For all you lovers out there!
Happy Valentine's Day!
For all you lovers out there!
For all you lovers out there!
Mystic Seaport
(La Amistad at Mystic Seaport)
Back in January after I got back from India (see how behind I am?), I went to Mystic Seaport, Connecticut for a reportage class. It was fantastic! Also, fantastically cold. It was snowing, the watercolors were freezing (fingers and toes too) but it was a great drawing experience. The amount of history in that small town is incredible, and the workers there are so ready to throw it all at you if you ask.
(La Amistad in the snow (with frozen watercolors!))
(Usually, Mystic is full of people who are keeping alive old New England traditions, but during the winter it's much quieter because there are no efficient heating systems available for the historic buildings. Fortunately we still were able to listen to a man play traditional sailor songs and sea shanties, and watch a blacksmith demonstration.)
(Looks a little like Cruella DeVille on the left, no?)
Trip to India: Day 9: Into the Jungle
(First of all, I apologize that there was a 3 or 4 week delay in between the 8th day and the 9th day, but I am going to finish this thing if it's the last thing I do!)
Day 9:
(Cold on our way to the Periyar Preserve)
So for our last day in India, we decided to take full advantage of the fact that we were outside of a wildlife preserve and headed into the park at 6:00 in the morning. A jeep picked us up outside our hotel and we headed out towards the park entrance. The jeep was FREEEEEZING so we were all just compacted in on ourselves to keep warm.
As we made it closer to the preserve the sun was up and it was more manageable temperature-wise. Plus, we were all so excited that we were hanging out of the roof of the jeep anyways to see if we could find anything. The light was absolutely incredible as the fog started to burn off and the sun came peeking through the trees. Our driver made the first sighting of a herd of buffalo. I couldn't really see at all what he was talking about, because they were so far away, but when I finally looked at Stephen's photograph, all I saw were a few dots on the horizon. How our driver spotted that from the car I'll never know.
Tara made the next find of a nilgiri langur off the side of the road. It was so close and was just sitting there as we watched it. It was so amazing to see an actual wild animal. This thing you see in zoos and nature documentaries is just sitting there next to you, 10 feet away. Even more amazing was when we saw a langur leaping through the trees off at a distance a bit. When they're as close as the roadside one, you almost feel like it's been propped up waiting for you and gets a tip from the driver when you leave, but when you see them swinging and leaping through the trees, it's such an amazing thing to see.
We kept on driving down the mountain, deeper into the preserve, with our driver hanging out the front door of the car while steering to look for animals on the side of the road. We were all perched up on the open roof of the jeep staring intently into the trees. We saw all kinds of
eagles and parrots (bright green!) throughout the drive until we made it to the base camp-ish area. Here we had a nice meal, they put a bindi on each of our foreheads for New Years and we got with our guide to take us on the hiking trail.
(We stopped for a snack at a beautiful valley in a streambed where I painted with genuine, Periyar stream water!)
We went deep into the forest and saw evidence of elephants, deer, and bison that had passed through at some point, such as footprints or tusk marks in the sides of the mountain. We tried to be as quiet as possible (although the little screaming girl with us didn't get that memo) so as not to scare anything off. We saw a couple more langurs leaping through the trees. These ones looked humongus! It's crazy to think how many of these must actually be in this enormous preserve, and how impressive it is that we only see one or two. We didn't see anymore wildlife through the rest of the hike (although the little girl did scream out "LOOOOOK!!!!!" at one point. We all jerked around to see what she had found. "Earthworm!") but we saw some incredible views and hiked all the way to the top of a grassy hill that looked almost 360 degrees into a valley dotted with little blue flowers.
(Just look at the sinister stare on that little girl. You can tell she's up to no good.)
After a little break, we headed back down to the base camp. We had dinner (or lunch? I can't remember) before heading out in a little paddle boat into the lake. My brother and I are pretty much expert boat paddlers, so the ride was smooth and relaxing (no thanks to the two backseat drivers without the paddles in their hands...).
(Back at the base camp there was this hilarious little bird, about the size of a cotton ball, who must have been absolutely terrified, but just stayed in this screaming position for an absurdly long time)
We saw a kingfisher while we were out on the boat, but no monkeys, but when we got back to shore we saw a whole bunch of monkeys leaping around on the island we had just been near (bastards!). Again, though, it's pretty amazing to even see them off in the distance, so we watched them for a good hour or so before heading home.
