Inktober 2018 - cruising through : day 11 to day 20

Continuing my journey of last Inktober blog post in which I shared my journey with the first ten Inktober sketches in 2018, today I am going to share my journey with the next ten sketches. On hindsight, I think I did some good sketches for the period from day 11 to day 20. Here is the Inktober 2018 prompts by Jake Parker for your reference.

Well, let's dive in!

11. CRUEL

 

I read the word "cruel" and I knew I wanted to draw Mother Gothel from the amazing Disney movie Tangled. Here is a clip if you want to have a sneak peek of the character, checkout this Youtube video. Checkout the movie trailer here. It is a great movie for kids and an entertaining one for adults; a visual treat for everyone for sure.

Coming back to the sketch, I quickly picked one of the images of Mother Gothel raging with anger. I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of the portrait I could achieve with little effort. I had a feeling that all these days of practice are paying off now and reflecting in my art works. It is a nice feeling to experience the effortlessness.

12. WHALE

In school, I only knew that the blue whale or Nila Timi (ନୀଳ ତିମି) is the largest mammal in the world. It did look like fish.  But I did not know much about the animal until I watched Finding Nemo during college with my friends. I love the simple yet profound message that the clip conveys in this clip.

Wow, a theme is developing in this post. Lot of flashback, animation movies and good memories are coming back. In the movie it is portrayed that they are wise and helping creatures in contrast to sharks which are always portrayed as ruthless villains. Any way, fast forward to a few years, I started obsessively watching Planet Earth and other similar series by Planet Earth, and learned a little bit more about the whales.  I zeroed in this image because I felt fascinated by the energy, fun, and ecstacy of jumping in the water and I wanted to capture the moment. I had fun trying to sketch the lines, the waves, and the water droplets. Sketching the water droplets was an interesting challenge. I also feel satisfied by the look of the sketch, partially because I was sketching in this bright white notebook and liked the shine of the page.

13. GUARDED

I tried to search for an interesting picture for the term "guarded", but my mind kept going back to the 

guards of the huge prison in which Tai Lung was held captive in the Kung Fu Panda movie. I googled and ended up learning the name of the prisoner, "HUNDUN"! I was able to sketch the character pretty quickly, without much hassle, and it turned out nice, that too with the right expression. 

On a side note, Kung Fu Panda is a great movie filled with lots of fun and inspiration in addition to amazing visual storytelling. I love the concept that Master Oogway tries to convey when he says, "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." I have always been intrigued by it and keep going back to the message every now and then. I can not help but narrate the plot here. So, if you want to avoid being spoiled,  please skip the next paragraph.

Master Oogway reveals to his student Shifu that this mystery man called Tai Lung who has been in prison for long long time is going to be free. Oogway and Shifu are of opposite temperaments. Oogway is this cool zen-like person, whereas Shifu tries to control and fix everything. As soon as Shifu hears the news, he sends a messenger bird to tighten the security of the prison. The bird meets Hundun and other guards of the prison who are obviously too proud of their advanced security measures. They bully the bird and in the process, a feather of the bird falls in the fancy cage in which Tai Lung was locked in. This triggers the whole chain of events eventually freeing Tai Lung and creating havoc. I find it to be such beautiful and nuanced narrative of the situation. Had Oogway not told the vision to Shifu, had Shifu not tried to prevent the situation, none of this would have actually happened! Such a brilliant plot point and story telling!

14. CLOCK

Ok, although it is enticing, it is time to come back to real world. I did think drawing a clock tower would look nice, but I found it too boring. I thought of exploring the history of clocks and making a collage of different clocks over time. Even though it was not an artistically very challenging, it was an interesting collage making process.

15. WEAK

The term "weak" reminded me of this quote from beautiful trilogy called Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi. I absolutely love this quote. It makes so much sense to think people in terms of strong or weak instead of good or bad. We all want to be good, we all want to think that we are good, and bad people are others, and often out there somewhere. But is that true? No. Will our ego allow us to see the bad in ourselves easily? Difficult. So, instead if we ask ourselves, "Am I being strong or weak?", won't we get a better perspective of things? Let's do it now onwards. Let's ask ourselves every now and then, "Am I being strong or weak?"

On a slight diversion towards the story, Amish does a great job of bringing Hindu mythology and our ancient history to Indian youth in a beautiful way. Although there is general critic on his writing style, Shiva trilogy tries to make Indian youth curious about Indian history, heritage, mythology; and does a great job at that. Even though it is about Shiva and Sati, who are essentially Hindu deities, the narrative is pretty secular, and I encourage people from all religions to read it. It is a beautiful invitation to explore our rich past, and shape our future.  It is a fantasy, not a history. But it will successfully take you into a beautiful journey that will give you glimpses into the glorious past of the ancient civilization called India, and will leave you wanting to know more, and wanting to feel proud.

