AB by MC
It is weird how the visual mind works. Yesterday, I began painting my impression of this photograph in The New York Times. The picture’s white and beige-brown shades attracted me. After doing the basic contours something strange began to happen. Instead of continuing with my impression of the photo, my digital brush took a wholly unexpected direction. It ended up doing a version of the Indian movie icon Amitabh Bachchan.
I make it sound as if a strange force took over my digital brush and made me paint Bachchan instead. Considering that I have never painted Bachchan before I should be forgiven for thinking that, although the explanation for the complete visual detour is far less mysterious. My mind’s eye conceived the image as the one below. The stone tunnel like backdrop in the picture and Bachchan’s head were conceived by my mind’s eye in almost the same way. Once that happened representing Bachchan’s approximation was not hard since one has seen his images for the better part of the past four decades. I did not need an actual photo of his in front of me to do the painting. The subconscious was enough.
The series above illustrates how my mind took visual jumps.