A commission I did back in 2010, showing a
Singh contemplating his actions, his purpose in this world. The men in
the back are going to war, but this man has stepped outside the herd.
Based on the bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, 'The Thinker'.
I was feeling a bit agitated earlier. And so
when I was looking through some old stuff, I saw this sketch I did back
in 2007, titled 'Nihang', depicting some kind of a young nihang
superhero. The expression resonated
immediately. I had a thought, "what if I redid this sketch? what would
it look like now, in 2014?" I got to work. Focusing mostly on the
expression, I tried pushing it to a heightened level of anger,
frustration and vulnerability. "Letting it all out"
While rummaging through my files and folders, I
found this really cool photograph that my sister took while I was
sketching in Baba Budda Sahib Gurudwara.
I was going to use
this concept - a silhouette bathing in light in deep meditation - in a
painting but it's been 2 years and I never got to it.
I am going to see if I can find what I was sketching at the time.
The sky is set ablaze, and the lightning burns the retina.
As you can see from the bottom corners, the
base colour is blue, meaning I am painting other colours on top of a
blue underpainting. So that blue is gona pop out in places, especially
shadows, and complement the oranges and reds in the sky.
This weekend I returned to Blind Chakram on Howdah, colouring and detailing the driver and the howdah.
Looks like this Singh is gona need a bit more work. He's a little too
rough-looking for my taste. Once all the colours are in place, I'll be
refining him and the rest of the painting.
Next up, the elephant!
It's a work in progress. I am still thinking
about whether I should complete it, and whether I should colour it or
leave it black and white.
