Step Into the Magic Realm

"See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. 

After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.

That’s what I believe."

 -Boy's Life

 

 

 It's been six months since I put OLIE out there into the world, and it's been a lot of fun. I've met a lot of people, had a lot of dreams come true (already!) and since I celebrate every single small thing in our journey - it's been a whirlwind of joy and sometimes confusion (and frustration!) . But the magic stays, it's there when I need to call upon it, and it underlines everything I do with OLIE. And when I tell you my tales, the stories behind every cushion, lamp - I see you step away from reality and take a little magic back home with you. And a moment like that keeps me inspired. 

 

Such a beautiful quote from Boy's Life  !

Songs that make you sing

I rarely get to take a stroll in the big cities that I now live in and sit with my sketchbook and draw.
Last week, we went back to auroville to wind down for the weekend and a friend and I sat down to sketch our surroundings together - it is a distracted sketch, I have to admit . We were busy catching up and I was simply and happily dragging my brush across the paper. Such good times :)

It is sweltering here, but I have found this great mix of music http://8tracks.com/penkemeg/good-music-warm-weather-summer-fun . Its making my weekend so much sweeter ! Much love.

Leave you with this lovely quote, I dont think they are talking about the song really but more about life in general. deeper stuff :)

In the Mailbox!

I got mail yesterday!! And most exciting mail too!! I had designed a cover for Scholastic India some time back, and forgot all about it until I recieved the books yesterday!! Its the first time anything Ive done has been published, and it was fun to recieve it in the mail, but the coolest bit is my name in the back :D I do love recieving mail, Im not sure what excited me more - the books or just seeing something in the mailbox :)

The book itself is lovely, beautiful illustrations by Reshma Barve, and cool experiments by Arvind Gupta. Its a fun book, and full of little tidbits of information!

The other bit of news is that Ive finally put up some of my work on behance (an online portfolio site). Would love for you to visit it and like or comment on the work Ive put up there! And if you have a portfolio on Behance, do add me !! www.behance.net/amritanambiar

Its the weekend already, I sense this years going to fly by even faster than the last. sigh. Have yourselves a good weekend :)

The World We Live In

A glimpse into the recent past - This is a diary I designed while at Hidesign. It was one of those beautiful projects which was right up my alley, and they've just about been printed and bound. Illustrated and designed by yours truly- cover included :) and the lovely words by Dilip. I think Im very happy with the way its looking!

Of course, this isnt the entire diary- i just chose a few of my favourite spreads :) Hidesign is giving 10 diaries away though! so if you want to see/own one- go to http://www.facebook.com/hidesign and you might win !

Things are back on track with my deadly ego series, so youre going to be seeing something soon! Also got a new little creature entering my life, or rather my moms :) its a leetle puppy yay ! so he is going to be peeking in here fairly soonly as well! Have a great week :) Much love.

Sketching a Dream World

Another sample (my sample portfolio is growing). The story here is about a child reading a book and entering different worlds. This one still needs work, but then I decided to sketch it from another angle.

I really liked the way this sketch was going.. it seemed to involve the viewer more, and had a lot more breathing space around it. The magical world is the biggest thing in the picture as well..so I start to colour it in

The final sketch . colours and all :) The whole thing is done with pastels and colour pencils. I really love using chalk pastels, they are the nicest medium. Ive got a whole lot of little sketches waiting for me to work on them and finish them so I can share them with you, especially my deadly ego series which havent seen the light of day in absolutely ages. So im making solemn vows to do some of these before the year comes to an end! 

This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Smile for a Story

Im finally introducing you to the kids at Santhosha Nanban!(In tamil, this means''happy friend'').  They are incredibly smart, happy and sweet and I loooove my time with them, its great fun and hugely inspiring. I took tons of pictures from todays session, where Kanchana ( their full time teacher) and I told them the story of "The Thirsty Crow" and they excitedly started to illustrate the story! Ive just picked 10 pictures to share with you but if you want to see more let me know :)

the cutest crow

 Collage work from last weeks session, they absolutely floored me with their creativity!

We have about 20 kids in open school where Kanchana preps them for admission into a goverment school.

These are kids that have been found recently, in the middle of school year so theyre getting a good basic learning here! Almost all of them stay in the orphanage, and just a few go back to their homes in the evenings.

I mentioned before about what a lovely place Santhosha Nanban is, its an orphanage and they also educate street children and these kids are really well looked after, its been really heartwarming working with them. You can read more about them at www.sathoshananban.org.

A Little Bit of Hope!

In retrospect, things with my plan to do a chiildren's book are actually going well. I lost hope last week, but I am in conversation with a lot of good publishing houses and they all seem very interested! So hopefully I will have good news to jump around about soon. Meanwhile, I continue to make samples ! :) The illustration for this story is about an old Kashmiri man and his cricket bat workshop set in Kashmir.


The other little bit of excitement right now is that today is my first day working with a sort of Orphanage here in Pondicherry. They are called Santhoshananban and they take in street children and educate them, and also provide a home for orphans! Wonderful people and a beautiful idea. I am planning to work with the kids on art and stories! Lets see how it goes :) They seem like a very bright and happy bunch! I just hope I do them justice. Wish me luck!!


This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.