Pot-head

yellow aluminium nonstick 6.5 litre pot

You can never have too many pots and pans. Well, actually, you can, but even in most enthusiastic home cooks’ repertoire of gadgets and gizmos and implements, nothing beats a good solid pot that you can cook things in. I think I bought my first frying pan — my very own — when I was ten. It was a little nonstick omelet pan (guess what my favourite food was?) that promptly got scratched beyond use. For my thirteenth birthday I got a set of steel pots and a pan I still use today.

Once in a while — every year or so — I will expand my culinary arsenal with woks and cast-iron griddles and such. This big, 6.5 litre yellow pot is the largest vessel in the house now; overkill, perhaps, since I never really entertain large groups, but the added room over my other 2 & 3 litre pots is welcome for things like big batches of soups and risottos.

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Train Station – Foreground Inks

train station foreground pens

Foreground inks are done on my Train Station image for Today’s Doodle. I use a Zebra Calligraphy pen (aka my favourite pen ever) to do the figures. The calligraphy pen gives a nice bouncy, organic line that works well for living creatures. The thinner lines such as the fairy’s wings and the anatomy that shows through from behind it was done with a Uniball Pin 0.05 fine liner. I’ll be using this fine pen more as I get farther into the background, and of course for detail work later.

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Train Station – Pencils

train station pencils

(I’ll be posting work-in-progress and quick process updates here more often now. You know, what my blog was supposed to be about.)

The latest drawing for the Today’s Doodle site, on the subject ‘Train Station’. I’m quite surprised that I not only managed to pull this off without any pre-sketch or thumbnail, but also within an hour. This sort of thing usually takes me two-to-three hours or hemming and hawing over every little detail.

On to the inks!

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Mandala (work-in-progress)

mandala flat colours
Over at Today’s Doodle, I and a bunch of others have been drawing for the last six months. We’ve been tackling a number of topics, and I’ve really improved my skills (it’s not much to brag about, but it’s a huge leap over where I was when I started).

Most of the work I’ve been doing has been in black and white, but once in a while I do try to colour things. I need to work a lot more on this image, Mandala, but I just wanted to put up this intermediate flat-colour version to show you that even a quick session with the paint bucket tool can result in something good. The black & white original is below.

mandala bw

A 10-minute Business Card Design

10 minute business card design
The other day, I had literally 10 minutes to design a business card. My dad needed to go to a trade show, and with no cards on hand, and no time to get a design offset-printed, we decided to just get it done from a copy shop, five sheets (50 cards) of 300gsm paper that I hand-cut later at home. I’ve used this method before, for my own business cards. It’s mainly because I don’t usually need many cards (I give out, maybe a few dozen a year), and because I can quickly and easily change info and designs, keep it fresh.

So, coming back to this card, with 10 minutes there really isn’t a lot of time for fancy graphics or elaborate illustration. It needs to be strong, sharp and get the job done. But one needn’t stick to simply printing the name & info in a basic font against white, and being done with it. As you can see, there is a little bit of mood and identity to it, even without a logo. And judging by the very staid, sober cards I’ve seen from most Water Treatment industry types, it certainly stands out, a key factor with the identity of a consultant — and individual — as opposed to someone representing a corporation.

It’s not the greatest piece of work I’ve done, but for 10 minutes, I’m satisfied, and most importantly, it did its job: to be given out at a trade show to the kind of people who still keep stacks of cards rather than some fancy digital solution.

Already, I am told, at least one staid, sober water treatment industry type who saw this card remarked that it was ‘too bold’. I think he’s the kind that prefers plain Times New Roman on a white piece of paper.

He’s probably Patrick Bateman, too.

Eggplant Zucchini Lasagne

eggplant zucchini lasagne

There’s something both simple & complex about lasagne; it’s an elaborate dish, but one that comes together over several hours of slowly-simmering sauces and carefully-roasted vegetables. This is a fairly simple one, just roasted eggplant & zucchini slices, a tomato sauce, and bechamel, stuffed between layers of noodles and topped with mozzarella cheese.

The very definition of comfort food.

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Freezer Raid Curry!

freezer raid thai curry and shrimp parcels

Aka the I-just-got-back-from-a-vacation-and-don’t-have-anything-in-the-house curry. Looks nice, tastes okay, but everything on this plate came out of the freezer & pantry and was whipped up in half an hour.

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Happy New Year!

happy-new-year-2012-burj-khalifa-dubai-fireworks
A very happy new year to you all! Let’s hope all the rumours about 2012 aren’t true, and if they turn out to be, let’s hope Bruce Willis or someone sufficiently Bruce Willisian will save us anyway.

Here in Dubai, meanwhile, we kicked things off with a mildly exploding building.

