85 - Wedding Season!

some tinypeople + podcast update

👋 Hello, readers!

I’d like to welcome all the new subscribers this week. I’m glad to have a space in your inbox, and honoured to have some claim to your time and attention every week.

To help get you started, here are some posts that explain my work and the purpose of this Substack -

• Reasons to be Sneaky

• Private bubbles in public spaces

• Thoughts on Existentialism and TinyPeople

🎉 Wedding Season!

I flew from Kolkata to New Delhi this week for a couple of weddings. As per usual, I reached Kolkata airport much ahead of time, so that I could find myself a good seat with a view.

But sketching in India just hits different. Maybe it’s me, but I spent a lot of time hesitating. Despite larger crowds and greater distractions in any Indian setting, you feel more seen at any given time. Do you know what I mean? We are a naturally curious bunch of people, and people-watching might qualify as the national sport.

This shouldn’t stop me. I have gotten over a lot of silly hesitations around urban sketching. But being inconspicuous still feels very important. So I underwent the familiar cycle of “Can I … Should I … How … Maybe Not … But … Screw It!” before whipping out the sketchbook just 20 minutes before boarding.

I needed to draw the moment. And I needed to draw some TinyPeople.

I had only completed half the page when they made the boarding announcement for my flight. So with great haste I added a final figure and the title to ‘finish’ the page.

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My good friend Anupam got married this weekend at a farmhouse in the outskirts of Gurgaon. I arrived at the venue just as the baaraat (groom’s procession) arrived, so was able to leap out of the car and join the dancing straightaway!

The baaraat dances all the way to the entrance of the wedding venue to the hyper-energetic beats of a wedding band. Every few feet the procession stops because prolonging the celebrations is as much part of tradition as keeping the bride’s family waiting.

Traditionally, the wedding itself is hosted by the bride’s family and they wait at the entrance to greet the groom’s friends and family. Once we finally reached them, a small ceremony was conducted wherein the groom had to ‘negotiate’ his entrance by making extravagant promises (in cash and kind) to the bride’s family members. This also took a while! So I used the chance to catch up with others in the wedding party. It was then that I found a fellow artist off to the side who was sketching the procession! Can you imagine the odds of running into another SneakyArtist?!

I had my sketchbook on me, and my fingers were itching to draw, but I had hesitated so far, with so many people to meet and greet. But the presence of another artist gave me licence to start drawing as well!

The bride’s family welcomes the groom and his procession.

We exchanged pleasantries and looked through each other’s sketchbooks, as is customary among urban sketchers. I exclaimed that I could never use a brush pen, and he exclaimed how he could never use a fountain pen. Then we found a good spot with a view and began to draw. Our unusual activity drew the attention of the wedding band who lined up to watch us in action.

That’s me on the right.

The band was super-energetic through the baaraat so I decided to make a portrait of one of the members too.

This is Anshuman.

This wedding was a special occasion because it was a chance to reconnect with college friends from years ago. I had to tear myself away from several conversations to find this view of the wedding ceremonies (below).

This drawing, like the one I shared a couple of weeks ago, will be a wedding gift to the couple.

The happy couple.

🎙😞 No Podcast This Week

My laptop suddenly broke down last week. While it is being repaired (fingers crossed!) I am unable to release podcast episodes. I hope to be able to upload again from January onwards. Please wait until then with patience!

To make for the disappointment, I’ve decided to bring some subscriber-only audio outside the paywall.

🎙 Insider #13, A Post-Script Conversation with Emma Carlisle about being an independent artist, and ideas about external and internal motivation, while we draw portraits of each other over video.

💭 Insider #12, Ideas about the ‘End of Art’ as predicted by Arthur Danto, and why that’s a good thing.

📔 Insider #10, a passage from my next book, SneakyArt of Vancouver!

🎙 Insider #8, A Post-Script Conversation with Koosje Koene about managing our time and energy as solo creative entrepreneurs. Also, a discussion about the phrase ‘creative entrepreneur’ as it might apply to our work!

🎙 Insider #5, A Post-Script Conversation with Tomas Pajdlhauser about our experience self-publishing our books + thoughts on the creator economy.

Check them out and, if you like my work, consider becoming a subscriber to support it! (Use this special discount!)

🤔 Thoughts…

I shared last week that I had been accepted into a Substack Writers Fellowship. As our first task, we were asked to articulate our vision for our newsletters. And this got me thinking…

What is my niche? And what do I hope to offer?

I do not offer expertise, because I do not consider myself an expert. I can not offer wisdom, because I don’t think of myself as very wise. What then?

Here’s an answer -

My newsletter shares the journey I am on. It is a journey to become an artist, with lines and words. I don’t know if this journey has an end. Perhaps it is meant to go on forever.

The point of writing/drawing every week is to invite you on this trip with me. Not from a place of expertise, but from a place of companionship. Not with offers of singular wisdom, but with the idea that we can collectively come up with some good answers.

Because, I guess, the artistic journey, the creative journey, or life itself, is all about coming up with some good answers.

So I hope this year I have been able to do one of two things - give you some good answers or pose to you some interesting questions. Over the next couple of weeks, I will recap my favourite newsletter posts, podcast episodes, and ideas. If anything stood out to you, do share it with me in the comments.

We can do this together. Let’s crowdsource some wisdom.

I will see you next week with more sights from India. Thank you for your time and attention. Stay healthy and stay safe!