Lately

Yesterday, I went for the movie - Dhobi Ghat, Kiran Rao's directoral debut under the Amir Khan Production Banner. The one aspect in the movie that really moved me was this relationship of an artist and his/her inspiration. An artist is triggered by a thought, idea, muse, subject, put whatever name you like. Take that source away from him and you leave him in sorrow, a heavy feeling that just looms around. At times, this feeling may devastate him or keep him alive for a closure. This feeling seems familiar to me.

Few days back, I attended the Grad ceremony for my juniors/batch mates. I wish them luck. A year has passed. A year since I graduated with my final project and the time has come to put the pieces together of my inspirations and thoughts. I can't put a time frame on it right now but the important thing is that I have started. Hopefully, a start that will see its end. Looking back at what I had done a year back and starting the book all over again seems like an endless thread. It needs a fresh start as the earlier book is getting a bit descriptive in its narrative. I have the nodes of anecdotes from my previous script and it requires to be juggled around to achieve the right flow. I did some research about how to go about it and read a few inspiring graphic novels too. I think the process needs to be a spontaneous now, after-all it has to be a harmonious play of image and text. So, sketches and storyboard thumbnails will be a good idea to put the base for the finals. I started with the character sketches of my father. 

Mukesh, the singer has always led me into the days spent with my father. His songs are like the bookmarks and when I am listening to him, it helps me alot to connect with this book  I enjoyed drawing these pages and it gave me a good jumpstart on the book. There are many other doubts in my head though - I am scared that too much of an inspiration from great works may kill my own voice. or Do I have a style of drawing? I just enjoy drawing and most of my work are realistic in its appearance. Thoughts like these often put me in a blackhole. But you just got to do what you got to do, right? I have to get some freelance work done too, to pay the bills etc. I hope I manage well and keep up with the book. More updates will come soon, probably some storyboard sketches.

Few from Bombay, one from Bangalore

Published

Two of my sketches done during Sketchcrawl 2 has been published in Time Out Bangalore -Jan 7-20, 2011. This issue focuses on the graphic artists existing in Bangalore and their take on the city's culture, lifestyle, issues and funny moments. I think its time to sketch more of the city landmarks and preserve them. Next Sketchcrawl is on 22nd Jan, sketch your city!

Thank you Time Out, Bangalore.

Delhi and dadi

These are some of the photographs and sketches from my trip to Delhi in December 2010. The first week, I was down with food poisoning. I moved to my Chacha's place and spent time with my grandparents while recovering on home food and medicines. Dadi is still dependent on the walker for her movements but she seems better now. The two cousins are quite cheery and keep the house buzzing with their playfulness. I took some photographs while I was there but the results didn't look good to my expectations. I learnt something very specific to manual slr. I was using a film roll of 200 ISO and at times I had to shoot in low light. So, I extended the ISO manually to the need. But do remember, when giving your films for wash, mention beforehand that which shots were taken on increased ISO otherwise, the photographs will suffer quite a loss. I didn't know that but its a good lesson learnt.

Sonic Tree Natives in December

This is the second time I went for the Sonic Tree Natives Jam at India Habitat Center. My friend Samia, was singing for them this time. It was a chilly evening of mid December with good music, friends and some sketches. You can see the earlier sketch here.

2011

Festivities and forwards have become a synonym for each other. Don't greet just because its in your to-do-list. Leave the mass forwarded messages behind and wish each other with what you have to say or just don't wish at all. Have a good year ahead. 1.1.11