Inspiration

I wanted to work with a figure embedded in my culture. I pick the Tanjore doll or 'Thanjavur Bommai' as it is called in Tamil (bommai = toy). They are also known as thalaiyatti bommai which translates to 'doll with the head bobbing or shaking'. This handicraft is a South Indian bobblehead doll made of terracotta, native to the Thanjavur region of Tamil Nadu. These toys are traditionally handmade and finished with detailed, painted exteriors. They vary multiple shapes, sizes, colours and styles and usually represent a variety of Indian dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Kuthiraiyattam and Kathakali.

The centre of gravity and total weight of the doll is concentrated at its bottom-most point, resulting in a sort of dance-like continuous movement with slow oscillations. The doll's head is also typically larger than its body. There are 4 different part of the doll which lends to their unique movement: legs, head, upper body and lower body. This breakup of the toy into elements reminded me of how we break our code up into blocks or sections. This is one of the reasons I picked this figure.

Corpse Collage

I worked with Aiyo & Nina on this assignment. We each created a figure that can be broken down into three sections. I used the head of my original drawing, the body from Nina's, and the lowest register of Aiyo's.

I was very curious about who I'd be paired with and what sort of drawing I'd have to work with. I wanted my drawing to be simple but versatile - something that would not drastically deviate from someone else's concept, yet unique in its own right.

I was quite surprised to see how well the Thanjavur Bommai worked with the other drawings. The long distinctive collar that Nina drew would add a stylistic and cultural twist to the traditional Bharatanatyam costume of my figure. The fishtail that Aiyo added to her drawing was in a way the cherry on the cake for me. From doll to mermaid, what an unexpected, yet seamless transformation! The final mermaiden sketch is characterised by large eyes, a mermaid's tail, gold ornaments, and puffed sleeves with a long, narrow collar. The code is divided into smaller chunks with functions like head(), body(), tail() etc, all called in function draw(). I struggled a bit with the curve of the tail as I'm not yet comfortable using bezier curves or curveVertexertex (). I overlaid three different arcs to get the desired taper. I then added two geometric lotus with different stalk heights on either side of the figure. These are set against a linear pattern interspersed with tiny rings. To animate my sketch, I made the head, hair, facial features and all accessories bob to either side every second like the greeva bheda or neck movements in Bharatanatyam.