Writing the proposal : Modern Myths

"Modern Myths"

Giving a modern touch to traditional Indian mythological stories.

Giving a new perspective and visionary language that will revolutionary

change the point of view of audience towards the subject.

Why this subject:
Today we handed in our Final project's proposal. From the beginning of the course we had to think upon our final project. It was really difficult task me because the proposal I had submitted before joining the college was based on different subject. I read the book 'Immortals of Meluha' by Amish and it gave me new perspective towards Indian Mythology in a contemporary way. I have never been so much familiar with Indian Mythology but this book boost my curiosity and took me on such a high point of interest that I change my mind and decided to take up this subject for my MA project. The main reason behind taking this subject was to give Indian Mythology a new contemporaised identity. I have observed that nowadays mythology has been limited upto old generation. New generation is completely unknown of these valuable source of practical knowledge and moralities of life. Moreover it is our culture and it is our responsibility to keep our cultural values alive. Therefore I want to targate young generation of India. It is said that the young generation is the future of our country. But if they keep being unaware of the richness of their culture, it would mean the end for Indian cultural values in the young generation. Unfortunately, nowadays, because of modernization and some other reasons, people are losing their interest in traditional cultural activities. With my project I want to get people interested again and introduce them to a traditional world in a new way. 

Goals for this project:
My goal within illustration would be presenting my traditional subject in a 'indo-western' contemporary visual language. I have been working in only an Indian contemporary visual language. Therefore, this project will help me to expand my skills to create my own indo-western visual language. I have a broad view on my research study. The research will focus on how the traditional subjects have been handled in the past and what kind of changes have been occurred in handling these subjects till now. This will include the study of work practice of traditional artists and contemporary artists from India as well as western countries. Study of traditional and contemporary western art will probably broaden my views and will motivate me for different experiments.

I want focus on human anatomy and animal anatomy. I have been drawing figures in a abstract manner but for this project I have to focus on anatomical drawings. This project will lead me to combine human anatomy and animal anatomy for character design. Even Background is going to be important part of my project. I have never been focused that much on backgrounds I used to draw main characters with minimal backgrounds. Even I want to play with patterns, materials like papers, cloth, textures, beads, buttons, feathers etc. I want to experiment with spaces and want to create something which is coming out from the background and illustrations with layers.

In short this project is going to be completely experimentive with drawings and materials.     

Faces Project: working on a final artwork

While working on the final artwork. size was the main hurdle for me. Though I have been working on the A1 size, I have never done such type of illustration on A1. I did some drawings to make sure my composition. But, as I started working on A1 I had to change my composition as per the space division. 'Using grids' is the best technique and it makes it easier to create rhythm in our composition. It is to be said that we should never forget our basics. For this project I was constantly recalling all the principles of elements i.e. Line, color, shape, texture, space, form. And principles of design i.e. unity/ harmony, proximity, similarity, continuation, repetition, rhythm, altering, balance, symmetry, hierarchy, proportion, dominance, similarity and contrast.

I wanted to create an overall symmetrical illustration but each element- figure must be different. It was real task for me to execute a traditional subject 'Solah- shringar' in my visual language. I have been working in two different styles. One is delicate, decorative style which usually suits for emotional, light subjects and another is using rough bold strokes which looks like hairy and a bit like etching - print making art. This style I have been using for bold, wacky subject. But this time as a experiment I wanted to combine both styles for the 20 faces illustration and for single big face I decided to use my bold hairy style. I always use lots of colors in my illustration. So this time I decided to keep my artwork black and white. It was really challenging for me to express each 'shringar' though my lines, shapes, forms, patterns. This time I wanted to concentrate on my line work, detailing, expressions and anatomy. For first time I an drawing figures having anatomy. Otherwise I was using abstract figures. Even I wanted to play with negative space and positive space to create depth.

Thoroughly I really enjoyed working on 'Solah Shringar' with 4 sleepless nights. I was really happy with the end result.

For the big one face I decided to draw that foodie man with mustache. It was an idea of Indian wedding but I changed it little bit. After coming here I observed food is really expensive here. As per self experience I always decided should I buy that or not as per the price. Even most of the time I stay starving without food even I saw my favorite food. So an idea came in my mind that I should illustrate this thought in my single face. I created all the food items in his head and paste imaginary food rates with sticky notes. The illustration expresses this foodie man is really happy and cheap food rates made him tempting. As sticky notes are yellow in color, white paper would have given contrast. Therefore I decided to use light yellow paper which will reduce the contrast and even add color in my illustration.

Celebrating 'Dasara' far away from my country

This is my first Indian festival on the land of London. Everyone from my family, friend circle was wishing me for Dasara. It is celebrated on the tenth day of Navaratri in the significance of victory of Lord Rama over the ten-headed demon king Ravana and also the victory of Goddess Durga over the demons Mahishasur. There fore it is also known as 'Vijayadashami' which literally means vijay (victory) + Dashami (tenth day).

