Definitions of Day

Testing Out Watercolors

2012-06-18T15:33:00.002-04:00

Somehow every time I decide to do something in color, it ends up being heavy on green. But to be fair, it is a very green summer. On this daytime, the scene was lit by very bright sun, and I was surprised that simply laying yellows over the underlying colors brought in that sunny brightness. From my reading on watercolor, I've gleaned little factoids; like, apparently, Alizarin Crimson is a staining and fugitive pigment and should basically not be used at all. But for now that's a little over my head. I am simply getting the feel for the medium, trying to get it to listen to me, like the tame pencil does. Thinking immediately in color and shape is one thing, but most importantly I am waiting for the moment when I will have confident handwriting with brushes. Still I am finding myself doing a lot of pencil-like scratching, which I feel is "mine" and also a bit dangerous for the paper. This is Canson watercolor paper. Probably not the toughest out there and it wasn't stretched. But it survived. Didn't warp or tear. I will try stretching the paper next time, and see what that changes.

Charlottesville, Virginia 6/17/2012

Sketches of Home

2012-06-10T13:16:00.000-04:00

On second thoughts, forget scanning. I'm moving on to posting photos with all their distorted angles, and only I shall have the perfect proprietary original ;). Anyway, here are some home-themed sketches. I'm sorry these are in hard pencil and you have to strain your eyes. I can't explain why, but I like them that way. It has something to do with the process - how pencil feels on paper - and with how private and intimate this makes the drawing. You have to look close. They aren't really meant for the contrasts of internet, but here they are nonetheless.

But okay, by now I've had enough of timid penciling and want to do something bolder. The garden bird bath and my dog on the couch are two relatively quick sketches done in Faber Castel PITT Big Brush pens. It's almost unfair how quickly four grades of grey establish all the values you need, while pencil demands that you labor on shadows for hours. But detail is of a different caliber. Here things are blocked off haphazardly. There is no detail to speak of really. It's a quick impression, and it emerges from the page, while you work on it, in a way that's like slow motion photo developing process in a dark room (if anybody remembers those days).

Larger Format and Big Ideas

2012-06-09T23:02:00.001-04:00

I have not posted any updates in a long time. But I have been drawing! Here is a small sample of sketchbook pages from... well I guess last Fall till now. I will need to get around to a scanner to get them all. These are done in a Moleskine Folio Sketchbook, which does not take ink at all, but has a delicious feel when working with pencil. Marker ink seems to work alright, and I have yet to try a Rapidograph. But no washes with this paper - it just ends up with droplets beading up and ugly soaked paper towel look. If anybody knows what exactly about paper processing causes it, please tell me.

Moving to a slightly larger format for sketches has pushed me to spend more time on each drawing. In fact the boundary between sketch and drawing proper is not entirely clear cut. I love the meditative sinking in the drawing process, but some quick spontaneity is important to keep on hand.

Waqar Studying

Charlottesville, VA

My Father. Topological Craziness of the Ceramic Teapot.

Lorton Prizon Tower. Views of Charlottesville #1.

Views of Charlottesville #1 (up close)

After a semester-long hiatus from art for the purposes of studying cell biology and anatomy, and working, I am now embarking on a summer of art, full force. To warm up I started with teapot drawing, moving away from the light touch feel of hard pencil (which I still dearly love) to a fuller value range. I know everybody loves drama, but I am partial to a subtler look.

After spending seven hours on reflections in the teapot, I found myself returning to the same spot on Main Street in Charlottesville for three days, for four to five hour drawing sessions, and then reworking the drawing at home as well. This is the reason why truly developing a body of work is a full-time job. With this drawing I am just finally getting a feel for where I want to go with my tools and my peculiar views on drawing as Alternative Journalism.

Views of Charlottesville #1 (so you can actually see it)

Apart from actually grasping the scene, which is a bizarre obsession in itself, there is one thing, one question that I keep rolling over in my mind: will the meditative reiteration of a scene, will realism, will my handwriting betray an emotion? There were days when I drew emotions directly, or through some sort of personal psychosymbolic lore. It seems a completely boring path now, far too trivial for emotions that would probably not even be caught on the radar of a teenage mind, mine at least.

Yet there is no lack of drama in the subtler unfoldings of life. In fact it is the realm where most mystery exists. It's a realm of earthy steady heartbeat, or the fall of a leaf, or the softness of moss, or the carving of canyons. It's a terribly patient species of human experience, and to evoke and investigate that, I do not see any other way than to trust the process. To trust that the thought will be recorded in the marks that otherwise describe some very specific forms before my eyes.

