Millenial: So rich, yet so poor?

Thanks for visiting this article. Let's get started with a short video:

Please Note:

The rickshaw walas don't always have such a smile as shown in the video,

because our negotiations are not accompanied by pleasant greeting & a video camera!

It hurts me every single time to see a middle aged man struggling to peddle the rickshaw while I, a young 20 year old someone, sit comfortably behind and let him serve me. It hurts me when my locality's carpenter sits shabbily under the tubelight in peak summer, with no fan, and works with wood & nails and... an empty stomach. It hurts me when my maid, a wise young lady, nearly touches my feet while cleaning my floor, while it should be the other way round.

Millenials in India are typically those spending lavishly on food, clothes, travel but still remaining poor in terms of social beliefs & philosophies. This is my personal take, ofcourse. But what is not personal is the gigantic impact a minute habit of bargaining has on overall unorganized sector.

The men & women working away from their homes, for a fixed pay with barely any incentives other than absolutely 'minimal' survival (where minimal refers to deficient and not a global trend of sophistication), is it really humane to give them the kind of facilities, behaviors & attitudes that we give?

A mind-map for the diverse factors associated with unorganized sector:

Reflection on this issue for merely 40-50 minutes could make me realize: the effect of minute acts & words have an overall gigantic affect on the condition of unorganized sector. The umbrella causes of discontent in this sector turned out to be Legal Framework of the nation, Survival Needs, Social Set-Up Notions, Health Welfare (or the deficiency of it), Economic Framework & Rural Development Schemes.

While legal policies allow employers' to exploit unorganized sector workers, social set-up add to their misery by giving people an 'assumed authority/ superiority' to shout/ misbehave, sometimes even act violently against these poor souls working hard for their survival. Health, both physical & mental, is affected by extremely long working hours, unrewarding pay, lack of incentives and poor perception of people around.

What next? As a novice in this domain, I could come up with a few ideas that might be able to uplift or enhance the existing system into something more desirable/ comfortable for the human race:

Rural Startups (Co-Survival) : Filthy rich of our country and even abroad, have money to splurge on implementable ideas and eligible entrepreneurs. Millenials keen towards entrepreneurship can choose rural welfare topics. Given their credibility, investors will happily invest into the venture. This will help money flow from gold & diamond lockers to brick & clay kachche ghar!

Special Forces Card : Government can launch a special card for unorganized sector workers. This card will give them an identity where they'll feel proud of their existence. This can eventually be used to channelize the sector in terms of providing benefits, ensuring healthy work conditions, and tracking & tracing the entire industry.

Mandatory Local Trade : Government can make it legal to trade day to day commodities only within local regions. E.g. Milk, butter, ghee etc. to be procured from a nearby rural dairy only. Textiles to be sewn in adjoining rural factories only. This will create employment in rural sectors, and enable unorganized sector workers to be able to stay in their hometown while earning a necessary income for survival.

Ed-Tech in Rural India : Low education is one major factor why unorganized sector workers accept to work under the conditions provided. They do not have any other option! Not opting for education is either due to lack of educational infrastructure in their villages, or a feeling of inadequacy, or most commonly, a pressure from family to earn for survival. Gamified e-learning, adaptive learning, e-skilling can be some solutions which can educate such people. This education will either help them to bargain for smarter incentives in their current job or switch to better opportunities.

It personally hurts me to see a young boy working for 12 hours a day, with muddy legs, hair, injured hands and an empty stomach. To add to this, he's given cold shoulder by most of the society 'species' and harsh words by temporary employers. Without such personnel, much of the society would be left in a fix! High time we started thinking about it and taking actions to improve the condition. Hope to convince atleast some of the readers to not bargain with the rickshaw drivers next time :)

Diwali Dhamaaka

One morning, you wake up and see men and children standing on stools, trying to fix something to the balcony walls. The sun sets and soon you see why- there are twinkling lights all around you! The time of the year when nights aren't dark, closed ones aren't distant and full-of-calories sweets aren't banned... It's the time of Deepawali! The festival full of colors sees a boom in everything- be it e-retail, decorations all around, cleanliness all around or exchanging gifts (sometimes, you getting back your own gift).

Apart from all that, Diwali attracts positivity, prosperity and on top of all, CREATIVITY!

So, let me disclose to you... my Diwali art 2014!

Rangoli: Symmetry at its best

Geometry can do wonders when it comes to designs. Peacocks, flowers, diyas have been seen too many times... If you want to go something more original, pick up your ruler, pencil and compass and create your own geometric pattern!

This one was started with a 9x9 square grid. Next, I added quarter-arcs inside the centre square using a circle master. Then, I made similar arcs outside the square (with two radii). To neutralize the rigidity of the design, I added pan-patti shapes around the boundary. 