On the drive back we were all hoping for that last little glimpse of a tiger riding an elephant across the road, or something like that, but no luck. We did see some gigantic squirrels, which look kind of like lemurs, and a several more langurs on the side of the road, just as close as before. Even though we didn't see a tiger, it's pretty amazing to actually be in a place where tigers are roaming freely and could pop out at any moment. Our guide, of course, had seen them many times. But the fact that there are only 28 tigers and some 60 leopards in the entire preserve makes it a pretty good bet that you're not going to see one unless it wants you to. The elephants, though...I mean, come on, those things are huge. Next time, though, I want to go on a deeper, multi-day hike so that I can get away from the touristy areas. I think that would be amazing.
Anyhoo, we headed back down into Thekkady and then back into Cochin to catch our flight home. We got a flat on the drive back (which I still say we could have patched with some rubber from the rubber trees on the side of the road), but we got to the airport with plenty of time. We said our goodbyes and boarded the plane back to Delhi. After that it was just a simple hop skip and a jump back to New York (by way of the ever pleasant Moscow, of course).
Of course, though, once in Delhi, our hopping, skipping, and jumping, hit a few snags along the way. We got onto the plane fine and I fell asleep within seconds of sitting down. I later woke up, feeling rested and refreshed, to see everyone clearing all of their stuff out of the overhead bins and getting off of the plane. "Perfect!" I thought, "I slept through the entire 7 hour plane ride and didn't even have to listen to take off or landing!" Not so. Turns out, after asking the charming flight attendant, that we had never taken off. Actually, all she said was "Delhi." But after asking some of the other passengers, we realized that we had never actually left Delhi, we had just driven around in circles on the runway for FOUR HOURS. Apparently, the fog was too thick for any planes to take off from Delhi, but instead of telling any of us, they just drove around twiddling their thumbs. We all had to be ushered back into the airport (with a coupon for one free drink at the snack station! (Which was nowhere to be found)) and wait until the fog cleared up. Well, the fog didn't clear up for another 9 hours or so, so we spent the night in the airport, but we finally left off and managed to make our flight in Moscow (because we originally had a 12 hour layover in Moscow...*shudder*) and back to New York.
We thought our troubles were over once we got back to New York, but no no, apparently all of the bags from the transfer flights had never made it onto the flight to New York. No one knew where they were. The Aeroflot attendant told us that sometimes, they just don't put the bags onto the new plane if they're from a transfer (what?). The Russian woman (who had left Russia) in front of us in line told us that she didn't trust the Russians and that they probably had just thrown our bags out after we left. Then about an hour later, they found all of the 50 or so passenger's missing bags (what? where had they been hiding 100 bags?) and brought them out to us. No harm done, I suppose, but I think that was the end of any future relationship between Aeroflot and I.
The trip to India was an incredible experience. It was unlike any place I have ever seen, and is something that I feel like I've only just scratched the surface of. I can't wait to go back to India, and to other places I've never been, and see just how different the world can be.
PS: Tarleen (baby steps), you have no idea how hard it was for me not to put the infamous coughing picture up here.
Day 9:
(Cold on our way to the Periyar Preserve)
Tara made the next find of a nilgiri langur off the side of the road. It was so close and was just sitting there as we watched it. It was so amazing to see an actual wild animal. This thing you see in zoos and nature documentaries is just sitting there next to you, 10 feet away. Even more amazing was when we saw a langur leaping through the trees off at a distance a bit. When they're as close as the roadside one, you almost feel like it's been propped up waiting for you and gets a tip from the driver when you leave, but when you see them swinging and leaping through the trees, it's such an amazing thing to see.
We kept on driving down the mountain, deeper into the preserve, with our driver hanging out the front door of the car while steering to look for animals on the side of the road. We were all perched up on the open roof of the jeep staring intently into the trees. We saw all kinds of
eagles and parrots (bright green!) throughout the drive until we made it to the base camp-ish area. Here we had a nice meal, they put a bindi on each of our foreheads for New Years and we got with our guide to take us on the hiking trail.
(We stopped for a snack at a beautiful valley in a streambed where I painted with genuine, Periyar stream water!)
