Urban Sketching - Italy Colosseum Building

 Italy Colosseum Building Sketch

The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. I got this picture from google. I started sketching a part of it in the landscape mode. Initial, I started with a pencil drawing. Drew outline sketch of the colosseum shape, surrounding trees and pillars. Once finished, started with ink drawing. (Still, I haven't received my "sakura" Pigma micron). The ink I am using is not water resistant. 

This was the initial sketch,

Ink Sketch

I am using an "A6" sketchbook. Initial ink drawing looked decent. On top of this, i added watercolor. It did not come up so well. I'm still working on my color combinations. Its taking time to understand the color shades on the photography.Also, I am still learning on how to paint the darker areas with "black" or darker shades. If i use darker shades like "black", it becomes too black, can be seen on this below finished sketch.

Ink + watercolor

The darker shadows of tree did not come so well. Also since the ink is not water resistant,it created a kind of blotting effect. 

More over the paper which i am using supports only light washes. Its a 130 GSM paper. So there is a limit to what i can paint. I am planning to buy a watercolor sketch pad or plannign to make one myself. 

Urban Sketching - a hill and a windmill

I leave this upto viewers imagination. ;) This hill did not come out good :)

I wanted to show elevation using foreshortening technique. unless explained, it is difficult to visualize. :)

A Windmill :

Practicing cross hatching. I feel it came out decent :)

let me know in comments section how to improve my drawing. I am referring to many blogs and videos to improve my drawing. I will share some of the wonderful resources on the Internet. 

Urban Sketches more drawings.

Here are some more urban sketches ,

Random Street from google photos. Perspective is not proper. I tried to sketch using pencil, then added ink.

I got this from google photos again. A vending van with some items. I am still not confident about drawing people. So i decided to concentrate only on drawing the Van.

Random Home. I wanted to practice cross hatching. Basic idea is to showcase the depth and shadow. From this drawing, i just got the gist of how cross hatching works. 

Urban Sketches , Practice Drawings for this week

Some of my weekly sketches :) Recently i have been practicing lots of urban sketching. I like it so much that i draw 3 to 4 sketches a day.

Tried to draw a random google photos location. I did not get to read info about the location. I will try to add those to my other sketches. I did not get the perspective correct. It looks a bit odd . Water color is not that good :)

This is a McDonald's shop. Pen sketching was good. But when i added water color to it, it started blotting. I am not using a water resistant pens. I have ordered for some of the "Sakura" pigma pens. I am yet to receive it :)

A jungle with lot of bushes. Now i know how to draw different bushes and trees. Now i feel confident about that. But still not getting proper watercolor shades for trees and bushes.

My Venture into Arts :)

I have been starting to divert my attention from computers to sketching. I am a computer freak. I spend almost 16 hours a day in front of the computer. Mostly coding, watching movies, downloading books, reading online news, blogs, and Games.By the way, I am a GAMER. I play a lot of MMORPG and MMOBA games. I wanted to overcome this addiction to computers gradually. The best way is to find a good Hobby.
Initially, I started with clay modelling. I bought a bunch of polymer clay and started working on it. It was really fun to sculpt some action figures on my own and then bake it.

Sculpting:

As usual, Youtube was my tutor.

Sculpting in polymer clay was really fun. Bought all the tools necessary for sculpting and I indeed sculpted an action figure. I wanted to sculpt a "Dwarf Warrior". I use to play World Of Warcraft a few years back. Though, I did not like the game as such (after playing Guildwars 2), I liked the "Dwarf" Character in that game. After playing GuildWars 2, Every other MMORPG will look too much inferior. GW2 has the most in-depth combat systems, which no other MMORPG has. Ok, I am drifting from my topic I guess. I like Dwarf Warrior, so I sculpted one. Let's keep that simple. How does it look ? It's still not baked. Need to polish a lot. For the first attempt, I felt, this was ok. I am Satisfied.

I am yet to craft him a pike and a shield. I designed an overcoat, obviously, I do not have a picture with overcoat and hood. Since it's not yet baked, the overcoat is sticking to the backside of the Dwarf. So prevent it, I removed overcoat and the hood.

Pencil Sketching:

I use to draw a lot during my school days. I naturally have a love for drawing. But, that was on school days. I haven't touched pen or pencil for last 7 to 8 years. I did most of my work with the help of computers and Smartphones.

I wanted to test my drawing skills. Viewed many videos of pencil drawing on youtube. Every piece of drawing was incredible. As usual, I bought all the necessary items for pencil sketching. Started with a  simple tree and few hills and stuff. Then I concentrated on drawing human figures. Since sketching cannot be mastered in a day, none of my drawings looked good. Everything was really bad. But I kept on trying. Finally one day, I was able to draw a decent "Tree" and then a "lighthouse". I drew both these drawing with the help of a Youtube video.

I called this "Ray of light". I wanted to show, at the time of spring,when the tree lost all of its leaves, even then, there is hope. "Summer" will soon follow. That rays of sunlight are the hope.

I used, Pencils (Graphite) and charcoal in few places.

