Gems

I'm finally done with engineering, and my, what a journey it has been. These four years saw a substantial transformation in me. It has changed me from a not-so-confident, not-so-friendly, big-time nerd to a confident, friendly, carefree person. These four years have taught me many lessons of life. It has taught me what friendship really means, thanks to the amazing friends I've made. They've accepted me for me, and have been with me through thick and thin. It's only been a few days since I haven't seen them but I'm already missing them so much.

Here's what I've learnt from the precious gems I've found here:

Amritha - The person who has irritated me the most. The person I fought with the most (after my sister). Our opinions and interests are so completely different, so totally against each other, but there was never a day when we argued about them. My partner in crime. My Siamese twin. She's been there for me all through. She has this uncanny ability to sense when I'm in need of moral support. My best friend.

Deepa - The only person I've met who has the same opinions as I do. People call her a kid, probably because she looks like one, but wait until you are in need of advice. When it comes to seeking advice, she was the person I always went to. She's the one who educated me about boys and their way of thinking :P When it comes to pulling my leg, she has no equal. She's the reason I lost my nerdy qualities for good. She taught me how to enjoy life. She taught me to let go. My best friend. Amritha, Deepa and me were inseparable and were called 'the trio' of the class.

Rashmita - If there's one person who literally took care of me like a mother, that's her. She has this talent of making her point with her sarcastic but endearing sense of humour. It's from her I learnt the importance and how-to of socialising; the learning is still on. If I do have a sense of humour, then all the credit goes to this girl.

Crystal - The defintion of "crazy". Roommate of only six months, a friend from three years. We've had amazing discussions on almost every topic we could think of -- life - the pleasures and pain, religion, world, cultures, arts, music, books, food, science, theatre, people, history, the universe, boys, crushes, love, marriage, dreams, internet, blogging, ghosts, family, friends, movies, the future, secret desires, food, clothes, make-up :P the list will never end. It's from her I've learnt to do what I believe in. It's from her I've learnt that it's ok to be a little crazy and weird.

Sonia - A baby in its true sense. Just like how babies don't care what you think and do things they feel like, Sony is this sweet little 20 year old baby. If someone has to learn caring and sharing, then it has to learnt from Sony.

Bhavna - She'll do anything for her friends. She made me win a silly bet at the cost of her falling sick, only because she wanted her friend to win it. She treats my vices as virtues. I've learnt from her what is to believe in yourself, to believe that nothing is impossible.

Maitreyi - I've realised from her how nice it is to be able to talk in your mothertongue. I'm a little jealous of her in this regard. Listening to her talk in Telugu (unfortunately, we've never conversed in Telugu) I've realised how much I loved and missed talking in my mothertongue.

Arsheed - The guy who's oblivious to the fact that he was responsible to get me out of my shell. We've never had major conversations, but the little thoughtful things he's done for me will never be forgotten. Showed me how little things can make a big difference.

Gowtham - I don't know how and why we're friends. I've never fought with any other guy like I've fought with him. He has irritated me to wit's end, but at the end of the day he's been there for me. He has made me realise what I expect from life and also, what I don't want in life.

Artwork goes digital

My 21st birthday gift from my parents was the best ever! It was a USB tablet and from then on it was bye bye to artwork on a book. My artwork went digital. Though drawing and painting digitally has lot many advantages over the conventional style, it is far more challenging to draw and paint. It's not very easy, requires a hell lot of patience and perseverance to come up with a decent work of art.

I suck at digital painting (you'll see very soon) and can manage to come up with a decent outline of a picture. My first love when it comes to drawing is the human form. So the day I had enough time to spend some quality time with my tablet, the first thing I found was fashion magazine. I opened it and looked for pictures to draw. I drew many out of which a few are being posted here.

The hair and the eyes are the hardest thing to paint. I suck at both. I tried painting one and you yourself can be witness to how much I suck at it. I tried the hair. They look like strings attached to the head. So I didn't bother to try the eyes. The others are just outlines for me to paint on, but for now that's more than enough :P

Muses

I watched the movie Hercules a few months ago, and I loved the animation, the look of the characters and the colour combination used. A book and a pencil immediately appear on the table and I spent hours appreciating and drawing the Muses (and their expressions) -

Baby HerculesBaby Pegasus

Artwork - Animals

I drew these from a book, though animation courses require you to be able to draw looking at animals from real-life.

Self Portrait

A year ago, before placements could happen, I was thinking of alternative courses to do if I didn't get placed, out of which animation was one of them. What rubbish! That's a lie. Animation was the only thing on my mind. I so badly wanted to get into animation, that I started looking at animation courses and degrees all over the world. I read the pre-requisites to join an animation course, and one of the colleges in the USA (Ringling Institute, if I remember right) asked for a self-portrait. Not that I would join the college, but the pre-requisite sounds like a very professional thing to do. I thought that was something I should be able to do after the course, not before. It almost sounded like an impossible thing for me. Then came the night when I decided that I'd do it. I opened a notebook at 11:30 p.m. and with a mirror in front of me I started sketching. At around 1 a.m. I came up with this.
Of course, it doesn't completely look like me (it was my first attempt, after all, at drawing a portrait from real-life), but a semblance of me exists. The most notable flaws are the eyes (they're too large.. someone even called them frog eyes :P), and the expression (that wasn't the expression I had that night :P). The face should've been a little longer too. All in all, I was very happy with the result, and was confident that I'd make it through the admission process had I sent in my artwork.