Sunday 31 August 2014

Charcoal and white pastel sketch of a tree by Manju Panchal

Adding another charcoal and white pastel sketch to my "TREE" series that I started some time back in order to get a better understanding of tree anatomy. This particular sketch is from a reference photograph which I took while we were holidaying recently in LANGKAWI island. ( Malaysia ). 

We were in the crocodile park and while my other family members were keen on having a look at the various crocodiles, I was more interested in photographing all the beautiful trees around with their lovely artistic textures on their trunks. Lankawi is popular for its beautiful beaches and I have photgraphed every beach on the island. Will be creating seascapes referring to all of them soon.

The sketch below is done on an ordinary grey paper and I am also posting an image of the tools used for the same. For this particular work a new addition to tools is "COMPRESSED CHARCOAL" from GENERAL.

Charcoal and white soft pastel pencil sketch of a tree by Manju Panchal

In shadow
Charcoal and white pastel sketch done on grey paper

The tools used for creating the above sketch are as shown in the image below

Tools used for creating a charcoal and white pastel pencil sketch by Manju Panchal

A.  Compressed charcoal from GENERAL
B. Conte A Paris Charcoal pencil
C. White soft pastel pencil from GENERAL
D. Kneaded eraser

The grey paper is not a branded paper. It is a very reasonable paper costing around 15 to 20 Rs a sheet. Sometimes it so happens that when I go to the art stationery shop I come across some rough textured paper which I feel is worth giving a try for my charcoal sketch. On one such occasion, I picked up this sheet and in the long run I have realised that it works perfectly for my charcoal and white pencil sketches. In my earlier posts you can see the metallic objects done on the same paper.

Saturday 30 August 2014

Water drops - demo work during workshop

A few water drops done on an ordinary grey, rough textured paper as a demo work during one of the recent workshops. These drops were done as quick sketches in ten to fifteen minutes.

Drops of water on grey paper by Manju Panchal

Drops of water

Tools Used 
  • Conte charcoal pencil 
  • White soft pastel pencil from General
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Tortillon ( blending tool )




Soft Pastel painting Madikeri ( Coorg ) Landscape by Manju Panchal

Created a soft pastel painting using my COORG holiday photograph, where in I have blurred the background using different colours to suggest trees and foliage. I did not want to spend more than forty five minutes in creating it.

Using KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels I have scribbled and blended to get the texture of the bark on the tree trunk. Coorg , also called Madikeri is a beautiful hill station in Karnataka and the lush greenary around there is just awesome. Perfect for photographers and artists and of course nature lovers.

The painting below is more of a study work and also an attempt to test the new paper which I recently purchased ie Fabriano Tizianao.  Its texture is almost similar to Canson mi tentes. I will be doing my next few paintings on the same paper so as to get a better feel of the paper. If it is able to hold more layers of pastels on its surface then in future I can order bigger sheets from FLIPKART and use this paper for my larger sized art works.

soft pastel painting of landscape from Madikeri ( COORG ) by Manju Panchal

Madikeri Landscape
Soft pastel painting on Fabriano tiziano paper

Thursday 28 August 2014

In pursuit of the perfect green - Another landscape painting in soft pastels

Created another soft pastel painting of a Landscape from a reference photograph taken in Matheran, a beautiful hill station two hrs from Mumbai. The place is abound with trees and red muddy pathways to walk on. Its a pleasure to be one with nature.

With respect to my techniques involved in creating the trees and shadows, I am still experimenting. What is most intimidating in soft pastel paintings is getting the right green. However since my works at present are small and I do not spend much time over it, I just about manage with one brand of pastels and the greens that come with it. Under normal circumstances when I am doing a larger work, my workplace is full of my entire collection of pastels and that can be about five different sets. By the time I finish the painting, the workplace is in a state of mess. Therefore to avoid all that, as of now I still plan to do a few more landscapes using a limited palette of colours.

Painting of Matheran Landscape by Manju Panchal

The muddy pathway ( Matheran )
Soft pastel painting on black paper

I have recently purchased FABRIANO TIZIANO paper and will be trying a pastel painitng on it soon. The only issue is that it is not easily available in stores. As of now I have managed to get a small pad of 12 small sheets. Once I work on it and I like the surface then probably I will buy bigger size and in bulk. Buying, even before using and evaluating, I feel is a waste of money. As such the art stationery stuff in any artist's house keeps increasing at a fast pace and there is always a shortage of storage space.

fabriano tiziano paper for pastel paintings
The pastel paper by Fabriano.