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Guitar Devi Free iPad & 1080p HD Wallpaper

guitar devi crop

A few months ago I made this image of a Guitar Devi on a whim and it proved to be quite popular. Recently I changed my profil epic on twitter to match it (I get tired of looking at my mug now and then) and was reminded that some people would like a version specifically made for their iPads. So here you go!

guitar devi free ipad wallpaper

guitar devi free 1080p wallpaper

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Bacon, Zucchini & Sundried Tomato Gnocchi

bacon gnocchi 01

This is lunch.

Sometimes I need to raid my fridge and pantry to put together odds and ends that aren’t quite enough for individual larger dishes, marrying pantry staples such as pastas with stray vegetables that will spoil in a short while.

The results can be delicious, such as this dish. The Gnocchi (a pillow-like morsel made of potato flour, pronounced nyo-kee) was bought from the store and pan fried in a little butter, which gives it a bit of crispness (they can be boiled like fresh pastas too). The sauce was some turkey bacon browned, then garlic, onion & celery, followed by chunks of zucchini, then tomato, and finished with a spoonful of sundried tomato paste and a little squeeze of harissa. No water was added. The prepared gnocchi was stirred in and left covered for a few minutes to soak up the sauce, then finally tossed with a good handful of chopped parsley.

bacon gnocchi 02

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Testing out the new old Pentax-F SMC 50mm 1.4

dubai karama metro station taken with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
I recently acquired a new old lens, a Pentax SFX-era F1.4 50mm autofocus from the 1980s. While it is a lens ideally suited for night photography, I recently had the chance to give it a whirl while out and about. Here are a few of the good photos I got.

index tower and burj khalifa shot with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
The Index is one of my favourite buildings to look at in Dubai, and not only because a friend of mine lives there. This Foster & Partners building is perfect for the Dubai landscape, with its pleasingly retro angles and box grater shape, its use of textured materials. And yet it’s completely different to the chrome and glass towers that make up most of the city’s skyscrapers. Chief among them is the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world, of-late Tom Cruise’s personal dangling venue of choice. I’m fairly indifferent to its design, though I guess it could have been a lot worse.

ras al khaimah emirates road shot with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
Despite the modern image of the Emirates being a glass & chrome metropolis, drive a little out of the city and you’ll end up on a road that looks very much like this, no matter where you go…

national paints roundabout traffic jam shot with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
…and once you get bored and decide to return to the cities, chances are you’ll end up in a traffic jam that looks very much like this, no matter where you go!

acrobatic jets with smoke trail shot with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
It’s a small concession that once every couple of years, when you do get stuck in a traffic jam you at least get to see some aerobatics. (Also, I really, really need to clean all the dust spots from my camera sensor.)

business bay bridge, culture village tower and burj khalifa shot with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
The lens, by the way, performs admirably, even shooting straight into the setting sun. You can’t see it at this size and treatment, but I can read the number plates on most of the traffic in this shot.

pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
These last two shots further demonstrate how marvelous this lens has turned out to be. Both of them are shot through a very dirty window, with harsh corridor lights behind and above me casting all manner of reflections on the glass. The second one, in fact, was taken at a sharp glancing angle to the glass. It’s a wonder I managed to get anything at all!

pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera

Needless to say, I’m only scratching the surface of what this lens can do, and future experiments will follow.

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A New Old Lens

pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter on a pentax k200d digital slr camera
I’ve been searching for old, strange lenses for my Pentax K200D digital SLR ever since I bought it over two years ago, since I quickly realised that I could effectively use any number of great lenses stretching back over Pentax’s long and colourful history. Last year I acquired an adapter for the M42 mount, which allowed me to use a forty-something-year-old Zenit Helios 58mm f2 lens after some modifications to the apeture pin. I’ve been using the all-manual lens through much of the last year, getting back my skills at manual focussing — no small feat in a lens with such a fine and shallow depth-of-field. It has performed admirably and produces pictures of distinct character.

Out of the blue, the other day, I stumbled upon a camera store in a small mall in Dubai that I have often frequented for coffee and a sandwich, but never explored. They had dozens of old cameras and lenses, including several Pentax models, of which I immediately spotted a Pentax SFX, and more specifically its 50mm F1.4 SMC autofocus lens. I acquired it for a bargain (around $70) and even got a UV filter thrown in for free! Due to some other chores that needed to be done, I didn’t get a chance to properly test it, but heading back to the car I fired off a quick shot of my brother in the back seat.

portrait of samir bharadwaj taken with a pentax k200d digital slr camera with a pentax sfx pentax-f smc 50mm F1.4 autofocus lens with cokinlight 49mm uv filter in indirect streetlight

Note that this was taken with me awkwardly turned around in the front passenger seat, with the only illumination being a single street-light and a shop window across the two lane road. The results are more than adequate, and quite the step-up from the F2 zenit lens. The autofocus helps immensely in poor light, and I can’t wait to give this lens a good workout. It’s a good deal younger than the Zenit — the SFX was released in 1987. Like the Zenit, I imagine it will sit on my camera most of the time.

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