Sketchbook 2014-15 (Personal Reflections)

Beginning with reflections.

               The first few days.

 The writing confuses me too now.

I don't even drink tea regularly.

 After binge-eating m&ms.

 Sketches and musings.

 Nine aspects.

 The child?

The me.                         

Sketchbook 2014-15 (The Outside)

The sketchbook was started at the beginning of my final year in high school (also the year I moved to Canada). After the monotony that was O Level art, this new course was a 180 degree turn. While there were some aspects of the course that I did not like as much, the sketchbook was one that I truly enjoyed.

The first task we were given was to design a cover for our sketchbook. I played around with impasto and collage, and created here a colourful image.

Front cover

 The back cover was, incidentally, an accident. I had been experimenting with paint and made an image on paper, and just for fun, stuck it on the plain black backside of the book.

Back Cover

 The very last touch to this was the addition of the date it was started and the date it was completed.

Spine

Front view

 The classes really didn't have much structure, and we were free to do whatever we wanted. As the shy, awkward new girl, I scribbled away in the sketchbook - and it grew. By the end of October, it was no longer flat (and also a pain to carry around). Even when the course ended in January, I continued researching and brainstorming in the still incomplete book. Most importantly, it was my outlet - the creative journal that had the angry outbursts and the pangs of longing - and now, the very last page has been filled.

Height

First page

Last page

Quilled Swan

Quilled Lion

The Phone-case Phenomenon

(A painted phone case that is now unfortunately breaking, but my attachment to the picture makes me hold on to it)

Reflections

Elephant

After searching for a silver/grey animal for ages, and after a failed attempt at making a CD koala, I realized how beautiful a seahorse is, and this new piece formed.

Seahorse

The markhor, being the national animal of Pakistan, was a natural choice for a portfolio in which I had to reflect myself - and my heritage as a Pakistani has had a large impact on my personality, artwork, and writing.

Markhor

I'm always on a lookout for animals that have interesting silhouettes, and from broken CDs I create their form. 

Graph it!

Who Am I?

Anger and defiance

The burst of colour

Sweet innocence

Absolute apathy

I'm not smiling in any of these...I do smile often in real life, though! An hour of smiling would make the muscles in my face hurt, I suppose.

Light it up

Dangling from a log in front of the door was a rusted and chipped black lantern. As we searched for things to paint, my older sister's gaze fell upon the ancient object, and an idea formed.

Having seen my experiments with truck art, she declared that that was what we (16 and 19) would do on the lantern.

Sometimes we painted simultaneously, other times we sat in our own time and worked away at the finer details.

Two different styles of painting emerged on the surface, and the object was no longer recognizable.

Painting and spraying a curved surface was no picnic, but the challenge increased our vigour, and the end result was well worth it.

Ride Forth

Note to self: a bike is extremely complicated to draw.

In the Dollhouse

My six-year-old sister longed for a dollhouse...

...but every single one in the shop was too small to be much fun...

...so we made our own. (I was fourteen when we started)

Built from milk cartons, one may have to suspend disbelief that there are no doors or windows or staircases. I imagine that they are on the cross-section of the room not shown in the structure.

The order is jumbled, and by some funny twist, the last room we made is the first in this order. My dream house must have a library. While this one is not encased in a secret tunnel, the very presence of two shelves stacked with books feeds my fancy. The most colourful to the eye and to the mind, from the walls to the shelves to the books. Squares of paper were painstakingly cut and a fancier piece stuck on top created each book in the shelf.

Our one-bedroom-for-the-parents-two-for-the-children inspired the three bedrooms pictured in the dollhouse. While individually the yellow room is my least favourite, the colour complements the otherwise darker shades.

I had my say with the library, now it was my sister's turn. Her passion at the time was swimming, so we created an entire swimming-pool room. And just to make sure the walls were not bland, made it resemble an aquarium.

A blue room (above) and a bathroom (below)

(the pink room seems to have disappeared...)

The first room to be made, and the first place where I experimented with the dangling lights

The fridge is even stocked with mini pies!

I have a bad feeling about the fire blazing on the stove without anyone to attend to it.

And finally, where they all eat (below). The chairs, of course, being the tables put in the centre of ordered-in pizzas.

There were plans to add a slanted roof and an attic and a pulley elevator, but that would require the boxes to be sealed together, making the entire dollhouse difficult to move around. The way it is now, each box can be moved individually and safely, and this also gives flexibility in the arrangement.

My sister was happy, and so I moved on to another project.