Valentine's Day Image: Krishna and His Mother

Today I want to share with you an image of the tender loving gaze between the child Krishna and his mother, Yashoda. Krishna was a mischievous child; however, in the eyes of his mother he could do no wrong. Their tender gaze transcends culture and tradition, and speaks of universal love...

I made this image during a 4-week apprenticeship at the studio of Babu Lal Marotia, a famous painter of Indian miniatures, during my trip to Jaipur, India in the summer of 2007. Sri Babu Lal was so warm and kind to me, and I'm very grateful to him and his family for inviting me into their home. I remember my time in Babu Lal's little rooftop studio among the impossibly narrow streets of the old town of the Pink City, seated between him and two of his relatives as they worked meticulously on miniatures destined for national or international exhibitions ... or the eager hands of tourists perusing the art stalls in Jaipur's City Palace. The process Babu Lal uses is the exact same one that artists in Jaipur and other parts of Rajasthan used during the lucrative art trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. First, pigments are carefully ground by hand from stones collected in the surrounding hills. When a painting is complete, one of Babu Lal's relatives cuts and applies a tissue-thin layer of gold leaf to such elements as jewellery and crowns (as he generously did in my painting). Jaipur has been a major centre for miniature painting and visual art since at least the eighteenth century. Sri Babu Lal is one of the city's great artists who lovingly keeps the tradition of Indian miniature painting very much alive in the twenty-first century.

To see more work from the studio of Babu Lal Marotia, click here and here.

Here is the full painting (still unfinished in parts) that I created during my 4 weeks with Babu Lal:

And finally, here is a painting by Babu Lal himself of Lord Krishna (a little older) and Sri Radha, Krishna's consort, which Babu Lal generously gave to me at the end of my summer with him. Thank you Babu Lal! Blessings to you and your family.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Drawn Portraits of Writers and Celebrities - Welcome to Sketchzebra.com!

People often tell me, "Tom, I love your sketch portraits of writers, artists, politicians and other celebrities... you should devote a separate blog to them." Well friends, I'm really happy to announce that my new blog "Sketch Zebra: Drawn Portraits by Tom Pokinko" is up and running at www.sketchzebra.com! I urge you ALL to check it out and throw your support behind it by following it as well. And don't worry, there's plenty of reason to keep coming back since I'll be posting a new drawn portrait every Monday! That's a new philosopher, writer, artist, musician, poet, politician... or someone else (currently accepting requests!) every week :)

Sketchzebra also has a web store where you can buy my portraits as fine art quality prints (framed and unframed) as well as prints on stretched canvas... all for VERY affordable prices! Why not support the arts and buy a perfect one-of-a-kind gift for yourself or your loved ones and friends? Ideal for the book lovers, musicians, political pundits and philosophers in your lives! Take a look by clicking the "Sketchzebra store" link on the top right of the www.sketchzebra.com ..... or just click HERE to go directly to the store!

Some examples of framed prints available at the Sketchzebra store:

Sheila Watson (writer)

Michael Jackson (musician)

Leonard Cohen (poet, musician)

Don Draper (TV character played by Jon Hamm)

Jeffrey Eugenides (writer)

Albert Einstein (scientist)

Lester Young (musician)

Jurgen Habermas (philosopher)

Thanks guys! Hope to see you there sometime! Remember... "follow the black and white" each Monday for a new drawn portrait! :)

Leonard Cohen's "Old Ideas" Brings the Down-to-Earth Artist Ever Closer to the Divine

(My tribute to Leonard Cohen. Click to enlarge)

Friends,

As you may know, venerable Canadian singer/songwriter/novelist/poet Leonard Cohen has just released his first new studio album in 8 years. It is called "Old Ideas." I bought it this morning and have had a chance to listen to it over a cup of coffee as the beautiful snow is falling outside here in Ottawa. In something of a departure for this blog up to this point, I just have to share my thoughts with you (and more importantly some of Cohen's new poetry) in this impromptu review of this wonderful album ...

I have been a fan of Leonard's work for many years, having first discovered it in the form of an old Best Of tape (yes - a casette!) back in the mid 1990's. A few years ago, I had the privilege of seeing Leonard perform live in his hometown of Montreal, Canada. That experience was one of the highlights of my time living in that great city! Having explored his back catalogue of recordings as well as his published poems and novels, I feel more certain than ever that he is one of the world's most important artistic voices. A brilliant poet, an earnest spiritual seeker, and a true gentleman ... what more can you ask for?

Perhaps another album from 77 year-old Mr. Cohen? Yes, please, if it's not too much trouble! Apparently it's not since Cohen, fresh off a tour that lasted over two years (!), is said to have completed this album in mere months. As far as first impressions go, I think this may be one of Cohen's strongest collections poetically in two decades.

New Urban Sketches...

