The Fuschia Tree

My friend Sanjana Kapur recently did an interview on me for an online magazine called The Fuschia Tree. She asked me some very interesting questions about my childhood and the sketchcrawls that I go for. You can read the interview over here - Drawing through life, it's archived under their new issue - Inertia, Being both Twice. Thank you, Sana.

Sketchcrawl 8, Lalbagh and Commercial Street

Thursday, 11th October
Nimmy and Sana hatched a plan to visit Lalbagh early in the morning at 6 o'clock to shoot a video for their travel scholarship and in this sweet little plan I was given a piece to chew on. I joined them early in the morning to draw the elders and the young ones jogging, meditating, laughing and gossiping for their healthy life. Although, my usual sketching areas have been crowded city market areas but denying the charm of twilit Lalbagh wouldn't have been fair. Covering our yawns and keeping our hopes alive we reached and soon got busy to our respective tasks. I climbed straight up a small hill to nestle myself on a stone to draw the huffing and puffing of the Bangalore crowd. Being a Thursday (office day), I knew that I didn't have much time to spend on elaborate sketches. Hence, swooshing around the photo inks was the best option for me and I didn't waste any time to get on to that. People are restless and when they have gathered with a purpose to be acrobatic in a park, then sketchers can throw of the luxury of neat sketches and better embrace the squiggly lines. I did quite a few quick sketches and spent a little more time on a couple of views. Here are the sketches of Lalbagh morning - 

Pigeons and pigeons.

A montage created out of composing quick sketches.

The moment before Sana dropped the ink on the stone.

We were there at Lalbagh for two hours and those were probably the best mornings I have spent in Bangalore so far and the blue colour stained hands were a proof. Yes, we spilled paint (honest mistake as Sana said) and while trying to clean it left it for the better or worse. Thanks to Sana and Nimmy for sharing this trip with me. 
photo credits: Nimmy Chacko

Saturday, 13th October
I remember when I had first joined Srishti, we were taken around on a small tour of the city where stationery, papers and other art materials are easily available. Commercial street was one of the places we visited and since then I have made numerous rounds of the commercial street and the neighbouring Ebrahim Sahib Street. Today, the roles were reversed and I was showing Commercial street to my colleague Kashmira. The clocks had turned back seven years when I was unravelling all the small branches and hidden shops on the street today. The whole street is a mix of old architecture dangling with billboards and giant store name boards. And this patchy amalgamation of old and new never ceases to fascinate me. Unlike the Lalbagh day, I spent good time on one drawing. I started pretty early on the sketch and by the time I was filling in details the landscape had changed drastically, the shop shutters had opened and a car got parked right in front of me to tinge the view. Here's a photo of the time I started drawing and the final sketch - 

And what better place to end the sketchcrawl other than Koshy's.

Sketchcrawl 7, Shivajinagar and Koshy's

It was around two months back when Russell Market, Shivajinagar suffered from a fire causing quite a loss to the vendors who have their business running from generations over there. I wanted to make a visit there and see what the situation is like but was hesitant about it because I was sure media people would have already crowded the market and adding to it with my presence, trying to mesaure their sorrows seemed a bit obtrusive to me. That's when I had decided to make a visit there in the next sketchcrawl. 
I reached the market around 9 in the morning and found the vendors busy setting up their shops. The flowers were getting a new drench of water, vegetables getting stocked and fumbled out of the big sacks. I tried looking for the left out signs of the two month old tragedy but the dark wires and wall corners didn't suggest whether the tarnished look came out of a fire or just old age. This market couldn't afford slowing down and I was quite glad to see it bustling again. I found a seating spot in an empty shop and my friend Khushboo joined too in the sketchcrawl. This time I decided to sketch with photo inks as it takes away a bit of your desired control of strokes adding that needed play of colours and line quality. Here are my two sketches done at Russell market and Bamboo Bazaar. 

Russell Market

Bamboo Bazaar

After two sketches, we moved to Koshy's for some plain good cold coffee. Koshy's one of the places were you will often find faces that you saw the last time when you came. The same old men would be sitting discussing politics, sharing household news, catching up on the well being of other friends...in the middle of this Mr. Koshy would be seen chatting with his regular visitors and friends. While sipping on the hot coffee (the waiter didn't hear the 'cold' in the 'cold coffee') I drew a few of those old familiar faces. Khushboo showed one of the sketches to the uncle I drew and we got his address to send him a copy. The men on the neighbouring table took a notice of what I was doing and asked me to draw one of the guys sitting with them, which I happily agreed to. I have his address too to send the drawing. Here are the portraits from Koshy's. 

