Art by Rati
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Fast forward

5/19/2018

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​FAST FORWARD
Fast forward and -skim through days , months  , places, countries, many faces , many moods and reach today ---and press on Play.
Time has  flown , with me exploring the world of Arts. Reading, going  to Museums and Exhibitions. Watching other artists, talking and listening to their experiments, their journey----do not feel I have wasted precious time .
I sketch almost every day , with pencil, charcoal, or pens on napkins, any bits of paper, even toilet paper at times .Practice practice , keeping that hand moving .Maybe one day I will clock in the hundred thousand hours one needs to become a master …….I just do not keep track.
  Now I  see the angles, curves, lines , planes , shapes instead of objects . Even people now appear to me made up of planes, and shapes . Sometimes it is a little bit scary ….. especially when I am mentally sketching anyone I am talking too.
I see the sky and it is no long blue ----there is grey ,mauve, pink all the colours of the rainbow .  The water is brown, green, purple , ----it is a whole new world . I never really knew what I was missing .
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time  “  
(Four Quartets , TS Eliot .)
It was in “The Silent Raga” by Ameen Merchant   and I can relate to the writing . There is so much to explore ,so much to learn.


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Scribbling away

12/31/2016

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​People waiting in a clinic, a cat stretched out in sunlight, a girl waiting at traffic lights as my car slowly glides past her. I see them all differently now.  It seems that I had never really looked at the world before.

My perception has evolved—and my Subway Diary has done that to me .

When I sketch, I observe:-- postures, expressions, colours.  I try to remember them if I do not have any paper on hand ,and then recreate them later ---it seems to help me keep my memory exercised too.

There is no dearth of subjects to draw or paint. There is art all around us. So many things to draw, to capture, to recreate. I want to do them all and it is wishful thinking 

The trees, what grace, what strength - the flowers, what beauty, what fragility - the clouds, so light so soft-the little boy who peeps from behind the open door, so cute so happy …. I find myself questioning - who made all this? Who was this Great Artist I can only try and copy. Is it Nature? Or some force even greater than Nature?

My friends laugh and comment that I am becoming a philosopher   –maybe they are right.  Doing Art has changed me in someway, I have become observant, contemplative and patient. 

There is a girl standing at the crossroads holding a chicken. I notice she has shabby well-worn clothes and the chicken she is clutching could be her pet, or is stolen from the nearby market. She has a shy but also a sly look when she sees me watching her. The light turns in her favour and she sticks her chin out and walks proudly across the road. I am left with a memory of  her and the chicken
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 I rush home and grab my diary to sketch that gesture that look, her clothes, the chicken. The sketch is untidy and does not look accurate but it does not matter I know I will always remember her .
  It is so much fulfilling than trying to find the right words to describe her ---I am happy. 
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September 08th, 2016

9/8/2016

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Starting the subway diary

9/7/2016

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SUBWAY DIARY
“ A strong structure needs solid  foundations ,A  good drawing is the necessary foundation to strong  art,and time spent on mastering the basics is invaluable ”
Keeping the above in mind , I draw  and draw –everyday , all the time –actually, whenever I have nothing else to do. On the subway, in the waiting room of the dentist’s or the doctor, there am I with my little notebook and a stub of a pencil , doodling away . All my purses now have scraps of paper with little things scribbled on them. 
Now writing has become secondary ----instead I draw ---with a pencil, or a pen or a crayon. 
When I see faces I am mentally drawing lines, angles, curves and facets . When I look at scenes , I see darks oand lights and think which geometrical shape a particular area fits into . 
I draw in my dreams too sometimes and wake in the middle of the night with a perfect drawing in my head –sadly it has disappeared by morning –all I can remember is that it was perfect…
These scribbles maybe my inspiration some day –I start my SUBWAY  DIARY and save them in it . 


  
PS –Figures in the diaries , have no facial likeness to any persons . Only gestures are  drawn and if anybodies  did inadvertently become my muse, they were informed and only if they allowed were the drawings on my blog. 