This one is based on the Light House Drawing tutorial from a Youtuber. (www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=0bDCeNWLZ3A). I followed every step of his instruction, and I was able to draw this .

The shades are not proper. All the rocks look unrealistic in my drawing. I feel the clouds are decent. But the actual drawing had more depth which is lacking in my drawing.

I tried to draw this drawing on an A6 Notebook. Maybe that's why it looks cramped. Not Sure.

I am planning to draw more. I really love drawing sketches.

Urban Sketching:

Also called as the free form sketching. It became one of my favourites. The Essencense is to capture an emotion and not the actual detail. This looked fantastic. No necessity to draw exact details. Just an outline of what we are observing. I started loving this technique. I am practicing it daily. I will soon share some of the sketches that I drew. 

So I now have 2 forms of the hobby. Sculpting and Sketching. I am really happy and calm when I am sketching. Maybe I will stick to this :)

Datamaps : Dynamically loading a map based on url parameter.

There are quite a number of data Visualisation tools in the market. Most of them are derived from the same source "D3.js". D3.js is "Data-Driven Documents". Derived from D3js is "Datamaps". It's a very good library for plotting quick maps. I have a problem statement wherein I want to plot different map based on the URL query.

If the URL query has "USA" in it, I need to plot a USA graph. If the URL has "world" or no map information, I need to plot "World map". After searching the Internet for information on how to achieve this, I finally wrote this piece of code which will achieve this.

Code:

Script imports. I am using Jade syntax for importing. As you can see here, I have both World map as well as the usa.js.

script(src="/javascripts/d3.v3.min.js")
script(src="/javascripts/topojson.v1.min.js")
script(src="/javascripts/d3-queue.v3.min.js")
script(src="/javascripts/datamaps-usa.js")
script(src="/javascripts/datamaps.world.mod.js")
script(src="/javascripts/datamaps-all.js")

This piece of code generally does not work. I am not able to both World map, as well as another map on the same page. There happens a conflict of the variable between both the maps.

Soi decided to Keep all the map based .js files in inside a folder. WhenEver I navigate to a page, I pick the right js and dynamically load it into the page.

Following a piece of code is used for initializing a map element.

var map = new Datamap({
    scope: 'world',
    element: document.getElementById('canvas'),
    projection: 'mercator',
    height:900,
    width:null,
    responsive: true,
    geographyConfig: {
        hideAntarctica: true,
        hideHawaiiAndAlaska : false,
        borderWidth: 1.5,
        borderOpacity: 0,
        borderColor: '#ffffff'
    }, .... [truncated]

The above code displays world map inside "canvas" element. This element will dynamically change when I am loading the USA. Need to set "Scope" as "USA". You can download more versions of country maps from this location. (https://github.com/markmarkoh/datamaps/tree/master/dist)

Below script keeps monitoring the URL and changes the script element based on the URL pattern.

Script:

script.
    if ((window.location.href).indexOf("country=USA") > 0) {
        var script = document.createElement("script");
        script.type = "text/javascript";
        script.src = "/javascript/datamaps-usa.js";
    } else {
        var script = document.createElement("script");
        script.type = "text/javascript";
        script.src = "/javascript/datamaps-world.js";
    }

This script basically, checks if the pattern "country=usa" is found in the URL. if so, it loads datamaps-usa.js. Else, it loads default world map.

The magic of Human energy

What is all about this meditation and yoga ? How can it help in changing my life ? Most people have the notion that, yoga can make you healthier and meditation can calm one's mind. This is the generic idea which everyone has. Though it is partially true, there is a deeper meaning and explanation for everything. Every great Guru knows this and they preach the same, but usually people get it wrong.

Now it's my turn. I am not a Guru :) I have just been practising meditation and Yoga for few years. 

Meditation and yoga have the power to change one's prospects. This is not a false statement. This is a very true statement. You can easily observe in day to day life. As you walk along the road, watch everyone, observe them keenly, after reading the post and you will understand. The energy level in one's body decides the mood, it decides the fate, it decides their destination.

There are "Seven" Energy points in human body. These Energy centres define the quality of our life. 

If our energy centre is at the "Root" of our body, we concentrate mostly on Food and sex. Can you relate anything to these 2 activities ? Yes, it's the fundamentals of life. We eat and we produce. We were actually mammals !! our ancestors are Apes. 

Observe carefully, what you have been doing all day. Do you give too much importance to foods, ? Do you always think about the opposite sex, Do you like to live a free life without any motive, are you lazy ? all these points that, your energy level is still at the "Root Chakra". 

Root Chakra, is like that basis of what is necessary to live a life. That's all. It doesn't give any more. It just gives you enough to keep you happy.  Nothing more , nothing less.

It is also one of the most toughest Chakra to overcome. There are many books and biographies written, which talks about mastering the root chakra. People spend nearly 2 decades just to master the root chakra. But once you mastered it, other chakras will easily fall into place. The root chakra is the "kundalini", the place where all your energy originates.

Since it's difficult to conquer the root chakra, people in western culture teaches you to meditate  at higher chakras directlySacral Chakra". Their understanding is that, as you concentrate on the higher chakras, energy levels from "Root chakra" will eventually flow from the bottom to "top". This will some day open up the root chakra to the fullest. 