This paper is available on FLIPKART as well. One needs to keep checking for discounts available on different sized paper pads also paying attention to reading the details about the papers with respect to colour, gsm etc.


Wednesday 27 August 2014

Thumbnail sketches of trees, rocks and mountains

Thumbnail Sketches are Shorthand Notes for Artists:

Thumbnail sketches are drawing quick, abbreviated drawings. Usually, they are done very rapidly and with no corrections - you can use any medium, though pen or pencil is the most common. Thumbnails sketches are usually very small, often only an inch or two high.

Thumbnails can be Colored:

Thumbnail sketches are a great way to plan color schemes. Use textas, colored pencil or watercolor to put in major areas of color in your picture. Small but intense colors can also be noted, as these can attract the eye, but don't get bogged down with detail.

(The detailed explanation as given above about Thumbnail sketch is from www.drawsketch.about.com)

Since I am getting into doing landscapes, it is imperative to understand a lot about all the different elements that play an important role in Landscape Composition. I find , creating thumbnail sketches , is a great way of enhancing one's knowledge. The medium used in these creations is SOFT PASTELS.


Thumbnail sketches of trees

Thumbnail sketches of different trees by Manju Panchal ( soft pastel works )

Thumbnail sketches of rocks and mountains

Thumbnail sketches of rocks and mountains by Manju Panchal ( soft pastel works )

Thumbnail sketches can also be done in charcoals, graphite or water colours. It all depends on individual artists as to what they are comfortable in. 

Tuesday 26 August 2014

Still life painting - Metallic jug ( charcoal and soft pastel work )

Since I am running out of subjects for doing my still life composition, these days I have made it a habit to carry my i pad when I visit a friend. On one such visit, a water jug caught my attention and I immediately decided to take a photo. Keeping it on a distant shoe rack, where there was good light and shadow display, I clicked a few images. Later at home, did a bit of editing and then used a grey ordinary chart paper to create the charcoal and soft pastel sketching as shown below.

The Jug made of steel did not have a very smooth finish. Hence the technique I have used here is more of scribbling to get the light and dark tones. The grey colour of the paper acts as the mid tone.

Charcoal and soft pastel sketching of a JUG by Manju Panchal

A Jug
Charcoal and white soft pastel painting on grey paper

I have created similar works on grey paper earlier and but most of them were very small works of art, mainly my study works. More like my thumbnail sketches. You can find them in my previous posts if you browse through all my works beginning from January. I shall be completing eight months of blogging by August end.
Blogging is helping me paint my life with colours. 



Monday 25 August 2014

Sketching of a tree using graphite pencil by Manju Panchal

Graphite sketching on Fabriano Academia paper


For long I had it in mind to use simple graphite pencil for sketching on Fabriano Academia paper. The pencil which I planned to use was 10B Camel accompanied by a normal HB graphite pencil. Subject chosen was a tree as I am still doing the series on different types of trees.

Instead of using my regular holiday snaps, this time, I went ahead and photographed a tree in the vicinity of my house and later edited it using Aviary App. Taking it as reference I created this tree sketch as shown below. Every tree has its distinct features, the barks, the textures, the twisting branches, different shapes of leaves etc. Sketching two trees can never be the same experience. Therefore the excitement continues. If it were the same kind, after a while it would lead to boredom and loss of interest.


Reaching high
Graphite sketching of a tree on Fabriano Academia paper ( 120gsm )

Everytime I travel these days, I look at trees with great interest, trying to identify the shapes of the entire foilage around the branches, the darkness created by the shadows and sometimes I actually begin to mentally paint the entire image in my mind. All the observation that we do in our day today life , I believe, does help somewhere in the long run. It helps us to see better, feel better and paint better. 

Landscape in soft pastels by Manju Panchal

Created a simple landscape as a study work. Used both Mungyo and KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels. Meanwhile my tree sketches are on. The original photograph had a very few trees on the right and the tree foliage too was scattered but I manipulated the photo and added elements that I thought would enhance the beauty of the landscape. I have not spent a whole lot of time doing the details as I was more interested in getting the perspective right and wanted to put the right values at the right place. 

