Faces Project Brainstorming- 3 'Big Fat Indian Wedding'

For 20 faces I was looking for a scene that I can illustrate with 20 faces. I do not know why but my mind was searching only Indian scenes such as vegetable market, road side food stalls, mela (fair), wedding etc. Might be because of I was feeling homesick. Being far away from home-city-country my mind was recalling all the things. Moreover having discussions with new friends, their curiosity regarding India made me more firm to choose subject which will represent my country.

I really thought about 'Big Fat Indian Wedding' as a subject of 20 faces. Indian wedding is usually known as big function which last almost 4-5 days with all sub-functions. Wedding is time where all the families come together and celebrate. People spends their lifetime savings on weddings to make it grand. Many funny- serious incidents happen in the wedding. So for this 20 faces project the funny thought came in my mind to represent mentality and different intentions of people who are invited. I really want to represent the mindset of people and I have observed, it is a real fact that people attend wedding with different intentions. For example, Groom thinks about his first night . Where as bride is being emotional to be apart from her parents and feeling nervous for her new married life. Bride's sisters are trying to steal groom's shoes, On the other hand groom's brother are keeping eye on his brother's shoes. Some women attend wedding to flaunt their expensive jewellary,  designer wear outfits, footwear etc., and even for gossips. Some men come genuinely to meet their relatives. Young boys come to see hot girls in traditional outfits. Some people come there for free food, gifts, being captured in photos and even to dance. Some people come with business mind. I really want to show what things are going on in their mind in the wedding time. For some people who have arranged the wedding and work as wedding planner, caterers, music bands, photographers etc. they always look for when their duty will end up.

It seems really interesting thought to work on as I can show so much variety. But it is hard too to execute all the thing with correct emotions. It is going to be really tough task for me to create such a crowed scene. I have never ever worked on such type of concept which includes depth, human figures, perspective. My previous projects include mainly flat drawing. This is going to be really experimental project for me.

I referred some artist who has been worked on this subject before. Mario Miranda have really comic style with clean and bold strokes. He really works on facial expressions which helps to create exact humorous mood of the situation. some more work from his website. http://mariodemiranda.com/

Another artist whose work I referred is Chandramohan Kulkarni. He worked on a series of 'Bandwala' (musicians who plays in weddings). He has represented deep thought regarding bandwala. and he showed life of bandwala through his paintings.

               

More work from his website http://chandramohankulkarni.com/Inner/Paintings.asp?pcId=4

Memory Palace :: V&A

Today I went to Victoria & Albert Museum. After coming London this was my first exhibition visit with classmates. I just heard about London's art gallerias and imagined how it would be. Today I was so excited to test my imagination in real. Memory Palace is a book by author Hari Kunzru. Memory Palace brings together a new work of fiction with 20 specially commissioned installation by graphic designers, illustrators and typographers to create a walk in book. It was really a great experience to watch such an incredible multi-dimensional exhibition for first time. I really like the idea behind the exhibition. the whole exhibition seems like a storytelling. The narrator of the story is in prison. He is accused of being a member of a banned sect, who have revived the ancient 'art of memory'. They try to remember as much as they can of the past in a future where forgetting has been official policy for generations.The narrator uses his prison cell as his 'memory palace'.

The exhibition seems very poetic and with different types of styles. I really liked artwork by Frank Laws. He placed 5 walls in a hexagon shape with the gapes between each wall that one can peep and see the artwork done on the inner sides of the wall. I really liked the idea of presenting art in  indirect way. This is really an out of the box of installation art i have ever seen.

Image courtesy by Google (photography was prohibited in the exhibition)

Another enchanting artwork was 'An Ambulance with foxes' by Le Gus. It was really precise 3D installation in black and white.  I really liked the details of illustrations done on the each and every part of the ambulance. Such a creative thought of ambulance with foxes and the driver with the mask and mainly the unique design of the cart. Black and white gave more prominence to the subject. 

Image courtesy by Google (photography was prohibited in the exhibition)

I always get fascinated by illustrative 3D things and this exhibition really motivated me to think upon some 3D installments with illustrative 2D background in my final project. I am not that much sure how it will executed. But yea! I am really thinking to develop my ideas that includes 3D.