Now, back to ground work. I liked the calligraphy.  Every time I write some nice quote, I tell to myself, "I need to take calligraphy lessons." and that never happens. The page looked empty after the writing, and I wanted some theme to be present in the background. I searched for Tibetan Buddhist monks, zeroed in one of the images, and sketched it. I liked the faded appearance of the background that is actually a foreground. The sketch makes our attention to constantly shift between the text and the image. I felt excited about the effect. Now coming to thing of it, I should do more sketches/paintings of similar theme. 

On that note, let's move on to the next theme of Inktober.

16. ANGULAR

I was annoyed by this term. "Do you call it a theme?",  I thought. I even looked at the instagram posts shared by other people for the day 16's theme. Nothing resonated.  The word "momentum" kept tagging itself with the word "angular". So I decided I will sketch something about angular momentum. I was thinking of a geometric diagram, but I found this nice sketch of an ice skater spinning and trying to adjust her body in order to conserve angular momentum. So here it is! Thank God, it was not as boring experience as I had expected.

17. SWOLLEN

I was traveling a lot in those days, and my feet were getting swollen easily because of constant sitting. It was a funny experience, it did not hurt, but it did not feel alright either. So I googled for the images of swollen feet and quickly sketched one. It was again an easy sketch; it did not require a lot of effort or emotional engagement; but it definitely captured my mildly annoying experience.

18. BOTTLE

"Who on earth gives a theme called bottle! Are you mad?" This is what I thought when I read the theme. I just put the plastic bottle near my bed on the table and quickly traced the structure. Boring and frustrating like anything. Ah. Then I look for others' posts, and people have done such amazing jobs for this stupid mundane theme called "bottle"! Look here!

I felt ashamed. Perhaps, I was not motivated enough, perhaps I was just trying to reach the deadline and not really create anything, perhaps I was letting the general stress around me suppress my creativity.

19.  SCORCHED

 I wanted to capture the scorched land in summer. After a quick search online I zeroed in this image. I was expecting to see images from India, but I was surprised to see similar situations in Brazil as well. My ink pen was running out of ink, and this unknowingly created a nice effect. It did take a little bit of mechanical effort, but turned out to be alright in the end. I don't feel proud of this sketch in particular, but it feels nice to have done something I would have never attempted otherwise.

OK, moving on to the last sketch of the post, if you are still with me this far.

20. BREAKABLE

I don't remember my search process for this Matki Phod event. But I am happy to try out this sketch even though it is a little bit messy. Drawing the sprouting water from the matki (earthen pot) was an interesting challenge.  Here is a quick narrative about the history Matki Phod events for those who do not know about it.

Krishna (a Hindu deity) loved butter so much that, he would gang up with his kid friends and try to sneak on everyone's house and try to break open the earthen pots containing butter that were safely stored high above ground.  People in western India celebrate this naughty nature of him, by organizing Matki Phod (break the pot) events on Krishna's birthday (Janmashtami or Bhadrava Krushna Ashtami, or the Ashtami or 8th day of Krushna Paksha or the waning moon in the month of Bhadrava, the 5th month in Hindu lunar calendar). Young people form a pyramid and try to break open the pot hanging high above the ground. I have never attended any such event, but seen a lot on TV, and I am sure this would be a fun and energetic event.

--x--

Well, that's it! If you stayed with me until now, thank you for your patience! This post did turn out to be a reference to many books and movies and also brought back many nostalgic moments to me. Looking back, it was a nice experiment in which I sketched stuff I would not have cared to sketch or explore otherwise.  But I must confess, I kept feeling frustrated by mundane themes and also felt bogged down by the whole exercise of sketching in order to just achieve a deadline.

That's all for today; will get back soon with the last phase of Inktober 2018!

Inktober 2018 - beginning : day 1 to day 10

I was determined to finish all the 31 days of inking the last Inktober. I prepared sheets of paper, folded and collated into a notebook, fixed them with a paper clip, noted down the prompts by Jake Parker, and I was ready. I wanted to sketch for all the 31 days this year. So I decided not to go very fancy, and to stick to minimal amount of sketching so that I don't burn out and not sketch any more.  Here are the Inktober prompts given by Jake Parker.

Most of my sketches are a result of search in Google Images and copying them. There are a few though that I have sketched from imagination. Now, let's dive in!


1. POISONOUS

 

I found it odd that quite a few of the prompts had negative meaning. But only thing I could I remember for the prompt "poisonous" was a snake, and here it is, snake with head up, sniffing with its tongue.

 

2. TRANQUIL

 

This is a sketch from imagination. Although it was a sketch with less lines, and I finished it with little effort, sketching the ripples in the pond felt nice.

3. ROASTED

 

I was not able to imagine much for the context of "roasted" and quickly drew some roasted almonds. The default color matched with the color of almonds. But, I felt the lack of a sense of accomplishment, which kind of got repeated for the next few sketches.

4. SPELL

 

How can I hear the word "spell" and not think of the Harry Potter series? I did not have any picture in particular in mind. I googled for the word, and selected the picture that I liked. Although Emma Watson looked amazing in the original picture, it was from an awkward angle, and I struggled to get the features right. I messed up her mouth badly. Note to self: practice sketching mouths and  teeth of people.

