Tuesday, December 30, 2008

New Year: SALE and updates

I know it's a day early BUT HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I decided to put everything on sale at 15% off for the new year!
Prints: http://bhagatsingh.imagekind.com
Posters: www.cafepress.com/bhagatsingh/


This is going to be one heck of a fun year! I got my new computer, which means I'll start working on the my old Ajit Singh piece. Like I've mentioned before, it's going to be HUGE! It requires a lot of detail work! I have layed out the everything and now its just a matter of patience. I'll be posting on that as soon as the new year begins. Right now, I am just trying to figure out how to calibrate my new monitor... ;-)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Sikhi Art Website

My own Sikhi Art website has been launched! Check it out at www.sikhiart.net!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur

Mai Bhago, whose full name was actually Bhag Kaur or Mata (mother) Bhag Kaur, with respect, was one of the most revered warriors of Sikh history. The title "Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur" of my next WIP {BTW, this means Work In Progress(and BTW, BTW means By The Way)}, is meant to connect Mai Bhago with Kaur. I think the second name, Kaur, is very important when saying her name, Mata Bhag Kaur. Why? Well, its an important part of our history. The names Kaur, and Singh (as well), tore us away from the castes and lineages we were stuck with! The fact that we fell in the same hole we were saved out of, is a whole different story.

Anyway, why should Mai Bhago be called Mata Bhag Kaur? Well, we have Baba Deep Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur, Sahibzada Ajit Singh, and so many other Singhs but we have a Kaur of that time, who, we do not call by the name, Kaur. Why? Weird, isn't it? I think so...

My next WIP is actually my first digital painting on Sikh history that I began at the beginning... of the year. I had done many paintings on Sikh history before this, but those were on bristol boards and canvases. Many were imitations of Sobha Singh's, Kirpal Singh's and Mehar Singh's works. I used to add in my own elements for fun! That was a good learning experience for me. It got me started on Sikh history, however, I didn't have the same feel for Sikh history as I do now! Then I did not research beyond the small, thin paperbacks I found in gurudwaras. It was Sarbloh Warriors, which required me to research for concepts. I didn't take it seriously then, but I really dug into it when I worked on Sahibzada Ajit Singh.

This WIP of mine started with a really good concept, with good composition and with a nice setup. However, as I worked on it, it started to become into something completely different. In fact, it didn't have the same emotion as the first one. Whereas, the first one was a woman charging, the newly developed piece was literally a stroll through the park... err... without the park. Here, see for yourself.
This is Stage Four of the WIP...

...and this is Stage Nine! (I decided to finish this painting, as well as going back to the Stage Four and working on that as Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur.)This is Stage Five of Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur. For some reason it reminds me of Batman - The Dark Knight...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sikhi Art on SALE! Baba Deep Singh

To buy Canvas and Fine Arts prints click on the image above or visit: http://bhagatsingh.imagekind.com
To buy posters of the image, click on the image below or visit: http://www.cafepress.com/bhagatsingh

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mutants - Outcast

While "Mutants - Born to Stand Out" was planned to be an intro to the Mutants universe, "Mutants - Outcast" will contain more conflict. It will be darker, grittier. Our heroes would be older by now, probably finishing up their college.
Coincidentally, (I call it the Wireless Network Effect lol) a Singh said the exact same words, as I thought a Sikh in the Mutants storyline would say! This Singh was joking around when he said (on msn):
"that is why all of the images we are getting for the auction are of Singhs and Kaurs"
"Singhs and Kaurs that [typo] are not MUTANT!" (should be: Singhs are Kaurs are not Mutants!)
"
that [they] are HUMAN"

What he said as a joke, is the reality of Mutants. Sikh Mutants feel like they are outcasts! They don't belong in any community, and their own Mutant community is too small and dispersed throughout the world. On top of that, Mutants have a bad reputation. It is not their fault though, most of the cases of deaths involving a Mutant, were when the Mutant had no control. This can result from several factors. Would you really blame someone for killing thousands of innocent people when they really had no control over what they were doing? One moment everyone is doing their business, next moment the whole town blows up! ... I bet you would...

