Portraits

Aishwarya Rai

Hercules

Stippling

Stippling is one of the most easiest forms of art and definitely fun!!

Stippling can be used for drawing and/or painting. It is similar to pointillism, the only difference is that stippling is created by using dots of a single color applied with a pen or a brush and pointillism is dots created using more than one color. The denser the dots, the darker the apparent shade, likewise, the lighter the dots, the lighter the surface.  

Since there are no definite boundaries, it is easy to manipulate the drawing!!

Artwork Extraordinaire!

I started the Krishna/Arjun project for my Asian art class in December 2009.

 The picture depicts one of the most important scenes from the epic poem, Mahabharata.  

The story goes like this: before the Kurukshetra War, Arjun and Duryodhan go to Krishna to ask for help. Krishna was asleep at the time so Duryodhan (who thought himself equal to Krishna) waited by his head and Arjun (a humble devotee of Krishna) waited by his feet. When Krishna woke up, he saw Arjun first and asked him first to voice his reasons for being there.

Krishna had one of the largest armies in those times. Being a cousin to both, Arjun and Duryodhan, he had to be fair and so gave them an option to either take his entire "opulent, Lordly army" or Himself (but he would not raise any weapon). Since Arjun got the right to choose first, he picked Krishna himself and asked him to be his charioteer. At difficult times when Arjun could not oppose his own family on the battlefield, Krishna gave him courage and wisdom to follow through. 

The verse on the drawing (written in Sanskrit) reads:

yada yada hi dharmasya

glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya

tadatmanam srjamy aham

Meaning: Whenever there are discrepancies in the discharge of natural laws of God, then God incarnates. Either He incarnates Himself, or He sends His bona fide representative, or He sends His powerful representative, like that. So whenever there is incarnation of God, it is to be understood that there are discrepancies in the matter of discharging the laws made by God. And the laws made by God are called dharma, or religion.  

I have done many art projects over the years but none compare to the one above. There is a lot of intricate work required on the chariot and the accessories. Since it was for an art class, time was limited and I needed a lot patience to get the project done. Personally, I would say I draw the worst clouds ever, and that is evident in the drawing above (but I'm improving).

The Beginning

We had mandatory art classes from 1st - 10th grade in the school I went to back in India.

First memory from my art class: a page with three circles! The task was to color-in the circle perfectly. After getting an A on that and a pat on the back from the teacher, I thought I could conquer the world!

haha...off course, I didn't know then what I know now. Art is a lot more than just coloring in circles. But ever since the episode of three circles, I have been fascinated by art...it is EVERYWHERE! Be it in the outlines of the clouds, the silhouette of the shadows, in the reflection of a water droplet, strand of grass, falling leaf, play of lights, trail of ants............

In a state of complete aw, I drew or painted everything I saw around me. And now, 14 years later, I am trying to get back to my one passion in life, art!

Stay tuned in to read more about my art and art in general!!