Back to School with Akali Phula Singh ji, again...

Well, technically I am decieving my readers with the title but I am going back to school, not my university though but my old high school. My sister invited me to introduce her music class to tabla. Her teacher loves tabla and probably had something to do with this as well. So here I am waking up the good old tabla muscles who were in hibernation for 2 years!

So what does Akali Phula Singh ji have to do with this? Well, it just so happens that I was painting another version of him. The old one reminded me too much of Baba Deep Singh, it did not have that nihang look, you know the one you'll see in wars, the one that says "Come any closer and chop I'll your God d*** head off!" hahaha. Well, I was able to show that look in this new piece. I used my Crysis Turbanhead to start me off on the basic pose, and then I worked from there. Maybe, I can continue to work o nthe old one as Baba Deep Singh ji...

Life with Mutants - Biocyborg

It's been quite a while since I last posted. I've been busy with school work and comics, mainly schoolwork. Last week I was able to put together an idea for a "biocyborg". A cyborg that builds itself. What happens is that these members of the Homo mutatio species are able to mold their skin around machines. They have little collagen in their skin. Collagen is exactly why your skin doesn't come off when that aunty pinches your cheek. The collagen that they do have in their tissues is modified to adhere to metal surfaces. The neurons in their body are also modified and are able to recieve electrical impulses from external sources. Well, actually anyone's neurons can recieve external electrical impulses. However, the difference here is that biocyborgs when constantly stimutaled by electrical impulses, generate a variant of neurons that will try to control that impulse. These neurons may develop special dendrites (the part of the neuron that recieves the signal, branch like), which will wrap around the stimuli and generate extracellular environments to try to reduce or amplify the signal. Although, a large electrical impulse can still kill biocyborgs, they will eventually adapt to this stimuli if they survive.

I present to you a Sikh Biocyborg. His armour is loosely based o nthe look of the Crysis armour. So what's his story? This currrently nameless Singh moves to US to further his studies. BOOM! 9/11! He becomes the target of hate, eventually, he is beaten harshy and gets knocked out. Not knowing what to do with him, the ignorant fools dump his body in an abandoned junkyard nearby. For days this Singh lays unconscious, unaware of what he is turning into. His head brutally smashed starts to shed the hair, as the skin and bone look for a way to repair the skull. His left eye, which was seriously damaged in the attack, is degraded, in fact, most of his body fat and some muscles are degraded as well, to provide energy for the repairs. Over a another few days, his damaged left forearm starts to recover, it bonds to any nearby metal, strengthening the bone and sealing the wound. Surprisingly, the repairs create a sort of basic skeleton, over the damaged one, leaving sealed holes in the metal as if expecting more metal to bind into them. Ok, I am going to leave it here and just show the cyborg.

Here is a more enhanced version of him. On the leftside, he now has an additional lens, which he augmented with infrared technology. His appearance amazes his professors but what they don't know is that he is a mutant, a biocyborg. He is naturally intelligent, with a larger brain sitting comfortably in his semi-metal skull. He also gave himself a mechinal hand which he is able to remove from that metal core of his arm. Later, on he will be able to equip weapons on this core. His back is also partly metal, it has sockets for hooking up to his computer or to recharge the metal core.

Crysis Turbanhead

I was bored over the weekend. I got midterms coming nextweek so I got tired from studying and decided to do paint. Then I got distracted from that and this dude was born. The original picture comes from Crysis Warhead, the video game. I just edited it, you know, put the turban and beard on.

I need to brush up on my sci fi Sikhs. The only sci fi looking art in my gallery is Ranjit Singh and he is far from looking like a high tech, sci fi character like you see above. In the near future, I plan on playing sci fi games and using those as inpiration.

In conclusion, sci fi Sikhs look badass and I must draw them!

Banda Singh? um...well...

Um...he did stuff...YA! thats it! He fought, fought some more and ya...

Honestly, we need to teach our kids about our great history. They know nothing!

