from market, I used to feel as if I entered a different world. The temperature dropped, pollution vanished, and it was serene. Then I imagined, how the trees on the highway might be feeling especially because they have to sit there all the time! I was so curious that later I took an online course to know more about how trees perceive. Sadly, it turned out trees do not have any ears, they cannot listen. :( They can perceive light, touch, smell, taste, but not sound. Anyway, the picture stuck to me for long, and I am glad I put it down on the paper.  I enjoyed doing the trunk of the trees, and customizing their expressions. This is one of the positive experiences I gained from inktober. It helped me to put those ideas on paper that I kept procrastinating with a fear of not doing justice to the idea. Now that I look at it, I feel, 'Could have I done better than this?' Answer is, 'No. I love this! In fact, I am amazed by this!'

3.COLLECTING I love this sketch! It is so cute! I have many reasons to love this! I am satisfied with the posture of the girl. I tried to copy the orange pencil color style of Jake Parker and I love it. It brightens the scene, and it is light enough that I do not have to erase it. That lowers the pressure a little. I remember, a few years back I got a feedback from a traveler in train that my sketches lack depth. I think I could overcome that in this sketch. I enjoyed doing the trees, their trunks, and the backdrop of the orchard. It was meditative. The sketch brought back beautiful and vivid memories of Phulbani, the town where I have spent the most beautiful years of my childhood. The memories of mango trees, the sultry summer, raja doli, and rain, collecting thuri amba (small mangoes, that you have to eat by sucking the juice out of it instead of cutting it), all were playing in my head when I was doing it. I want to keep staring at this sketch, keep remembering those memories, and want to dive into the orchard exploring what's beyond like I did in Phulbani.

4. HUNGRY After the excitement of the first 3 days, pressure started building in, my expectation rose up. I wanted to sketch a little kid starving. But I was afraid of doing it. Then at the end of the day at work, I told myself to just do it instead of worrying about doing it well. I did not have my sketchbook in my bag on that day. So I got creative and picked my sticky notes and quickly sketched it on pen. I felt relieved with the little creative idea here.

 

It was a good beginning. Last year, my goal was just to do something, even if it meant just a quick doodle. This time, every sketch I put down on paper, came from a deliberate idea. I always knew what I wanted to do before I sketched. I searched on internet and sketched some photographs, then I used this as a chance to ink my imagination and memories. Some themes forced me to think hard, and put effort to think of a scene.  I felt, there was an improvement in my sketches too. Overall, it was a great start.

#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!