This is just a photograph of Veli and me. I keep it on my desk.
At one point, I was working on black and whites of older people, because doing wrinkles is a really good exercise. So I'm working on this one picture, and I'm thinking about how you really get to know a person when you draw them, because every line, every shadow, every fold is scrutinised. And then I got to thinking, why am I wasting my time getting to know the face of some random old lady?
Drawing Veli was ... nice. It allowed me a few hours of just thinking about her. Going over every single detail of her face with my charcoal, smoothing out each strand of her hair, the folds of skin on her neck, the lines around her eyes. It sounds so weird, but it was like getting to know her all over again. Just thinking about her. :)
I miss you Veli.





This old lady I found in an old issue of National Geographic. The stagger ring number of lines on her face were literally screaming a challenge to me. So I grabbed my pencils and conquered them! Ha!

Ya'll know I'm obsessive when it comes to my charcoal sticks, right?! I just find it so darn hard to let them go and try my hand at another medium. My charcoals are what I am most comfortable with. Surprising when you think about how much I hated charcoals when I first started out, and how clueless I was when I picked up my first piece of charcoal. How do you work when you have only one colour?! But I determined not to take up Amma's offer of classes, and well, I don't think I did too badly.
So a recent issue of Time (Style) had these fantastic photographs of this gorgeous African model wearing beautiful ethnic-fusion clothes. Flipping through the magazine, and my fingers were already itching for my charcoal sticks. I wanted to do my own version of the photograph and this is what I came up with.



I thought this one came out okay. Not one of my best, but not my worst either.Maybe I just got lazy half way through eh?
















I am definitely not happy with this one. I hate the way her mouth looks. This picture definitely screams "Scope For Improvement!"











But my next picture, well, this I am happy with. I found this when I was going through some of Amma's old travel magazines. I thought it was so beautiful, this young man with the smooth skin and beautiful features and that absolutely intense expression.


I think I did a pretty good job! I'm pretty smug and satisfied with this one. Ha! :)

Okay. So the picture on the left is a letter I wrote to Niran. He graduated last month with really fantastic grades and since we couldn't all be with him in Canada on his big day, Mia asked us to please write to him, 'cause Niran Mojo is everybody's favourite pavam uncle/cousin/big brother.

Niran's always been a great big brother. Even though he's so far away, he's always been understanding and supportive and ready to listen whenever I've needed him.

Has it ever mattered that he is actually my uncle and not really my cousin?! Not really!!!

Since he's always been the quiet and serious type, I made his letter really bright with lots of happy people and colours.

Mojo graduated on the 16th (?) and was suitably surprised with all our letters and notes. Congratulations Niran Achacha! I love you! <3

Okay. The second picture is just a little something I came up with for Appa's birthday. We were still at Pondi and we were having this big dinner thing in the evening. So its a few hours before our little dinner party and Amma, Sunita aunty and Michael uncle go shopping. Appa's fast asleep and everyone else is talking over their coffee. Kripa, Deepak and I are just hanging around and talking, and suddenly it hits me. "Oh crap! I don't have anything for Appa!"

What kind of present could I possibly get him?! I mean, I was definitely not going to venture back into town to buy him something. So I did the next best thing ... I made him something! :)

I tore out a page from my sketch book and flipped through the pictures on my phone until I found a really nice photo of this little French house-gate I'd seen earlier that evening on a walk through town. I grabbed my pencils and got to work, and by the time Amma got back from her shopping, I'd come up with something iwas pretty happy with!

Okay, so if you can ignore the spiral from my sketch pad, and look past the crappy picture quality after scanning, maybe you can believe that this picture isn't so bad. Yeah?

This was actually a photograph that Michael Uncle took when we went for a walk one evening in Pondicherry. It's a beautiful photograph and I really wanted to draw it. I actually think I did a pretty decent job of it too. I know the scan looks absolutely awful, and the face is scratchy and two dimensional, but it look so much better on paper.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Long time, eh?

Summer is officially over and school has officially begun. How much does it suck being in the twelfth grade?!

School. Gah.

Baby Pictures!!! :D

My baby pictures! Stuff I did when I was five or six. :)

Marari

Marari

Impulse sketches

I did a couple of charcoal sketches for reference during Impulse. Since the theme was "Echoes of the Dark" the sketches are also pretty ... dark(?)

Anyway, since I dont generally do "Dark" pictures, I had to search online, and I found soem stuff I actually liked and wanted to reproduce.

Ah! I love this one! Its actually some excellent graffiti someone did somewhere in Japan. And even though mine doesnt come anywhere near the orginal, I'm still pretty happy with it!

I liked this one 'cause its so Ed Hardy! And I love Ed Hardy!

I loved this picture. I love the dark contrasting with the flashes of colour.

Honestly, these two really creeped me out. But they were great to draw, because the focus is on the fullness of the lip, and I think I actually caught that. :)

Riana

This is the first picture I did of Riana. It's an oil pastel sketch of her trying on my sunglasses.

I did this picture mcuh later, after I started working with charcoal. I had taken a photograph of her drawing, and did this one looking at the photograph.

Remember my "One morning at Art School..." posts? Way back when Amma made me go for those Water Colour classes? And Skinny Guy, Good Guy teacher, Boss lady and the Green Girl?

http://confessions006.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20morning%20at%20art%20school


So, remember how I hated it when the Skinny Guy teacher would come over and ruin what I thought was a perfectly nice painting of a pot/kettle/mug/bowl with assorted fruits/vegetables/cutlery?

