Class Of Calligraphy & Painting With Yashasvi Soni

With another edition of WFH- Rooftop Experience, we felt the need to get creative or at least pretend that it was our Friday mood until it variably changed with the news of a calligraphy & painting class. We were very well informed about the apparatuses that we would need for the session: first, the coffee powder, but not as your coffee au lait; second, some turmeric powder; and lastly, some kumkum (vermilion) powder. With these tinted hints, have we spilt the surprise already?

After our last success with Blue Hush, we hosted a workshop with artist Yashasvi Soni. A connoisseur of fine arts, she is overwhelmingly talented in Calligraphy & Painting! She masters fine art, miniature painting, alcohol ink art, nail art, coffee art, and calligraphy..phew- wait a minute there’s more- wall art, dotting art, theme gift wrapping and handicrafts! Presently, she is toiling hard to crack the entrances to her dream design college so that she can pursue her dream of becoming an interior designer. Bravo, Yashasvi!

So with our artistic verve, we were ready to get-set-go with our canvases made of A4 sheets, our colour palettes with natural tints and a set of brush pens for our session 2.0. A quick inventory count of all the participants helped. Indeed, a colourful view! (Bonus: spot a kid around 42:15 starting with his innocent, musical voice at 41:55.)

Our participants were as ready as us at Rajasthan Studio, so as to name a few, we had:

Aroona Rawal Ji, Deepika Nath, Aashima Bhargava, Isha Patel, Priyanshu Kataria, our host and dost from the session and everyone from Rooftop who joined.

Yashasvi embarked on the session with her sparkly face. Her suggestion was to turn towards natural ingredients (which needed to be soaked in water 15 minutes prior to the session!) as a proxy for those who didn’t have watercolours during the stringent lockdown. Mounting the sheet on a hard board helped to keep it in place, and she suggested we use a thick sheet as her 270 GSM thick sheet for both calligraphy & painting.

1. Evenly brush water over your sheet, twice. (a quick warning: don't rub the sheet!)
2. Let it dry. Start from the bottom of the page and brush it with the turmeric solution. Use water and colour simultaneously.
3. Now, run to the opposite side and start painting with kumkum powder. The horizon of both colours will be light and mystical.
4. Once the colour dries, dip your brush in both the colours one by one, and coat once again (don’t do multiple coatings if the sheet is thin.)
5. Once the sheet dries (you can use a hairdryer if in a rush), use a dry brush or cotton to brush aside the dry powder residue of the paints. 
6. Now, choose something from around your natural ecosystem that goes well with a coffee powder shade. Use a pencil initially, to draw your object. For instance, we drew a tree that suspends a tire swing. Ah, the old-school nostalgia!
7. 35:30 shows the grass effect. Imitate well. 
8. 38:30 creates a movement in the painting by illustrating an autumn scene of falling leaves.
9. 46:40 adds a story by just drawing a swing. One may wonder who hung the swing, who left it abandoned, and does anyone return to check if it’s still there. Create your own story through your paintings. 
10.  You can remove the security tape now. Your landscape painting is ready to get framed on your wall and enhance its existence!
11.  Yashasvi titled the painting ‘The Speaking Sunset’.

Participants got their chance to showcase their artwork and each one of them taught us more in each frame. It is safe to say that everyone was a quick learner, or particularly, a quick painter. We would like to show some of the artwork of our participants here:

The calligraphy class was one of our favourites! Yashasvi put on display her collection of brush pens. There is a formula to hold a brush pen when you do calligraphy. Let us learn!

1. Hold your brush pen in a slanting position as your letters would be drawn slantedly as shown at 56:58.
2. Another formula: do a thin stroke of the brush pen while moving upwards with your brush and a thick pressure while moving downward. Watch to learn from 57:35 onwards. 
3. Beginning from 1:01:10, we can see her sequin the word ‘Earth’ in a calligraphy tone. Follow well. 
4. 1:04:40 displays her calligraphy works. She explains that the focus word needs to be highlighted and be turned bold and the unimportant ones can assume the supportive role. 
5. ‘The Circle by Rajasthan Studio’ was our practice module. As a thank you note, Yashasvi gave us a memorable calligraphy practice session. 
6. Add shadows with a grey pen to the keyword. She also used a darker blue shade to highlight the word ‘Circle’ on the uppermost part of the letters. Tap 1:07:50 
7. 0.2 tip pen was used by Yashasvi to highlight the word ‘The’. Watch closely at 1:11:45
8. At 1:12:35, she uses the same micro pen to draw ‘by’ and she elongates it along with the word ‘Circle’.
9. At 1:13:20, she starts drawing ‘Rajasthan’. The technique used here is called bouncy letters. There is a flow in the words, like in waves of water. 
10.  At 1:15:00, Yashasvi narrates the summary of brush calligraphy. Tap for quick recall.

After finishing the tasks, everyone flashed their screens with their proud calligraphy artworks. Even with the limited resources, each participant had a talent transcending the availability of a basic brush. Can we now call-it-a-graphy?

Still inquisitive about art? Join us on Instagram @rooftop_app for all the latest updates and download Rooftop app available for both iOS and Android devices.

Here’s us signing off, until next time! Stay creative.