But this feeling of being an outcast ticks most Mutants off! One example would be Zora Singh, he is the rival of the main character. This feeling fuels his anger, his rage. On top of that most poeple will look at him and judge by what he looks like. The same Singh says (on msn):
"zora sing[h]"
"look at where his hand is"
"
he looks like a gangster wanta be"
See what I mean? I bet that's the first thing you thought about him as well.

Today I present to you another Zora Singh artwork. (It was the first thing you saw up there)
To buy 250 pieces puzzle sets, etc visit DeviantArt and to buy canvas prints and other prints visit Imagekind.

To see other characters and paintings/concepts, please visit the Mutants gallery or click on the banner at the very bottom of the page, sit back and relax!
If you are interested in working with me on this project, please email me: bhagatbedi@gmail.com

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Mutants - Born to Stand Out

Mutants, sometimes I feel like I am one. As a turbaned Sikh you stick out like a lighthouse from the shore. As a Sikh, you are pretty much BORN to stand out. Nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can run! That is the theme of Mutants. For some reason only the Sikh mutants survive; the others seem to die as their mutations surface! Sikhs after being labeled terrorists are now labeled mutants! In this world, that is NOT a good thing. Mutants are often chased down the streets, burned, shot, beaten... The police should help right? They often join this madness! Without giving this change a second chance, the entire country is against it with the exception of a few! So as I was saying, most of the mutants die with the exception of some Sikhs, Rastas and some lucky individuals. Why is it that natural selection is weeding out mostly non-Sikhs? Why do the others die while the Sikhs, Rastafarians and a few survive? What do they have that the others don't? It seems like whatever they have, is what allows the mutations to survive inside them. It is as if nature had a plan, to weed out anyone that goes against it... There was research being done on this. Those that would normally die of mutations had been enclosed in capsules to keep them alive. Some of them had been successfully saved. But was that a good idea? Those that had been saved are changed... their personality... their powers... In a good way? Only time will tell.

There is major conflict between the human species and this new "species" that has emerged. It has become impossible to live without fear of a mutant or two raiding your house. Do they raid houses? There hasn't been a case yet but does that stop people from being afraid? Afterall, they could do anything! The laws of physics barely hold in place, before them. They create fire at will, turn their skin into some kind of metal and blow things up with their minds. Is this a curse or a gift? Is this revolution or destruction?

Well, I don't know I am still figuring this out! Let me introduce some of my Mutant friends! You can see my full Mutants gallery at the very bottom. Here I introduce only a few:

Sarbloh - seems like Colossus, looks like Colossus but is he another Colossus?
Sarbloh was one of the first mutants I created.
"As his turban was knocked off, his hair opened. But Sarbloh stood there, silent. Behind his hair, I could see his expression change from serious to that of an angry bull. He clenched his fists as he charged towards his attacker!" - Tej Singh, Mutants

"I have been through the anti-Sikh riots in India! I have survived a plane crash even when everyone on the plane died! Even the fall of the mighty Twin Towers could not crush me! By the grace of Waheguru, I, Kartar Singh, AM SARBLOH!" - Kartar Singh, Mutants


Zora Singh - Seems like the Iceman but is he really the iceman?

All I can say at the moment about him is, "A sixteen year old Sikh gangster!"
Well, he was 16 then. Now is probably three years older, anyway, you can probably picture a Sikh gangster. If you can't then you will have to wait till the next update on this.

Zora Singh is able to slow down the movement of atoms at will. He is particularly able to do this with compounds containing the elements hydrogen and oxygen.
He is able to create liquid oxygen (LOx), liquid hydrogen (LH2) and ice out of thin air. LOx is a VERY strong oxidizer. Organic materials burn very rapidly and energetically in its presence. Some like asphalt can even detonate when soaked in LOx! LH2 is used as rocket fuel! Although, Zora Singh is able to liquefy both hydrogen and oxygen, he cannot continuously do so, as it requires a ton of energy;it puts great strain on him. However, creating ice is his second nature.

Zora Singh is not an iceman... By manipulating oxygen and hydrogen, he is able to create MASSIVE explosions! He is a definitely a dangerous force to be reckoned with!


