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!

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)

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.

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.

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