Capturing people in action and crowds

Straight after my workshop with Ching I went into an afternoon workshop with Marc Holmes. The focus was on capturing people while they went about their business of doing whatever they do. Essential stuff for urban sketching as you can't ask them to pose for you.

We started off sketching each other very rapidly trying to capture the "head shape and hairshape" and soon moved on to capturing the hands. Again a handy trick. Get the hands down immediately after the head and then even if they move away you can fill in the rest later!

So we were sent off into the market area in front of the chinese temple on waterloo street. In twenty minutes we gathered back. I had these 6 people with head and hands which meant I had captured them doing whatever they were doing.

Raffle ticket seller, fruit vendor packing plums, old man sleeping and a cobbler working on a shoe while smoking his pipe.

An essential part of the workshop was also how to use two kinds of pens - one thin for the initial quick capture and then work with a darker brush pen for shadows and highlights. I wasn't very familiar with the use of the brush pen and really felt myself struggle with the darks.

The final part of our workshop which I found the most exciting by far was how to quickly capture a crowd scene. It's funny how different this workshop was from the previous one and yet in some ways the same. The idea of a foreground, a focus with more detail and then getting the depth and background with perspective and alternating darks for contrast. Except instead of buildings it was a whole horde of people on the paper.

We had to create a point of interest by quickly capturing one or a group of people in the foreground. Sketching what they were doing and getting in the head and hands first. Adding depth by putting in a whole row of heads behind that. Again, the trick is to look at people here and there and sketch them in. It doesn't really matter if the person on the left is finally on the right by the time you captured them.

Accessories like bags, specific kinds of shoes add character and by adding bodies and alternating dark shapes between the whites at the back one can very quickly achieve a sense of a crowd while also having a few authentic people about whom you are telling the story. Above is a scene of two sketchers meeting after the workshops in the crowded market and swapping notes while the rest of the busy shopping crowd mills around them. Below is a guy in a wheelchair talking to an old lady with the shopping stalls behind them.

Marc Holmes has pretty much distilled people sketching to its essence in this workshop. I really enjoyed the structure where each exercise built on the previous one and watching him stand there in the bustling market and demo one great sketch after another is a memory that will stay with me.

The new Metro - Rapid sketches of mass rapid transport

On 30th June 2015, the new Metro line in our city was inaugurated. It was, quite literally the talk of the town. The Metro has been under construction for 6 years and last week only a short stretch - a tiny sampling - was thrown open to the public. All the major dailies carried stories and first hand reports for several days, so on Sunday a tiny group of us - 3 sketchers - decided to go on a joyride and sketch the experience.

 I wasn't sure if there would be resistance from the staff to sketching. In many heritage sites across India photography is allowed but sketching is banned! In the Delhi Metro photography itself is not allowed. So I took a really small sketch pad and resolved to keep each sketch under five minutes in duration. The platforms are high up at the top and after feeding money into the automatic ticket vending machines we took some really long escalator rides up to the platform.

The vaulted roof is open down the middle at Alandur station where we boarded the train and the whole station is bright and clean - at least for now.

On the train to Koyambedu there are only six stops. The same distance which in rush hour will take you over an hour can be done in under fifteen minutes. On Sunday morning the train was not crowded but there weren't too many empty spots on the benches either. Many families looked like they had come just for a joyride.... like us! 

More than the parents the kids were really thrilled. Though the ride is short you get a great view of the city from above.

When we reached Koyambedu station we had to climb up a level and cross over the platform before descending again to exit. The level up brought us right up to the base of the arch trusses that held up the station roof. Another quick stop to dash off another sketch. Peering down from the parapet the platforms and trains were laid out below us.

From that level the trusses and space frames were a real visual jungle. Someone reminded us that the ticket token is timed (not sure if it's true) and that we should use it to get out soon.