Soft pastel painting of a Landscape by Manju Panchal

Light at the end
Landscape painting in soft pastels

Since this is a study work I have used a black coloured rough textured paper. The soft pastel technique that I generally use in creating a landscape is both blending and strokes. Since it is a small work and the paper quality seemed to be quite good, I did not feel the need to use fixatives. 

Saturday 23 August 2014

Seascape and Landscape - mini water colour paintings by Manju Panchal

16th and 17th water colour painting ( 23 more to go )

water colour sketch book created by Manju Panchal

Water colour sketchbook
created by Manju Panchal

My water colour sketch book as shown above has a total of 40 spirally bound sheets. ( You can find more informattion about this book in one of my earlier posts). As I continue my works in this book it gets more and more interesting. Most of the times I am just experimenting with full freedom and loose strokes of brushes, in an attempt to discover some new way of getting things right. Great learning experience too.

In the painting of the seascape as in the image below, I have added few figures, which are very faint and almost seem to disappear in the distance. The landscape painting is with reference to a rainy scene at Navi Mumbai where I had gone to visit a friend. From the balcony I could see the sky clearing up and the reflections on the water puddle. Many a times, while still engrossed in observing the scene ahead it so happens that I virtually start painting the whole picture in my mind. I start contemplating the steps I would go through to create the whole work. 

Mini water colour painting of a Landscape and a seascape by Manju Panchal

Two mini water colour paintings
A seascape and
A Landscape

Friday 22 August 2014

NAKO - beautiful village in Himachal ( Charcoal painting by Manju Panchal )

NAKO is a small village in KINNAUR district of Himachal Pradesh. The place is beautiful and is surrounded by mountains. ( About 3600 mtrs above sea level ). We were there last year during our vacation and I have used one of my photographs to create a simple charcoal sketch. 

I have tried a new paper this time ie the Fabriano water colour paper. This paper has great texture, is white and is 300 gsm so good thickness too. The population of this village is very low and I remember we covered all the narrow lanes between the stone built houses in an hour itself. We got the oppourtunity to meet a few locals and got to discuss their lifestyle. It is great to travel to places and see nature in all its different forms.  

charcoal sketching of Nako village by Manju Panchal

Nako ( village in Himachal Pradesh )
Charcoal painting on Fabriano paper. ( 300gsm)
Size 5" X 7" ( Excluding mount board )

Our trip to Himachal last year covered lots of small villages like Nako, Tabo, Kaza, Losar and Chitkul. I am so eager to create soft pastel painting of these heavenly places refering to my huge collection of personal photographs BUT I do not want to hurry as I am still working on my rocks, trees and other elements. Landscape is essentially about whole lot of different elements and I want to get them all right. 

Tree trunk in soft pastels and charcoal - by Manju Panchal


This particular painting is more of a mixed media painting since I began with the idea of creating a charcoal sketch on RED canson paper but landed up adding soft pastels to it.

Many a times it happens that you do not get the right feeling about your art work as it proceeds. The best thing that I do then is to keep it aside for a few days until another idea takes birth. So this painting which actually began about seven days back finally took shape today when I suddenly decided to abandon the idea of doing plain charcoal sketch of tree and instead sat with my KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels and took precisely twenty minutes to build up the work using strokes of colours and a little blending. 

Painting is also a lot about the mood that one is in. When one is in good, cheerful and happy mood a painting really does not take much of an effort to complete. On the other hand if mood is bad no matter how hard you try you just won't get it right. 

Mixed media painting of tree trunk done in soft pastels and charcoal by Manju Panchal

Sunlit tree trunk
Mixed media painting on Canson mi tentes paper
Size 5" X 7" ( Excluding the mount board )

Since I have done the painting on a red coloured canson paper the red of the paper can be seen through at places and I quite like it that way.

QUOTATION
"EVERYTHING HAS BEAUTY BUT NOT EVERONE CAN SEE"  ........Confucius
So true. I came across this quotation on some site recently and loved every word of it.
We all need to see simple things around usand appreciate the beauty in its creation.