I would spend ages getting my lemon just right. It would take forever, but iw ould finally be happy with the results. I'd be sitting there, grinning at my latest attempt, when Skinny would coem along and peer over my shoulder, "Hmmmm"ing and "Aahh"ing at me. Then he would prise the brush from between my fingers, dip it in brown or black paint and paint all over my perfect lemon so it ended up looking over ripe. I hated it, and I hated him for "ruining" my pictures!

BUT. I did manage to save two whole pictures from him!

This is my last, and favourite picture from art class. I loved the idea of bright colours contrasting the black background. I hate the cherries. I thing the light reflecting off them looks very amateur and almost cartooney. But I am pretty pleased with the oranges. Actually I'm pretty happy with this one. Well, except for the cherries. And the patchy background. And the too pale pot thing. :)

Okay. This is one bunch of lemons I managed to save! Yes!
But apart from that, I dont really like this one either. (Yeah, I tend to hate my own work. *weirdness*) I mean, the teapot is out of whack. But I guess this is pretty fine otherwise.

Feedback please!

Art!

I finally finished my Web Design course! What should've been a 3 month course dragged out over 6 months. I had so many activities at school that kept me from attending class regularly, and hence the delay.

Nevertheless, I completed my course, Diploma in Wed Design and am now learned in the art of Photoshop, Flash and Dream Weaver!

Yay!

Anyway, I've been working on my Photoshop. It's fun. Just thought I'd put up some of my stuff.

Comment please!

I crave feedback!

This is my first piece. I'm so excited about getting my stupid ugly braces off. It's been months now, but I just cant get over my teeth. (Yes, I'm obsessive) So I thought this would be fun. My hideous braceface pictures contrast my new teeth, and I love it!

Farewell was a bore. But we did get some pretty good pictures. :)

I really love the photo in this layout.

Everybody looks so young and happy. And noone is fake smiling for a change.

Top step, from left: Sana, Karishma, Shruthi and Elsa.

Bottom step: Joe and me.

I'm not sure if the black circles contrast badly with the rest of this piece. Should I change them to the same colour as the FAREWELL lettering?

Sana and I are so jobless, we hav countless mad photos like these two.

There are three stages of a man's life. He believes in Santa Clause, he doesn't believe in Santa Clause, he is Santa Clause. - Anonymous.

A long ago Christmas in Vizag. Aki, Rohan, Mihir and I are snoring away on mattresses spread out on the living room floor. Our parents sneak in to play Santa and stack presents under the tree. Somebody comes up with the bright idea of taking pictures of them as they do this. Appa shows us the pictures after they've been developed, and I laugh silently at him playing Santa Clause (I already knew the truth about Santa by then, so don't worry people, I didn't suffer personal trauma at discovering a cherished part of my childhood was a lie)

He didn't tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.

The first person I thought of when I read this quote was my father. My Appa has always been my hero. The only person I have ever wanted to model myself after. He is and has always been my role model and my hero. His honesty, generosity, determination, perseverance are qualities I incessantly wish I had.

But what i probably admire the most about my father is the way he is around other people. His ability to make friends with anyone and everyone, the way people light up when they see him, how he makes conversation with anyone and everybody so obviously loves him and wants to be around him, and the way he can laugh at anything. You know that good feeling you get when everybody loves somebody you love? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

My father is my strength and my hero. He is who I look up to and his approval is the only one I try to win. Merry Christmas Appa! Love you! <3

School's out people!!! Yaaaaay!

Shinai left for Bali last night. Since Sook aunty and Priya had some last minute shopping to do before they left, Shinai and I tagged along. We went to Oberon and basically just hung around.

Just as we were leaving, Shinai decided she wanted to step into Archies. So we all go in and pull out a dozen or so Christmas cards from the stands. Then Shinai spots this green headband with red antlers and she tries it on. She coaxes me into wearing one too. So there we are, in the middle of Archies, both of donning green and red antlers and laughing. The store people thought we were crazy, I guess.

Then Sook aunty starts trying on hats. We had so much fun. She tried on this black one and went all, "Yo. I'm a gangsta!" on us.

It was fun. :)

I love Christmas!

More later people!!!

God, This blog is so dead.

I just haven't really taken the time or effort to blog about anything for almost 2 months(?)

What's been happening? Well, Choice Cup is over and done with. It was okay. Occassionally pretty fun. I even managed a couple of good times which I can look back and smile about. I think, rather than the whole experience being a chance to make new friends from other places, it just gave me a chance to become closer to people I already know. I got to know a whole buncha people a whole lot better. :)

Well, we had a week after Choice Cup to gear up for stupid Mid Terms. But I really feel good about my exams this time round. I'm pretty sure I nailed all my papers except Home Science.

Amma went to see Appa and London on the 5th. They're flying back on 25th morning. Mihir and I are staying at home with Ammachi. We're managing okay, except for the "No TV or Internet unless it's the Weekend" thing.

I'm staying at Ammachu's place right now. Ammachi and Mihir have gone to Allapuzha 'cause Mihir has a TT Tournament. I came here on Thursday, and I'll probably go home tomorrow. We've been managing just fine here. Rohan and me went movie crazy thsi weekend. On Thursday evening we watched Cinderella Man. Yesterday, we watched Zohan, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and Mamma Mia.

We went out last night since Ammachu had a Rotary meeting. I had fun 'cause I knew (and liked) pretty much all the kids there - Marita, Abraham, JJ, Ajay, Suzanna, Apoorva ...

Today we took it easy and slept late, squeezed in a movie before lunch (Chapter 27) and then lazed most of the afternoon away in our room, alternating between sleeping, listening to music, reading(me) and studying(him).

Now we're planning to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 : Dead Man's Chest.

So catch ya'll later!

:)