5. CHICKEN

 
Well, "Chicken" was a very straightforward prompt. I searched google images for chicken, and picked the image I liked the most. I loved how it turned out, a nice composition worth framing.

6. DROOLING

 

I knew I wanted to sketch a baby drooling. But Google kept giving me images of dogs drooling. It took me a little bit of searching before I could find an image that I liked. It was both fun and challenging to sketch a baby.

7. EXHAUSTED

 

Ha! I had fun sketching this one. I tried my best to imagine my workspace and me taking a nap out of exhaustion. I think the proportions could be better, I am happy how it is able to capture the emotion. When I shared this picture in Instagram, it managed to evoke reaction from quite a few people. Looks like I am not the only one who constantly feels exhausted.

8. STAR

 

I think it took me a while to decide what to sketch for the prompt "star". I did not have tools to ink stars in an entire night sky since I was traveling. Frankly, I found it boring. After pondering for a while, the idea of sketching the 5-stars came to me like lighting a bulb. I was excited and proud of the idea! Even though in terms sketching it is trivial, I am willing to sell this sketch the most out of all the sketches I did in this Inktober. Before the technological revolution happened, the term "star" was used in a very few social annotations: celebrities popular with masses, and rating to hotels and restaurants. Online business systems adapted the rating system, and it is prevalent through all the online business forums.

The 5-star system is used to moderate the quality of a business by aggregating information from the users. In its essence, it is very democratic and in my opinion it is a good measure for maintaining the quality of businesses. If you are someone who uses technology a lot, you know how much we use it.  We rate places we visit, movies we watch, drivers we ride with (and drivers rate us), apps we use, products we buy, and the list goes on. In a 5-star rating system, anything below 4 is average or not good. So everyone who is subjected to the rating strives towards 5. And it is shaping the overall attitude of both consumers and providers. For example, a driver cannot cheat the customer to a longer route to a destination. Just dropping the passenger is not enough; s/he needs to be polite and occasionally be able to engage in interesting conversation. A passenger is not doing any favour to the driver. They need to behave themselves too; being late, being rude, or being intoxicated is not an option any more. I am yet to find a side-effect of it; but I certainly think it is a very good system to maintain the integrity of services.

9. PRECIOUS

 

I have never watched the "Lord of the rings" (Fans, please don't hate me!). But I am somewhat familiar with the ugly old creature called Gollum. No matter what I tried to come up with, I could not. I had to sketch Gollum. But, I hated sketching the ugly thing. I wanted to quickly finish it and get done with it. Yuk! My haste and disinterest shows in the sketch. Ya, this is a sketch I am not proud of.

10. FLOWING

I am glad I had something nice to sketch in the next prompt. I did ponder over different concepts, but quickly made up my mind to sketch a waterfall. I explored a few images on Google and converged on this one. Trying to capture the fluidity and transparency of water with just a brush-pen was challenging. I was immersed in doing this one and am happy the way it turned out.

Although I had started sketching one sketch every day, by this time, I had started sketching 2 to 3 sketches in a day with a gap of few days. I was already 9 days late, yet I was not feeling concerned. Having to stick to a timetable was annoying and boring. It felt more fulfilling to draw them all together in a span of few days. But I held on. 

More on my next Inktober sketches, coming soon!

PostIt Notes: An interesting attempt to be creative while being busy

I got very busy at work for a few months in 2018. I took up a large project to shoulder on. While overall it was a great experience, days and nights were busy in a consistent manner. I would not get much time to sit and sketch. Sometimes, while ruminating or solving a problem, I would listen to talks, or doodle on my notepad or a sticky note. One day, my idea bulb lit. Ting! "I can save the sticky notes! We will figure out later how to use them. Let's do this!" So I started saving the sticky notes after doodling on them. Some of them were words randomly jotted down while listening to talks, some were random doodles while trying to process my thoughts, and some were sketches of objects lying around me.

Later, when I got time, I revisited the notebook where I had patched them, and decorated organically  with wherever my fingers took me. I liked the experience. It was fun to see how my fingers will surprise me.

The above one had lot of text, and I was self-conscious about people reading the texts. When I started inking on the page, I intended to cover the text with doodles. But somehow that did not happen. The final sketch looked nice as it was, and I did not want to add more details any more. I am glad I did not.

There was a point where I would put down my pen on the sticky note, and all that would come out would be ugly, squiggly, clumsy spirals. I was ashamed of them, and worried too. I kept thinking, "What has happened to me? My creativity is suffering. Is it worth being this busy?" So, when assembled this collage of doodles, I tried my best to hide them, with structured blocks. It looked nice enough. Then ideas sparked. I got dragonflies from Google Images, pasted them, painted them, and added sparkles on them. Basically, I tried everything to hide the squiggly doodles. :D

 

Well, this collage was not any different from the previous one. But the style turned out to be different. I enjoyed putting the white circles. The white circles and golden edges bring a sense of calm. I like this one the most so far for the same reason, for bringing a sense of calm to the chaos.