Wednesday 20 August 2014

More mini water colour paintings - added in my water colour sketchbook

14th and 15th mini water colour painting

Added more water colour paintings in my water colour sketch book. These paintings are sized 3.5" X 4.5" each. I enjoyed doing the small sailboat and realised that I messed up a bit on the seawaves in the foreground . However it is these small mistakes that happen all the time and are all part of a learning lesson. Next time I will try a different way of going about it. For the garlic clove too I have tried the wet on dry technique and done glazing too. On the whole it was fun doing these two paintings.  

mini water colour paintings of sailboat and garlic by Manju Panchal

Two mini water colour paintings
Sailboat
and
Garlic

Paints used for the above paintings are Camel water colour tubes.


Monday 18 August 2014

Two 6 " X 6" seascapes done in soft pastels by Manju Panchal

Soft pastel works done in the past


Visited a friend recently and saw two of my soft pastel  seascapes in her Living room. Looking closely I realised that though it was a small size, I did have the patience to do a lot many details. I actually looked at them in admiration and felt a great sense of happiness. 

Both the works are done on Fabriano Elle Erre paper at a time when I was not aware about Canson Mi Tentes paper. Back then I was only using Fabriano paper for most of my pastel works. It is a  pretty good paper, though for bigger works I now use only Canson paper. I would love to try many different papers like Wallis sanded paper, Strathmore paper etc but unfortunately these brands are not available in India. Hence the next best option as of now is to continue using Canson and Fabriano.


two seascapes 6" X 6" done in soft pastels by Manju Panchal

Two soft pastel paintings
Size 6" X 6"

A sunrise
and
Waves hitting at the shore

When I first got into pastel medium I had no idea that one day I would get so addicted to it. Its luminous quality and beautiful dark colours are so captivating that one just cannot stop creating works of art using them. I do take a break by jumping to other mediums but in no time , always get back to using my pastels.

I have created a whole lot of still life compositions and seascapes using soft pastels. Presently working on creating Landscapes. 

From photograph to painting - A seascape in soft pastels

One of my students sent me this beautiful photograph of seawaves at the shore.

photograph of seashore by student Sanya to be converted into soft pastel painting

Photograph of seashore
Courtesy : Sanya ( student )
Clicked using CANON digital SLR

Another student who is new to soft pastels wanted to create a soft pastel painting using the above photograph as a reference. Hence I created a small thumbnail sketch of the same using appropriate colours
and making a few changes whereever required. Did not want the painting to look like a photocopy of the photograph.

Thumbnail sketch of seashore from photograph by Manju Panchal

Thumbnail sketch
size 3.5" X 4.5"

Referring to the above thumbnail sketch and the actual photograph, my another student PRERNA created the soft pastel painting as shown below using her visualisation. She wanted to make a few changes and I felt it was perfectly fine as we all want to paint what we see. I guided her as and when she needed little help. 

soft pastel painting of seashore by Prerna Jain during Soft Pastel Workshop by Manju Panchal

Seascape painting in soft pastels
done by student Prerna Jain
Size 7" X 9"

It was two hours of fun and excitement as the painting took shape slowly on red coloured CANSON mi tentes paper.

ANOTHER ONE DAY CHARCOAL WORKSHOP is coming up on 26th of August
Anyone interested can register their names.

Saturday 16 August 2014

Roll up - pencil holder created by a student

A simple , user friendly, very convenient to use pencil holder created by a student PRERNA JAIN using canvas kind of cloth. This roll up kind of a holder can be used for pens, pencils and brushes too. One can even use old jeans material to create this.


The rolled up pencil holder created by Prerna Jain ( opened up )
Can be used for pens, pencils or brushes.


When rolled up, it is so handy to carry in a small bag.

What I also liked about this innoavative creation by Prerna  is that, she has also stitched up right at the corner. Rightly so, as she took pains to create it and it must have been one happy moment.
Its great to share simple little things as one progresses on in life.


