Sketching at Harimandir Sahib, in 2012

I always wanted to sketch Harimandir Sahib. So when I visited the gurudwara on Aug 25, 2012, I took about 40 minutes to sketch this. 

When you start drawing, boy do people wana watch you draw! I still remember the scene, it was a very memorable and yet familiar moment.

A crowd had gathered around me and there were people who were passing by, stopping for a few seconds to take a look at what was happening.

There were pilgrims lying on the floor right behind me who were watching me draw. There was this kid, who was observing me very closely. He later told me that he liked to draw and wanted to learn from me. After I finished, we left the temple with some fond memories.

Last year, when I was working on this commission on Harimandir Sahib. I actually used this sketch for the painting!
http://sikhiart.com/for-sale/harimandir-sahib/

Bhai Baghel Singh

So recently I haven't blogged as much as I wanted to.  It was a mix of not feeling like it, and not wanting to post rough, unfinished sketches of random things. These past few months, I have just been studying, composition mainly but also random things like frogs and trains. I feel like I need to work on my composition more and focus on having interesting, larger shapes in my piece. I also think that I should broaden my mind by studying things I haven't studied before. Don't get me wrong I have studied plenty of frogs when I used to live in India, hopping around in my bedroom floor. And I have studied trains, riding them back and forth, in commutes to my university. :D But to draw them is a different kind of study, and more mandatory as an artist., and that's what I have been doing since November.

But not having blogged, last month I decided to do a speed painting suggested by you guys who follow my work. Most people voted for Bhai Baghel Singh and sikh misls capturing the Red Fort. And so so last week I released the speed painting of this event. Check it out:

Painting and Mod

I know a lot of people are waiting patiently (some impatiently) for Hari Singh Nalwa. Believe me when I say that I want to finish it up and get it out, more than you guys! But it's going to take some time primarily because I am also working on a mod for AOE 3 on the side. I spent the past several days completely focused on the mod. I revisited the Mughal Bhumi unit to correct for team colours (which I will be sharing soon because he looks awesome!). After finishing him up, I began working on the the Sikh irregular and regular cavalry. Sikhs have four cavalry units. The French-trained Cuirrasiers, the Lancers, the Ghorchurra and camel swivel guns, Shutarnal. The former two are strictly melee units, use swords and spears and are good against infantry and artillery. The latter two are ranged units, they use a matchlock and are good against other cavalry units.

I feel that all of this work is putting a dent in my learning process. I mean it's great to spend hours painting each ring of a chain mail but it's not an effective way to learn and get better. For that I should be doing studies which I have not done since forever. The last time I did studies was for Bhai Bachittar Singh. I did some sketches of elephants to get a feel for them. After doing these sketches I felt like I understood elephants better than I did before. It is through doing studies that we learn. e.g. when we want to know ourselves, we meditate, we do simran. When we want to know nature, we read books and research papers. Studying is very important for growth and maturation. So the plan for the rest of this week and the upcoming week is to continue to paint that chain mail because I want to finish Hari Singh Nalwa and move on to other paintings I have planned!

I almost forgot to mention, Diablo 3 is coming out next Tuesday! I know I am going to be playing the Monk or Witch Doctor. XD

The Lazy One?

No more. I am blogging. And doing it now. Not much to say. I have been lazy and what is worse is I have been letting me be lazy.
Or maybe... maybe I feel like I am letting me be lazy but it's a diet or health issue, where my lack of energy is letting me be lazy and causing laziness in the first place. Let me explain. I lost 20 pounds after summer. I have been weight lifting and playing badminton this school year. I know right.. weight loss and weightlifting don't go hand in hand. Especially when one's weight is normal to begin with and they end up bordering on being underweight for their height and age. One ought to gain some weight. I don't think I am getting enough nutrition to accommodate these activities. Bloating and loss of appetite are not helping. How are you going to get nutrition when you are not eating because you feel full al lthe time? So a week ago I decided I am not going to let this happen to me. I did the much-needed research on my symptoms and found an appropriate solution. I decided to take Hajmola (yep, good ol' ayurvedic medicine), which I had stopped taking several years ago. I didn't even know we had some around the house. (Which Indian family doesn't?) It seemed to have worked. My appetite and bloating has returned to normal.

Or it maybe a psychological issue, relating to the changes in my environment, from a science environment to an artistic one. When I was in science, I would look forward to working on my art projects when I got home. After a whole day of biology, microorganisms, bacteria, metabolic systems and what not, the only thing on my mind would be how much time will I have to work on my project after doing the homework. Now when all my projects are art related, I am not looking forward to doing more art when I get home. I am just looking to relax and browse the internet and watch stupid Youtube videos.

Or both. Psychological issue causing the physical issue.

I don't know.

All I know is that I am not doing the things I want to be doing. I have not worked on the AOE 3 mod since Christmas break. I have not put as much effort into completing Hari Singh Nalwa, nor into completing the improved Baba Deep Singh.

Maybe rationalizing and explaining my laziness may not be the best solution. Maybe the best thing to do is to recognize the laziness or the excuses you make when you are lazy and to simply do the thing you are supposed to be doing.