The only rule followed was: Keep it geometric and symmetric!

Next step was to fill the design with colors! I chose a Triadic Color Scheme for this one... Red, Yellow, Blue - spicy yet elegant, attractive yet simplistic, technical yet traditional! If you have doubts about which color scheme to use, take a picture of your design, download it to your phone and fill in colors in it using a photo-editing app (like the artstudio), quick yet an excellent analysis of how your design shall look in the end! 

I started with filling the red portions, followed by yellow, blue and white. If there are flaws in your basic drawing, this is the time to cover them up. 

Medium used is poster colors. It is easy to do on floor, doesn't get rubbed off with shoes and is easy to clean post-diwali. If you want a long-lasting thing, go for acrylic or metallic colors. 

Diyas, and lots of diyas

Sometimes, your greed takes over your senses when you find low MRPs of products... That's what happened with me when i visited the Pottery Street in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi (a post about that coming soon). I bought diyas of various shapes and sizes, all of them raw and to be decorated by me!

 (Too tempting to not share on Snapchat)

Medium: Acrylic paint

Embellished with 3D outliners, kundan, metallic markers.

The Idols of Worship

Diwali is incomplete without Laxmi ji and Ganesh ji. From the same street, I also bought these idols and filled in colors at home. Medium: Acrylic paint. Embellished with 3D outliners, metallic markers.

When everything's getting smaller!

The beauty of these little pieces lies in their intricacy and accurate craftsmanship. I painted it with acrylic colors and added embellishments with 3D outliners and metallic markers.

With this, my personal Diwali dhamaka comes to an end! Hope you had a Happy Diwali! :)

Textures

The clouds in the sky, the bark of a tree, the skin of a dog, the wrinkling of a fabric... You are absolutely bound, to see them all around, as regular as it may sound, these are what textures are.

I roamed around the house and from each corner of the room, abducted a few things, few very basic things- cling film, toothbrush, sponge and then opened up my stationary drawers and pulled out the basic basic stuff- paints, photo-inks, crayons, glue etc.

With all this material at hand, what followed was hours of fun-filled exploration making textures.

Take a piece of sponge. Soak poster paint onto it and get set go- let your imagination flow. I made some basic curves in shades and hues of turquoise and added a few lines of white with fluid.

I watered an entire sheet, dropped paints of different viscosity on it- poster paint, photo ink, water color. Then covered the entire area with random pattern of glue and crumbled a cling film over it. All this is to be done very quickly. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then, when I removed the cling film, what I got was a beautiful crumbled texture with an analogous scheme of orange, yellow and yellow-orange.

Getting back to the basics! I picked up a simple bubble wrap and brushed poster paint over it in a random manner. A very thing layer of poster paint! Then, i placed the bubble wrap upside down on a piece of paper and applied some pressure. As I took the bubble wrap off, what I got was this beautiful random texture!

All of us have seen oil paintings-those complex pieces of art on canvas as huge as walls of a living room! I once got inspired and bought myself a pack of oil colors. Well, did I make a painting too? Not really. I just used those oil colors for something called a floating texture. I filled water in a broad bowl, and poured some oil colors onto it. Oil being lighter than water, floats over it. Then using a straw, i made a random swirl with them. Then, I put a piece of paper onto the surface of the water and picked it up. Let ir dry for a day and the result is what you see above!

Learning a technique is fun. Doing it is even more pleasing. But what's satisfying is creating an artwork with everything you've learnt. So, I wrote a few lines and started working on the theme to create an artwork- using textures, shapes and color schemes.

"Take it or break it

Keep it real or fake it

Just make sure your thoughts are right

Because Life's what you make it"

This composition has 3 major sections. Each section has various shapes depicting the chores of everyday life. Just like we see all kinds of emotions in our daily life, this artwork has different colors. Red and Yellow for the happy, lively, exuberant sides of life and Grey and Black for the dull, monotonous, gloomy ones. The next step was to decide textures. I made many, put one here, put one there and finalised 3 basic ones I wanted to use. Apart from that, I used solid patches of color.

The background is done with steadtler water color pencils. I colored only the edges and with a watered brush, spread it to obtain the background seen.

Designing is not tough- it's a simple impression of everything on your mind! So get, set, go... Pen down your thoughts, play with a few basic things around your house, create textures and get your own artwork! :)

Dots, Lines and Shapes

Go back in time and think about the times when you were taught to make dots and lines- the very basic ones, over and over again! You were told these are the basic components of any script- letters, numbers, art etc. Well, that indeed, was true. On turning 18, when you step into a design college, the first thing you are taught is - to make proper dots and lines. Yes, AGAIN. But in a different manner.