(Paul)

(Playing with iPhone)

(Pianist)

(Morning Meeting 9 a.m.)

Just posted some recent urban sketches on my Flickr page... check out the full set here!

Albert Einstein

A portrait of Einstein I made as a Christmas present for a friend ...

To see a step-by-step video of how I drew it, click here !

iPhones (Variations)

New Series: Art and Technology

Here is a new series of drawings I've been working on. In it, I want to explore the place and function of traditional drawing in our brave new world of technology. Of course, a large number of people, from the general public to professional art directors and gallery owners, etc, still love the look and feel, as well as the artistic possibilities presented by, hand-made representational drawings. This series of drawings on art and technology grew from my thoughts on this subject, along with the fact that, like many people, I am constantly surrounded by high tech gadgets. I love the ease of use and new possibilities for expression afforded to be by my iPhone, Macbook Pro and Wacom Cintiq tablet. For those who follow me on twitter, you know I like to occasionally post about high tech news alongside news from the art and illustration worlds. I especially like to read about Apple, a company that in my opinion has captured the public's imagination and is innovating and changing our world significantly. So perhaps it was inevitable that one day I would turn to the pieces of high tech all around me... and start drawing them.

I like these drawings because they do a number of things: on the one hand, they acknowledge my own struggles as an artist who does so-called "traditional" drawing. It can be difficult to get this type of art noticed and taken seriously, despite people in general "liking" the look and feel of hand-drawn work. The other thing this series does is nicely problematizes traditional drawing in the context of our fast-paced high-tech world. For one thing, despite all appearances these are not actually hand-made drawings using pen and ink, but rather 100% digital, made using Corel Painter software on my Wacom Cintiq 21UX tablet. When printed on fine art paper, however, they look like pen and ink drawings or etchings. What does the exclusive use of digital technology to create the drawings say about the way art can be mediated by technology in today's world? Also, the subject matter of these drawings is clearly technology itself (or, more precisely, technological products) but the approach is 500 years old (that of the European still-life). These drawings take a traditional still-life approach to objects such as the iPhone, an object of amazing complexity and design. Apart from challenging the traditional notion of a representational still life (can an iPhone or a mouse have the same silent beauty and provide the same scope for reflection as a landscape or an artfully arranged bouquet?), they also kick up a lot of interesting formal questions. For instance, how do you represent the luminous iPhone screen using black and white lines? (Personally, I think I still need to work on this... maybe I'll do a whole series of iPhones or computer screens to try and push this even further because it really is one of the things that fascinates me most about drawing technology).

Apart from all these considerations, I also hope to draw attention to the beauty of the high tech gadgets we keep around us. When's the last time you really admired the slightly recessed key of an aluminum 2008 Macbook Pro, or the patient curvature of a black computer mouse? I hope these drawings invite this kind of contemplation and admiration of the amazing technology that surrounds us. I hope you like this series. More to come next year!

Remembrance Day Illustration

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada (Veteran's Day in the US), and so a fitting day to post an illustration I made for the Literary Review of Canada's upcoming November issue. I call it "The Burden of the War in Afghanistan." It accompanies an article about the social, economic, and psychological effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Canadian Soldiers returning from the Afghan war. War is a hellish thing, and its long-term effects haunt generations of soldiers and their families. I post this out of gratitude to veterans in every country who served in wars around the world, many of whom gave the ultimate sacrifice, and to those currently serving in wars today, all of whom have suffered and continue to suffer under the inhuman burden of living through that much violence.

Kannagi in the Royal Court

(Detail 1)

(Detail 2)

My new piece "Kannagi at the Royal Court" has just been selected to be part of the "I Have the Right" exhibit on art & human rights sponsored by the PICTURE Art Foundation (http://www.pictureartfoundation.org/). Thank you PICTURE Art Foundation, and congratulations to all the artists who participated!

Where did the idea of "human rights" come from? We often assume it originated in 1948 with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. Most people would be hard-pressed to come up with other sources for the idea of "human rights," perhaps (in a pinch) citing some texts from the 18th century European Enlightenment. In any case, most people pretty much equate the rise of "human rights" with the rise of modern Western democracies. However, it is a mistake to think that only modern (or Western) societies have exhibited a concern for "human rights." In fact, there is increasing evidence to show that pre-modern, non-Western cultures all over the world have supported ideas of "human rights" for centuries, mostly through story-telling. Also, most of the political and social ideas of these cultures were rooted in religions. Therefore, it's fair to say that many pre-modern, non-Western religions have also advanced (or at least supported) ideas of "human rights." One such example from India is the story of Kannagi from the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram ("The Tale of the Anklet," circa 2nd century CE).

R.I.P. Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Very busy day today... but I had to pay tribute to a great innovator and creative genius. This took about 1/2 hr on my trusty Macbook Pro.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs.