Thursday, February 26, 2009

shed the accessory

even on days when little of worth happens - there is a book by the dinner plate, a book in the handbag, pencil under pillow. must dispense with such scapulars soon. here's why.

men in the epic have enough to keep their hands full (battles, yagnas, rigorous vows, dramatic deaths) but my storyboard scribbles have too many mahabharatan queens just standing around - arms akimbo, or hands on hip, or hands in lap, staring at horizons, looking out of balconies. the poses repeat too often for (my) comfort. so what new way, what new prop, what new repose. (they are queens, remember. so barring exiletime, no menial chores!)

as is invariably the case, the quandary has little to do with illustration or the propping of body parts in blank space; and everything to do with my own restlessness. days are hard enough to spend undistracted - let alone the centuries, millennia, yugas my beloveds stride across. and so the queens are cursed with edgy body language until i learn stillness.

7 comments:

austere said...

Painting/ other art?

Am reminded of the pool that was sketched to look like a painting that started it all," The son of a blind man will be blind...."

Jellicles said...

study of sculptures might give you ideas about props..i'll see if i can get any links for pics etc..

Jellicles said...

maybe bharatanatyam hand gestures? not all of the mudras certainly...but some might seem interesting to you...

amruta patil said...

yes, am filing away mudras. generally like to reappropriate images from contemporary context - but the desperation with which we cling to cellphone-book-cigarette-handbag-glass-snack-etc - makes it hard to find reference for measured stillness. and there is a lot of stillness in the tale.

Anonymous said...

paan prep or chewing? holding a swan or leaning against a parrot in a cage? feeding them.. holding a mirror like those temple sculptures, putting on kajal maybe... tampura/veena playing...

hobo said...

if the poses are repetitious, what about altering the viewpoint, so they seem different? (seen from different sides, above, below, through window, with architecture, fragmented, etc.)

Deboleena said...

The Mahabharata's been a fave for years now; and these updates just made the waiting a whole lot tenser.

:)

PS: Are you referring to P.Lal's translation of the text? It's got to be the most thrilling! :D

Regards
Deboleena