The Book of Days

The Book of Days is an ongoing collection of illustrations. It is an experiment in tedium, discipline and positive thought. It was once a journal, where each blank page or page of sadness or anger will now be replaced with an illustration. Essentially the idea is to carefully create something positive over something negative.

So this is the book of days. It was given to me by Nikunj, and he actually bound the book by hand. I began to use it as a journal.. Later I decided that the pages where I'd written about bad days or things that I hadn't been happy about I would instead fill with some kind of light by creating drawings in their stead. I wasn't following any visual language or anything, just making for the sake of creating something out of happiness.

 

Some Details from this one:

     

 

 

So yes, these are it. 

The link to this project on my website: The Book of Days

Good day and much love to everyone :)

So hello again.

So 2015 deserves one post at the very least I suppose.

And because its been long, this post is going to be, too. (Bullet points to the rescue)

I. THE NEGLECT
Yes, yes, I've been very neglectful, but in my defense, its super SUPERhard to keep up with all this internet stuff now. I made a slick (I hope) website which I have been updating, which is why I have so pathetically ignored this space. I feel oddly like a mother who is playing favorites, lol. Not exactly, but yes. What to do.

II.THE WEBSITE
But here's a link to this sortofslickish-maybe? website that I made.
http://aasthag95.wix.com/aasthagupta
Yes yes, its a stupid link, I didn't buy a domain. And I still don;t know html so I didn't even really build it. It's an html drag-and-drop style, template-providing web service called wix (which they sooner than later announce as you land on the homepage) but its something.
Also, it's not *fully* updated. I made it about five months ago.
अच्छा ठीक है, there's no need for a fuss, yes, I've been lazy as usual.

III. RUMINISCENCE:
Yes, this is not actually a word. But I saw all the stuff on this blog and I'm just like , "wow, what utter bu**sh**." But then I'm like, no, not really, what sweet, naive beginnings. Everyone keeps saying that as you grow older, you keep beginning to hate the work you already did. Well, this is more or less true of me too, though I'd say rather less than more.
I don't hate it, though I see how stupid some of it looks, but of course, I'm trying to chart progress here, which purpose has been achieved. So, I'm going to keep this around and post anyway. I wish though, that I had been more regular.

IV. THE NEW WORK:
Well, I've done a bunch of things since I last posted here.
As a student, I made

x. Two new films, a short fiction and and a short documentary.

However, I have not posted them on line yet. The thing is, I'm not nearly as happy with either of them as I was with Jabbar. But oh well, I'm learning and learning is the aim.
Other than that, chill work wise, I have

x. The Book of days, and
x. Art for Music.

I'm putting these up in separate posts just now.
Currently I am working on a new film, but it's not just a film, it's a curiosity. I call it

x. The Urdu Project.

More on this one soon, I'm super excited about it, can't wait for the film to actually take shape. In addition there may be an Arabic typeface. Lets see how this goes. For now I will share here, the book of days and Art for Music.

V. 2015
Was the worst year ever. EVER. But. I have come out of it, for better or for worse. And I learnt a LOT. So much. Hoping it will reflect in the work to come.

So yes, I have reached the end of this. :) Good bye and Good day to you.

Refugees

And since "just fun" hasn't been had in a while, I thought it was time for this.

Also, I've been rethinking how I use colour, and that's really what led to this.

Jabbar

PASSWORD: Jabbar

Jabbar is a short documentary about Hand Painted Typography, featuring Akash Halankar, a graphic designer who is designing a typeface based on hand painted type, and Babu Bhai, a hand painter who paints signboards on the streets of Ahmedabad.

This is a short story of their approaches towards the same discipline, an ode to all the Painters all over India that create some very beautiful Typography.

Featured Artists: Lawrence D'Souza a.k.a. Babu Bhai and Akash Halankar
Directed and Edited by: Aastha Gupta
Camera: Sachin Sasi
Additional Camera: Aastha Gupta
Sound Track: Nikunj Patel
Special Thanks: Sahil Abhichandani, Mridul Narnaulia

Jam

Do you know what you're thinking about? 

I don't know what I'm thinking about.

Porcupine tree

Sketchey time