OUR ILLUSTRATIONS:
NAMRATA:
This is my illustration of Diomira. The sixty silver domes are scattered and slightly lost in the bustle of the city. The lead path ties the whole city together. The tall tower seems to bleed into the path with its marvelous height but the other buildings add to and are also lost in the overwhelming overstimulation of the city. The blotches of color remind me of the blurred city lights at night. But when one lives in the city one realizes that he is a slave to the demands of this bustling city, but he still feels like he’s a part of something much larger. In Diomira, I think, people live in a hollow sadness which is masked by outlandish domes and brilliant lights and sculptures.
NEHA:
Here I wanted to compare the modern city to the invisible city of Diomira. You can see a lot of dazzling domes but in a modern city, we can see the bland cement. The majestic domes are replaced by mundane rectangular buildings. Instead of the bronze statues, we see statues of stone or cement if we see any at all. The city street in Diomira is paved with lead whereas these days it’s paved with black tar. They have emphasized the golden cock which would be sound people woke up to, but these days we only wake up to the honking of cars. The multicolored lamps were a regular sight in Diomira in contrast to the few festive days where we see multicolored lights across the city.
BHARAT:
The city of Diomira is an eye catcher for the Traveller. There are a number of conspicuous activities going on in the city. There are bronze statues of all God’s, a crystal theater, streets paved with gold….it’s amusing. Food stalls and multiple people going around the streets and having some good time. The city consists of sixty silver domes….wow what a sight it would have been for a Traveller. A golden cock crowing on a tower every morning like in movies. And what a day it would be for a Traveller who visits the place on a solstice and finds himself allured by a woman cry.
RUCHITA:
The little description of Diomira given brings in a sense of a inquisitiveness of what’s to be discovered in the city of domes
The large domes cover the city making it look like an architectural masterpiece
My interpretation of Diomira mainly focus on the huge number of domes that are present and colorful lights around the city at night
I tried showing how large scale the domes are and how much they cover the city in my painting.
SHREYA:
A visitor to the city, Diomira is welcomed by a whole hold of 60 silver domes. Initially, a person gets carried over by the mesmerizing beauty of the city….but later by the deeply hidden sorrows. The roads paved with lead depicts a large grey tone in the life of people living there… Which is much beyond right and wrong. The crystal theatre stands out and edicts a luxurious life. On the contrast, the cock crowing on a tall tower describes a bustling lifestyle.
The alluring Diomira has a totally different look on a September evening; Multicolored lights lighten up all together in the food stalls Creates a heavenly atmosphere.
But the words of the woman creates great suspense and tells us about the sadness of people. But for a visitor, it’s unseen as its hidden by the beauty of the Diomira.
SUDHA:
My interpretation of Diomira Mainly focuses on the number of domes and colorful lights. The city such as the silver domes, buildings, crystal theater and the street.
RISHIKA:
To create is one of the first impulses a human being experiences after his/her basic needs of food and shelter are met. I saw myself paying that extra bit of attention to awe-inspiring work from the different illustrations on this city. The composition, aesthetics, and materials in this city have a story to tell of its own. The 60 silver domes that fade into the dreamy sky is what makes this city so special. The golden cock that crows each morning shows the liveliness of Diomira. The faded watercolors with minimal detail make this so much more pleasing. The mood of this piece is very much content and in my perspective, I think, this place is simply magic.
THAYANIDHI:
Our Reactions to other illustrations:
BHARAT:
made by Namrata
“When I look at my drawing, it depicts a clear image of what I am trying to explain about the city which isn’t the same in Your case, in yours, it is more abstract and indescribable in one go and is asking the observer to think about it himself based on his thinking ability through the observer’s thinking may not be same as yours. Your work is catchy and undescribed whereas mine is pale but understandable I believe.”
“I see the same pattern in my drawing and the one from the internet. Both have used the same idea of showing our understanding of the place. But in my drawing, I don’t define the area completely but in the one from the internet it looks like the artist has tried to show a combination of cities from the middle east”
NAMRATA:
made by Neha
” I think Neha’s work shows the street which cuts and joins this vast city of Diomira. The street somehow disappears into the cluttered 60 domes of this brilliant city. Life is built around the streets- I think Neha and my work both show the importance of how life in this city revolves around the lead path. Also, the colors in my work contrast her pencil sketch but the similarity lies in the fact that we both view the city as too overwhelming and too dense. I think as a city to visit, Diomira is an excellent choice, but not as a city to call your own- it is far too bustling, loud and has not a single quiet corner.”
“I like this one as it draws attention to the flatness of the paper and goes to show how the vast and complex city of Diomera cannot be captured on paper and the best way to portray it is by eliminating the idea of perspective and tying everything together as a flat-lay. It is similar to my illustration of Diomira and yet very different. My illustration draws attention to the flatness of the paper too but also to the glaring overstimulation of the bustling city-life. My illustration focuses on the varied color palette of the twinkling lights of a city at night and this illustration doesn’t focus color blatantly, yet shows it by the hanging lights in between buildings. Colour, in my opinion, is an important part of the description of the city- this is a contrast to my work yet both of them draw inspiration from the same principles.”