This one is sketches of objects that came on to my line of sight when I looked for a subject to sketch impusively. The fact that I was sketching on sticky notes made it easy to just sketch the shapes without adding a lot of expectations. Each of the objects were drawn at different points of time, and at different places. I painted them from memory later after making the collage using crayola markers, and later spray painted them. It was a nice exercise to liven up still life sketching.

This collage was a mixture of objects and doodles. After laying them out in a nice order, I started experimenting and let the ideas develop as I went on. It was the most difficult one among all of the sketches here. Making the large squares needed lot of carefulness. I had to wait for each layer to dry before I applied the next stage. So it did take me quite a few days to finish this. After completion,I like how stylish it looks.

In the end, I am proud of the whole exercise  and how it turned out to be. It broke some of my bad patterns and also helped me notice what I enjoy the most.  I learned how to make time for enjoyment when I am busy. I learned to plan my project into small sections, and collect them later over time instead of doing everything in a single block of time. Although the execution was planned, the act of sketching and painting was spontaneous and I allowed myself to explore and surprise. It was a very nice feeling. I hope this experience and learning seeps into other aspects of my life too.

I am still doodling on sticky notes and saving them instead of throwing them away. However, I think I am done with this style of 2x3 grid for now, and may have to invent a different pattern if I want to make good use to them.

The serene Lake Union

When I first visited Seattle, I was not impressed by the city. It did not have the subtle delicate beauty of Boston. There are skyscrapers everywhere which do not create a sense of aesthetics. I was slighted underwhelmed. But I feel as if the soul of Seattle took it as a challenge and did everything to prove me wrong, and slowly made me fall in love with it. My journey in Seattle has been positive and enriching in many many ways for which I can never be thankful enough. As I was looking for a subject to write my next blog post on, I noticed that I have done many sketches around Lake Union, one of the many water bodies of the Washington state. So I am going to take you in a tour to Lake Union in Seattle!

Here is the Google map of the Lake Union. Seattle seems to have developed around the lake. Every time I look at the map of the lake, I can not dismiss the thought that it kind of looks like a female reproductive system. :-| But, the lake is beautiful from all directions and invites you into a different aspect of the city. I have highlighted the point of views from which I did each sketch over time. Let's get, set, and go!

Lake Union, Seattle

1. Lake Union from Westlake on a summer afternoon.

 

In summer, everybody is outside trying to get the best out of the pleasant and short-lived sunny weather. The lake is filled with sail boats through out the day. It was a very pleasant watch from my Westlake apartment. One could sit and watch the boats floating around, racing all day. There are parks (South Lake Union Park, and Gas Works Park) to sit close to the waters and enjoy the view as well.

2. Downtown from GasWorks Park

 

 

Soon, I joined UrbanSketchers Seattle, the first Urbansketchers group. Urbansketchers started as a small idea of Gabriel(Gabi) Campanario in Seattle, and slowly had become a worldwide phenomenon. People all over the world were flocking in groups in different city corners and sketching away. 2017 was the 10th year since the phenomenon started.  In order to commemorate the 10th anniversary, 10x10 workshops were organized in Seattle and in other locations. I went to Gas Works Work to attend one of the many workshops about perspectives organized by Gail Wong. She was an amazing teacher and I learned a great deal about doing perspective sketches. You can have a clear view of the downtown seattle from the Gas Works Work. I bet it looks great at night, although I am yet to go there during night.

3. Aurora Bridge

 

In one of the meetups in Fremont I met an urbansketcher who was sitting next to me and sketching the same subject as I.  It was nice to see different approaches to sketch the same thing. After the meetup, I went to a grocery store nearby, and met her again. We ended up hanging out, and she took me to one of the Seattle's famous place, the Theo Chocolate Factory. A few weeks later, she was leaving Seattle, and wanted to hang out with me before she left. We had nice breakfast in one cool breakfast restaurant in Fremont, and we decided to go to Gas Works Park. Both of us wanted to find a spot close to water. I started hunting for a spot close to water. I was sure there must be some spot where you can reach the water, even though I had not seen it. Luckily, we did find a spot close to water. It was a small abandoned corner next to a very popular viewing point, and I was surprised that not many people were on it. It was a sunny summer morning, water was at the right temperature to dangle the feet inside. So we sat there and I sketched this view of Aurora Bridge and the lake. The feeling while I was sketching was surreal. The excitement of being next to the lake dangling my feet in it, watching the ripples, ducks gently floating along the waves, people kayaking and driving boats, sound of birds flying around, the sweet breeze, the sense of comfort around a stranger, a sense of surprise and puzzle to be considered important by someone I met only once, is all too vivid to me. By the time I was done sketching and started painting, clouds had covered the sky completely. So although I started with the blue, I had to tone it down to reflect the gray sky. I had heard from other artists fussing about how the lighting changes and they have to be really careful. I appreciated it on that day.