Kes - he seems like... oh wait, this is a new one.
He was one of the Mutants placed in a capsule. He had his own unique hi-tech capsule at the underground lab, designed just for him. You don't even want to know how they caged him before! But he wasn't placed there so they could save him, he was imprisoned and was been researched on. His abilities allowed him to uses his kesh (also kes, meaning hair) to absorb ENORMOUS amounts of energy allowing him to do virtually ANYTHING with this. This version of Kes uses the energy to thicken his hair, growing them longer and shorter on will. He is able to do mechanical work with them e.g. grabbing onto opponents, hitting them... lifting GO trains...
... the longer the hair, the more dangerous he gets...
Of course, if you cut them and shave his beard, this man becomes like every other mutant, weak. So that's how they kept him imprisoned! They kept cutting his hair. Kes would try his hardest to grow them but the next day he would find himself helpless with just stubble.
He has been stuck down there for ages...


To see other characters and paintings/concepts, please visit the Mutants gallery or click on the banner at the very bottom of the page, sit back and relax!
If you are interested in working with me on this project, please email me: bhagatbedi@gmail.com

Monday, December 8, 2008

This is blasphemy! This is madness!

I have no idea why I named the post " This is blasphemy! This is madness!". Perhaps, I was thinking of the movie 300, and somehow related that to my exams, which BTW will be over on Thursday! WOOT! I worked on my paintings a little, here and there. Its not much but I have exams going on, come on!I found some nice references for the horse for the Banda Singh - Battle Charge, so that worked out well. And for Baba Deep Singh one, I had Akaal_Singh from Flickr help me out with some shastar or weapons that Baba Deep Singh Ji might have carried. He also sent me pictures explaining how a farla is added to a dastaar and how a puratan Dhumalla might have looked like. BTW check out his photostream, he has some lots of pictures of amazing artifacts.
Another thing I wanted to share was some details from the Battle of Chamkaur WIP. The cool thing about this painting is that its one of my biggest, over 8000 by 5000 pixels, which is around 80" by 50" when printed on to canvas. However, this means that it will take longer to finish for two reasons. One, that my computer is ancient so it cannot take the stress, and two because Baba Ajit Singh turned out be so darn detailed and I feel compelled to carry out that detail on the Mughals, as well. Being an amateur artist, I crafted detail onto his armour like there was no end! I went overboard and added sweat on Baba Ajit Singh! His beard was styled and every hair was hand painted. It is quite frustrating to do that much but I think, the end product will show the true work of the labour. When this is done its going straight up on my bedroom wall!
I didn’t think that this painting process would require so much research but you know what? I learned a heck of a lot of things! Did you know Mughals specialized in cavalry and that their infantry were vilalgers? Mansabdars were the highest rank. Banduqchis were villagers but with a Bandook or a Matchlock. Did you know there were Hindus in the Mughal army? Mughals had Hindus in their armies called, Bhumi. These were Hindu infantry! I incorporated this into the Battle of Chamkaur
. In the foreground, you will see two Bhumi soldiers. Ajit Singh is stepping on a Banduqchi while taking out another Banduqchi and a villager/infantry. In the far back, there is a Mansabdar, a detail of him is coming up.
Not only did I learn about the structure of Mughal army, but I also learned about how the armour and weapons looked like back then. My craze for this newfound knowledge was one of the things that led me to overdo the armour.

OK, enough typing, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I present to you, a few thousand more words! Oh, and YAY! I have followers, following my blog! Wicked!
(click on the images to see enlarged view)



Thursday, December 4, 2008

Sikhi Art on SALE!

Apparently, DeviantArt is having a sale! Everything is at least 20% off!
Take advantage of this! Sale ends December 15th.

For slightly more expensive but diverse framing options visit Imagekind.

