Play Make Write Think

Looking around the room to find something that means more than what meets the eye, I could not move past the compass that I found from the back of my drawer. My mind was flooding with memories of me wielding it to traverse the European streets. For my Sunday Sketch, I decided to go ahead with the compass, though it was a 3D object with just a ‘2D meaning’. Further, I used the process of reverse brainstorming. I worked my way backwards- filtering objects by shape first and then adding a meaning to them. The compass seemed to fit perfectly in a clock for the montage.

Well, it happens so that the clock ticked nine and the compass directed me towards a connection between the both of them. On a busy Monday, the clock guides our schedule. The compass takes on a similar role when we are travelling; it guides our route. If only it could permanently play that part, even during the Mondays.

Doing things the Polish way, we even give directions using the clock dial analogy. I might just conclude that we sometimes use them interchangeably.

Look at your 3 o’ clock to get that title.

I have a complete lack of artistic skills so when I usually draw something, I hate it to no end. Though, this sketch, taken from a meme I have seen where a plushie is holding a knife (original meme is in the caption), makes me laugh to no end. It’s Kirby–the cutest avatar known to man with a knife twice its size. I found it so amusing that I sent the sketch to my friends and family group chats without any context. I know that Kirby is actually pink, but I’m not in my actual home this semester, so my art tools were pretty limited. I had to make do with a purple sharpie when I couldn’t find a pink marker. It might seem like a vampire or devil Kirby now, but to me, it’s just Kirby having a rough time this year.

I’m not the most artistic person, no, I’m not an artistic person. But, this is my best attempt to a “sketch” of a guitar. As you can see it is an outline of a guitar with the ruler as its neck. The inspiration for this sketch is the previous assignment of combophoto where there was a guitar as a bridge. So, I thought it would be cool to incorporate the ruler in a guitar. Also, the ruler has these markings which are on the ruler have a similarity with the frets on the guitar neck.

The name of the sketch is- “No rules”. A ruler sets a sort of perfect straight line, that you wouldn’t get while a free hand drawing, but an artist while drawing would never use a ruler, eh would not use a “rule” to draw a sketch. Similarly, there is not a set definition or set formula for what an artist plays on a guitar. My favorite guitarists are Kurt Cobain and Slash. They never had rules while playing the guitar, going above and beyond while playing it, with solos that gave me goosebumps whenever I had listened to their songs.

The first thing that came into my mind was the ring I wear. When I was a child I always had a fantasy that an alien was protecting me from any injury or mishap. The luckiness to have my joyfull childhood had been unbelievable for me who seen many of my peers going through unpleasant times. Yet, for me, I cannot find similar experience in my reminiscence. Therefore, I decided to recreate my alien friend, Momo, into my life with a physical medium, my ring. Since I do not have any talent or training on drawing, I simply replicated Momo’s past appearance from my head with a pen. The colors or details are vacant because they are also missing in my memory, and I would not want to be a blasphemer to my original belief. To me, Momo bacame more than a childhood fantasy, it is more like something that can make me overcome obstacles in my life.

Image: Drawn and taken by me

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cricket league hosted in India, with the teams representing cities or states in the country. Although usually held in March/April of the year, it was postponed this year because of the coronavirus pandemic (no surprise there). More than 6 months into the lockdown, the IPL was an extremely welcome source of entertainment for a whole bunch of cricket-crazy Indians. Every night, my family and I watch the 4-hour-long match without fail. I’ve had to adjust my sleep schedule, dinner time, and homework and study timings, but I try not miss the match as far as possible. I enjoy watching cricket in general, but this daily ritual is even more special as it allows me to spend more time with my family, especially my grandparents– which I usually don’t. Since the IPL began a week back, I spend 25% of my waking hours watching that match. So, it’s not surprising that I chose to go with a cricket-themed idea for this post that I’m calling ‘No Cap On Family Time’.

The colours worn by the cricketer in my drawing resemble those of my favourite team– Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Challengers have consistently performed badly over the past 12 years since the first tournament was hosted, and so I get a lot of sympathy, confusion and even ridicule when I tell someone that I’m rooting for them. But, I like that they’re the underdogs– it makes every win extra special.

The Sprite bottle cap is the ball. The idea to use the bottle cap stemmed from the fact that I often (definitely more often than is good for my body) spend these family IPL-watching evenings, drinking Coke or Sprite, and eating ‘Chutney’ sandwich. So, although it appears to be very simple and unoriginal, I thought that the bottle cap seemed appropriate to use in this case.