The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has bought automatic ticket/gate machines from Japan. The token is kept against a sensor on our way in and the gate opens.On the way out you deposit the same token into a slot so that it allows your exit. Quite simple but for the ever increasing crowds it was all wondrous and baffling. By the time we came out the crowds had swelled considerably and flustered staff were trying to get people to queue up and wait till the machine reset itself for the next person. Queues themselves are a near impossible challenge in our country, and when you add automation to that the novelty is too high!

I really hope it stays clean, disciplined and the rest of the green and blue lines open soon.

Father's Day

This morning I sat  on the pavement outside the North gate of the Madras High Court and decided to sketch Anderson Church. I've passed by it so many times and never sat down to do a sketch until now. I love the proportion of it's spire.

The really interesting thing is this Church sits bang on Broadway and is crowded in on all sides by hectic business activity jostling for space. Although it was a Sunday morning I wanted to try and bring that in somehow.

Some of the other sketchers in our group were attending a heritage walk inside that I had been to and sketched over a year ago. My father decided to sketch the same church too and we found ourselves side by side on the pavement. Me on the ground and him on a stool.

It was really amazing that for over an hour an endless stream of people, mostly the security guards of the high court, would come up and talk to me and look at the work, ask questions. But no one disturbed my father at all!!

As I finished up my sketch I realised its father's day! I don't as a rule follow valentines and father's and mother's day. Can't wrap my head around assigning days to random things, but found the coincidence surprising. So I wrapped up with a quick sketch of my dad to remember the day better.

His sketch turned out really well too!

Not quite Demonte Colony

Last Sunday I joined the CWA group to sketch at Demonte colony. Due to litigation the two residential streets have been abandoned for may years and wears a somewhat haunted, deserted look. We thought we would see plenty of old crumbling buildings and abandoned vehicles, but unfortunately our luck was out.

Recently there was a movie released by the same name, a horror flick, and some scenes were shot here. Droves of tourists have apparently been stopping by and neighbours have complained resulting in the place being sealed off.

We were only allowed into a corporation park next to which stood an abandoned jeep. Further down the pavement was a lady selling idlis in a make-shift food stall. I managed to try out my water soluble graphite pencils a little more in both these sketches. After that I switched to my trusty Pigma graphic-1. A quick capture of a sleeping man on a park bench.

After that the group converged at the park and started doing portrait studies. They got a young boy to pose and several sketchers attempted to capture him. I tried to capture the sketchers.

Young boys playing cricket kept drifting in and out of my frame. They ended up looking ghostly in my sketches.

Francis sketched away rapidly with the sketchbook propped up against his waist. And finally it was time to lay down all our sketchbooks on the paved pathway but not before getting in a last impression of the group huddling together.

A little less wisdom

I had a quiet weekend indoors thanks to the fact that J needed to have two of his wisdom teeth extracted. He was advised not to drive after the procedure so I went along to bring him back. The Dentist's clinic is attached to his house. After a full day consulting outside he comes home and sees some patients at night. Since it wasn't a formal set-up I got to go all the way in and sit there on the side while the dentist got to work.

Compared to my own experience many years ago, this was a fairly quick and smooth extraction. Two wisdom teeth came out in just ten minutes. Barely enough time to do the sketch. No stitches needed and surprisingly no swelling either!

Surfs Up

Not many people know this but you can surf at the beach in Madras. Well, not technically Madras, but Kovalam. On proper surf boards with instructors to guide you and tell you about proper technique. Known as the Covelong Point Surfing School, its run by a vibrant new, young group of surfers with a strong connection to the local community at Kovalam.

Right now they just have a shade net propped up on a few poles but a new cafe with toilets and showers and a few rooms is getting built.

Many of my friends have made it a regular sunday outing and I finally went along the last couple of weeks. They surfed, I sketched.

Newcomers are given a tutorial and then made to go through all the motions on the board on land before venturing out. The location has a nice cove (hence the name) where the undertow we have along the rest of the coast is not as strong.

Its just the beginning of April and its blistering hot but there are dozens of surfers from various countries. Some staying at nearby hotels. There are regulars from the city and lots of locals. Young boys from the fishing community are the real pros. Its a real treat to just sit and watch them ride the waves.