Haha, actually, I am out of words. Good thing I am not out of art! Seriously, this is my whole freakin' post; I got nothing! Everything is normal... too normal... Uni's going as usual... life is going as usual... even my paintings are going as usual... ooh, I did get sick over the weekend but other than that, normal.

It's a good thing I got a picture to back up my puny post with a 1000 words.

So here, Banda Singh - Battle Charge with updated colours. Its still a WIP, I think it will remain that way till summer because I am going to do some comic stuff before I get back to Sikh history paintings.ENJOY!

Mutants: Balbir Kaur

If you thought all my mutants were male then meet Balbir Kaur, a devout Sikh, the manipulator of one of the most abundant substance on the planet. The substance which made life possible. The substance with the formula H2O. I cannot continue to grind this anymore, its water!

Balbir can manipulate water at will, controlling the individual molecules as if playing with marbles. It is not quite understood how she can do this but it was theorized that these types of abilities result as an interaction of brain waves with the environment and self. The fact, that she can control water makes her deadly but the fact that she can (with a limit) get past the brain waves of other people and mutants, makes her one of the few mutants who are able to achieve an instant kill. How? She can crush the brain of her opponent with the blink of an eye. *300 music playing* She looks very innocent though, and she is. She would never do such a thing, would she?

Other than destroying brain cells, she commonly uses her "talwar-e-pani" or water swords to cut through the most toughest materials. She is a skilled martial artist, and teaches gatka later on in life. She derives the technique for manipulating water greatly from this martial arts and strict meditation. Lastly, the air surrounding Balbir, becomes very humid. She currently has no control over this "automatic" side effect, other than "manually" dispelling the water molecules in the air.

Miri Piri - The Blades of the Guru

Well, I had mentioned that I was planning a comic called Miri Piri. A fantasy world devastated by all sorts of corruption and "evil" where two Sikhs are born. They literally join forces and take on the main antagonist. I don't want to reveal too much yet. We are still working on the story but the main framework has been laid out. Miri Piri were the swords of Guru Hargobind Sahib ji, the sixth guru of the Sikhs and the story revolves around obtaining his long lost swords to save the world.

I had been thinking about Miri Piri for a few years now. I wanted to team up with writers and artists who are willing to put some effort to turn this fantasy world into reality. A while back I had an old friend join my team which intially consisted of me and my sister. And just recently I had another fella offering his services. I will introduce them with another update, later on.

Currently, I am looking for someone who can work with me to create the images in the comic. I am looking for someone with an artistic ability. I don't really care about what style you draw in, as long as you have a clear understanding of the human figure and are able to lay down environments including forts, mountains and many other kinds of terrains and architecture. Other than that you must keep in touch with the team and be able to spend some time each week on the project.

Here is a Sikh Shield Warrior and a Sikh Swordsmaster concept. These were developed quite a while ago. The shield warrior has been up on my Deviantart gallery for ages.

I think now would also be good time to post the Khalistani Warrior concept I had been reworking. I think the red armour looks totally awesome! I gave him a saif (two handed sword) instead of that small military pickaxe. overall, I must say I did a good job. Its still a WIP but I doubt I'll work on it any further, any time soon. Here's how the original looked like.

Back to school with Akali Phula Singh

So its time to head back to university. GOOD! I was getting - as a friend of mine puts it - MAD LAZY! I mean I wasn't as productive as I thought I would be. I didn't even want to leave the house! I sat on my couch and watched TV most of the time. I didn't work on my other paintings enough to present an update. I got so lazy! I can't believe it!

However, today, like 20 minutes ago... I did do a speed painting of a Sikh general who I am going to call Akali Phula Singh ji. I think it took about an hour. I used the Prince of Persia concept art and my own Baba Deep Singh for reference. I wanted to loosen up a bit. I have been doing a lot of technical work lately, you know, trying to make everything accurate and all. This time I wanted to sit back and paint whatever!

I might make a good copy of this but right now I want to get back into my university mindset. Haha, I say that like it's any different from my current mindset! No seriously, I am determined to concentrate on my studies! I am going to try really hard to manage my time better. That is my goal, otherwise I put away the paintings for summer.