Sketchcrawl 6, Majestic and Shivajinagar

Sketchcrawl, one of the events that has kept me close to my sketchbooks and I am pleased to make it the sixth one that I have attended. The last sketchcrawl back in January was compromised due to a working Saturday but thankfully today's fell in place well. I had planned to make a visit to Majestic bus stand and draw an aerial view of it from the over bridge running across the platforms. In the morning I checked all my stationery items and was disappointed over the fact that my pencil colours were not there anymore. There was a time when pencil colours were an integral part of my drawing. So much was it's presence that I had to force myself to not use them so that I can venture on other mediums. I think I took it a bit too far and this sketchcrawl I was reminded of my Lycra pencil colours and later realised that I gave them away to a friend. I managed to find a few Derwent colour pencil (gifted by a friend) in the drawer and kept them in my bag. Today, I had made a point to use them for atleast one sketch. The day didn't start off really well. My I pod's earphones refused to work and when I reached Majestic, I realised that there was no place to sit on the over bridge. I hovered around a bit thinking that I can't come all the way here and do no sketch. The time was running out too and I knew mornings are the productive part of my day. I found a lane of cheap shoe, watch, clothes market. The sellers were getting it ready for the business and I found a spot too to start off the sketching. So here is the very first sketch and a photograph of the place.

I had only a few colours to use and the disappointment over not being able to draw the whole bus stand was still hanging around. Not very happy with the first sketch, I decided to take an auto to Shivajinagar. Shivajinagar had always been a place where I love to go around in the streets, take photographs, sketch and buy cheap tea glasses. I think this attachment to Shivajinagar came from the college days. It didn't take me much time to find a place to sketch. The Russell market area has a Dargah at the traffic junction. This signal keeps buzzing around with people coming for bulk shopping of tarpaulin, military goods, motor parts, meat, flowers, perfumes, vegetables, bangles, leather etc. and busy area work perfectly for me to sketch. 

It was close to noon when I started the sketch and in the middle I realised that this one is going to be a long one. The flower shop owner next to me kept me company with his in between remarks and moving the parked vehicles from front blocking my view. It took me one and half hour to wrap up the sketch. I was quite hungry after the long sitting and decided to head back home. But I guess Shivajinagar will happen again for me in the coming sketchcrawls. This place is my hunting ground and also the reminiscent of my college years. 

On the wall

David Fletcher is from Vancouver, Canada and an active member of Sketchcrawl community. He liked some of my sketches form the past few sketchcrawls and took my permission to put them on his wall. He sent me a photograph of his wall where two of my sketches are put with his cousin's who works at Pixar. :) He is planning to add a lot more sketches from around the world to his 'Sketchcrawl Hall of Fame'. 

Sketchcrawl 5, Ulsoor

In the thick of many things going on, the 32nd Sketchcrawl came knocking. Unlike the old times, I wasn't very well prepared but I knew that I had to do it. The reason is that it liberates me in some ways, greeting a self that asks for no deadlines, style variations, target audience etc. The sole task of just going to a place and sketch vents the draftsman free in me.
Last night, I picked Ulsoor lake for sketching and packed my bags with the equipments. I had been using colours in my work a lot lately and it played me to put the Lamy ink with me for some plain sombre ink drawings. I started the event with sketching a Ganpathi temple near the lake. The architecture as pointed out by my friend Khushboo was quite a strange mix of Tibetan and South Indian temples. Thankfully, the footpath was empty and gave the needful sitting place for me to start. I worked with brushes and ink for the first layer of sketching and then the washes to highlight the lines. To talk about wash, Lamy inks are such a treat to work with. It has a unpredictability when played with water, giving hues of yellow and blues on the paper.
Here is the very first sketch of the morning -  

While roaming around the lake, I saw a few birds flying over the trees levitating in the lake. They had a hint of yellow on their beak and the arched neck. I had never been good with taxonomy of birds so I didn't make any guess work on it. Me and my friend walked to one of the park on the periphery of the lakes where the Mayura Boat Club caught the attention of us. Soon we were on a paddle boat navigating in the muddy green waters. Luckily, the boat ride managed to get me close to the birds I had seen before. Crazy as it may sound but we stopped the boat and I quickly drew the birds sitting on the dried branches half submerged in water.

