Saturday, February 4, 2012

A little bit of Egypt-Egyptian Painting


I always liked to draw, sketch and paint. . I am very much interested in Egyptian painting. I am not too good in paintings but yes  before I started painting I learned about this art from various link.
I downloaded a picture, copied it on a sheet, after sketching the basic I came across the real challenge and started painting. I messed up at number of places. In the end the picture did turn out to look a nice. I tried my level best. ...For coloring I Used Metallic and 3D colors Here is my first ever Egyptian painting....!!
Whatever I learned about Egyptian art. ... I am very glad to share it
 Egyptian Painting
I have never been to Egypt, but I am always interested in n these magnificent structure, of pyramids , sphinx have always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt. I am very much interested in Egyptian painting. So I learned about Egyptian art .We learned a little bit about pyramids, the Sphinx, and Egyptian art. Paintings that decorated the walls of the tombs in Egypt were intended to keep alive the history. These wall-paintings provide in extraordinarily vivid picture of life as it was lived in Egypt thousands of years ago.

 Egyptian goddess
Egyptian art / Painting had a deep meaning and more expressive and evocative, of endowing the work with magical life. All Egyptian ancient art was coloured. Egyptian Art - Colors
The colors used in paintings traditionally showed that the body of a man was painted as a dark reddish-brown color whereas the body of a woman was painted as lighter, yellowish-brown color. These differences in colors represented the mainly outdoor life of a man as opposed to the more secluded lifestyle of a woman. Six basic colors were used in Ancient Egyptian art - white, black, red, yellow, blue and green. A tiny pestle and mortar was used for grinding colors. The colors used were symbolic and all had different meanings.
    White - White represented purity, power and greatness, a sacred color
    Black - Black represented death and the night
    Red - Red represented life and victory. It was also used to convey anger
    Yellow - Yellow was often used to represent gold and therefore used to convey that the subject was imperishable and indestructible. The eternal color used to depict the the sun god
    Blue - Blue represented water, the sky, life, fertility and re-birth
    Green - Green was the color of vegetation and represented new life
 
The symbolism of the colors was used to great effect when depicting the images and characteristics of the various Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses.  Tomb paintings were of everyday life until the New Kingdom about 1550 BC to 1020 BC.  During the New Kingdom the the paintings showed different levels of the Egyptian society as well as items the deceased would need in the after life.
Egyptian depiction of people is very consistent in their proportions and views of  the people.  The reason is that the Egyptians used a formula to paint people.  "Egyptians artists used this method to keep figures in proportion.  They divided a sheet of papyrus into nineteen rows of squares.  Then they drew the figure using the first three rows of squares for the area between the forehead and the neck, the next for the shoulder to the knee, and the last six for the lower limbs and feet." 
 
Symbols and Definitions:
The ancient Egyptians used Symbols for protection, just like in modern Egypt with our own set of symbols – such as the "Khamsa", which is a palm (sometimes with an eye in the middle) that we wear as a pendant for protection against the evil eye. They also believed in the magical quality of symbolism, using them not only for protection, but also for luck and prosperity.
Egyptian Painting Techniques:
Egyptian painting was carried out within strict confines and rules - ancient Egypt thrived on control and planning. master craftsmen and sketched out on papyrus paper, then they added a grid-system of vertical and horizontal lines onto the papyrus. Once they had a clearly outlined composition divided into sections by the grid, they could then just scale it up to the size of the wall.
To do that correctly, they would also apply the grid-system to the wall in relation to the plan they have on paper. They would cover pieces of string in red ink and stretch it over the walls to form the lines... Once the grid on the wall was completed, it would be easy to copy the images onto it. he representation of different objects and events in Egyptian art:
For Examples:
A group of Egyptians would usually have their feet all pointing in the same direction and would be depicted in well-organized rows.
•Places within Egypt had a straight ground line while places outside the borders would have wavy ground lines.
•Pools of water would have the fish drawn on top of them
The brushes that were used were made out of reeds with chewed up ends to make a fuzzy soft side to dip in the paint. They also used bunched up plant fibers tied together. They mixed the paints by grinding and processing certain minerals and compounds, such as:
•    Charcoal and soot to make black
•    Calcium compounds to make white
•    Azurite to make blue
•    Iron oxide to make red and yellow
•     Malachite to make green, or mixing blue and yellow

Most of the minerals used in Egyptian painting were found inside Egypt, although some had to be extracted from Sinai and other far away areas. Ancient Egyptian writing, especially Hieroglyphics, was a form of art. The glyphs are little pictures of things such as snakes, water, vultures and women. Their combinations and directions had different meanings and they were a major part of wall reliefs – explaining stories and relaying incantations. Some of the most important historical and medical records are found on EgyptianPapyrus Art.