Mata Bhag Kaur was my first piece of work on Sikh history. She lead an army of Sikhs in the Battle of Muktsar.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Balance

I think balance in the key here to get some studying done, in my case. With a wicked painting developing so fast, who wants to study? Well, I DO but I can't. I am going through that "I want to paint! I want to study!" stage again. But this a bad time to be going through that, exams will begin in three days! Now I know why putting each foot in a different boat doesn't work out... I am going to try to do both studying and painting, back and forth. That way I'll get both done rather than nothing!
I have put more effort into developing the "Banda Singh - Battle Charge" painting; yes that's the name now. I didn't like his hellboy style beard, so I gave it some length. I wanted him to wear a helmet like both his paintings I drew inspiration from, so I added one in. I noticed the clouds were... terrible, so I fixed them; still working on that. I added a few more mughals in the back. Also, added some smoke (orignally a bad looking cloud) from explosions, perhaps.
These paintings aren't going to be black and white. I will be colouring them. I find I have more control over greyscale rather than colour. This stems from everything I did when I was younger. All my sketches were greyscale. When I made the mistake of colouring them, I would ruin the sketch! Anyway, I wanted to see this painting in colour so, I did a colour study, to see how the colours would workout, I think I like it. I am glad I didn't ruin the sketch!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Exams have arrived! WOOT!

Yes that's right. It is the end of the semester, which means exams, which also means a break afterwards... which means more time to paint!! WOOT!!

So ya exams are here but does that stop me from painting even when I should be studying? Heck no! =D But I did stop painting. I am going to study as much as possible for the exams, next week. My plan to ace those exams (yeah right!), and finish Battle of Chamkaur and Baba Deep Singh during the Christmas break. I am thinking about getting the Print Account for DeviantArt. DeviantArt allows me to sell mugs, puzzles, postcards as well as the usual Photo Prints and Canvas Prints (but with little option for frames). I think puzzles would be really cool!! Anyway, if anyone knows of a better service, could you please let me know? I could sign up for that instead.

Banda Singh Bahadur, I think he's one of the most interesting people from Sikh history along with our Gurus. While being tortured,
"Mohammed Amin Khan, who was standing near, spoke as follows: "From your manner so far you appear to be a man of virtue, who believes in God, and in doing good deeds. You are also very intelligent. Can you tell me why you are having to suffer all this here ?" Banda's reply was, "When the tyrants oppress their subjects to the limit, then God sends men like me on this earth to mete out punishment to them. But being human, we sometimes overstep the laws of justice, and for that we are made to pay whilst we are still here. God is not being unjust to me in any way." (Wikipedia)

After reading about him, I immediately wanted to paint him again. The first time I painted him was like 4-6 years ago, where I had copied that famous painting of his (I think he is sitting in the Bir Asan in that one). If you don't know what I am talking about, here Banda Singh. So yeah, I wanted to paint him again but in my own way, in my own setting! I had done a few sketches before but didn't think they were good enough for him.

I sat down earlier this week and began to work. The funny thing is I sat down to paint another Battle of Chamkaur scene but with a Singhni. Was there a Singhni with the Singhs at that time? I don't know but that painting turned into Banda Singh Bahadur! Oddly, when I decided to forget Singhni admist of Singhs in Chamkuar, I switched to Bhai Bota Singh and Bhai Garja Singh. These two brave fellows took on 800 Mughals horsemen!!! Let me emphasize the taking on the 800 Mughals with taking them on with just lathis, which are wooden staffs!!! By now you probably know that, they will be next ;)!

So how Bhai Bota Singh and Bhai Garja Singh turned into Banda Singh Bahadur? Well, they didn't fight on horsebacks, they were on foot. What I had was two Singhs on horsebacks, wearing shawls and a kachere! Then out of nowhere Banda Singh appeared in my mind, the sitting pose and the one on the horse. I immediately started to make changes...

What is cool about this painting (it is still a WIP) is that I did most of it very quickly from the sketch. My brushstrokes are much more controlled now, and I am able to get much more done with fewer ones. I have also been blending quite a bit. My skies are also getting better. All in all, I can see my self improving. (This is all on the computer BTW)



Saturday, November 22, 2008

The madness has ended!

... The madness had ended... um... ya... that's pretty much it. By madness I mean constant heart attacks from all the work with more to come from exams in a couple weeks, and by ended, I mean, ended temporarily! University is a lot of work and I don't know why my brain is in constant denial of that; maybe I should ask Freud...