    

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June 19th, 2016

6/19/2016

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The New Year 
 One half  of the new year is over and where have I been these last months ?????.
Exploring –travelling India and soaking in the hazy horizons , the smoggy , crammed towns ,the colourful sandy deserts of Rajasthan …
Riding an Elephant , a camel cart and seeing those wonderful thoroughbreds and the Marwari horses was a wonderful experience . 
Food –the exquisite cuisine of Royalty, the wholesome meals of the simple folks  . They were all so full of flavour and wonderful aromas . 
To top all this were  the visits to places showing gems, their polishing and intricate embroidery  incorporating the precious stones  . The jewelry and the fabulous inlay work in marble . So exquisite . Of course there was no time to capture any of this in sketching or painting but there was so much that I wanted to record .  

Then there was Cuba , another country with wonderful weather , wonder landscapes, food , people and beaches . The flat beaches with the fine pale sand and  azure skies had me wishing I had the means to capture all this on canvas . 
There is so much to explore ---There is so much inspirative material .  It is truly Incredible 
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Alas , I have to learn so much before I can consider myself competent to do so . Materials in art have developed so much . Maybe one day they will have paint that also has the smell of food and the paintings of cuisine will delight the sense of smell too. Who knows !!!!

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November 02nd, 2015

11/2/2015

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Learning to handle charcoals 
Made by burning organic material we get different grades of charcoal with degrees of softness. Cheap and readily available , it is excellent for practicising, sketching  and some really good art .

The first time I held a charcoal stick,  it brok –I probably held it too tightly . Then when I tried to draw with it on paper---the point crumbled , there were pieces of charcoal everywhere and the black dust messed up my hands which messed up my clothes and I had a messy face too .  Lessons learnt were …..
 1.don’t hold the charcoal too tightly
2.do not press it hard on the paper
3. do not put the dirty  fingers anywhere near the face or in mouth !!!!
4. keep some paper towels or a rag handy to clean up .

It took a while but I started holding it like a brush and voila –it worked . Suddenly I discovered the freedom in drawing with charcoal. I could make big strokes ,, fat strokes, thin strokes , small tiny strokes .
 Blending was so easy  with just a finger or  a piece of paper, or a soft brush, or a stomp or a small small . All done with really no effort ---it was all so relaxing .
For me  charcoal is awesome and I have learnt to control it .  It is available as a vine stick ( very fragile) , a thicker stick –Conte ( much more stable ) and as a pencil (very stable )
To get a really fine line all I do is either sandpaper the point or keep rotating the side of the stick while using it for thicker strokes –the point can be filed to a needlepoint, perfect for getting into those tiny areas .
The trick is  hold the stick lightly , keep the wrist relaxed , and the pressure on the paper very light . To get the dark effects , just keep layering lightly over and over again. The paper should have some tooth texture to it .
Of course I still have to figure out how to preserve the drawings –spraying with a fixative is not really recommended. Till I have an answer, my drawings are kept covered with Glassine paper and are lying flat in the cupboard

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Study of a young lady . Charcoal on paper .
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Black is Black ---or is it ?

7/26/2015

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PictureCharcoal on Paper -- a sight size copy of the paster cast of David's ear
Black is Black –or is it ?

Black is the absence of colour or is it ? It is the complete absorption of light

A black writing pencil has Graphite and is really a deep grey . Graphite is a different form of natural carbon like a diamond but is soft . It has a metalllic sheen and powdered is mixed with different porportions of clay and surrounded by wood to form pencils . The different quantities of clay decide the hardness or softness of the pencil.  Softer the pencil, darker are the lines . Unfortunately the lines can never be really really dark like black because of the shine which gets worse the more it is layered . Also graphite lines cannot be covered by either oil paints or charcoal, the metallic quality shuns these .

To make blacks really black, we need carbon as carbon, in its original form. The powdery is also combined with clay to form pencils of varying softness. A carbon pencil can be sharpened to a point and is excellent for really dark blacks without a shine . Detailed work can be done as it can be sharpened .

Charcoal , the basic burnt wood, or ivory or bones  has coarser particles which disperse light and so is less black than the carbon pencil ,but both can be easily blended,  brushed off and  can be covered with graphite and oil paint They so are good for doing the under drawing for a painting on canvas . Charcoal  is great for drawing textures especially in larger areas.