We went deep into the forest and saw evidence of elephants, deer, and bison that had passed through at some point, such as footprints or tusk marks in the sides of the mountain. We tried to be as quiet as possible (although the little screaming girl with us didn't get that memo) so as not to scare anything off. We saw a couple more langurs leaping through the trees. These ones looked humongus! It's crazy to think how many of these must actually be in this enormous preserve, and how impressive it is that we only see one or two. We didn't see anymore wildlife through the rest of the hike (although the little girl did scream out "LOOOOOK!!!!!" at one point. We all jerked around to see what she had found. "Earthworm!") but we saw some incredible views and hiked all the way to the top of a grassy hill that looked almost 360 degrees into a valley dotted with little blue flowers.
(Just look at the sinister stare on that little girl. You can tell she's up to no good.)
After a little break, we headed back down to the base camp. We had dinner (or lunch? I can't remember) before heading out in a little paddle boat into the lake. My brother and I are pretty much expert boat paddlers, so the ride was smooth and relaxing (no thanks to the two backseat drivers without the paddles in their hands...).
(Back at the base camp there was this hilarious little bird, about the size of a cotton ball, who must have been absolutely terrified, but just stayed in this screaming position for an absurdly long time)
We saw a kingfisher while we were out on the boat, but no monkeys, but when we got back to shore we saw a whole bunch of monkeys leaping around on the island we had just been near (bastards!). Again, though, it's pretty amazing to even see them off in the distance, so we watched them for a good hour or so before heading home.
Anyhoo, we headed back down into Thekkady and then back into Cochin to catch our flight home. We got a flat on the drive back (which I still say we could have patched with some rubber from the rubber trees on the side of the road), but we got to the airport with plenty of time. We said our goodbyes and boarded the plane back to Delhi. After that it was just a simple hop skip and a jump back to New York (by way of the ever pleasant Moscow, of course).
Of course, though, once in Delhi, our hopping, skipping, and jumping, hit a few snags along the way. We got onto the plane fine and I fell asleep within seconds of sitting down. I later woke up, feeling rested and refreshed, to see everyone clearing all of their stuff out of the overhead bins and getting off of the plane. "Perfect!" I thought, "I slept through the entire 7 hour plane ride and didn't even have to listen to take off or landing!" Not so. Turns out, after asking the charming flight attendant, that we had never taken off. Actually, all she said was "Delhi." But after asking some of the other passengers, we realized that we had never actually left Delhi, we had just driven around in circles on the runway for FOUR HOURS. Apparently, the fog was too thick for any planes to take off from Delhi, but instead of telling any of us, they just drove around twiddling their thumbs. We all had to be ushered back into the airport (with a coupon for one free drink at the snack station! (Which was nowhere to be found)) and wait until the fog cleared up. Well, the fog didn't clear up for another 9 hours or so, so we spent the night in the airport, but we finally left off and managed to make our flight in Moscow (because we originally had a 12 hour layover in Moscow...*shudder*) and back to New York.
We thought our troubles were over once we got back to New York, but no no, apparently all of the bags from the transfer flights had never made it onto the flight to New York. No one knew where they were. The Aeroflot attendant told us that sometimes, they just don't put the bags onto the new plane if they're from a transfer (what?). The Russian woman (who had left Russia) in front of us in line told us that she didn't trust the Russians and that they probably had just thrown our bags out after we left. Then about an hour later, they found all of the 50 or so passenger's missing bags (what? where had they been hiding 100 bags?) and brought them out to us. No harm done, I suppose, but I think that was the end of any future relationship between Aeroflot and I.
The trip to India was an incredible experience. It was unlike any place I have ever seen, and is something that I feel like I've only just scratched the surface of. I can't wait to go back to India, and to other places I've never been, and see just how different the world can be.
PS: Tarleen (baby steps), you have no idea how hard it was for me not to put the infamous coughing picture up here.
Random Figure Drawings
Some random figure drawings I found from throughout the semester:
Night of the Dancing Flame
Here is my final project for my animation class which was 10 seconds of whatever we wanted. Mine's a hamster doing a tribal fire dance in the forest, naturally. Enjoy! Music is "Night of the Dancing Flame" by Roisin Murphy.
Disturbia
Finally! After 4 months of listening to this song on repeat, I finished my animatic for "Disturbia" by Rihanna! In the song, "Disturbia" is a physical place where her paranoid thoughts take control of her mind, and in this video, these paranoid thoughts manifest themselves as various horrible and terrifying encounters. In the end she realizes that these thoughts only exist in her mind and don't really have any power so she is able to be free. Enjoy!