4. The Ballard Locks

One day, my colleague who had recently moved to Seattle told me about the Ballard Locks and how the engineering behind it was interesting to him. I was surprised that I did not know about the place yet, and I decided to go to see it sometime. Coincidentally, the Urbansketchers meetup happened in the same place the very next weekend! It was really interesting to watch the engineering. The locks were built in 1917 as part of the project to connect Lake Union with Puget Sound to the east and Lake Washington to the west. The purpose of the lock was to make up for the water level difference between the lakes and puget sound, and also to not affect the salinity of the lakes. Learn more about it here. 

This sketch is not of the locks though. It is of a bridge that lifts up to let the boats pass by underneath it, and when it is lying flat, it acts as a rail-road.

5. Lake Union from Amazon Dawson

 

Oh, I can't tell you how proud I am of this sketch! I had to go to one of Amazon's buildings named Dawson to attend a training for a few weeks. I would admire the view from my training room. From that point, the whole lake was visible! "I need to sketch this", I said. And I kept saying it until the very last session. But I had to sketch it after the last session was over. I stayed back after the session, and sketched the view. One can never do enough justice to the breathtaking view. It spanned, Queen Anne and WestlKe to the west, Fremont and Gas Works Park. I also felt very lucky to have access to the view and sketch the awesome view.

6. South Lake Union Park

for the first 5 months of Seattle, I always walked past the west side of the lake to my  office. I would think of sketching this view, but, well, there was always something way more important. Fast forward to two years later, I started joining a writers' meetup in SLU. After one of the meetups on a sunny Saturday, I decided to visit the SLU park to, you know, say hi, and ask, "It has been long time, how are you doing?" I sat down on a bench and sketched the sunny view of the lake union from the corner. It was very windy though, my papers kept flying everywhere.

Thats' it! if you visit Seattle, you know where to go if you want to enjoy the view of Lake Union!

Jule Fest and the story of ravens

On 18th Nov 2018, I went to the newly opened Nordic Museum in Seattle along with Seattle urbansketchers after a long time. I was excited to meet the fellow urbansketchers after a long hiatus, but ... only until the previous night. The morning of the meetup though, was a different drama. I did not want to get out of bed. I just wanted to curl up inside my blanket, watch some random YouTube videos to numb down my mind, and snooze away. I was doing everything to sabotage my previous night's plan. Here is how my internal stubborn and procrastinating monologue went on.

 8AM, hmm... it s a good time to getup, let's get ready and take the D line to the musuem.

 Cool! It is so close by! 

Aah,...let me sleep a little while.

9AM, you need to get up, eat breakfast, and go!

Naaah... I don't want to go, how about I skip it today?

No, but then you won't be able to go hang out for until another month! 

OK, I guess I should go. It will be nice once I reach there, I guess...

Nooo, I want to sleeeep.

9.40AM, get up! go brush your teeth, pack your bag, eat something, take a cab!

And I jumped out, brushed my teeth, packed my bag, ate breakfast, got ready, and got a cab at 10AM.

As soon as I was out of my house, it felt different. Much more lighter and brighter. It was a sunny day. I had a cool Uber driver from South Africa who knew 10 different languages. Thank you dear driver, for giving me some nice moments and dropping me safely at my destination. I was obviously late, but was glad I got out of bed. It was crowded outside, people were lining up to buy ticket and go inside to enjoy the JuleFest or YuleFest.

Once I went inside,  the mood was festive. People from all ages were strolling around the museum, and more people were coming in. Many were dressed in traditional costumes too. I met a few artists, busy finding spots for themselves amidst the crowd. I dodged around shops, exhibitions and people to find the boats at the end of the corridor on the ground floor.

The boats presented an interesting challenge of perspective. Having placed along a narrow corridor, it was difficult to catch them from an angular point of view. I was luckty to find a fancy wooden bench to sit comfortably while leaning against the wall. I did hesitate though for a moment wondering if it is on display and if I am not supposed to sit on it. As I settled down, I noticed some other artists already engaged in sketching the boats. Once I figured out the perspective, it was an easy work. A few visitors stopped by appreciating my sketch. I remembered, the time of 2011, the year I resumed sketching actively. I would find all these beautiful spots to sketch, but I would feel so shy and conscious of people watching me. Now moving forward to 2018, I am not only indifferent to crowd around me, I am also enjoying my interaction with them.  It is a much simpler process now. Step1: I want to sketch this spot Step2: I sketch it. Nothing in between. I think it is a good amount of progress.

Once I finished sketching the boats, I noticed I still had significant amount of time, to create one more sketch. I moved towards the entrance hunting for another spot. The beautiful statues of birds hanging from the ceiling caught my attention. I stood leaning against a wall, and started sketching the birds. The morning sunlight was reflecting through the translucent bodies and was enhancing the beauty of the sculptures. They evoked a nice visual of boats floating away in the windy sea, and sea birds soaring on the cloudy sky. The birds were a bigger challenge in terms of perspective though. Top view, angular layout, and spanning wings kind of confused me. It appeared as if they would fit into portrait mode, but they did not. I had to erase the sketches twice before finally figuring out the right perspective. 