Friday 15 August 2014

A glass and a lemon - still life painting done on grey paper using charcoal and soft pastel

Created a simple composition using metallic glass and a lime placed on its side. Then using charoal pencil and white pastel pencil created the still life painting , capturing the light and shadow and the reflection of the lime on the glass. The grey colour of the paper acts as a midtone in this simple art work.

still life painting of a glass and a lemon on grey paper by Manju Panchal

Glass with lemon.
Charcoal and pastel painting on grey paper
Size 5" X 7" ( Excluding the mountboard )

Thursday 14 August 2014

Mini water colour paintings - two different landscapes

The 12th and 13th Mini water colour painting in my water colour sktetch book.

I created a small sketch book some time back using Indian hand made paper. You can know more about it in from one of my earlier posts. It has about forty small pages sized approx 4.5" X5" and as and when I get a little time free from my other work I create small water colour works, be it still life or landscapes. Each of these paintings takes about forty to forty five minutes.

The painting with mountains has been done from a reference photograph. For the lower painting I have used my imagination. I let the painting develop as I kept adding the colours. Initially I had planned a curved road but later as the painting progressed I created a simple river and in the end I added a few bushes on both sides.

I have used wet on wet technique in both the small paintings. Paints used are CAMEL artists colour tubes.

two landscape paintings in water colour by Manju Panchal

Two small water colour paintings
of landscapes

Wednesday 13 August 2014

A still life painting of wine glass on red paper using charcoal and white pastel pencil

After having created a pomengranate and a capsicum on red FABRIANO paper, wanted to try out a transparent glass as subject on CANSON paper. Hence sketched out an empty wine glass. The symmetry is not too perfect but I was more keen on getting the highlights and the dark tones right. The red colour of the paper acts as the mid tone.

charcoal and pastel painting of a wine glass on red paper by Manju Panchal

Empty wine glass
Conte charcoal and cretacolour pastel pencil work
on Canson mi tentes paper.

Still life paintings and sketches are a great way of enhancing one's drawing and sketching skills.
Next, I am working on still life paintings on grey paper. I have done couple of black and white works on grey paper and the effects are amazing. Especially with metallic objects where apart from shadows there are plenty of reflections too.

Charcoal painting of Niagara Falls in progress by Manju Panchal

The charcoal painting as shown below is yet to complete. It got started in last September or so and then due to several unavoidable factors has been progressing further in intervals. When I started it, I used 
KOH-I-NOOR and CAMEL charcoal pencil BUT now in the subsequent layers I am adding CONTE and PRIMA charcoal pencil. I am using several photographs for reference and trying to develop my own technique to get the layers of shadows as the water falls below with a magnificent force.

The size of the painting below after framing will be around 22" X 22" . Amongst all the mediums that I do, my charcoal works take maximum number of hours. It is a little tedious process BUT the end result is so very satisfying. I love the black and white effect on the textured paper. The paper being used to create this work is FAVINI paper. It is best to use a good quality paper which is acid free so that the work remains preserved and is durable. Poor quality papers tend to yellow over a period of time.


Charcoal painting of Niagara Falls by Manju Panchal

Niagara Falls
( Still to complete )
Charcoal painting on FAVINI paper.

Trying to spend a few hours everyday on this work so as to complete it as soon as possible.
Will be posting the completed image soon.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Charcoal sketchings on coloured paper by Manju Panchal

For long I had been thinking about doing a few charcoal sketches on RED coloured paper. Finally did it yesterday. The best thing about sketching is 
  • You do not require too many tools
  • You can do it in a small space and you do not require a studio set up
  • It gets done in a short period of time
  • It increases your observational skills
  • Drawing subjects are easily available at home.
For the charcoal sketches of still life subjects below I have used RED coloured FABRIANO Elle Erre- paper. The red colour of the paper acts as the middle tone. To get lighter tones I have used GENERAL's soft white pastel pencil and for the dark tones I have used CONTE charcoal pencil. 


Charcoal sketchings on red coloured paper by manju Panchal

Charcoal sketches of a Pomengranate and Capsicum
on red coloured Fabriano paper.

Monday 11 August 2014

Cloves of garlic - still life painting done using charcoal

Another charcoal day. This time I used cloves of garlic. Placed them in a way so as to get the composition that I wanted. Then using CONTE charcoal pencil and blending tools blocked in the dark areas. Later added strokes of pencil to get the tones right. The light and shadow play, particularly interested me. In addition, I decided to add a two droplets of water.

