May 27, 2010

SuperHero cliché

 I have always loved superheroes ever since I saw the first one of them. The supermen, spidermen, batmen and the ballmen never ceased to amaze me. Everything about them was cool. Their super-powers, their one-liners, their gadgets made me wonder why they should be confined to comic books, TV and movies.

Guess all these years of being a super-hero fan has taken its toll. I have found lot of glaring similarities across all heroes. All super heroes are nothing but the result of some formula by substituting different values in its variables. 


1)      Every super hero is good looking (only in their masked form). They are the object of masculinity with square jaws, well toned bodies, cool hairstyle etc. The females instantly fall for the super-hero, even though they reject the same person in real life. The female heroes (wonder woman etc.,) are always very curvy and beautiful. They always have pretty eyes and long hair. 
2)      In their unmasked form the super hero is always a nerd/loser. He sucks at everything else in life except being a super-hero. Few of them don’t conceal their identities (Fantastic4, Iron Man etc), even then they are only good at saving the world and nothing else. 
3)      Most of them fly or have some work-around to enable them to fly. Superman, Wonder-woman, Captain America all can fly. Batman cannot fly but has all those gadgets that make him fly. Flash is so fast that he can walk on air, which is close to flying. Fantastic Four has their super cool airplane. 
4)      The lead female is always caught in a love triangle between the superhero and his real life identity. Peter Parker-Mary Jane-Spiderman is the best example. 
5)      The bad guy assumes the state of ‘arch-enemy-in-chief’ only if has the knowledge of the super hero’s one and only weakness, like Kryptonite.  


Let us come to their costumes. My messy-sketch above would have explained half of it. Is it their uniform?? The costumes seem to follow some universal rule.
Mask – All heroes who want to conceal their identity wear a mask. Some are able to conceal even without it (SuperMan).

Symbol – All heroes need to have a symbol. You can find the symbol predominantly on his upper torso. Other places where you can find it are belt, forehead, gadgets. The symbol is the hero’s signature.  

Utility Belt & gloves – Heroes with amazing natural powers like superman have no use for this thing, but heroes with limited powers like batmen heavily rely on the gadgets placed around their utility belts & gloves.

Cape – This is the main thing that makes the super-heroes so appealing. It is chiefly worn by heroes who have the ability to fly (Batman is a glorious exception). It is still not clear whether the cape enable them to fly or they wear it just to look cool while flying. Some capes are also used as shields to protect from laser beams etc.

Boots – they run a lot and have some pretty tough landing a long flight. The huge boots they wear protect them from everything.

Underwear – This is the funniest part of a super hero. They always wear their underwear outside; this does not serve any practical purpose. The Boots, cape and the underwear are mostly of the same color.

Body – The superhero costume is always made in such a way that it reveals their toned body well. No superhero wears loose clothes; they wear tights/spandex and flaunt their bodies. 

      So people, don't be fooled by them, superheores are nothing but a huge cliché.

May 19, 2010

The Bus, Us and thousand others...



   
I always loved travelling.. All kinda travelling.. But after what happened to me recently, i might have to change my opinion about travelling. I was trying to get to madurai (I ve never had a good opinion about madurai.. that doesnt help things either). Hera is a messy sketch that will give u an idea of what happened....








    The journey from my home to Singanallur(bus-terminal) was very comfortable. The low floor air buses (தாழ்தள சொகுசு பேருந்து ) with running LED displays makes ur travel very easy within the city. right after i got down at singanallur the adventure started. 
   
   Where are the empty buses that ply to madurai..??
   Where are the empty seats that makes me feel pity on my friends in other(bigger) cities..??
   
  I did not find any of the things that might make me feel remotely happy. All I found was heads, legs, arms and luggages of thousands of people. What the heck?? Suddenly why does everybody want to go to MADURAI???


  The reality slowly started to sink in and it was not nice. We were four people, me, bulb, Satheesh Viswanathan and some guy i just met. Not even the fantastic four can get a bus there, you could imagine. 


  We were waiting for a bus like tigers waiting to pounce on a prey, except for the fact that there were 1000 tigers but just one prey. In came a bus bearing the golden words "Madurai(மதுரை )" . We need to run, push off others and grab a seat. We are software engineers, our bodies are not tuned for active sports like this; but still we had no other options. The bus came inside, slowed down and took a turn..... Whow.. the bus was already full... What?? How is this possible.. Are people doing round trips from madurai to coimbatore to madurai just for the heck of it... The realization came late.. There was a crowd outside the terminus who are jumping into the bus on its way in... 