While I was immersed in the birds, I heard a voice calling me out. I looked up and it was an old man looking at my sketch. I had a good 10 to 15 minutes of conversation with him (let's call him Uncle), and his wife (let's call her Aunty) who soon joined us.  It was so beautiful, I regret not writing down about the conversation on the same day.  Now, when I have sat down to write about it after so many days, I am afraid, I may not remember everything about the conversation. However, I will try my best to do justice to it.

So, here it goes.

I look up and say hello to him. He appreciates my sketch and says, "Do you know, they are ravens?" I did not know. I imagined that they might be some sea-birds. He said, "No, they are ravens. Look at their pointy tails. That's how you know they are ravens. They do look very similar to crows. But they are not. They are large in size, and their tails are pointy. On the other hand, crows are smaller and have round tails." Point noted.

Ravens have been an important part of Nordic folklore. To be honest, I know very little of Nordic culture. I ask to tell more. Uncle says,  they are perceived to be intelligent and wise creatures connecting the people with the spirits. Vikings used ravens a lot during navigation to discover islands. They would train ravens, and carry them in the boats while exploring. When they wanted to know if there is an island nearby, they would release a raven. If the raven returns, it implies there is no island nearby. But if it does not, then it found an island.  Noah had sent a raven to find an island when trying to escape the great flood. When it did not return, he sent a dove, which returned to him.

Then Aunty joined us. She said that ravens are very intelligent creatures and also very emotionally intelligent. The parent ravens spend a lot of time training their babies. In their backyard, a raven couple had created a nest. The baby raven fell down from the tree one day, and was trapped in a pit below the tree. Uncle decided to help it. He was worried if cats will eat it. So he shoved a broomstick into the pit, hoping that the crow would climb. Aunty was not so sure if it would help the raven. But the raven knew what to do with the stick. It climbed up with the help of the stick. Both of them rejoiced at the raven's rescue, and they continue to protect the birds whenever they nest.

I was fascinated by the importance of crows and ravens in Nordic folklore and wondered how important they are in Indian culture. I told them that although crows are not as revered in Hindu culture, in Odisha, it is believed that if a crow cries sitting on your rooftop or backyard for a long time, it is an omen that guests are going to visit your home today. They were excited to learn about it.

It was interesting for me to talk to them and learn about the stories. I was trying to retrieve all the information I had about crows and ravens in my memory while I was taking in all the new information I got. Crows being a very common place creatures in tropical India, I had taken for granted that they are bird of tropics. After I came to USA, I saw that crows were a common-place bird species too. But they prefer quiet unlike the crows in India who have adapted to urban life. I have also noticed that crows are depicted in Native American art pieces and in totem poles, although I have not researched into it. In the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series written by George RR Martin, which introduced me to medieval and ancient Europe, Sam is assigned the task to nurture and train the ravens. Ravens are heavily used to send letters across, similar to how pigeons were used in India. They were also able to say simple words (although I am not sure if it is fantasy or truth.)

On the other hand, in India, crows are associated with Shani (Saturn) as his vehicle. Saturn is considered a powerful god, who can ill-favor you. So, if you want to appease him, you should feed crows regularly. But otherwise, they are in general not given a lot of value, often looked down upon for their scavenging habits, and harsh voice. 

Uncle was nice enough to click me while I was sketching. Here is me perched in a corner while sketching the sculptures. 

As I said bye to the couple, I was excited to have finished a nice sketch as well as to have encountered such lovely people.

National Animals Series : A-1

I went to Portland recently, and met an amazing artist after a gap of two years. She told me that one of her paintings is being showcased in an exhibition in an art gallery. We went there after a full satisfying lunch. It  was a very fullfilling experience in the gallery. There were nice paintings showing the theme of conserving trees. It was interesting that each artist had a very unique style of painting the same subject. There were also large oil paintings on wooden panels for an ongoing project to preserve America's coast line, again reflecting uniqueness of each artist. But the most appealing things to both of us were the sketchbooks. There were a few tables where sketchbooks of different artists were being showcased. Each sketchbook was hooked onto an anchor securely so that visiters can browse through its pages conveniently without displacing the sketchbooks. One of the sketchbooks I saw caught my eyes. It was a tall book with top two-third portion in plain white for drawing, and bottom one-third with rules for writing. The artist had done beautiful, light botanical sketches, and wrote notes about them. I loved the idea. On my way back I kept thinking that I want to do something like that. And the idea of sketching national animals of each country stuck me. I think it was the impact of watching too many BBC Earth Netflix documentaries :D 

The next day, I had to catch up with my chores and office work. But the idea kept popping in my head. I searched, and found there are 193 countries in the world, and if I start the project I have to do 193 sketches of the animals in order finish the project. I was itching to start the project, but was constantly stopping myself from doing it because I had other stuff to do. In the end, I could not resist. Finally at 12AM on the Sunday night I opened a new notebook, and started sketching on it. Well, that's me, waking up in the middle of the night to do something completely unimportant just because it has been bugging me.