Inkwash Sketches

2011-09-01T01:09:00.002-04:00

A Castle in Czech Republic

Nadya Semirenko (Monastyrskaya) as a vagabond teenager circa 1999

End of a Sketchbook

2011-06-09T13:33:00.001-04:00

Waqar Khan (over wings)

Justin Faria (over coffee)

Merry Go Round

2011-06-09T13:20:00.006-04:00

There is a sort of reckless abandon in the growth, struggle and force of organic forms that is entirely absent in much of human-made structures. Perhaps it is achievement of transcendence of the timidity of human geometric thought that takes a drawing to a realm beyond linguistic comfort - closer to the directness of music.

In approaching man-created subjects then (such as this carousel horsey), perhaps the focus should be (once the structure of the drawing is establisged or even before that) on the natural, accidental, organic elements still: rust and play of light on the surface.

It is a dangerous habit - putting of drawings till later. I have been intending to come paint this tree in the neighborhood where I work, marveling at it every time I passed it by. Did this quick sketch at lunch break once, and two days later the majestic tree was cut down. It's mulch now.

The Pond

2011-05-02T23:26:00.000-04:00

Sketch for Biology Class

2011-04-16T15:44:00.001-04:00

Dino and Mammal Sketch Event Results:

2011-04-10T15:40:00.004-04:00

Sketches from the Natural History Museum in DC with newly-formed Diceratops Sketch Collective. The Museum is a goldmine of forms to investigate - from archeology and geology to botany. And drawing with friends (which seems to have been our default state all throughout art school, no matter what else was going on - a lecture or a party) is a luxury now. I do hope more sketches will come on a monthly basis from this group.

It's turtles all the way...

2011-04-10T15:37:00.002-04:00

A quick impression of infinite regress...

Starbucks Sketch

2010-12-03T19:16:00.003-05:00

Not sure whether this classifies as a sketch or a drawing, because it took quite a while. Nor am I quite happy with it, but I suspect it might grow on me. Something about having no organic form to draw in a three-hour drawing (except for the people of course) made it a little bit less lively an experience than what was actually going on - people working, ordering, chattering, drinking their coffee. It's an interesting idea - that building an accurate environment can take over the drawing so much that the "vibe" is not translated all that accurately... I would like to know what vibe you get, looking at this...

Presenting: Sweet Vice.

2010-11-27T13:45:00.002-05:00

Now if anyone could show me how to do this in color...

Massage Therapy School Sketches

2010-11-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

My Guitar

2010-11-25T22:15:00.004-05:00

Dreams of Dying (Fixed Value Version)

2010-08-07T21:47:00.002-04:00

"The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had..."

Daily Grind

2010-08-06T17:24:00.002-04:00

It is, indeed, a pun on the coffee mug.

Dominican Republic

2010-07-10T18:11:00.005-04:00

Gunston Hall

2009-11-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

Ancient Torsos in the Met

2009-10-11T20:37:00.001-04:00

Chinatown, Washington DC

2009-10-11T20:21:00.002-04:00

This weekend for some reason I got to see the Chinatown in DC, Manhattan and Brooklyn... This is the view from a Starbucks where I was waiting for the bus to Big Apple, overhearing people at business lunch confessing to each other their fear of computers and an idle Bible-repeater mumble on with feign care in his disdain that all the people passing by need to discover just one name.

An old stove.

2009-10-11T20:14:00.002-04:00

I happened to see this iron stove in a West Virginian cabin my friends' family rented out for a weekend in August. The place was filled with antique furniture and age. If you happen to know anything about antiques, please share your opinion on how old this may be. The letters on the design read W and R.

San Lazaro District, Arequipa, Peru

2009-09-07T21:11:00.002-04:00

The only observed drawing I produced on this trip. But it was a pleasant couple of hours of unrushed meditative doodling on a day when life gives you what you want for a few hours, squeezed between uncertainty and frenzy of surviving without direction on some arbitrary spot on the globe that has solidified into your habits and fears in an imprint that's hard to wash off. Sometimes life gives you a restful morning, an embrace of sunshine, a destination for the flailing strain of survival. This rare calm is in this piece. A privilege to simply breathe and draw, without that dire need to express anything in particular, to capture, to define, to expel, to conquer. I happened to be on a street of a South American desert town in the summer of 2009. How long will this town stand? How long will the street stay unaltered? How long will I? I may have gone out of an unreasoned turmoil that a beating heart can cause in a meticulous mind, but what I have to show for it all is just this sketch of a few moments of tenderness I shared with the harsh Arequipan sun. An achievement somewhere in between dedication and an accident.

AMOSHIMASHA Blog Launched

2009-07-13T00:09:00.004-04:00

My best friend, otherwise known as Amosh, will be documenting his journey from China to Israel on a unicycle. Reality poetry will be accompanied with illustrations by yours truly. Follow our blog atamoshimasha.blogspot.com

Drawing the Passions

2009-07-11T15:21:00.002-04:00

Watching Hot Dads at Virginia Beach

2009-06-28T17:48:00.002-04:00