An algorthimic approach to art

I am very much aware of the fact that I am neither the next Dali nor Charles.M.Schlutz, But fine art in all it forms has always had a special appeal. Espescially after the scintillating discussion about the time complexity of poetry on vikraman's blog. Well, if you actually went ahead and clicked on the link, you would probably come to the conclusion that I might know only as much as... er... lets say 'Zilch' about art.

Most of my attempts at any form of organised art have been disasters, with minor 'consequences' to the human race. Like my childhood penchant for artistic fireworks , which almost would have sent the entire neighbourhood in flames, if it had not been for my mother's better discretion. Or for that matter the "Hindu Young World" painting competion I attended as a kid. Ok.. now for all those who know me, you are throwing yourself into coughing fits and all.. but for the record 'I did attend such a competion', but just that I had more fun in the face painting category, but strangely the organizers din't take to that too lightly and insisted I use my paints on the charts provided and not on hapless little kids whom I could easily overpower by merely threatening to sit on them! (Any wisecracks about my weight at this juncture will not be tolerated, even if its within the deepest crevices of your mind.. yes Big Brother is watching you..).

Well, my artistic temperament not withstanding, I've been always fascinated by comics. Be it good old indian dose of tinkle and amar chitra katha, or non-desi ones like Archie, Calvin & Hobbes, Tin-Tin, Asterix etc... And I've always dreamed up of having a comic strip. But as most of you would know, my so called 'artistic' talents are extremely in short supply. Drawing stick figures of men and women (how would you distinguish sex in stick figures, without makin.. er.. things obvious?) could in short be termed as 'pushing it'. But that has never deterred me from trying.

After a few hours of digging my old stuff on the pretext of cleaning my room (which by the way I did, after considerable negotiations with my mother on the virtues of chaos and dynamical systems failed.) I managed to find a few comic strips that I had done as a kid. And since, unlike others (you would be suprised to find how many) I do not keep a chronological record of my creations, I was at a loss when I tried to pin down a date on them. Actually the I found it very interesting myself, and I was amused to find that I could actually come with a nice comic strip with very little drawing talent. Wondering how I did that. The answer even today amuses me.

All my charecters on the initial comic strip were balloons! yes, you did read that right, balloons - rubber expandable mebranes which are usually filled with air/helium used by kids as devices for amusement. (Hmm, ain't that the most descriptive definition anyone can give for ballons?). Why balloons you ask. The answer is mind-bogglingly simple. Balloons require just 2 elemnents to draw. A circle and a wiggly line. Actually the comic strip just goes about a group of balloon warriors being at war with other equally nebulous charecters. Though, It might not have made a good comic strip by any standards, I guess its something that I can take pride in!

Apart from puerile incrusions into the world of creating comics, my intrests in comics have been lying latent for quite some time (indicating a period of inadvertent abstinence from tinkle - maturity?? I doubt it!), until quite recently I had the interest to create a comic strip. And after hours of discussion with my friend about the cast and charecters of my comic. The names, etc.. I finally decided to go ahead and make the comic. But only the first time I tried, I really couldn't draw even if it were to save a life! (This again is a rather rummy figure of speech that I seemed to have picked up from my friend mercury!). So for inspiration I did check out few nice webcomics and found some really nice ones, with whose charecters I've immidietly fallen in love with.

• Questionable Content
• Sexy Losers
• Scary go Round

So with inspiration from the above mentioned comics, I actually managed to pen down my first story board, with rudimentary panelling and all that. I promise you guys to post a pic of my first comic as soon as i get my hands on a scanner. Guess you would all like to see how it really is. So, till later..

Signing Off,
Vishnu