SKETCHBOOK 1 Stuff

The drawings from my first sketchbook (2015) are finally here! All this while, the sketchbook was hidden inside a shoe box at my parents’ place, but here they are.

In the beginning, I used to overthink each time before making a mark on the paper. The impulse to draw something would come in strongly and quickly shoo away whenever I couldn’t visualize what I wanted to see on the paper.

“What the hell do I draw!”

So, I looked for inspiration from my everyday-life like my mom’s blender, or my money plant called Money Ratnam! And soon, I could make things up on the fly and even surprise myself with whatever came after. This sketchbook’s quality was slightly better then its successor’s as it could take light watercolour washes and some markers.

John Berger in “Bento’s Sketchbook” compares the act of drawing to riding a motorbike. While in motion, as long as a certain momentum is maintained, the bike veers towards wherever the eyes are fixed. To avoid getting hit by an obstacle, “the bike pursues your gaze, not your ideas.” The draughtsman/biker and their instrument together form a single unit. This unit “traces a continually shifting, ongoing line which feels like a contour. A contour of what? Of what is extensive. Exactly as you describe it.” One of the challenges of drawing according to him is to show how extensive a substance is, from the impermanent, arbitrary contours on the surface. If the lines forming the substance don’t convey the tension of the drawing, it remains a merely a sign.

I don’t know if Berger would qualify my drawings as drawings or as merely signs, but it is quite the encouragement from him to just let loose, pick up a pen, and navigate the piece of paper in front of you.

Or, you could just ride your bike!