The ‘Hatching’

A4 size; Black pen on paper; Using a technique of ‘hatching’ and ‘cross-hatching’ for the King hatchlings ! This technique is done by drawing closely spaced parallel lines to create tonal or shading effects.

After having glued myself to Bangalore for a few months, immersed in painting, I finally got a chance to take off to the Western Ghats, where (my brother, Sandesh) and the filming crew were shooting a documentary for National Geographic about King Cobras! The crew, along with Gowri Shankar and the many volunteers at ARRS (Agumbe Rainforest Research Station) had put in many weeks of radio tracking the King, observing and recording its behavior and filming the nest building in the wild. Now, it was time for the baby kings to break open their shells and come out into their whole new wild world. And I was lucky enough to land up at Agumbe right in time for this ! It was early August.

I sat watching the heads pop out, everything in slow motion, taking their own sweet time to absorb their new surroundings and venture out boldly, leaving behind their safe haven. With their heads out, they stood in the same position, sometimes for hours together, as if everything had been paused. Thus giving me ample enough time to sit in front of them and doodle rough sketches in my field-journal. And presented above is the final sketch of the baby kings hatching. Made this after i got back to Bangalore.

This Post Has 11 Comments

  1. MUJEEBpatla

    i never expected such magic with pen and paper…amazing drawing and great explanation….

  2. Madhu

    hey, will tell you. This is just amazing. Waiting to see the sketch in person.

  3. Dipti

    WOW…You work is truely outstanding. I will really upload my stuff to humour you..

  4. MEROPS

    Mujeeb, Madhu and Dipti… thank you very much !:)
    Dipti… waiting to see your works. Am sure they are great!

  5. Veda Murthy

    fantabulous! Foe a moment i did not understand what u were talking about in the pic…gosh the moment i clicked on the pic for a larger size…..eeeee….snakes!!!!!!!!!!!

    awesome work sangeetha!

  6. MEROPS

    Thank you very much everyone!
    All your words of encouragement, adds more enthusiasm to work!

  7. karthik

    Great sketch! I have trekked the western ghats so many times … every once spotted a king cobra. I guess it takes a lot of patience in tracking one and studying its behavior.

  8. MEROPS

    Thanks Karthik… My brother worked on a King Cobra Documentary and so i had the oppurtunity to look and sketch them out in the field ! Did this, after i got back home.

  9. Amrita Tripathy

    thats great, as if like watching out in real..i imagined…!! the painting is just beautiful, "kings are born again"…!!

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