On this day people celebrate this publically and with their families too. They create a huge statue of Ravana with ten heads and enlight  it with fire in symbol of 'death of negativity'. We call it 'Ravan Dahan'.

                                

In my region, people worship the Apta tree (Bauhinia racemosa) and exchange its leaves (known as golden leaves) as a symbol of gold wishing each other a bright and prosperous future. The tradition of exchanging Apta leaves is symbolic of Raghuraja, an ancestor of Rama and Kubera. Many artisan communities ritually worship books, study material, tools of all kinds and they are given rest on this specific day. The saffron-coloured Marigold are particularly associated with and sold in significant quantities during this festive period. They are used for both worship and decorating homes and work-places. 

I always celebrate this festival with worship of my colors, pens, my computer and my books. Even we exchange Apta leaves in relatives and neighborhood. Being far from my home I was badly missing my family, relatives. But the good thing was it made me recall the way we celebrate this festival and the importance of this festival. I thing the distance made me realize our moral values and the reason behind celebrating the festival. Though I was extremely busy with my faces project I celebrated this festival in my small hostel room on a small scale. My mother always says, ''no matter how wealthy  it is, worship from your heart is always accepted by the god''. I drew small symbol of 'Saraswati' (goddess of knowledge) and put some color bottles pens, markers aside. I didn't have all the material which we have been using for worship, marigold flowers was replaced by pink western flowers. With out haldi- kumkum, lamp (because of fire alarm) I closed my eyes and hands together and pray for god from my bottom of the heart. It was a real magic, that whole day I was in a different spiritual trace and it gave me some hidden energy that each and every single cell of my body was feeling. 

This feeling of festival gave me inputs for my final project's subject. I am thinking to take up the project related Hindu mythological stories. Our all festivals have some scientific and geographic reasons as well as the are based on mythological stories. Today's Dasara celebration really gave me feeling that I should finalize my final project's subject related to Hindu mythological stories.

Somerset House: Illustration Awards 2013: Inside Out Project

Today I went to visit Somerset House's exhibition. I must say I saw so many talented artists' work and one of them was a student of Camberwell College Of Arts. I really felt so proud of being apart of Camberwell College Of arts. I really liked two projects.  One was the project with playing card.
I really liked the concept of traditional playing cards are designed in contemporary way and it has
been added humor in it. The artist has been designed all the playing cards. This though is quiet similar to my final project's thought. I want to do traditional things in a contemporary style such as Indian mythological stories in contemporary style. Even I have been thought on the games too that are there any possibilities to design traditional ancient games in contemporary style. And this project really motivated me to think upon my raw thought to hone it further.

Another project was a wall design for hospital. Artist has designed a wall for children. I really appreciate her working process and even in this project I found similarity in working process. Artist collected all the elements which she is going to use. She drew each and single element by hand and then made compose digitally. I really like the way she executed whole artwork in such a large scale and appropriate for her target audience.

Outside of Somerset House I saw completely out of the box project 'Inside Out'. I think London is really making me wonder by all art events and galleries. Huge posters of portraits with funny expressions are being pasted on a road. The view was so amazing, the road with full of black and white portraits. This project compelled me to think on a large scale.

Faces Project Brainstorming- 4 'Solah Shringar'

I was working on an Indian wedding concept. I really liked the idea. But somehow as I imagined the scene 20 faces in my mind, that was not reflecting in my sketches. I liked sketches individually but it seemed unsuccessful idea. My imagination did not came out in a good way. Therefore I decided to change my concept for 20 faces scene. But I really liked my sketch of foodie man having always all the food items in his brain. I am a foodie person too. I reflected my emotions through this character. Instead of showing any wedding scene I will show only one foodie person. After coming London I observed food is really expensive here. Many times it happened with me that I check the rates and cancel the food I ordered although I am super hungry. I decided to represent this thought for my big A1 single face.

Since only 10 days are remaining to submit the project and I am taking the risk by changing my
concept on the eleventh hour. But I am pretty sure that if my sketches will work as per my imagination for new concept, I will manage to complete it by hook or crook.