The plan is as follows:

1. I will sketch national animal of each country, by moving alphabetically from A to Z.
2. I will stick to orange pencil and black ink to keep it simple, and keep my expectations low.
3. I will restrict the orientation in portrait mode for ease of browsing.
4. I will write a few notes about the animals next to the sketch.

So far, I am liking the effect. It has been very satisfying. On top of that, I feel like I am shooting 3 birds with one arrow. I can see how well I am sharpening my drawing and anatomy skills (Drawing). I am learning about different countries (Geography). I am also learning a lot about the animals I am sketching (Biology). A little bit of research goes on every time I sketch an animal, keeping the journey interesting.

My only fear is if I will be able to complete it. Knowing my nature, I am filled with many apprehensions. What if I get bored or distracted half-way through? What if I start putting too much pressure and procrastinate? What if I don't finish? If I do one sketch a day regularly, it will take me until mid-august 2019 to finish all the sketches. Honestly, that timeline is a little bit daunting and overwhelming.  Well, that is the challenge I am going to face with this project. And fingers crossed for finishing it successfully.

A few days before I sketched the snow leopard, I watched an episode of "Tales by Light" of Netflix, where the photographer flies to Ladakh, India to catch a glimpse of Snow Leopards, and repeatedly said that the animal is "elusive". So, it was interesting to sketch the snow leopard. I instantly went into resonance, when I started sketching it. Developing the shape, outlining and shading using pencil, and defining edges and shadows using brush pen was very interesting. I felt very much in control. The feeling has sustained all over the 6 sketches I have done so far, thankfully. I loved the gaze of the Snow Leopard, focused, aggressive, and sharp. The black outline on its eyes reminded me of the black surma used by Afghan people.

As I sketched the anatomical framework, it was interesting to note how features of the animal have evolved to support it to adapt to its habitat. The paws have an extra padding to help walk in snow, the coat is white to help camouflage, the body is stocky, and lot of belly fat to protect against the cold. It was a good learning experience. I felt excited to learn more about the animals as I sketch them.

One thing I noticed that I was being anxious to finish the project right away. I was able to rationalize it soon though, and laughed at myself. Even if I stay up for 24 hours without doing anything else, I won't be able to complete this project. And here, I was somehow wanting to complete it right away. It is not a good approach towards work and projects. I have been noticing it since a few years. It also marks a shift from homework, exam, or competition based work demanding efforts in intense bursts to large projects demanding steady effort over time. I would like to expand more on the thought in another project. While, I am struggling with containing the urge to just finish everything, I think this project is also going to help me overcome this attitude.

Moving on to my next sketch, it was surprising to find that a bird is also categorized as an animal. It was the most time-consuming of the 6 sketches, but not tiring at all. I loved every bit of doing it. Bird shapes are different and more unfamiliar to me in comparison to animal shapes. I find it more comfortable to sketch animals since they have similarities to humans in anatomy. Birds on the other hand have different anatomy, and have very delicate contours. I loved the eyes though. I liked that I was able to capture the shininess. They have this intense, emotional, focused, angry eyes, I feel like if I encounter a golden eagle any time, I will just stare at its eyes. And yes, they are the second fastest bird in the world Perigree Falcon being the fastest. Now that I have done this much of research, I ask, "What is the difference between a falcon, and an eagle? And what about hawks and kites?" It turns out they are all different species. While eagles, hawks, and kites share same genealogy, falcons share the  genealogy of parrots. Each of the species have their shapes and size defined in order to enable them to adapt the best to their environment. To learn more, check out this Quora post.

 

By the time I sketched the first two sketches, I developed the impression that, "All countries must be having powerful, aggressive, and predatory animals and birds as their national anmials, isn't it?" And my next sketch (and a few more sketches thereafter) proved me wrong. When I was browsing for photographs of Fennec Fox of Desert Fox, I thought it will be an animal of the size of a street dog. Turns out, it is really tiny! It is the smallest fox with size up to 8 inches. That was a  quick breaking of my assumption! It was interesting how their ears helped them in both listening to preys, and also to help radiate heat. I am so enjoying this project!

I did not know where "Andorra" was. I went to search for "national animal of andorra" directly. And it shows cattle! Wait, does it mean cows, or anything else? Where is this country? I never thought cows will be national animal of any country. Turns out Andorra is a tiny buffer country between to large countries Spain and France, each with their own majestic history. Cattle are so useful and important part of their life, that they are declared as national animal of the country.  Meanwhile, in India, we have reduced such an intelligent, gregarious, and economically beneficial animal into a topic of politics, standup comedies, and a stereotype defined by western tourists. Time to reconsider our priorities.