The half an hour boat ride and the parking of it took some breath out of me in the end. But it definitely gave me a good time and space to do the second sketch. Looking at clock, we still had time before lunch, enough for one more sketch. We moved to the park and chose our spots to sit and draw. There is a statue of Vivekanand put in the park overlooking the couples sitting on the benches. I quickly grabbed my brushes for the last sketch of the day.

Click on the images for larger view
To finish things up, we had Maggi for lunch with some masala chai made by my friend at her place in Cox town. I had planned to do a few sketches in Shivajinagar too but I would savour it for the next Sketchcrawl. For now, I am ready to get back at the drawing board to battle out the deadlines.

Sketch Crawl 4

I had missed the last sketch crawl due to the Karnataka bandh but this time I decided not to go empty. In fact, I dreamt last night of waking up late today and being short on time for the sketches. But, I was up early and packed my bag with the stationery materials, camera and sketch pad (thanks Hazel). I was keen on sketching the architecture of Vidhan Soudha but just a day before I met an instinct of visiting Jhonson Market. With changing my ride from auto to bus to the walking legs, I reached Johnson market by 10:45 am. The market wasn't crowded and the small lane from where the flower, fruits and bakery start seemed inviting enough to get into the act. Thankfully, a rickety blue bench was positioned in front of this small bakery called Chai-Day. I imagined it to be something good to draw. The outside walls of the bakery was quite dabbed with the cobwebs and soot layers. Wires were running around like a holding thread for the walls. The bakery was dark from inside but people had started with their tea outside in the day light. Flowers were being arranged and classified to their colours and aesthetics and a cockerel was doing its routine wake up calls right above my head on the peepal tree. 


I started with my watercolour washes. I know that I am not an expert at handling this medium but I try to keep myself bold about it and use it for the background texture and creating space, colour and texture to work with. I try to be more playful with this medium and handle the brush with quick flow so that the thought of not being proficient with it should not haunt me. Once I was done with the wash, I used my felt tip pens to work the detail out and enhance the soft-dark areas with hatching. While working the sketch out, people came and anlaysed the sketch, what merits it had and also dropping a few questions about where to send their son/daughter for art education. Used to such situations, I kept on with the sketch till 1 o'clock. I had become quite hungry by then but before that I was in dire need of some tea and where would you go when their was Chai-day in front of you. The owner took the order and started with his share of enquiries - "Where are you from? Are you doing this for someone? Is this your profession?" Satisfied with his queries he asked me for a copy of the sketch. There was a xerox machine right next to his shop and I got him a Black n White copy of the sketch. He seemed happy with the xerox and then shared a few information about his side business - "I do all the RTO work. If you need a license, meet me. ok?" I nodded my head and picked up my lemon tea. I took the sip of the sweet tea and looked around in the market. Like the sketching in public areas, I had become quite used to the sweet taste of the tea you got there. The place was a storehouse of good photography and sketching possibilities but I had exhausted my self with one sketch and was hungry enough to keep the sketch book aside. I took a few shots with my Manual F80, packed my bag and went to the shop to pay for my tea. The owner requested me to accept the tea as a token of thanks for the sketch. Seemed like a good deal. I shook hands with him and parted with the promise of coming down there again. 


I don't have the photographs to share as film roll developing and printing takes time so sharing the sketch with you - 

Click on the image for larger view.