Garlic is being used all the time in the kitchen and of late it has become a great study subject for me. I am also planning on doing few charcoal sketchings of different objects on coloured paper. Will be posting images soon.

Still life painting of cloves of Garlic using charcoal by Manju Panchal

Cloves of garlic
charcoal painting on Fabriano Academia paper
Size 5" X 7" ( Excluding mountboard )

I have recently purchased PRIMO charcoal pencil by GENERAL. It seems to be very dark and good but I have not yet used it. One of these days I will create a charcoal painting using purely PRIMO pencil and will then be able to decide regarding its usage in my future sketches.

primo charcoal pencil

Other pencils that I have used in my journey of art are
  • Ambassador ( Not available any more in the market )
  • Camel Charcoal pencil ( I still use it at times to do the basic layer )
  • KOH-I-NOOR charcoal pencil
  • General's soft charcoal pencil ( Very dark and good )
  • CONTE A PARIS charcoal pencil ( Presently in use in most of my sketchings )
All pencils are good and it is one's personal opinion as to which one is best suited to him/her for creating charcoal sketches. Through this blog I am only putting forward my likes and dislikes as I continue my journey forward with an intention to get better every day.



Sunday 10 August 2014

Soft Pastel and colour pencil painting done in the past by Manju Panchal

Two mini still life paintings


There are times when I come across my old art works and I relive the memory of how and when I did it. As a matter of fact it is a pleasure to analyse, evaluate and then visualise as to how it could have been much better. I remember keeping the orange near my living room window, so that the light could fall on it and I could capture the shadows. More than the orange, I was keen on doing the folds of the cloth. Looking back I also realise that I have added the three water drops and it makes me happy.

The Pear too was similarly done by placing it near my kitchen window, where I get the evening light. I had placed it on my white acrylic chopping board. The background windows were replaced by dark colours as I wanted to focus just on the pear with the water drop.

Still life painting of an apple with water drops using DERWENT water colour pencils . ( By Manju Panchal )

Still life painting of a pear with water drops using DERWENT water colour pencils . ( By Manju Panchal )

The apple has been done using DERWENT water colour soluble pencils. The pear has been created using KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels. Both the above paintings are sized 4" X 5". It's a little difficult to get the details on a small paper but with practise added with lots of patience it does get better everytime.

I am conducting a ONE day Charcoal painting workshop on 16th of August 2014.
For people who are passionate about black and white works, and have
a day to themselves where they can indulge in their creative skills.
Contact me on 91-9820683983 for further details.

Thanks a lot for visiting my blog and to view my other artworks
you can visit my INSTAGRAM page.

Saturday 9 August 2014

Charcoal drawing of a landscape using a reference photograph

Charcoal drawing from a reference photograph


Found a photograph in my old collection ( as shown above ) where the road that we were travelling was beautifully lined up on both sides by trees with dense foliage. It was taken during our road trip to Goa. I loved the trees and the road but somehow wanted to change the composition. Hence I decided to do a little editing and covered up the foreground a bit and the sides too ( using opaque paper ). This way I could create a charcoal painting of the landscape with the focus on the road disappearing at the distance and the trees around it.

The final composition and the charcoal painting took shape as shown below. I have once again used Canson C a Grain ( 180gsm ) paper for the same.


The road in shadow
Charcoal painting on canson paper
Size 5" X 7" ( excluding mountboard )

I have plans. To do more landscapes with great number of trees. In fact I even want to do a cityscape soon. Then there is a very long list of " To Do" things. When I get up in the morning I just have one day to myself. I try , making use of every little minute and second, to do at least ONE painting everyday. Sometimes this just ONE painting that I create gives me immense pleasure to keep going the next day.

Thanks for visiting my blog and browsing through my works. 

To browse through my latest artworks you can visit my 
INSTAGRAM feed.

Friday 8 August 2014

Charcoal painting of a Landscape with mountains by Manju Panchal

Using charcoal pencil and blending tools created this landscape with mountains in the background and bushes in the foreground. When I initially got into the charcoal medium years back, I mainly did portraits. But over a period of time I have realised that Charcoal is such a versatile medium and it works so good on coloured Canson paper in combination with soft pastels. Also the effect each time can be so different, depending on what technique you apply to create the different values.