I Believe!
New animation of a commercial for a holiday fashion line (it says Saks Fifth Avenue, but really I just couldn't think of a designer or department store that was more fitting...). The concept for the assignment was "unknown--->known" so I decided to break down the woman at the end into a series of abstract patterns in the beginning.
A tribute to fellow Thanksgiving weekend travelers
Since I spent a lot of time this past weekend in transit, in airports and on the subway, here are some drawings of all the other exhausted people traveling somewhere last weekend!
On the subway
On the way to the gate
Suitcases
Moving Walkways
Waiting for the plane to board
In the terminal
On the subway
On the way to the gate
Suitcases
Moving Walkways
Waiting for the plane to board
In the terminal
Mother/Son Snow Reportage!
(me)
My mom and I have been planning for our trip to India this winter, and we've gotten all excited about the idea of doing reportage there, so today we went out and decided to do a little reportage at the beginning of a snowstorm here in Colorado.
We started before going to see Madagascar 2 (adorable) and drawing the Christmas lights our neighbors had just put up (on their eagle sculpture in their front yard).
(mom/me)
It was only just beginning to snow when we went into the movie, and 2 hours after we came out the cars were covered in 2 or 3 inches of snow. So after clearing off the car and driving home, we decided to head out and do some "drive-by" reportage around the neighborhood.
(mom/mom/me)
Equal Rights/Anti-Proposition 8 Rally
On Saturday I went down to the gay rights rally down at City Hall. It was so inspiring to see how many people showed up for the event! The whole thing had a very hopeful, and more importantly, very active energy to it. I hope to see more rallies like this in the months to come, especially with Obama getting into office. It was great, too, because the weather was dismal up until around 1:00 when the rally started and then the sun came out and it was a beautiful fall day.
Musician and some more musicians. And a thingy.
First we have an oil painting of a man playing guitar from my painting class the past two weeks.
Next are some more guitarists who were playing outside the subway station in Union Square. For drawing we were supposed to arrange figures in a space, without
any environment, to try and show space.
Finally, there was this exercise where we copy the shapes of an aerial view of a city and turn it into whatever we want. Mine kind of looks like some Seussical aerial city or something.
Masquerade and Family Primates
First we have a new animatic for a commercial advertising a masquerade ball on Halloween at the MET (and the storyboard).
Next is part 1 of my painting final project, which will be 3 paintings of my family as primates. I had fun with the first one, of me as a gibbon, so now here are 2 bike-riding primates in India!
Color Leopard
Here is a colored version of the leopard from last Friday!
Leopard and Bushpig
We went to the Natural History Museum to draw one of the dioramas today, and I chose the leopard and the bushpig. Throughout the time I was drawing, families kept coming up to the diorama, and no matter what language they were speaking it was "Blah blah blah blah bushpig." I was really starting to like the word "bushpig" after a few hours.
Frankenstein at Magnolia Bakery
Another Frankenstein drawing! This time we were supposed to put Frankenstein (or Dr. Frankenstein) in a modern NY setting. I chose to put him across from Magnolia Bakery, celebrating his birthday alone with a cupcake.
South Street Seaport
Here are a few drawings from the South Street Seaport from this morning. There is such perfect fall weather right now!
Wolves and Model Sketches
For this project we had to pick an animal and draw it in three different styles. I picked a wolf, and here it is in cubism, German expressionism, and cave painting:
And here are drawings of a couple models:
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
Last Friday I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens with my drawing class where we were supposed to sketch different plants to use for a single composition later. Here are my sketches, my thumbnails, and then the final drawing. I realized everything I've been drawing this semester has been kind of creepy or black and white (there're a lot of snakes and spiders and Frankenstein the works) so it was fun to do something colorful and pretty instead!
Aroma Coffee
Here's an animatic of a commercial for "Aroma Coffee" based off of the reportage from the coffee shops.
Everything Else
Here's everything else I've done so far this semester! Figure I should get it all up.
"Eye of the Storm" - Collage reportage in Central Park
Sketches from Painting
CD Cover for M.I.A.'s "Kala" Album
Union Square Street Market
Sketches from PaintingCD Cover for M.I.A.'s "Kala" Album