The Camel Story

Ok so here we go again…been long that i have written anything at all…

So what’s the story behind this one? Flashback time…

Its not actually an original painting…the original was long back when I was in school, probably in 8^th I guess and I tried to paint the same picture in water colour…wasn’t a bad idea actually but somehow it did not work out. Those days we used to buy chart sheets for our school projects and cut into quarters and make a greetings card. I used to make cards for everyone…and if they still have them, may be one day I can ask them to return it back so that I have a nice collection of my childhood memories.

So half sheet of chart paper, a calendar in my hands and I was looking forward to see the sheet of paper up on a wall.

Looking at the image on the calendar, I thought its simple coz I don’t need to make the face of a man…Even today I really am terrible with man’s face…I can go on and on about a women’s face…its cut, flow, beauty…but I really am terrible at sketching men faces. So initially I thought this was a nice image to copy as I don’t have to work on a face…sounds simple…but there is just one problem with water colour…a small mistake and its all gone.

So I was really precise about the right flow and texture of the sky. In my sketch the Camel was almost perfect the man was almost perfect…but in colour, the sky was over soon and then was the trouble…the dark silhouette…the sky was dry and I dipped the brush in black…

Well almost there, was the thought in my head…and then with a shaky stroke I made the first mistake…and camel’s legs came a lot closer than they were suppose to be…ok so my camel bichara had polio..but then there was no stopping… I tried to do something to save my camel but there was no rescue… and then I was just not happy with the transparency I wanted in the man’s dhoti…so my man was fat ghaghra-pant clad male at the end of the day.

Painting was finished but I wasn’t happy and I know my mum could judge that too as it never got a chance to be pasted on a thermocol sheet and put up on a wall.

But somehow all theses years the image was stuck in my head for the very simple reason that it was easily achievable and I still could not do it. When I started Oil painting couple of months back I thought why not this…I was surfing images on net and it just flashed on my face. I know it actually isn’t something to do with oil…its way too simple and I really don’t like that I cant get a flow in colours….when yellow and red just blend in itself to become that glow of orange!!!

Not a great painting but it’s a piece of my memory and so here it is…out in open so that I can share a small part of my childhood.