Ah, that's life though, you gotta love it! It would be quite boring without this overdrive! By the way, I am not much of a writer really (I try hard... lol). The only thing I can write is scientific papers and even those are a big pain in the... ... hand... But I am glad that I got sometime to paint this weekend. I started working on some of the old sketches. I will eventually finish the paintings below. I like to take things slow and steady (which partly explains the constant heart attacks). If you are in my labs you should know that already!

Anyway, I was working on the Battle of Chamkaur series. Here I am trying to depict Guru Gobind Singh ji leaving Anandpur and making his way to Chamkaur di garhi (I think I got that right, it's when he is tricked into leaving the castle). He pulls out a spear and nails down every mughal in his path! So here's the basic idea. I think it feels very chaotic, which is what I want. I hope this feeling stays till the finish, although in art there is no finish, only personal satisfaction.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Other Projects

I pushed aside some projects to make time for painting Sikh history and because I get bored from working on one thing for two long. Here are two WIPs from my fictional fantasy world called Miri Piri. it's something I have been dreaming about ever since I played Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. Note: These are NOT real! I just had to say that because I have had this guy... let's just say he got pissed off at Khalistani Warrior (scroll down the comments to see).

Anyway, I have to say Khalistani Warrior turned out to be one of my most famous pieces judging by the views it got. It was the first painting I did when I got my tablet. Before that I painted with a mouse and it was a huge pain in the... ... hand. My Sarbloh Warriors concept/game art was done completely with mouse. That was how I really got into this digital painting business.

Well, without further delay here is another Khalistani Warrior WIP:

So Khalistan consists of this huge castle surrounded by a few villages, in the middle in Dead Lands and west of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is north of the Southern Dynasty.

Some background storyline I am working on:
"One night, when the Sikhs are celebrating Vaisakhi, the Southern Dynasty with their hordes of infantry, elephants, monkey warriors and Mountain Giants, attack the castle. The Southern Dynasty who was once their closest ally had chose to betray them and besiege their castle. They took over Khalistan, after putting up a small fight with the Sikhs, who had fled north in an attempt to save whatever that was left of their kind. They were met with the Dragons, who were being hunted down by the Undead and the Western Alliance.
The Dragons and Khalistanis joined forces and took back the great Dragon city of Dormgore...
He is now a warrior of the race known as the Dragon Riders."

Talking about Dragon Riders, here is a Dragon Rider WIP:

BTW his sword is the Khanda symbol, with Waheguru (wonderful teacher AKA God) imprinted in it.
Currently, I am working on a comic based on Miri Piri. Depending on how things go, my plan is to release the first issue by the end of August this year but I doubt I'll finish the issue by then since there are currently only two people working on it, including myself. I have pictured it being turned into a game as well, but we'll see how things go.

I want to paint! I want to study!

I, seriously, want to paint but being a Biology student, I hardly get time. Over the last few years digital painting has become my passion. When I am not painting, I think about painting; and when I do get to it, I start worrying about uni. My mind jumps from art to uni and my thoughts become disorganized like my bedroom. I sit down to work and think, "Should I paint? or Should I work on assignments?". My mind then thinks, "I don't feel like studying, I think I'll paint." to then, "No. First, I must get something done for uni." I go down to the kitchen, grab a snack and have a drink of cool water, to try and set my mind straight. Next thing I know, I am in front of the television wondering, "What am I doing here?". I go back to my computer hoping that my mind will do something productive, and I sit there... waiting... writing stuff on my new blog just hoping for that electrochemical gradient in my neuron cells to signal some sort of motor movements involving the use of my hands, to exert an upward force the textbook and my eyes, to detect the electromagnetic spectrum reflected off the pages.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Sikhi Art

Yay! I have a my own blog. Well, let's get started.

WIPs:

Battle of Chamkaur - depicting Baba Ajit Singh assaulting two Mughal infantry, three, if you count the guy who is being stepped on.

and

Baba Deep Singh - depicting... well, Baba Deep Singh, fighting the Afghans and defending the Golden Temple.


I just have to finish up a few things before these are coloured and finished.

References: God of War 2 wallpaper -for Battle of Chamkaur

Barbarian art from Diablo 3 - Baba Deep Singh