A charcoal painting of landscape with mountains by Manju Panchal

Mountains in a row
Charcoal painting on Canson paper
Size 4" X 5.5"

Canson is a French manufacturer of Fine art paper and there are different papers for different mediums.
For charcoal painting as done above, I have used Canson C a grain paper. You can get this paper at the art shop ART LOUNGE at churchgate , opposite EROS Cinema for a price of 65/- Rs a sheet.

Personally, I have liked this paper which is 180 gsm and will do for small works. Furthermore it has great  texture and despite adding a few layers I did not feel the need to add any fixative spray at any time in between the layers.

Thursday 7 August 2014

Soft Pastel painting of Leh Ladakh mountain scene by Manju Panchal

I have already posted couple of Leh Ladakh paintings done in water colours, referring to photographs given by a very dear friend of mine. This is the last one which I wanted to do and I decided to do it in soft pastels. I have used a red coloured Fabriano paper for the same and mostly KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels.

While I use the photograph as a reference I do make a few changes in the composition and alter a few elements to suit my requirements. Unlike still life paintings, in landscapes I have to deal with the foreground, middle distance and the background. It is always a great learning experience, no matter what the subject is.

Next I am working on landscapes in charcoal and will be posting the images soon. 

Soft Pastel painting of Leh Ladakh mountain scene by Manju Panchal

The Leh Ladakh Mountains
Size 7" X 9" ( Excluding the mountboard )
Soft Pastel painting on Red coloured Fabriano Elle Erre paper ( 220 gsm )

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Water colour paintings done in my skechbook

My 10th and 11th mini water colour painting done in my sketch book.
Both the paintings are pretty small. Enjoyed doing the single cherry BUT doing a small landscape gets quite tricky. May be in future I will stick to doing still life as small works.

Water colour is such a spontaneous medium that it keeps you focused while the work is on and the end result is EITHER you get it right or you have you ruined it. Many a times I have to discard my work NEVERTHELESS I would love to continue doing watercolours WET on WET technique as I am getting addicted to it.

water colour painting of a single cherry and snow capped mountains by Manju Panchal

Two mini water color paintings
A cherry
Snow capped mountains.

The above paintings are part of my water colour sketchbook. You can know more about it in one of my earlier posts. For any queries related to my paintings you can write to me at 
manjupanchal@hotmail.com

Charcoal drawing of a "Glass and Cup"

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." Pablo Picasso

I am always on a lookout for a subject for my next painting. This time I decided to do a Still Life Painting of a transparent glass and a ceramic teacup using the charcoal medium.The paper I have used for this work is FABRIANO ACADEMIA. which has a little texture and I love the effect created on this paper.

Everytime I do a charcoal painting I experiment a bit with my technique trying to get new effects, new looks and a different work.

Still Life Charcoal drawing of a glass and a cup by Manju Panchal

A glass and a teacup
Charcoal painting on Fabriano Academia paper
Size 5" X 7" ( Excluding mountboard )

Thanks for browsing through my works. If you intend to attend my "Art Workshop" which I normally conduct during the weekends you can drop in a mail to me and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

My works can now be seen on my INSTAGRAM page. If you like them, please share.

Saturday 2 August 2014

Mini water colour paintings for my water colour sketchbook

My 8th and 9th mini water colour painting in my water colour sketchbook. ( Made out of Indian handmade paper ). Both paintings are created using camel water colours.

Mini water colour paintings by Manju Panchal

Wet road during monsoon
Seashore lined with coconut trees

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My travel kit for water colour painting.

If I were to be travelling and away from home for a few days, then I would probably carry the following as shown in image below. I created my small sketch book specially for carrying it around as it is very convenient to carry. It is a different issue that I have already started using it while at home as I am loving my experience of creating mini water colour paintings.

Water colour painting travel kit by Manju Panchal

The Image above shows the following

My open box palette with all the essential colours poured in it from the tube
Closed box palette
My water colour sketch book
Few water colour round brushes
( As of now I have been using round brushes by Camel and Arora )

All the three things as mentioned above are light weight and very convenient to store as well. Given an oppurtunity one can easily paint a few water colour sketches while away from home. I definitely plan to do that some day.