A dot is a simple point, it can be as small as 0.1 cm in diameter or as big as 10 feet, the condition being that it must be opaque. A line is a path traced by a dot. It can be straight, curved, thick, thin etc., the condition being that the edges of the line must be straight.

Have you seen a striped shirt? Or a polka dot dress? Or a painting from the times of pointillism? These are all designs/artworks created using just a varied arrangement of dots and lines.

I have created 4 designs using purely dots and 4 designs using purely lines. At the end, is an artwork comprising of both dots and lines.

A Point Here, A Point There

This picture comprises of 4 artworks, 5x5 inch each, made using dots in black and white.

The idea behind each is to represent an emotive word in an abstract manner. There is no literal form or element, there is no identifiable structure. It's just the placement of dots that denotes an emotion. The inter-relation, the thickness of the dot, the flow, the gradation... All of it together forms an emotive artwork!

Top left- CONFUSION

Top right- NOSTALGIA

Bottom left- SEPARATION

Bottom right- YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

Align the Line

Again, 4 artworks of 5x5 inch each, made using lines in black and white.

Each artwork represents one emotive word. The perception, however, might vary from person to person. It is a play of width of the lines, the flow, the placement that creates an impression. A thick line acts has a strong or a blocking effect whereas thin lines promote flow of thoughts. Long lines create boundaries in mind whereas small lines create an effect of movement.

Top Left- GRADATION

Top Right- REVERBERATION

Bottom Left- REFLECT

Bottom Right- UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Of Dots and Lines

After exploring dots and lines, I moved onto shapes. Dots and lines together form shapes. A shape is such an entity that has infinite variables- boundaries, thickness, structure etc. A person can vary a shape as much as s/he wants. 

Shapes are of 3 kinds-

-Geometric: the shapes we learn since childhood; square, rectangle, triangle etc. 

-Natural: the shapes seen in nature; leaf, flowers, mountains etc.

-Abstract: a stylisation of natural shapes; a paisley is an abstract of mango.

With these basic concepts in mind, I worked upon the following artwork. Again, the idea is to represent a thought- be it an emotive word or a phrase.

"WITH AGE, COMES WISDOM"

In this artwork, the 26 letters of the roman script- A,B,C,D,... are stylized and written in an abstract manner. They are not literally visible. However, they're interlinked, rotated, stretched etc. to form this composition. Dots and lines of various types and thicknesses have been inculcated to add a decorative element to the artwork.

Paper Cutting and Folding

Paper is the basic stationary found everywhere and with everyone, be it a child or an 80 years old man, be it a student or the owner of a company, be it your bedside table or a table in the courtroom... Paper is everywhere. But is it just for writing? Or taking notes? Certainly not.

Paper is a material that has endless explorations. It can be cut, folded, crumbled to get interesting designs. Kirigami is the art of paper cutting, origami is the art of paper folding. However, apart from these two defined techniques, there are various personal explorations which give commendable results.

To obtain the artworks shown in this post, I've used the concept of tessellations. A tessellation refers to the repetitive and systematic use of a single motif. The condition is that each unit should be placed next to one another without any gaps.

All About Geometry

Squares and circles are two very basic geometric forms. I have combined them in a manner that they give visually appealing design. It is a simple play of forms, angles and depth.

Materials: Colored papers (3 different colors), scissors, cutter, cutting mat, paper punch, foam tape (double sided), glue

Step 1: Take 1 colored sheet. Make a table of 0.5x0.5 inch on it. 

Step 2: Cut the table cells out to obtain 0.5 x 0.5 inch squares.

Step 3: Take another colored sheet. Punch holes out of it. Collect the circles thus obtained.

Step 4: Take an A3 colored sheet for base. Make a 10x10 inch box on it and divide it into 100 squares each of 1x1 inch.

Step 5: Put small pieces of foam tape on each box. 

Step 6: Take the 0.5x0.5 inch squares and start pasting them over the foam tape. Keep them straight in alternate rows and tilted by 45 degrees in alternating rows. 

Step 7: Put a dot of glue on each square.

Step 8: Paste the punched out circles over each square.

Tips:

-The 0.5 x 0.5 inch table can be printed and then cut to save time. (Print via excel, word or Photoshop)

-Choose 3 colors of a particular scheme- be it analogous or complimentary. (Refer to Understanding Color Schemes post) http://everdaydesigner.blogspot.in/2013/11/understanding-color-schemes.html

-Always try to keep at least one neutral color in such artworks: beige, grey, cream, off white etc.



The Guitar Strings

Music is a universal remedy. I, personally, love music too. So when I sat down to think of a motif to use for my artwork, the shape of a guitar came into my mind. The guitar's silhouette and a stylisation of its string led to the following artwork.

