The Ancient City

George

This is a drawing of one of the two people I know named George. There are certain remarkable similarities about both of them. They live in the Cantonment area, have long fraying grey hair and straggly beard, are misfits and are blessed with the "gift of the gab" - They have the ability to pass of their many failures as wisdom just by making their words do charming acrobatics like pierrots in a side show. 

This post is about the George who used to sit under a tree at DaCosta square where I used to go for my walks. I once asked him for a cutting of a creeper growing on his mango tree. He gave me the plant and said in hushed tones, eyes wide open as if he was handing me a magic wand, "These are cephalophytes!" I didn't engage him, I took the cuttings and scooted. What is a cephalophyte anyway, try Googling it.

One night George was sitting at his usual place and I took a hazy picture of him during my walk. In an attempt to engage me in conversation he asked to see the picture. "You compose very well" said George, "not a lot of people do that!" 

I think any woman who has lived long enough in India knows that when a man praises her it is more about him than about her. I had to wait for about 3 minutes and that inevitability happened. 

"I appreciate beauty" said George, "I am a lover of nature. That is why I can appreciate how nicely you've taken this photograph,see? I appreciate the curve of this tree trunk here, I appreciate the flowers overhead, see that dead tree? I watched it die!"
And then George said, "God speaks directly to me through these trees." I backed away and fled.

My story accompanying this picture could so easily have cast a benevolent light on the friendly neighbourhood eccentric, it could have been a story in Reader's Digest or a church magazine,or even a children's book, with a colourful illustration accompanying it, safe, non-committal,un-opinionated reinforcing in its gentle readers the goodness that they want this world to be about, Sweet George giving Priya a creeper and telling her that the trees spoke to him. But I am not a children's book maker and my one stint long ago with a church magazine committee left me with an eternal sense of horror.

But irrespective of my story, there is the fact that George makes a great composition sitting in the dark with the streetlight on him and his doggy friends scattered around. It took 4 hours non-stop to finish this in my Canson sketchbook and I am happy with it.


My childhood in a cult

Yazdani Bakery

One of the memorable places I visited during my visit to Bombay was Yazdani Bakery. I entered into a light blue time capsule where time stood still and savoured every bit of the old-world charm there. Here it is in photographs and drawings in my sketchbook -

Don't miss the black and white flooring.

How lovely are these walls, how full of layers, stories 

and character.

A bread slicing machine also in the colour scheme of light blue to co-ordinate with the rest of the bakery.

Uncle-ji of Yazdani Bakery, like the bread slicing man, he too is wearing a light blue shirt. If we ask him for a photo, he rolls his fists and poses. He is full of stories and insists we try the bread pudding.

Uncle-ji insisted I take a picture of this plaque

I cannot help but notice that my sketchbook too is light blue, which I will from now on always associate with Yazdani bakery.

#Yazdanibakery

Gooseberry Jam

There has been a resumption of Hello Every Sunday after exactly
one year. I am glad for it since experimenting leads to all kinds of surprises like the illustrations in this post where I've tried to create a comic out of an unusual encounter. With the progression of each panel I found that my drawings gathered strength, much like I did. Rather than going around feeling dead after the previous project, I found myself reviving once more.

Three Houses

These drawings were done for Hello Every Sunday but since I like houses I will post them here as well. 

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25/Sept/2017: I have added a SHOP symbol like the one below also to the left column of this blog. It will take you through the process of selecting and ordering prints.

https://shopforplums.blogspot.in/

Refugee

And other drawings here >>>

34 Weeks of Drawing

It has been 34 weeks of nearly daily drawing over at Hello Every Sunday. That is about 8 months of constant drawing and it is very hard work!

I do believe good things happen when you draw regularly. At first it is like climbing a staircase one step at a time and then suddenly you find you have jumped 10 steps and then 17 steps and much to your surprise drawings that you struggled with happen with ease but then you don’t think much about it until it spills into your professional work and you end up doing things which you thought only illustrators far above you would do.

There are things I’ve learnt about myself from doing this project: after a phase of sustained daily drawing I usually need to pause, take a week off and recharge. Sometimes I need to draw in something other than the book reserved for HES. Also when there are professional deadlines to meet, it is not possible to combine daily drawing with it.

So while I work in bursts of energy it seems to me that my Hello Every Sunday playmate Julie works doggedly and in a disciplined manner irrespective of the many other creative things that she does. How she manages it all I have no idea but that is her way and this is mine and we are both at it drawing as much as we can and filling up the blog week after week.

A strange thing that has happened is that I have gravitated towards Julie’s usual medium of ink to practice my drawings with and she has decided to experiment with my preferred dry mediums of pastel and graphite to fill up her pages. But we both use these mediums very differently than what the other would.

There are lots of techniques and photographs that I come across and which I want to try out in my way, thanks to this project I am compelled to do so. It's been very satisfying and great fun. Sometimes copying the technique and strokes of great masters teaches you so much that it feels as if you are getting into their spirit while you copy their line. It is a revelation because it gives you answers you have been searching for.

Both Julie and I are not doing this for a result at the end of the year but simply out of a desire to draw more than we usually do and to enjoy doing it.We encourage each other and this is a way for us to keep in touch. But there are other byproducts from this project: When you draw a lot there is a change in your energy and an increase in confidence; daily life acquires another dimension to it, good things happen to you and life and becomes more fulfilling. 

Don't forget to keep checking us out every Sunday at 
Hello Every Sunday.