For 20 faces 'Solah shringar of Indian bride' this concept came in my mind. Being an Indian I was known of what are 'solah Shringar'. Literally, ‘Solah’ means Sixteen (16) and ‘Shringar’ means makeup or adornments. ‘Solah Shringar’ encompasses sixteen basic steps of beautification of a woman from head to toe. I read an article which gave me detail information. http://weddings.iloveindia.com/indian-weddings/hindu-marriage/solah-shringar.html

For an Indian bride, the wedding day is the most important day of her life. Most of the girls in our country have lots of dreams for this day, since it marks the beginning of their journey into womanhood. Different kinds of beauty rituals are associated with the wedding day, as her female friends and relatives gather together to prepare her for the most special occasion of her life. Almost all the girls wish to look their best and epitomize beauty on their wedding day. In India, the beautification of the bride consists of sixteen parts and covers almost every part of the body, right from the head to the toe. Those sixteen shringar are as follows:

1. Bindi- The first shringar of the bride, bindi has a strong religious implication and is a sacred symbol of a married woman. Many people decorate it with red and white dots around it and along the eyebrows. 

2. Sindoor- A sacred symbol of suhaag, sindoor or vermillion is applied on the center parting of the hair and is a part of the shringar of a married woman. 

3. Maangteeka- A hair accessory, Maangtika is worn on the central parting of the hair of the bride. It is mostly made out of gold. 

4. Anjana- Kajal or kohl is one of the most popular solah shringar. It is basically applied on the edges of the upper and lower eyelids, enhancing the bride's eyes and making it attractive and appealing. 

5. Nath- Nath or the nose ring completes the look of the bride, making her look traditional and ethnic. Made of gold, it is generally worn on the left nostril and is supported by a gold chain, which extends just behind left ear. 

6. Haar- After the face, next comes the neck of the bride. It is adored with beautiful haar or necklace, which is usually made of gold and embellished with diamonds, pearls or stones. 

7. Karn Phool- Ear rings or karn phool adorn the ear of the bride. Mostly, the ear ring flaunted by the bride is made out of gold and is extremely beautiful and heavy. 

8. Mehendi- Mehndi signifies the essence of love in wedlock and is essentially applied on the hands and feet of the bride, to strengthen that bond of love. It is one of the most special pre-wedding rituals in India.

9. Choodiyan- Bangles or choodiyan adore the wrist of the bride and are usally made of glass, laakh or gold. Conventionally, brides adore their wrist with red bangles. 

10. Baajuband- Baajuband or more popularly known as armlets are worn on the upper arms of the bride and are similar to bangles in their appearance. 

11. Aarsi- The fingers of the bride are adored with exotic rings. Aarsi is the thumb ring which the bride wears. It mostly has mirror embedded on it and enable the bride to have a glimpse of herself as well as her life-partner.

12. Keshapasharachana- Apart from the make-up, hair style plays an imperative role in determining the look of the bride. Mostly, the hair is tied in the braid style, with hair accessories and flowers accentuating the look.

13. Kamarband- Kamarband is a waist band that is tied on the waist line of the bride. Made up of gold, it is embellished with stones, diamonds and precious gems and is beautifully designed. 

14. Payal - Made up of silver, it is a thick chain that is tied on the ankle and is adored with tiny bells that make enticing sound. Bichuas or toe rings are similar to rings worn in the fingers of the hand, but are worn in the fingers of each foot. 

15. Itar Itar is a special fragrance that is applied on to the bride. It emits a special aroma and that helps the bride stay fresh despite the long elaborate rituals performed. 

16. Bridal Dress- Made in bright bridal colors, such as red, maroon, gold or green, bridal dress comprises of saree, lehenga and salwar kurta. It truly brings out the eternal beauty of the bride.

This detail information really made me excited and as me too like traditional things, it brought me more closer to the subject. Being a girl I thought I can represent this subject with proper mood and feelings. 

Talk By Illustrator Roderick Mills, ''Say No To No''.

University has arranged artist talk by Roderick Mills for MA Illustration students. Illustrator Roderick Mills was going to be talk on his work and work process. "Say no to no!" this quote I found really inspirational and with deep meaning. Wow! it was such a great start of his talk. He talked about his contemporary illustration practise and how his work is referenced based. He told us really important tips such as observe what do you enjoy as a person, experience the world through media-film-television. Think about your time which is going to be reflected in your world. Understand your work. Understand what you are doing and why you are doing. No matter which material do you use, always focus on drawings. Roderick used to use cheap materials that anyone can afford easily. He said always work in different medias. Exhibit your work through gallerias, blogs, Facebook, tweeter etc. Talk about your work. Make a timeline of your work. That will help you to improve your work. Timeline is really great for narrative. One more quote he said that I really got impressed by the thought, "you must know,'what you know'! ". Those simple words really made me think over what I really know about myself. And once you come to know what you know about yourself, it becomes easy to figure out what you do not know. He expressed his thoughts regarding stylization that it is not a style, it is your voice. Draw in your interests, not in style. Practice makes you realize what is you and what is your style.

Some of his work I liked from his blog  http://roderickmills.blogspot.co.uk/ are as below:

I really like the way he executed his idea. These illustrations are inspired by bamboo curtains and he stylized his illustrations that way the bamboo curtains look like.