I had a small lunch at India coffee house to avoid myself from becoming lazy for the next sketch. I had kept Vidhan Soudha as the second spot. The idea of sketching it had put a challenge for me to capture a magnificent building with my limited skills. I relish drawing buildings yet at the same time getting there to draw the place is like a walk to the boxing ring. With all these thoughts swirling in my head I stepped out of the Auto to judge the spot for drawing. Sadly, the metro construction had blinded the bottom part of building for sketching. But the view from the park in front was fitting enough to sit down and get on with it. The composition also was appealing enough with the ice cream guy in the foreground and the massive building covering the horizon. Although, I rarely think of composition when sketching. The place had lot of visitors coming to see the building and while taking pictures they would peep into my activity and when done with the inspection would get back to their cameras. There were many tourist photographers around and they also took notice of my work in progress. There was a regular traffic on the road and the inflow of visitors never let me got hold of the Ice Cream Wallah's sketch. I managed to draw him with bits and pieces of observations. Unlike buildings, playing around with details and adjusting it to the need gives a very different result when dealing with human figures. By the end of it, the Ice Cream Wallah had a bit of Rajnikanth touch in it and the Auto-drivers seemed to agree with me on this. So, I think I fared decent on the building but no so good on the Ice Cream Guy. But...that was my view. The Ice Cream Wallah seemed to enjoy his new avatar and I got a Chocobar as reward. The tourist photographers were taking their liberty in shooting the sketch and planning to laminate it. But I was not bothered by any act of plagiarism. I had got a Chocobar and a glass of tea in return of my work for the day and was quite delighted with it.

Click on the image for larger view.

You can check out the other sketches from around the World on this 31st sketchcrawl google map.

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.

Sketchcrawl 29

- Somesh Kumar

- Madhurima Bharati

It's the 29th sketchcrawl and the 3rd for me. This time I was caught up with a few things to plan anything specific for this sketchcrawl. My elder brother left for Germany this morning. So, only managed to get a sketch done of the Bangalore Airport. I had my mom as my partner this time. You could see from where I got my drawing skills.

Sketchcrawl 2nd edition

This was my second sketchcrawl. The place and the company had changed from the previous one. This time, I was in Bangalore with the company of my friend Varun Dhanda. I love drawing old buildings. On the very famous Brigade road stands an old Opera house with its vintage memoirs. It had to be sketched and today was the day for it. There was a van that parked right in front while I was busy sketching. It delayed and frustrated me quite a bit. But, I was glad to have it in my sketch book. Who knows...in a few years, you may find a glass walled mall standing there. Reminds me of a line from this movie "Everything is illuminated" -

Lista: In case someone should come searching one day.
Alex: So they would have something to find.
Lista: No, it does not exist for you. You exist for it. You have come because it exists.

Varun Dhanda

Somesh Kumar

We moved to St. Marks Road, where exists the old 'haunted house' in words of Varun. Two old ladies used to stay here who offered paino lessons. Sadly, they got murdered brutally and the case still remains unsolved. The place is falling apart with tree roots penetrating the yellow walls. An old hillman car body lies waiting in the porch. Their was new construction work going outside the house. Drawing this place felt really good. It was almost like conserving these stories before the dust settles down on them.

Varun Dhanda

Somesh Kumar

After finishing the sketches, we had a nice lunch at "Ice n Spice" and decided to watch "Udaan". The movie was emotionally satisfying and complimented the day's end well.

Hoping to make this Bangalore sketching more of a weekly event.

Sketchcrawl Day - 15th May

- Somesh Kumar

It was a perfect hot Delhi day, when Me and my friend Samia decided to go out and sketch the not so explored area of Delhi called 'Majnu Ka Tila'. The name was quite enough for us to go there. Knowing that it has a Tibetan refugee colony, we had our fine share of expectations from the place. Walking through the narrow and parting lanes of the colony, we entered this aangan, where few people were lighting diyas, saying prayers, making conversations, selling fruits and small souvenirs. We found a place for us to sit and sketch. The sun was pacified by the colourful tent cloth covering the aangan. We sketched, took photographs and answered the curiosity of many who found us peculiar. There was the Spider man kid too who kept running off and showed his acrobatic skills once in a while.

- Samia Singh

- Samia Singh

- Somesh Kumar

Near to the Tibetan Colony is the Majnu Ka Tila Gurudwara, We took a small rickshaw ride to it. There was a nice chabutara with a tree offering a seat to us. One elder person got two clothes for us to cover our head. The crowd was much inquisitive here with a plethora of questions. One humble guy tried to create a pleasing atmosphere with his Bollywood numbers from 80's, blaring from his cellphone. Out of many, there was Duleep Singh thinking that we are angrez. His questions came to an end only when Samia agreed to make a sketch for him. He grinned shyly when others kept making fun of him. Samia gifted the sketch to him and I took a photograph of Samia and Duleep Singh as a bookmark finishing the pages of our first Sketchcrwal day.