NEHA:
“There are a lot of similarities between this artist’s illustration of Diomira and mine. As you walk in through the path, you see a congested space and a planned weave of Diomira. You see all the bronze statues along the lead path. There are houses along one side of the road. There is an emphasis on the huge number of domes in Diomira but they are different from each other. Mine is a take on Diomira driven the day-to-day image of the city- complete with streetlights and all.”
made by Namrata
“The main point of contrast which strikes me first is that the colors play a very important role in her work while mine emphasizes the perspective of the city. The abstractness in her art is also a contrast to how I imagined Diomira when I first read the chapter on “Cities and Memories. Here the silver color of the domes is emphasized while in mine the structural differences between the domes are highlighted. Here her path ties Diomira together while in mine, the path is lost in the congestion of the densely packed city.”
SHREYA:
made by Rishika
“The grey and blue tones used in the painting brings about a strange connectivity with the state of people living in Diomira. And the cloudy sky appears to resemble the beauty and gloominess hidden in the city. The golden cock refills a new hope in the people of Diomira every morning. Although the amazing glass theatre stands right in front of the lady… She seems to be ignorant of it and this might be due to her melancholy. Although the greenery seen in the painting is very little… It appeared to me like a ray of happiness and hope. The wide grey streets create a lot of suspense. The fortified walls of a house amuse me. I would conclude saying that this painting consists of a multilayered perspective for the viewer.”
“Here this drawing represents a clustered idea of living in Diomira. It’s quite strange that all the houses consist of domes. Statues of all the gods are lined up…it emphasizes on the fact the people living over there believe in some kind of togetherness between human and god.
It’s surprising that the cock is crowing on a clock tower. My sketch as some similarities but I felt Diomira was a scattered city and the reason for it might be the hidden sorrows of the people living there. The swirls represent the melancholy of the people whose origin is unknown.”
RISHIKA:
“With a city like Diomira, it is as with dreams. The piece emphasizes character, space, meaning and the understanding of how everything imaginable can be dreamed. The perspective is deceitful and everything conceals something else, which leaves me interested to find out more. It’s about trying many ideas for learning that this piece of art has much more to offer than just the city itself. My illustration of this is inspired by the piece above. It demonstrates a similar pattern to this but also uses color to exaggerate the mood of the city. This implies drawing from piecing every detail together to create an entire form or scene from your head.”
SUDHA:
made by Bharat
“He has depicted a busy main path surrounded with domes, buildings, streets, Crystal theater and number of food stalls. highlighting the silver domes and tower. There are a number of activities going on in the cities. Overall the drawing gives a good idea of Diomira city.”
What we would feel if we were residents of Diomira…
“I woke up today excited like everyday, looked through the window at the city………….those shiny silver domes, that crystal theater, those gossiping neighbors, the innocent kids running around, sniffing the most exquisite food being cooked in the stalls, the mighty bronze statues of the almighty blessings ever civilian and the beautiful women walking on the streets paved with lead……and thanked the Almighty. Diomira – a city where land meets the sky.”- Bharat
“Here I can feel the calmness and the depth of an ancient city still bustling with life. I can see the shine of the domes from the moment I wake up. There are no vehicles on the road and people live a much simpler life and observe more around them because they walk around on foot. To be honest, I feel like I am living in the world of Aladdin! Here in my city, a woman’s voice is heard, unlike the other cities where they silence one gender purely out of spite. In Diomira, despite our fast-paced life we still have a sense of honesty and purity reflected in our Crystal Theatre.”- Neha
“I feel hollow. This city is too bright and too loud. I came to this city allured by the riches and the prosperity but now I am just a slave to the demands of this city- not unlike another invisible city- Anastasia. Our sorrow is blinded by the light reflected off the silver domes- I wonder if that is why we have so many? When the days grow shorter and nights are long- we are overworked, in a daze to pay our dues to this city we work our lives off to call ‘home’. People often ask me how it feels to live here- I smile and think of how even in the openness of the crystal theatre I feel trapped, how the multicolored lamps are just a distraction to how this mundane lead street wraps us all together in it’s coiled, serpentine grasp. I feel small, insignificant yet I feel like I am living my dream. It feels like the hundreds of bronze gods are frozen in time- no one hears our plea for help. Everything here is precious- everything here feels artificial.” –Namrata
“Every morning when the cock crows it reminds the people of Diomira about those days of sorrows. The words of woman express her envy for those were happy even during their sad times. No longer the 60 silver domes, roads paved with lead, the crystal theatre amaze the people as they are more over-influenced by their past sorrows. The statues of each god are found here… It might be built with the faith that God will help them out in overcoming their melancholy. People mask their sadness by lighting multicolored lights all over the food stalls and share only their happiness with a visitor to their alluring city, Diomira.”-Shreya
“The city has some modern culture and some holy places and some of the trees, bushes there and some people were walking there is how I created Diomira. I interpreted Diomira as an ancient domes city turned into a modern living environment..”- Sudha
Artistic Arsenal 