The fact is , as you go higher up the energy levels a charisma or aura forms around you. This aura, will not only protect you from any harm but will start attracting people with lesser energy towards you. It is just like a physics where particle from higher density flows to lower density. People will feel so much comfortable around you. They will start liking you. Your charisma will make you persuade things easier.

Just a note, if you have managed to bring your energy level up to your throat chakra, it is told that you will be a great leader. whatever you say people will obey. It's not like slavery, people will feel, whatever you are saying is reasonable. Persuading people will be a child's play for you. Every energy level does some good things, it takes you higher up the ladder in terms of life quality, stability and happiness.

I will give you one good example. Have you noticed people who take stages especially politicians ? Have you seen people who are managing things at the organisation at Top levels ? have you keenly noticed those people who are leading a nation ? Have you noticed them all ? you will find one similarity. That is their Energy Level. Seeing them on TV is a false impression. Go meet them and interact with them. Then you will understand their energy level. The moment you go near one of the big shots, if you have lower energy, your heart will beat faster. There will be a totally different breathing patterns. You will forget things, your mind will be glued only to that person. You will forget everything that is happening around you. Have you noticed this ? The magic is happening, it is because of the tremendous amount of energy level. 

The magic is all because of the energy level.  Higher the energy level, higher your goal will be. Your energy level wil ltake you to that place where you want to be. 

We do not want to talk about chakras above the throat. There are 2 powerful chakras above the throat. One is located between your eyebrows and another at top of your head. These 2 chakras are at different energy levels and will make you understand the deeper meaning of life. I will stop at that. My point is , if you want to lead a life like a hot star or like a leader you need to work harder to improve your energy level. If you want to explore the deeper understand of life, then you need to go beyond the throat chakra. :) 

One liner - When you are doing yoga or meditation, conciously feel the energy. It will do some magic :)

"Best of Everything" Syndrome

Life is not very pleasant, Life is too boring, Life is a burden, Life has nothing but sorrow is what I have seen people saying around. I sometimes have the same feeling like others. But recently I found some peace within myself after diverting my attentions to different activities.

I just wanted to share small things that can change everyone's life if they are willing to change. This is neither a motivational blog nor a blog where I am trying to guide people for better life. I just want to share the hard-learned secrets of life. I learned this after struggling for 20 years. Now I have some clarity in my life, what I want to do and where I am heading to. In this blog, lets me try to explain my "the best of everything" syndrome. I have this syndrome and I am trying to overcome it.

Life is very simple. But I complicated things a lot. I always wanted to get the best of everything. It is like, I am competing against myself. Even for deciding which notebook to buy, I became so picky. I will search for hours together analyzing the best notebook on the internet. Moreover, there are lots of websites which shares the "Top 10" kinds of stuff. They are really into very good business, till people like me are around. :) After getting the precious stuff, after researching hours of research, I will always regret the decision I made.

This is one of the things that recently learned. There is nothing like "BEST". It's always relative to one another. There is nothing which defines the reference to compare with. It's all imaginative, these things happen inside our mind. I re-iterate there is nothing called "Best". It took 20 yrs to realize this.

I wanted to start a blog for past 2 years. I registered many domains. But, there was one hurdle that I want to overcome. The "perfect" hosting provider or the "perfect" blogger. Too much confusions. Is it a blogger or WordPress or self-hosted blogs or wix or something totally different ? I waited for the best. I waited so long for someone to create a very best "blogging" platform. Even some time back, I thought about writing my own code to create the best blogger. I even started working on algorithms... crazy isn't ? I spent too much time just for researching on this. But today, I am at peace. Created a Gmail account, logged into blogger. I tried different blogger names, I got something which is relevant. Started writing this post.

Now I am at peace. :)

Like me, many people are wondering how to get the best of everything. But, there is nothing called Best. The attitude to get the best of everything gives everyone so much trouble. Even after getting the best of the best , people intend to compare it with other products and regret their decision. People compare things with so many criteria, its is a complex simulation which mind is constantly working on. It creates too much stress, eats up so much of our precious time of our life and most importantly, it hurts the quality of life we are living. It is always good to have a comparison. But too much comparison and trying to find the best of everything is a very bad attitude.

Nowadays, I depend completely on my Intuition. I will let my intuition guide me. The moment I see a product, my heart or something deeper consciousness will say if I need it nor not. Everyone's consciousness takes that instant decision. but what we do is, we try to question the decision made by our consciousness. This is where "Mind" comes to play. It tries to argue , doubt, question the decision made by our consciousness. If you let this happen, your mind will win. Mind feeds on thoughts. It likes more thoughts. You cannot keep it idle. If you master that art, then you are a Sage , Guru or Yogi. So listen to your Consciousness not to your mind when taking decisions. This always helped me.

I believe all our consciousness will take the "BEST" decision at all situation. We just have to keep an open mind to listen and accept it. So keep an open mind. Hear your consciousness.

Respect "YOUR INNER CONSCIOUSNESS".