Friday 19 February 2010

Appalling Art

Good art can be enriching, uplifting, and in rare cases, life-changing. But bad art is sometimes endearing in a way that good art can never be. On this note I present, for the first time on public display, two truly appalling drawings from my private collection.

My brother drew this when I went to my first Boy Scouts camp:

Note the clever wordplay: drawing room. And in case you were wondering, no, we don’t call our mother “mom”. But in my brother’s defence, he was a toddler at the time.

Senjuti, however, was definitely not a toddler when she drew this:

In a game of Pictionary last month, she was asked to draw Moby Dick. A right-thinking person would have drawn a whale and a harpoon. But Senjuti, being Senjuti, decided to draw the Famous Five. The curious-looking creature at the bottom is Timmy the dog. The humans, from left to right, are Julian, Dick, George and Anne.

Call me dirty-minded, but that is not how I would have chosen to represent Dick.

32 comments:

Anushka said...

This is EASILY one of the most beautiful posts I've ever read. I now have a smile stuck on my face.

EvolutioN said...

George being Georgina, the tomboyish babe no? Think it has been two decades since I read them. Jesus, I feel old now. :(

Evo

Unknown said...

So that's what happens when you delete a comment.

What would you have done if you were playing charades?

Abhiroop said...

The dog looks decidedly like a wooly mammoth. And wow, what a tail!!! Looks not unlike a scythe....

And indeed, I often believe that personal proclivities and prejudices should not come in the middle of a good cutthroat game of DC. So, shed thy inhibitions and arch forward thy hip without batting an eyelid then!!!

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

Where did you go to camp?

@ Senjuti's art and the paragraph that follows: ROFL.

The Reluctant Rebel said...

I vote for Sryon to show us how he would have represented Dick.

senjuti. said...

You are SO dead.

Priyanka said...

I think the dick part is taken care of if you notice the appendage below the tail. But Senjuti, as in most cases, seems to have been mislead about anatomical placement.

Anonymous said...

1. Senjuti rocks (as does anyone, anywhere who deals in Famous Five references).

2. In re dirty-mindedness, do not worry you aubergine-loving freak, you are not the only one. Had gone to this medley thingie once where your thoughts were put into action by some chaps from an engg school. There was an on-the-spot motion to award them a honorary prize for that alone.

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

Random second comment: I've never played Pictionary! We should next time we meet. I hope to goodness I am better at it than an dumb charades. =(

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

*at.

WV:kaloutic. What a lovely word.

Abhiroop said...

@Arzkiya: I know how eager YOU are to enact that word. Please, quakie: spare us....the Hot pants were interesting enough.... but do please, O wise englishman, spare us What Lies Beneath.... ;)

RC said...

Cool post.

But what happened to the Tandemletters? When's the first one in that series coming up? :)

Sroyon said...

@Anushka: I ran a terrible risk. Senjuti is baying for my blood.

@Evo: Yes, George was indeed Georgina, "the tomboyish babe" as you put it.

@ಕವನ: I refer you to Lahiri's comment below.

@Lahiri: A woolly mammoth? I would say it looks like a rat or a cow. But the tail is not unlike a scythe, yes.

@Shrabasti: Either Ganganagar or Khurda Road in Orissa, I forget which.

@Saha: Pointing would suffice, I should think.

@senjuti: *angelic smile*

@Priyanka: She seems to have been misled not just about anatomical placement but also about size.

@arzkiya: Engg school chappies rock.

@RC: Sorry to disappoint you, I abandoned that idea.

Safdar said...

i encountered senjuti talking about this at university before i read this post.

needless to say, her theatrical justification for the drawing,were something too.

but ya, stay away from her.

Safdar said...

*was something.

Sroyon said...

She told you about the post herself, didn't she? This just confirms my view that, despite her pretended outrage, she is actually pleased with all the publicity.

Pratiti said...

Why don't you put up Senjuti's dick as well? Jeta o "anktey lojja pachhilo". And Bob Dylan. Oh.

senjuti. said...

What theatrical justification eh? @ Safdar.
And Sroyon. Do not even try to distort reality. You shouldn't have uploaded my priceless artwork without permit.
@ Pratiti: Bah. Give him ideas. Yes, go ahead. What else?

Sroyon said...

@Pratiti: "Senjuti's dick" :D

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

Ki ki, Bob Dylan? How was Bob Dylan represented? :)

Sroyon said...

I still have the sheet of paper we were playing on. I will show you when we meet.

Rara Avis said...

What is Pictionary? How is it played? Ad kudos to the artist. Wow. :D

Sroyon said...

A gives B the name of a book or movie. B has to draw it for C, who is on the same team as B, but B is not allowed to use any characters that are present on a keyboard.

Rara Avis said...

Yeah, so how does it go? Who wins and under what condition?

Sroyon said...

If C can guess what B is drawing, then the team to which B and C belong (say Team Y) gets a point. Otherwise A's team (say Team X) gets a point. Next, Team Y gives A the name of a book or movie, and A has to draw it and someone from Team X has to guess what it is. And so on.

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

An easier way to describe this would've been what I told Raktima, namely, it is pictorial Dumb Charades. :P

Sroyon said...

But she didn't know how to play Pictionary. What's the guarantee she'd know about Dumb Charades? Could have led to even more questions.

Vikrant Dadawala said...

I think its only fair to demand that Sroyon show us how he would draw 'dick'.

Vikrant Dadawala said...

And pointing is against Pictionary rules.

Rara Avis said...

Pointing against rules holey how on earth are you supposed to guess what is meant? Particularly if you play with someone like Pratiti who speaks more than she draws, and assumes the expression of a constipation patient when you tell her not to open her mouth? And Sroyon da, why don't you scan and upload the "Bob Dylan" picture, whatever it was? You can show it to Takai when you meet next, but that's highly unfair on the rest of your poor raeders who do not have the high honour of meeting you regularly.
Btw, I now have a Pictionary khata. It contains some jewels. Including a picture of a devil that I drew (to represent hell, i.e. 'hel' for Kuheli) which was interpreted by my teammate as a cat masturbating on a pail of water.
P.S. I simply love this post of yours. And Sujaan seems to have been a very clever artist from a very early age.

Rara Avis said...

But this is strange. He learnt wordplay before he learnt the spelling of his own surname?