Madras High Court Heritage Walk

On Sunday morning bright and early at 8 am a large group of us gathered near the old Light house within the Madras High Court campus. The event was a heritage walk cum talk organised by Intach and the gathering of over 50 people were mostly architects, history enthusiasts, journalists or Intach members. The talk started off at the base of the Light house. Built in 1834 and faced with beautifully dressed granite it is in the shape of a large fluted doric column. It has a spiral stairway inside and a pile of firewood was lit each night at the top as a signal to approaching ships.

I was under the impression that we would walk through the building and then there would be a talk later in a hall. That's what I had understood from the invite but as it happened there were short talks about specific parts of the campus and its history right through the walk which lasted 2 hours in total. So right from the start I kept getting five minutes here and there and sneaked in these quick sketches.
From the Lighthouse we walked along the Eastern side of the main building. Sujatha Shankar, a senior Architect and Convener of Intach Chennai took over the talk at this point and started talking about the detailing and the style. The happy marriage of brick and granite that forms the building language.

The High court building took many years to build and doubtless many people contributed. But it's design is mainly credited to Henry Irwin and she spoke about how he was deeply influenced by previous works by Robert Chisholm (in fact just along the beach at the Chepauk Palace and Senate House). The High Court is generally acclaimed as one of the best examples of Indo Saracenic Architecture and we went up close to an arched opening on the east face where she enumerated the many ways in which it was a confluence of various styles.

We then moved into the East Portico. The building has entrances in all 4 cardinal directions but the East gate is currently kept locked up. Mr. Rajah, an Advocate with the high Court and part of the High Court heritage committee took over talking about the history of some incidents at each of the locations we had passed. The gate itself, which I tried to capture as a background in this sketch was beautiful 3 dimensional wrought iron work. But since we couldn't get into the building from here we walked around to the North Portico.

Along the way, we stopped at this statue of Sir Bhashyam Iyengar who was the first Indian acting Advocate General. Mr Rajah pointed out interesting trivia like the fact that the correct formal attire for an Indian like Mr Iyengar was - Silk turban, Robes, Panchakacham (dhoti) and shoes and so this is how he is portrayed in his statue

Our first stop inside the building was the High Court Museum. It has a vast collection of documents, plaques, various objects and furniture used long ago in the courts and this room at the back that is set up with the original furniture. I could only get a peek in and then we were off to the Madras Bar association Library.

Once again Mr Rajah regaled us with many historic tales and anecdotes to try and give us a picture of what it meant in those days to be a member of the Bar, the kind of people they were. Some tales of abject corruption but equally as many of high integrity and honour.

Finally we were also shown the Chief Justice Hall, a very ornate courtroom and with so many of us inside I decided to try and sketch the ceiling as I couldn;t quite look across the hall. The first chief justice was Sir Thomas Lumisden Strange, apparently a great man who was incorruptible and highly regarded,  and a huge portrait of him hangs on the wall facing the Judges, supposedly reminding them of what they need to live up to.
The ceiling itself had a geometric pattern of wooden frames holding up a cardboard painted false ceiling that looked rich and ornate. The same kind of 4-8-16 geometries were seen in a lot of the Jali work and metal work all over the building.
Intach plans on holding this walk and opening it out to all citizens every 2nd Sunday of the month. I would highly recommend it!
And on a final note - I finished another sketchbook! That's the second one to get over this weekend.

People sketches at Marina

After a hectic week of work, I found our CWA group was meeting at Marina beach on saturday evening. I decided to try and focus on sketching people like I did some time back at the park.  But somehow the architect in me always gets drawn to straight lines and perspectives so just to get that out of the system I did a quick one of "Endrum Vasantham Cool Bar" a shack that sold water and soft drinks on the beach.

Then I told myself firmly "only people!!"" and loosened up with this sleeping guy. After that I turned around 180 degrees exactly where I sat and before I knew it another perspective sketch. Oh no! What's wrong with me :(

An hour had gone by and I could stay at most another hour. By then I realised I was on the last 3 pages of my sketchbook so I decided to make it count.

Lot of people just come and sit on the promenade wall as its the largest free open space with great breeze.

By then we were a group of 6 or 7 sketchers so I sneaked one of Kandaswamy. That guy in the upper corner was on his phone the whole hour and probably longer after I left.

And I finally reached the last page of my sketchbook. It's a fat one that I inaugurated in June 2011. Felt great to reach the end and then flip back and look at the journey. By 7.30 I wrapped up at the beach and headed to a friend's house for dinner. Their daughter is six and a half months old and moves with blinding speed on the floor!

India Votes

We are electing our representatives for the central government today. Who we vote for will determine the Prime minister. The choices are not great but the event itself is quite a spectacle. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections is happening in 9 phases spread over a month and we in Chennai fall into phase 6 today. I come under the South Chennai constituency and within that there are various sub-sub-sub parts that determine where I queue up. Considering South Chennai has 3.5 million voters and the country has 81,45,00,000 people on its electoral roll its quite a management miracle.
I went with my grandmother who is 85 years old and determined to exercise her right. Our polling booth was in a corporation school and 10 residential areas have to come here to vote. The open quadrangle had ten different queues snaking around under the shamiyanas. I had thought I would have plenty of time to dash off many sketches but thanks to my grandmother I was given red carpet treatment. A security guard ushered us in and we were out in five minutes! Actually all the queues were moving pretty fast.

Earlier in the morning I sketched another line of folks waiting to vote in Mylapore just outside my house. This was around 8 in the morning and the line was very very long. Generally the lines are much longer before office starts. All the schools and colleges have to shut as they become polling booths and counting centres. 

Kerala Trip - Part 5

A short drive from where we stayed was a place called Chingenachera Kshetram. It was otherwise known as the big Banyan tree temple. You had to drive half an hour away from the main highway and into narrower and narrower lanes passing small hamlets and finally you come to a large pond. On the bank of the pond to one side, rising like a mountain is a gigantic banyan tree. As you approach closer you can make out that it has three trunks or groupings of roots. Its hard to tell whether it is three trees or one large tree taking support three times. But all of them have shrines at their base and upon closer examination you find many many hundred small model houses and huts strung up on the roots like a strange ornamental festoon around the three shrines. I couldn't make out the idol inside the shrine. It was swathed in a white dhoti and garlanded many times over, plus it was inside a deep recess in the tree trunk. But the model houses outside were of all shapes, sizes and colours. Some were roughly made but others even had neat terracotta tiles painted on the sloping roofs.
Apparently, locals from all surrounding areas come to this tree when they plan to build their own home and pray to the tree for good luck and a good house with no hitches. They make a symbolic model of the house they plan to build and during the prayer string up the house. While the prayers are happening the women of that family cook a meal for the gathering and after offering some food to the idol everyone eats together.
The three trees are said to be meat eating, fish eating and vegetarian and so a community worships at the shrine of their dietary preference.

On our ramblings around the country-side we made a brief visit to the forest office at Nemmara to discuss possible camping options and permissions. Nemmara is a much larger town than Kollengode, but still the government office was in a large wooded compound.

The compound is so large that visitors can park inside and this guy was next to our car. See what I mean, when I said the autos here are so roomy? So much bigger and broader too than the autos in Madras.
Close to Nemmara is the Pothundy dam. It is a much larger dam than the Chuliyar and is supposed to be a local tourist attraction. So off we went to see it.

This place was frequented by tourists and had a look-out point (read ugly circular pavilion probably designed by the PWD) . There was a large fallen tree trunk that made for more interesting seating and along came an ice-cream cart. It was the middle of the day and he had something called Mango Duble. A mis-spelt double, it was bright orange mango ice on a stick with a vanilla ice-cream centre. Needless to say, the Mango Duble (doo-blay) became another foodie hit on our trip.