   We cant do that.. We are softies.. Those people who were doing that are Hardcore madurai guys.(paruthiveeran anyone??). The competition was stiff and we were the definite underdogs. Satheesh suggested that we need to go outside too. We did.. Adventure begins. In came the next bus, it was dark, it was cold and we were sleepy, Satheesh ran, he jumped and hurray he got into a bus.. Victory... Victory... We can go to madurai.. The happiness was very short-lived and it was followed by an irritating feeling of stupidity. That was was not going to madurai. It is going to tiruchy. I felt like dying or was i just too sleepy. The silver lining - we got some practice. The dark cloud - we missed two madurai buses in the meantime. 


  I saw two buses and I think I saw "மதுரை " on them.. What do I do??? do i let Satheesh do it again.. Or Do i try?? What if i get into the wrong bus?? What if i fall down and break my teeth?? What if i dont fall down and my tooth are safe but a guy in the bus whom i just pushed off for a seat breaks it for me?? What if i get crushed to death?? questions were plenty. bt the answer was just one... GO FOR IT.


  I saw the bus, I leaped... I jumped and my feet were magically on the steps.. Teeth..Check.. Guy who can break my teeth.. Check.. I looked around and i found a seat.. It gave me the same feeling when i rode my bicycle for the longest stretch without falling off.. I sat on the seat.. and held on to three more for my fellow tigers.. That is the toughest part.


 There were three mean looking ruffians, who would easily qualify as next vijay movie villians. One with the long hair came up to me.. 
"தம்பி..  seat யாருக்கு ,,, ???".. 
"அண்ணா ஆளு வருது"..
"என்ன டா ஆளு வருது... _________ வருது??" [fill the blank with the word that rhymes]


I knew what will happen next.. He is gonna beat me up.. i cant fight him.. Im not a mass movie star.. Soon i heard a voice that saved me.. No.. Not a hero who comes to rescue me.. It was just Mr.Long hair's friend who found another seat for them. 
"டேய் மாப்ள.. இங்க seat இருக்கு டா.."


The sense of relief was immeasurable.. I held of to the seat warding off innocent looking ladies and few kids.. Finally came my tigers.. 


All this to get a seat in one of the most uncomfortable buses in the entire TN.... 

May 18, 2010

What qualifies as a messy sketch

Hey guys....  Time for my second post...
this time i would like people to know what qualifies as a messy sketch.. The rules are not big bad-ass ones.. just simple ones.. Here we go

1.   A messy sketch will always be drawn using a black/blue ball pen (Reynolds) on a plain or ruled paper.
2.   Those 'green' guys can draw them on a white board using a marker and take a picture of it.
3.   Need not be funny/informative/anything.
4.   Need not or rather should not be neat..
5.   No colors/Colours... They make them neat..
6.   It can represent anything just for the heck of it.

Most of my sketches obey the rules above.. Rather i designed the rules in such a way that all my sketches fit in..
Happy sketching guys...

May 17, 2010

History of Messy Sketchy

Hey guys...

My umpteenth attempt at blogging..

I ve spent a very good part of my life sketching.. When i say sketching i dont mean the highly aesthetic ones.. i do messy sketches that serve no purpose..( Im trying to invent a purpose for my sketches through this blog. )

I would like to give a big credit to Mr.DAVID SHANTAKUMAR, who has been a huge inspiration for my sketches. Without him i would ve been a normal person who doesn do any sketches or a normal person whose drawings are pretty. He was my history teacher when i was in school, his lectures were so boring that, i had no other option but turn to alternate modes of keeping my self engaged. I had nothing other than a pen and a history book with pictures of great kings/leaders/warriors. What started as a simple vandalism has now become a true art form(its my blog.. i can write anything i want).

One of my first messy-sketches was that of a wrestler, i used to call him 'Muscle Man'. i drew muscle man almost daily and almost anywhere. I ve posted the messy-sketch of muscle man here.. Most of my school/college friends would easily identify this iconic figure.













My favorite messy-sketch is a caricature of a Cruiser bike. Again an iconic messy sketch. Most of my college friends would identify this. I always choose the cruiser bike over other bikes because, it represents a true art.. all right i'll cut the crap.. its jus coz its easy.









One of my best works is this.. thanks to all girls in school/college who had a nice pony-tail and was unfortunate to be seated in front of me.  You girls were a huge inspiration . I call this messy-sketch as Please turn Back. A tribute to all those unfortunate girls...









Thanks for reading through my blog.... 
More sketches coming up....