I loved the shiny brownish black coat of the Sable Antelope. This beautiful animal is an endangered species with only 100 numbers remaining as per 2015 census. Their large horns were very interesting to sketch. Although I had learned that antelopes and deer are different, I was not very sure how. But now ... I know. Read more here. Both male and female antelopes have horns. Only male deer have antlers. Antelopes' horns are permanent, whereas deer shed and grow them every year. Antelopes have a straight horns, whereas deer have branched horns, as we will see in out next sketch.

Do you see the branched out antlers? Yes, and that's how you tell that it is a deer. I guess fallow deer are not different from harina(ହରିଣ)s or hiran(हीरन)s. Originally from Euarasia,they were carried around to other parts of the world with colonialism, and migration. Introduced to the Americas in 1700s, they are now the national animal of Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny archipelago nation in West Indies.  

I did feel a sense of pressure and tension by the time I sketched the Fallow Deer. So I decided, I should blog about them first, before moving on to the next half of countries that start with A.

Happy sketching! You can finish it!.

Centennial Park: and story of my guilt trips

The summer last year, I left my beautiful, lake facing apartment to move to a cheaper and smaller place in a less remote location. As I was hunting for apartments, I was delighted to see that Puget Sound is so close by! On top of that Mount Rainier is visible with all its glory! I loved the location of Lower Queen Anne and soon zeroed in an apartment. Although it is not very glamorous, I love that it is small enough for my needs, and in a safe location, plus apartment management is also friendly and genuine. And, I live close to waters!

But after I moved in, I confess I am not visiting the waters, the beach, and the park that often. Sometimes, in the weekends I have to guilt trip myself to go there. Once I reach there, I ask myself, "Why on earth don't you come here everyday?" But the pattern repeats. I stay back thinking I have to accomplish a lot, I have a lot of responsibility, only to waste time in stupid activities. The guilt trip and beating up is sometimes too much to take. I wish that whole chatter just stopped and I could seamlessly take in the view like all those joggers in the park. Funnily, all these sketches are an attempt to force myself out of my shell to go there and provide myself a nice time.

Sunset, Olympic Mountains, and Puget Sound from Centennial Park

This painting captivates the after-sunset glow of the sky, with Olympic mountains and Puget Sound taking darker tones, as the western sky kept changing one vivid palette to another. I am not sure if it was a week day or a week end, but I was determined to just go and sit there. As I sketched this, it became pretty dark, and I remember sitting on the rocks, with my flashlight on, and trying to hold on to the flying papers, and trying to finish my painting soon, while shivering in the increasingly cold wind. I felt proud with a sense of adventure, and told to myself that "I should come here more often. The time spent here is totally worth it. I must invest in this in order to rejuvenate myself."

.... Only to procrastinate until my next sketch. My frequency of visits to the park increased definitely. I remember going there in cold nights and watching the breathtaking night view, and telling myself that I should come and paint the night view. But that did not happen until the next spring. Mount Rainier was basking on the southern horizon with all its glory. I feel, this is a better view than Kerry Park. The sky was a delicate satin of pink, blue and purple. The mount was simmering with golden and silvery light. It was a beautiful evening with gentle cool breeze brushing against my face. Those few minutes of painting were of pure peace. I decided to visit more often, and my frequency increased especially since it was summer. But I still hesitated to sketch. 

I started visiting the waters, and spent more time playing with the waves, and listening to them, everytime exclaiming to myself, "Why don't I come here more often?"  I would see a distant view of the lake, and western sky while walking from work, and debate, "I should probably go take a walk. Nah... I am too hungry, I need to cook and eat first. Nah... there is too much work and too many deadlines, I need to sleep early tonight."  I would miss many beautiful opportunities of sketching thinking "I am busy, may be another time." One day, I myself was frustrated enough with the annoying inner monologue to put my sketchbook and a set of pencil colors in my bag. The following sketch  was of a beautiful, worth framing scene. The colors definitely did not do justice to the beauty of the scene. I forced myself, "Just do it, even though it does not look pretty". And here you go...

 

I remember deciding to walking out of my apartment after staying indoors for long time. I decided to explore the way south, and walk up to Belltown. It was a nice walk, with many beautiful views, full of people enjoying the summer evening. But my heart was not there. I was constantly struggling between wanting to enjoy the moment, and worrying about issues at work. On my way back, I saw this gorgeous view. Although it was getting dark, I had to sketch this one. My inner critic kind of scolded me. "Sketch it! You lazy fellow!". And I obeyed, and sat down to sketch. Sketching the tree was difficult and boring. So I hastened, to avoid the boredom. Still, I liked the way it turned out, although I think it looks better on paper. 

My frequency of visit to the park has increased slowly, although not to a satisfying level. Every time I visit there and see the vista of the lake, the mountains, the vast sky, the green grass,  and the Mount Rainier basking in all its glory as if watching over the city and guarding it from all the trouble, I remind myself. "I am so lucky to live so close to such magnificent beauty."  And I realize what Manoj Das meant when he spoke how being with nature makes you want to bow down with gratefulness in contrast to man-made things which make you want to possess ("Himalayara Himachhaya tale Masoori" in his book Antaranga Bharata).