This black and white work really inspired me work in black and white as I usually work in with colors. Moreover our faces project can be done in black and white so i decided to do my work in black and white. 

Faces project Brainstorming- 2

Today I came across with really interesting blog about human faces. He has explained really interesting thing about human faces in a scientific manner. He has highlighted some aspects of human faces are as below:

1.Tool for living, Biological importance

Face is just an outer surface of head. Biologically, Head is the most significant body part. Skull gives the form and shape to face and thus can be considered as the framework of the face. Skull is casing of brain - integral part of nervous system, eyes - entire visual system, nose - entire olfactory system and doorways of respiratory system, ears - entire auditory system, mouth - entire gustatory system.  

2. Tool for communication, Impression and Expression

Human face is the most favored communication tool inseparably associated with his emotions. Facial expression comes from the squashing and stretching of facial muscles which conveys emotions. The facial impression is observed by perception. It is psychological evaluation based on look of personality despite of internal details, thought process. By nature, facial impression may be biased as perception is subjective, synthesis based on personal thoughts and experiences. So sometimes it becomes controversial.

3.Tool for identity, Bio metric, tool for identification

We come in this world with a face and everybody recognizes us with that face. Every person continuously refines his own face recognizing methodology and builds and modifies his own database of human faces in memory. Each brain in this world is an independent system. Based on uniqueness of features many bio metric philosophies were developed based on retinal identification, ear Pattern and facial structure. Thus face has become premier tool of identification.

Face means identity.  Face reveals many attributes indicating our age, sex, and race, health and mood. Every human has got his identity, a unique face.

Human face is the nature’s most magical and mysterious surface.
Pablo Picasso says “Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?” From centuries many legendary people tried to explicate various aspects of human face, but still it remains unsolved mystery.

Curious and creative mind raises several questions about Human Face like
How it reveals age, race, sex and health?
What are those landmarks where son shows some resemblance to father’s or ancestor’s facial pattern?
How a layman enjoys caricature and identifies the person although it distorts all the dimensions and breaks all the rules of anatomy?
After changing makeup, hairstyle and apparels, how a small kid also can recognize actor?
How to draw a portrait of a person whom you have never seen in life?
Can we reveal nature’s cipher associated with every Face ? 

 http://drpravinyadav.blogspot.co.uk/

This information really help me to thing deeper and deeper in the subject. and I decided to work on how the face is the reflection of the thoughts going on in our mind.  I really want to show how different types of people have different type of thoughts in their mind. some times some people have really reflective face which exactly reflects their thoughts and some do not have. I am going to develop this thought further for my faces project.

Faces Project Brainstorming -1

I started the course MA illustration in Camberwell College Of Arts and on my first day I got my first project 'the faces project'. It was really interesting subject to work on as we have to draw 20 faces on A1 size paper and even one single face on A1 size paper. First of all it was really challenging for me to work on such a big size. I have worked on A1 size but not with the full of paper. For the faces it would be skilled work to compose all the 20 faces.

I always need brief before starting the actual project and develop concept- my ideas, something that I can illustrate as a storytelling. I think without a story it is really hard to start any project for me. First random thoughts came in my mind that are as below:

1. I can show the mindset of different type of people .
2. Split personality- How people differs from their original personality and how they have contrast personality.
3. Some people pretend something or they try to be something else and originally they are something else. For example, some people behave nice when they need help from others. Means they just pretend that they are nice. But originally they have their hidden intentions to be nice to others.
4. Sometimes people are surrounded by people and are busy in doing some work. But their mind thoughts flows from opposite directions. for example. a man is working in the office but he is thinking on the holiday plans.
5. Ravana - Ravana is a character from Indian Mythological story 'Ramayana'. He is a negative character and has 10 faces. So the thought was to draw Ravana with 20 faces.
6. Half face with different expressions or half face of man and half of woman.
7. Faces which illustrates their thoughts through the forms created in their hair.
8. Waves coming from the mind.
9. Conscious mind and unconscious mind.
10. Faces in eyes. As we see everything through eyes. I had a thought to illustrate faces from eyes.

These several thoughts came in my mind. But still my am not sure which thought i should develop further. I think I have to do more research on the faces and stretch my mind for more focused and powerful thoughts.