Probably the most hard work I've put into any course so far. I thought I had a lot of patience before taking up this course but Perspective really pushed me. These might look like simple illustrations but there is a foundation of perfect constructions and accurate perspective that led to the final illustration. Who knew even shadows had constructions. I mean let's make the world a simpler place to live in :P

Jokes aside, I learnt so much from this class and came out a little wiser from one of my most dreaded subjects.

     

    

Funny how I was itching to go out and paint but couldn't find the time to do it. And then I took a class that made me paint every week. Still can't believe I woke up early morning to capture the sunrise or drove down on my cycle on a foggy day to capture that environment. I chose the fountain near California Academy of Sciences in Golden gate park, just because of how awesome this place is. Over the course of 14 weeks, we had to paint a plein air which is outdoor painting every week at different times of the day.

Color assignment involved fusing Harry potter with Feudal Japan. So I decided to showcase Bellatrix as my main character posed as a Samurai protecting lord Voldemort. I wanted to depict Voldemort from the Philosopher's stone and the  half blood prince, before he achieves his human form. My inspiration came from the ancient japanese spirits and ghost stories. 

What started as an idea finally found fruition thanks to my story development class. Anybody who has stayed in Mumbai, can totally relate to the nuisance caused by the gutka spitting Spitaholics, as I like to call them. So here is my story where a young girl receives powers of super human speed to teach these spitaholics a lesson. But there is more, this power is transferable. To completely put an end to the spitting situation, a transformed spitaholic casts a coating over the entire city such that every time a person spits on a surface, the spit bounces back and lands on the spitaholic's shirt or trousers. People finally start using spittoons installed in public places as the girl, the transformed spitaholic and the mentor look on.

Interestingly this method was put to use in Hamburg where walls were being sprayed with "Ultra-Ever Dry super hydrophobic, oleophobic nano coating". The coating is so water repellant that even urinating on such a surface becomes a shoe-wetting, trouser-soaking exercise as the wall pees back at the perpetrators. Would love to see this being applied in India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoN5EteWCH8&feature=youtu.be

One of those rare true blue fan moments. It amazes me that so many people don't know what this amazing singer looks like. It doesn't even surprise me anymore that every favorite song on my playlist is usually by him. Arijit Singh rocks!!

How cool is it, when your assignments involve watching movies :D We had to watch To kill a mocking bird and create beat boards from it .The 10 most important panels that tell the story.  I'm finally encouraged to watch older classics after watching this one.

For people who haven't watched the movie, the story is about a little girl Scout and Atticus, played by Gregory Peck who is her widowed father. Scout, her elder brother and their friend are terrified and fascinated by their neighbour, the reclusive Boo Radley. Boo radley has a reputation of being crazy and dangerous. Few people have seen him for years since he is always confined to his house. Scout shares a very close relationship with her father who tells her to look at life through the other person's point of view before judging them. A lesson she ends up learning due to the events that follow. Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman. Atticus establishes that the accusers, the white woman and her father are lying. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him, as a result of the racial injustice prominent in the society at the time. Despite Tom's eviction, the white man is humiliated by the events of the trial and he vows revenge from Atticus. Initially he tries to provoke and insult Atticus. Finally he attacks his children while they walk back home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant.A mysterious man comes to their rescue and saves the children by killing the white man.It turns out that this man is Boo Radley. Atticus thanks Boo Radley for saving his children. To kill a mocking bird is to destroy innocence. Through out the movie characters like Boo Radley, Tom Robinson  and Scout's brother can be identified as mocking birds who have been injured through contact with evil.

There is always a part of me that is looking for excuses to dance. Although I don't get to do it that often, it was just plain awesome when I could incorporate some elements of dance into my drapery assignment. We had to arrange cloth/drapery in a way so as to create interesting poses highlighting the basic folds, which are 

1. Pipe fold

2. Spiral fold

3. Zig Zag fold

4. Diaper fold

5. Half lock

For a more in depth study refer to Barbera Bradley and Jack Hamm's how to draw folds.

CHIAROSCURO

Chiaroscuro is a technique that uses strong tonal contrasts between light and dark to create 3 dimensional form. This time we were asked to make a self portrait. We started with individual studies of our features before getting to the final one. Also anybody interested in portraits should refer to the Artist's complete guide to drawing the head by William Maughan

The Gift

One of our assignments required us to come up with a beatboard where a character should receive a gift. So this story is about a girl who loses her precious balloon and how she gets it back as a 'gift' from her mother

Studying at the Academy of Art university has been great so far. Never before had I sketched in a studio from a live model with jazz music flowing in the background. My professor, Diana Coco worked at Disney for 15 years. I had a real 'oh my gosh' moment the first time I heard that. I mean these people do exist for real and I can actually meet and interact with them every week.  For the past two months we have been focussing on anatomy and figure drawing. Although I have dealt with these topics before, I realize there is so much I still don't know.