Lazy? No more. I am drawing. And doing it now. Nothing is going to stop me.

Sheridan, ROM and Birds

Sheridan's been awesome so far. I am enjoying the experience of drawing for hours and hours everyday. I have been drawing from life, still life and boxes mostly.

The first week I just happened to stumble into like-minded people who (with intensity) wanted to get better at making art. We were sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch talking about art and artists mostly. We somehow got into a discussion of making a sketchgroup that would go around sketching things, people, environment, etc. While we were still discussing the details, I suggested that we get started without wasting precious time discussing it. Usually when you want to do something, you end up talking about it for hours and hours and when the time comes to actually do it, you are too tired to actually do it. If you still have the energy to do it sometimes you feel gratification for just having discussed it. You feel satisfied that you discussed the idea and think you can get away with delaying action. I was not going to let that happen to us.

So I said "Let's do it!" and we began sketching people in the cafeteria. I discovered that I really enjoyed doing this. Not only because some people are really cool and you get into interesting conversations with them while you sketch them but also because in the caf, people are talking, gesturing, going through series of facial expressions, eating lunch and moving around. These moving faces and hands are very difficult to draw... and I found I really enjoyed this challenge.

Yesterday, we took our sketchgroup to the Royal Ontario Museum to study things like dinosaurs, animals, birds and carpet motifs. Yes carpet motifs. For my Hari Singh Nalwa piece, I wanted to study Indian carpet, bedsheet and curtain motifs so I can make the painting look authentic. I want to have the painting look historically accurate and have a royal feel to it. After my study, I will paint similar designs onto the carpet and walls, which right now are the only major things that are left in the painting.

I studied the hanging bedsheet/curtain thing for an hour or so before moving on to birds and animals. People were walking by complimenting us and asking us question about our program and why we were drawing etc. Sometimes hovering too closely to look at the work... which sometimes got awkward... Good times. :)

Monkey mind monkeying maround

Yep I am inventing a new word... I think, let me check...

*googles the word*

Never mind, there is already a word called 'monkeying'. What? You thought I was going to google 'maround'?... No! Obviously that's not a word, everybody knows that... I uh... googled that too...

'Monkeying' means to
1. Behave in a silly or playful way.
2. Tamper with.

Ok then... I will add my own personal number three to that.

3. Working on 5 or more paintings simultaneously, and not getting any of them finished for another couple of decades. *sigh*

That's pretty much what I have been doing for the past month or so. I have been working on Hari Singh Nalwa a little bit. I gathered more resources from people for that painting then began to make changes to things that were not accurately done. But more than that I have been working on 5 other projects, simultaneously. Paintings of the Gurus, Bhai Bachittar Singh(!), and Baba Deep Singh. You guys
already know about Bhai Ghanaiya and Vaisakhi speed paintings.

Baba Deep Singh?

Yes, been making lots of changes to it. By changes I mean painting over everything. I also tried several other compositions for Baba Deep Singh. Sticking to the basic idea and narrative, and Baba ji's pose (I love his pose as it is, it's got that leadership feel to it). I ended up with this crazyass, complicated painting, with lots of horses and horse archers. But I figured that is probably changing it too much, to the point where it will be like working on a whole new painting, which in turn will require a lot more time to finish.

So I went back to the original and just sat there and let the brush (pen on tablet... -_-) do it's thing. This is hardly different to what normally happens. I just sit there and the brush just goes on doing stuff. As it is doing it's thing, there would be moments where I would think - that's working! keep it going! Other at other times - meh... that's not... stop, stop... STOP! delete that layer, now. At the end of it all, usually 3-4 hours later, I feel exhausted.

How was summer Bhagat? Great! I just sat there staring at the monitor, watching a painting (or 5) being made...

Well, not really.


(First image: Guru Amardas ji in his old age. Second image: Detail from Baba Deep Singh. Third Image: Detail from Bhai Bachittar Singh.)

Nocturnal Artist

haha, I am loving that title. Even though, it barely has anything to do with the actual content of the post. I just couldn't go to sleep, I napped for 3 hours just before bedtime, this was bound to happen. If I can manage to get some sleep I might just go to the Langar event in Toronto.
So I went my sister's music class. It was great. There were like 15 students, very curious. Showed them the parts of the tabla (with a bit of history and explanation on the bol), played all the basic taals (6,7,8,10,12,14,16), played some beats, then played with them. It turned out as a learning experience for me as well. Now I know what a Djembe is. Its an african drum and... err... that's it. In the end, they played this really cool composition they had been practicing, few of the students got up and danced! It was wicked! BTW is it just me or does tabla sound very quiet? Compared to about 15 Djembes, I could hardly hear myself playing! and efore that one of the girls was like "Could you play louder?"
Anyway, it was cool except I didn't eat breakfast; which was not cool! At one point I was sure I was going to pass out! At other times, I would simply go blank. haha, that was high school all over again! The passing out bit, going blank and the fact that I went back.