So much to learn ……even about the absence of colour !!!!

 

 


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Drawing from Life 

6/4/2015

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 Drawing from Life 

Today I enter a Live drawing  class at the Art School for the first time . It is a large room with lots of easels in a semi circle .  At one end against a curtained wall is a small elevated area with a couch . Soon  a model steps out from behind the curtain and drapes herself on the couch.

I am shocked and quickly avert my gaze. She is nude ……

Surreptitiously I glance at my neighbours and the model. They are  busy drawing and she looks as though she is  lounging at home fully dressed .

I try to get on with my drawing but my mind is distracted with questions  –how can anyone just shed their clothes and sit still for so long in front of strangers?  How can she not move , I would be fidgeting in 5 minutes? What is she thinking ?

After every 20 minutes there is a break for 5 mins for the model to stretch before she resumes the same pose. Amazing …

I now am only concentrating on the human form ---a dip here, a buldge there , a long curve . She seizes to be a living being and has become  an object that needs to be represented on my paper in 2 dimensions . Strangely I am taken back to my days of studying Anatomy in Medical College .

During a break  I ask her what goes on in her mind while she is posing . She answers that  she meditates, leaves her body and blends with the air in the room, sometimes she does mathematic calculations , sometimes she composes poems .She does not focus on anything.

 My respect for this lady is genuine . 

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Carbon on paper By Rati Vajpeyi
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April 23rd, 2015

4/23/2015

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What do I draw on ?

PictureIs anyone watching? Graphite on paper 11x14 inches (Original by Rati ) Copyright with Artist .
What do I draw on ? .

I am no historian, but I think our ancestors needed something to put their thoughts down on .There was no script,  no language . They had  fingers to gesticulate with , and drawing on wet ground or sand must have  resulted  in very sore fingers .

Ancient rock etchings tell us pictures speak volumes,  but it would have been a slow and labouriou . In the quest for an easier and efficient communication through pictures , the paper finally evolved and now of course we have even gone digital.

Pictures are so important . For an ordinary person like me a picture says it all  ! I must confess I read the Illustrated Classics Comics of the Classics and never the originals.

I  know there are different kinds of paper.  The texture of the surface of the paper decides what materials should be used to draw or paint with.

Drawing with Graphite requires a smooth paper. If it too smooth , the paper will feel good to draw on but the graphite might just slide off. Crayons and Charcoals and other dry media require papers with a texture or a tooth. The little dips between the teeth could be difficult to fill in , giving the art work a spotted ,mottled look. But if meticulously filled in with tha sharp point or brushed in , the material holds and does not dust off easily. Luckily today we have a vast range and can choose whatever suits  us.

I need to sharpen my pencils now .

 

 

    


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Lights out 

2/16/2015

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Oh no! There is a power outage –I cannot even see my hand in front of me .This is probably what a  visually impaired person’s world must be like .
 I grope around in the dark and feel the contours of the desk , the chair and slowly run my fingers over the curves and the grooves  on the arms on the chair . How come I had never noticed this before ?. This beautiful carving on the furniture. 
The  texture of the wood  is firm and warm . My finger dips into each groove and rises with every tiny bump . I forget the darkness and am lost in this new discovery . The feel ,the contours , I feel like an explorer.
My eyes get used to the darkness and in the faint glow  diffusing through the window I can make out the silhouette of the chair. The shapes of the furniture become visible and I can identify the different pieces in the room,even though only parts of them are in the light . 
Now I understand what is meant by contour and line drawing in art . My finger could have been a pencil and it’s journey over the carving would have made a line drawing . Putting the silouettes on paper would have been a contour drawing . 
Light no matter how minimal is still needed to see the shapes and identify an object. This is a lesson in Light and dark. 
My first project is to copy a basic  Charles Bargue drawing . It illustrates the importance of line and the contrast of light and dark.  
So much to learn –it is getting interesting.    

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The Foot - rendered in graphite on paper by the artist. Copied from Charles Bargue drawing showing the importance of Light and Dark
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