I am reading this book called “Drawing on the right side of the brain“. The book is pretty nice in assuring that ‘anyone’ can draw. Which is my belief too. Like I mention earlier and often, this does not mean that one can immediately be creative. However, it is possible to pick up the technical aspects of trawing and the ability to see what is out there and be able to put it on paper.

One of the exercises was to create a baseline before reading the book. The author asked the reader to draw 3 things, one of which was your hand. It stuck me that there is very little reason to go around hunting for complex images to draw when we have one literally at the end of our hand (heh). The play of light and teh complex shadows it creates makes it challenging to draw it properly. Well I have tried and may be by the end of the book, I can do better.

Note: My hand is naturally crooked with too many bends. Come to think of it, I wonder how I can function normally with fingers shaped the way they are…

Found another tutorial here. very nuce step-by-step procedure for drawing a face. I think I am generally getting the structure of the face but have not nailed the eyes. I think I am getting to see how the perspective affects the eyes and in this attempt, I have managed to retain the gaze but I think the symmetry is lost. Well a lesson learned and I will keep it in mind.

I am also slowly getting used to the concept of drawing and erasing is getting to be a core component of the drawing too… I am less afraid now to draw what needs to be drawn and then do some fixing by eraser. The concept of detailing through the negative space seems to be central to drawing and more importantly when it comes to lighting. if it is just time to master techniques, I am more than willing to spend it… However, creativity may remain elusive. duh…

trying my hand again at shading. I got a nice reference to draw from here and I figured I should put earnest effort in trying to shade…

I am pretty sure I am not doing it right, Either I am putting too much pressure on the tablet or may be not using the right brush size or gray shade… My tablet is showing visible scraches. May be I should put on a layer of some protective material to keep the stuff safe. If anyone uses a graphics tablet and knows how to make durable use of it, I would like to hear comments.

Spirited away is a charming animation from Studio Ghibli and was possibly my first introduction to Miyazaki’s comics. I was not previously aware of Japanese animation and their style. Spirited away was possibly their most successful venture (worldwide) and I am sure has been a window for many people to have an appreciation for Japanese anime.

Post spirited away, I have been obsessively getting to know more of Ghibli’s works and have since seen most of their movies. My favorites being Princess Mononoke and Totoro of course. Most recently, Ponyo hit a very high mark in my list of top Ghibli movies. If you get to watch their movies, pls do take time to enjoy them.

Got a reference from here. So I decided to try it out with some shading. Pretty poor job, but I need to learn shading and lighting, which is probably a 400 level course for me. Will come to it when the time comes.

Can creativity be cultivated through training? I am not so sure, but I guess we can let the imagination run wild and see where it takes us. Try to wonder like a child and see what comes out without forcing thought. I guess I am not traveling far enough. But tried sketching an idea of love at first light (sic) just for the heck of it. Enjoy or suffer the outcome…

Rarely do movies strike an emotional chord in me. I love watching movies and have set up a good collection of movies over the years. I can summarize my need for watching movies under three umbrellas, entertainment, technical / artistic merit and lastly to tickle the emotions. A number of movies are able to satisfy the first 2 aspects for me but rarely do they indulge my emotions. It could partly be because I couldn’t care less for on screen emotions when there is shit going on around in the real world.

But then there are movies like “Nights of Cabiria” or “The Bicycle Thief” that are simple in their premise but extremely poignant. I suppose it is because they revolve around events in one character’s life while the world goes on as usual around them. I guess the normalcy of the environment keeps the distractions away and gets me more involved with the story at hand. Rarely do movies achieve this. To achieve dramatic effect, people tend to push the surroundings selectively to conspire for or against the story being told. This distances me from the story and I merely become an observer unwilling to believe the situation the characters are in. Drama is good some times, I am not arguing against it, it is just that I don’t get involved when things are dramatic for the sake of being so.

Recently, I watched Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies), it blew my mind.

Some spoilers in the following passages: The movie deals with the side effect of war and focuses on the life of two kids. As a result of the war and frequent air raids, the kids lose their home and family and consequently suffer for the basic needs of food and shelter. Nii-Chan the brother is the strong one. He faces up to the adversities and does everything possible to protect his sister. When their mother dies, he keeps it to himself and tells tall tales to keep his sister amused (she is a little girl and want to go back to her mother). But he cannot restrain himself when Setsuko casually remarks, while clearing bugs (fireflies) from their shelter, how their mother is in a similar grave. The movie jumps from such a strongly emotional moment to a very light poetry like passage full of giggles and laughter – they are still kids after all…

At times, the background turns entirely transparent, we get so used to the war in the background that we become de-sensitized. Much like how I feel when watching footage of bombings and murders and deaths on news networks. After the opening sequence, the war never bothers you any more, it is the story of the kids that draws you in. The animation is not spectacular (at-least not by today’s standard), but that is really not the point, it hits home when it matters. I nearly cried watching the movie (and I don’t mind admitting that) and I am glad I watched the show.

There are standard techniques for drawing perspectives. I have formally studied them and was good at some point in time. But doing it free hand and through visualizing in the mind is a bit more trickier than drafting solids in perspective. Anyhow, as part of my the studies series, I am working out whatever I see. This time iI found my music player as a nice subject.

I initially wanted to work on the lights and shadows as it looks very complex, but once I started struggling with the geometry, I figured I will take the lessons one step at a time. So it is only a perspective study this time.

I grew up with bruni in my teens and had my best of times with her. As any dog person would attent, being with your own pet is one of the best feelings in the world. Bruni was more than a pet. I could sit, play and watch her run about for hours. She could get annoying at times (especially if you forget to feed her) but had an amazingly pleasant attitude. She was a very intelligent dog and could understand and communicate back very well. At times, you can mistake her for a human and have arguments (Really, no kidding).

Bruni Passed on in 2004-05 and though it is a loss, I have the fondest of memories of bruni. I suppose it is fitting, I dedicate a sketch to her. I am sure I will be drawing more of her as my skills get better, but this is a start.

Thing about learning a new skill is the need to spend a lot of time going through the various studies. in music, you repeat etudes, scales and chords to get the muscle memory going strong. So it is with any artform. First, we need imagination (that is the nature part) then we need the techniques (that is the learable bit) and lastly the practice part (that is the difficult, boring and hard part).

Some sketches while trying out my hand at copying others work and a homage piece for the master miyazaki.