Materials: 3 colored sheets, paper cutter, paper punch, glue, cutting mat.

The Final Result

Step 1: Draw or print the following geometric structure of the guitar on a colored sheet.

Step 2: Cut the guitar on the lines using a paper cutter except for the red line. That side will be used for folding the structure.

Step 3: Punch out the circle using a paper punch. 

Step 4: Obtain 16 such motifs: cut and punched. Lift up the guitar structure along the red line.

Step 5: Cut out strips of a different colored paper, 0.5 cm wide and 12 cm long.

Step 6: Take a base sheet. Make a box of 10x10 inch.

Step 7: Paste the guitar motif (2x2 inch each) side by side on the entire box. Paste in one corner, rotate the next unit by 90 degrees and then paste. Repeat this process.

Step 8: Make slits opposite to the broad part of the guitar. Thin slits of approx 0.7 cm so that the paper strip goes in.

Step 9: Take the paper strip and insert it into the slit. Paste it from the back side.

Step 10: Take the paper strip through the punched hole, onto the other side, and insert it behind the edge of the paper. Paste it from backside.

Step 11: Repeat this for alternating units.

Tips:

-Print one unit out. Cut it as mentioned and use it as a stencil to draw and cut other units out. It is better than printing 16 copies of the same thing because on pasting them next to one another, we get edges. However, if used a stencil on a single sheet of paper, these edges can be ignored for a neater look.

-Instead of cutting such strips of paper, quilling strips can be used.

-Make sure the cutter is sharp or else paper will crumble and make the work untidy.

-Use a cutting mat or a glass slab for smooth cutting.

Invest your time, and obtain beautiful results out of simple structures repeated to form tessellations! And then again, it's all with PAPER! 

Pixelation

When you have time at hand and an eye for various colors in a visual, you should pick up your brushes, scissors, paints and glue and begin with what I call... Color Mixing Artwork!

Step 1: Make a grid over your visual. I chose a 5"5 visual and made a grid of 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm.

Step 2: Observe each gird box individually. Identify the color and try to paint that on a small strip of paper. When it dries, match it with that of the visual

(The best way to do this is by keeping the strip edge near to the visual and observing)

Step 3: Make such paints for every box in the grid. Also, if there are two or more colors in the same box, then mix them together and use that color.

Step 4: Cut each color according to the square size of your final artwork. (0.5 cm in this case)

Step 5: Paste each square in its place neatly.

Tips:

1. Match the colors after drying as they tend to change hue value.

2. Use a raw printed layout of your final artwork's grid for cutting squares accurately. 

3. Label the squares as A1,A2... B1,B2 etc to paste them easily without getting confused which goes where -OR- cut and paste simultaneously.

4. Use fevi stick instead of fevicol so that the pieces can be taken off in case anything goes wrong. Also, it avoids glossy stains on your artwork.

More the hard work, sweeter the result! So put your energy and time into this, and come up with a beautiful artwork you'll be proud to call yours! :)

Understanding Color Schemes

I recently made the following composition highlighting the various color schemes. I used a simple geometric pattern of collar, tie and a pocket rose. Every hue is created using the 3 primary colors - Poster red, Blue (cobalt blue + ultramarine blue), Yellow (chrome yellow + lemon yellow)

A quick overview of main idea behind the color schemes depicted from left to right:

1. COOL COLORS: Soothing and soft colors. They have a calming effect on the viewer's eyes.

2. SPLIT COMPLIMENTARY COLORS: The colors lying opposite on the color wheel - one primary and one secondary. However, the secondary color is further split into it's two tertiary colors. So, it is a combination of one primary + two oppositely lying tertiary colors. Eg: Blue + Red Orange + Yellow Orange

3. MONOCHROMATIC COLORS: It is a scheme of tints and shades of any color. In this case, shades and tints of green.

4. TRIADIC COLORS: Three equally spaced colors on the color wheel form the triadic color scheme. Eg: Yellow, Blue, Red.

5. ANALOGOUS COLORS: Three colors lying together on the color wheel form the analogous color scheme. They are basically 3 colors of the same family. Eg: Yellow, Yellow green, Green

6. COMPLIMENTARY COLORS: The colors lying opposite to each other on the color wheel. It comprises of one primary and one secondary color (lying opposite to the primary). Eg: Red + Green

7. ACHROMATIC COLORS: The color scheme comprising of shades and tints on grey. 

8. WARM COLORS: The color scheme comprising of active colors. They depict energy and have an electrifying effect on the viewer's eyes.

Next up - I will share a post on Color Wheel; though it might have been better had I shared it prior to this post :p