A little bit Of Egyptian painting I learned from various sites. ... I am very glad to share it so that everybody can know about ancient culture.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The kurukshetra of Daily Life.-2


The kurukshetra of Daily Life-2
Bhagvat Gita is the actual talk between the confused Arjuna and his Charioteer Lord Krishna in the battle field.The Pandavas were leading a huge army in a righteous cause against their own cousins, the Kauravas, also with a huge army. Arjuna was the biggest hero and he gazed from his chariot at the two armies, he suddenly lost his will to fight. He was afraid. Afraid not only of losing his own life, but also for the lives of his “fathers, grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, fathers-in-law, and friends.” Because  this was a war within a family. He had loved ones in both armies. Arjuna dropped his bow and arrows and collapsed on the floor of his chariot, sobbing.

Arjuna’s heroism will not consist only of strength but, more importantly, of an inner struggle with himself. Arjuna, turns out, is meant to be a part of my mind and your mind and everybody’s mind. The real enemy of Arjuna was his mind rather than the soldiers on the other side. We are faced with the same situation. Our own mind is the greatest enemy, which is constantly tricking us into thinking that life is all about material enjoyment and sense gratification. Every day we are faced with decisions, which will affect our future. 

Arjuna’s struggle is our daily struggle over the base, the serene over the angry, the courageous over the fearful. We all have Kurukshetras within us. Life is full of calamities and anxiety. Ignorance, materialism, lust, greed, and violence, represents the soldiers on the opposing side in our war. Thus everyday is a battle with ignorance, materialism, lust, greed, and angerThe Kauravas, the evil cousins, are the negative states of mind – anger, hatred, greed, vanity, envy, arrogance, fear and so forth.Krukshetra is the battlefield of our own minds, every day.. If we can win the daily battles for some time then we have entered into spiritual life and the war over ignorance.


The battle of Mahabharata is raging within us! Our ignorance (avidyaa) is King Dhritarashtra! The individual soul is Arjuna! The In-Dweller dwelling in our heart is Lord Krishna, the charioteer! The body is our chariot! The senses (indriyaas) are the horses. Our ego, pride, greed, hypocrisy, lust, jealousy, likes & dislikes, etc. are our dire enemies!

In order for us to win our war, we need the same knowledge that Arjuna was given by Lord Krishna. Krishna teaches us how to make our minds calm so that we can go on with life whenever it seems to overwhelm us. By understanding the Bhagavad-Gita, the decisions we make in everyday life will alter our lives for the better and the result will be peace and happiness even in this life

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The kurukshetra of Daily Life... 1



The kurukshetra of Daily Life.,


Recently In my day to day life, I get depressed while doing my work. Laziness has crept the intensity in my work has dropped; I have lost sense of my priorities. Mind is that makes the personality of a person. My state is similar to that of Arjuna just before the start of the Mahabharata war. To control my mind & emotions I try to read the Bhagavad Gita .but I don’t understand it and what I do understand, I forget as soon as I close the book.”Again & again reading I may not understand or remember everything, but when I read it, I feel I have been changed, inside and out. These posts will be nothing more than my personal notes on my reading of the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, I just want to instruct myself and make it as Personal notes. I just expressed it in my view.

In your normal life, just introspect & check the state of your mind. Normally whether it remains calm or it remains agitated & disturbed. It is generally said that we see this world through our mind, if our mind is peaceful; we see this world in a Good way & enjoys the beauties of nature & love being born to enjoy this life. But if our mind remains in a disturbed, agitated state of mind, we may miss the simple beauty of a flower in our nearby place also. We shall never enjoy our life if our mind remains in a disturbed state of mind.

The main reason why our mind remains disturbed is that we are not satisfied with our present state. If you have something, you are not happy with it. If you have your family, sons, daughters etc. then you may not have harmonious relations with them. If you have a particular amount of money with you, it seems less to you & you want more of it. Same is that, you have Greed for other things & don’t know how to enjoy the one’s you are already having.


The real enemy of Arjuna was his mind rather than the soldiers on the other side. We are faced with the same situation. Our own mind is the greatest enemy, which is constantly tricking us into thinking that life is all about material enjoyment and sense gratification. Every day we are faced with decisions, which will affect our future. Thus everyday is a battle with ignorance, materialism, lust, greed, and anger. If we can win the daily battles for some time then we have entered into spiritual life and the war over ignorance, materialism, lust, greed, and anger has been won. And at the end of this life we will enter into the kingdom of God with eternal spiritual life.

 In order for us to win our war, we need the same knowledge that Arjuna was given by Lord Krishna. The Bhagavad-Gita.
(to be continued)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Lotus


Lotus


The morning calm lake that
Brimming with hues of all shades
Reflects the golden glory of the sun
Swaying to the refreshing breeze,
And it’s pure fragrance perfumes the wind
Majestically beautiful in!


The lotus rooted deep in mud
Its jade green leaves spread out over the pond,
Stretches toward sky to stand Tall and pure
Now it raises from the murky water.
Multi-petaled open steadily
Its petals are covered with dew,
Natural, White, Pure
A flower forever with charms to hold
Lustrous, Cool and Majestic!