HOPE

This sketch is my dedication to the number of innocent civilians who lost their lifes in the conflict between their govt and the rebels. I wanted to do this 3 years back in support of the Srilankan tamils but the sketch is still current if you apply this in context to the syrian civil war. No human has the right to take the life of a fellow human being.

Here is a old man who has lost his son and child who has lost his father. I think the essence of the sketch is best described by the verses of tamil Poet Bharathiyar below. The oldman while shouldering the kid hopes for a better tomorrow for the kid. Atleast from the kid’s generation there shouldnt be any missing generation, displaced families and nomadic life. After all “Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things and no good thing ever dies” .

தேடிச் சோறு நிதந்தின்று-பல
சின்னஞ்சிறு கதைகள் பேசி-மனம்
வாடித் துன்பமிக உழன்று-பிறர்
வாடப் பலசெயல்கள் செய்து- நரை
கூடிக் கிழப்பருவம் எய்தி – கொடுங்
கூற்றுக் கிரையெனப்பின் மாயும்- பல
வேடிக்கை மனிதரைப் போலே-நான்
வீழ்வேனென்று நினைத்தாயோ?

This poem’s english translation

Did you think I too will
Spend my days in
search of food,
Tell petty tales,
Worry myself with thoughts,
Hurt others by my acts,
Turn senile with grey hair
And end up as fodder to the
relentless march of time
As yet another faceless man?

Coming back to the sketch, I used 3B and 6B pencils.

Reference:

1. Pencil Shading, basic techniques – Raviraj

2. The poem and its translation from internet.