Drawing

Black & white drawing

An old artwork

 

From early life in my art college I was very much attracted by the black & white drawing with pen, pencil, ink, wood charcoal, lead stick, pastel dry and oil, chalk even the printing ink that I used to do the drawing on paper following a mono-print type technique. First two years of 5-year diploma course in drawing and painting fixed as a preparatory course which included drawing as a basic and mandatory subject. All first-year and 2nd-year art students had to practice huge number of drawings during the year to submit before the faculty members for correction or assessment in the annual examination.

In relation to this context I just remember a story now. When I was a school boy I had no art materials even a paint box or exercise book for drawing, but I wished to draw, so I managed it with fountain pen , ink and math exercise book, I tried to draw on a blank page by copying or tracing any good book illustration that was a delightful activity to me for the day.

In any case, in later period when I become an art student it was a common trend to draw with pen or brush, but I liked to draw with slick wooden stick or slick bamboo stick chiseled at one end just like a fountain pen dipped into an ink pot. This type of pen called as Khaager Kalom in Bengal that placed in the worship of Devi Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge also a beautiful ink pot (made with terracotta, holding a unique form & shape about which I think, it adopts from western culture probably) filled in cow milk and placed before the goddess. Today so many type of calligraphy pens are available but this kalom or pen do the same thing that's mostly interesting!

So what I have started to say about drawing that is my practice to do on paper likely be interesting is a process of ink and wash technique, sometime I use dry or oil pastel, chalk or lead stick to make up visibility of the surface which is parallel to other media, even now I use thin and coated canvas surface for big size. It results very good if little acrylic color used for coloration. No matter if it's called as mixed media.

Another technique that I mentioned before is a process of making mono-prints in the print making graphic studio where I placed a big size glass on the table by rolling black ink with a hand roller on the glass surface and then placed a paper over the sticky inked surface and draw with pencil without touching the paper. After finishing the job I picked the paper up gently and placed it somewhere to dry completely. The drawing that I did on the backside of the paper automatically created on the reverse side and obviously the drawn object become reverse. I made so many drawings at that time and one of them awarded by the college authority in annual exhibition of the college fest.

 

Nilotpal Sinha       Drawing        Ink      10" x 8" (avg.)      1997