Another water colour study on Chitrapat hand made paper

"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein

When a paper works for me, it motivates me to create more works on them. As I have already written in my previous posts, Chitrapat hand made paper is new to me but somehow I am loving it. However to understand it better and to connect with it, I plan to work more with it.

Today I am posting a landscape painting that I created mainly to do the cloud study. I have used a mix of warm and cool colours ( Camlin artists water colour tubes ). As can be seen in the image below, I have also started using my Raphael sable hair mop brush. It is very expensive as compared to my other brushes but worth it.

Water colour study on Chitrapat hand made paper

Size 7" X 10"

Thanks for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks. My works can also be seen on INSTAGRAM and if you like them please share. Thanks.

Stepping into 2018, a new beginning.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."Albert Einstein

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.

The year 2017 has come to an end and this is my first post of the year. It was an interesting year with respect to my art journey and its time to share some of my favorite works that I managed to create in different mediums.

I am extremely happy that I could devote some of my time for my water colour passion and went on to create several landscapes and seascapes. It has been a struggle, trying to understand all about the different techniques involved in creating a single water colour painting and while doing so I am exploring, experimenting and learning a lot. The learning experience that comes with the process of painting is of utmost significance to me as it helps me grow as an artist.

Water colour paintings created in 2017

Find below few "Portraits" that I tried out on Strathmore and  Canson MT paper. Both these papers have great textures and I plan to work with them for my future works too.

Portrait drawings created in 2017

Some of my personal favorites in soft pastel paintings that I created in the beginning months of last year. 

Soft Pastel paintings created in 2017

In conclusion 2017 was a great year and I am grateful to all those who have been supporting me in my journey of art. My family, friends, my art workshop participants, my blog and Instagram followers, a very big THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for appreciating my art and motivating me to further continue working with same enthusiasm.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and browsing through my works. Looking forward to reading your comments. 

Drawing a forest scene in charcoal medium

"Art is a line around your thoughts." Gustav Klimt

We were at Karnala Bird Sanctuary when I came across this scene, a pathway leading deeper into the woods. The sun rays  lit up the trees and the foliage in the distance. The composition looked good to me and I decided to capture it on a paper using my interpretation.

I have used willow charcoal and charcoal powder to blend in the background and later used Camlin and other charcoal pencils to create a few details in the mid-ground. Creating a charcoal work is a  great way of doing value study which helps me a lot in creating a coloured painting later. As many other artists say, I too have strongly started believing in the fact that "Value is more important than colour."

Walk in the woods

A charcoal drawing on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6"X 8"

Half way through the painting, I suddenly remembered to click a photograph of the drawing while it was still in progress. So the image below shows the initial block in stage where in I have simplified the large shapes and created the basic foundation. I have used kneaded eraser to lift out the charcoal from the paper. 

Initial stage of the charcoal drawing

Using willow charcoal, Camlin charcoal pencil and kneaded eraser

 "Fog at the distance" and "Monsoon at Malshej Ghats" are my two other paintings which I have recently created on Canson Mi Teintes paper. This paper grips the charcoal powder pretty well on its sanded surface. I use the smoother side of the paper for my drawings. 

On the 22nd of December I was invited to judge one of the Fine art competitions at MOOD INDIGO Festival, hosted by IIT, Bombay. The event was titled "MONOSTROKES"  and the participants had to create a sketch using the different grades of graphite and charcoal pencils provided to them. 

MOOD INDIGO is the annual cultural festival of Mumbai and the largest in Asia. It attracts a whopping crowd of 1,39,000 students from more than 1700 colleges nationwide. It was an honor to judge this event and a great experience too. I am looking forward to attending more of such events in future too. 

Thank you for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks.

Step by step, A Landscape Charcoal drawing using willow charcoal

"To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce

Zero Point, ( 15,300 ft ) also known as Yume Samdong, is a small mountain village in North Sikkim. It is about 118 kms away from Lachung. Most tourists spend a night at Lachung before proceeding to Zero point in the morning. Zero point offers stunning views of snow clad mountains and soaring coniferous trees.

The charcoal drawing as seen below is inspired by my journey to Zero point. This is one of the scene that I came across while we were on the move and it appealed to me a lot. The mountains, the low lying clouds and the coniferous trees in the foreground, it was nothing short of a paradise. These are the moments in life when you truly are in awe of nature's beauty.

For this drawing, I decided to use "Willow charcoal" as a tool because it helps to create a great texture for the mountain slopes. Apart from willow charcoal, I have also used Camlin charcoal pencil and charcoal powder to create the other elements in the scene.

At Zero Point

Charcoal drawing on Cartridge paper

Size 6"X 8" 

I decided to photograph the drawing in stages so that the viewers can see the simple techniques that I have followed in order to complete this artwork.

Step 1. Created a faint outline and then used willow charcoal

for the background mountains.

Step 2. Additional strokes using willow charcoal to block in

 the darker values in the foreground.

Step 3. Lifted out clouds in the distance using kneaded eraser

and used charcoal pencil in the foreground to

to create the coniferous trees and foliage.

In the final steps I added details where ever necessary. In conclusion I have used more of willow charcoal in this artwork and the more I use it the more I discover the advantages of using this tool in combination with the others. Exploring each tool by using it frequently in the artworks, helps to get a better understanding about it. Once you get to know it, you can use it at the right place and create marks that make all the difference. 

VAAYU, the annual festival of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management studies ( NMIMS ) is being held from 13th to the 17th of December, 2017. It was an honor to be invited as a judge for their event in Fine Art Category, titled "La La Land" on the 13th of December. The competition was unique as it was based on music and art combined together. The students were also required to sculpt a candle. It was a very innovative theme and I enjoyed being there and it was a pleasure to judge the participants. 

If you wish to know more about the events being held in NMIMS, you can visit their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks.

Portrait drawing

"To draw, you must close your eyes and sing." Pablo Picasso

Quotes are beautiful. I find them very inspiring. No matter how passionate or self motivated, there are days when nothing seems to work. Quotes speak the right words at these moments.  

My today's post is a portrait drawing of a beautiful old woman with great features. I met her in Hee Bermiok, Sikkim while I was holidaying there in a traditional homestay high up in the mountains. She came up to our homestay, climbing all by herself and her agility, enthusiasm and bubbly nature inspired me. I had the pleasure of interacting with her and I got to know a lot about her way of life. It is so peaceful out there and I consider her fortunate to be able to enjoy pristine nature.

I have already created a side profile drawing  of this beautiful woman and posted it earlier in August. This time I decided to sketch her front face in order to capture her expression, emotions and feelings. Her curled up scarf over her head, which left a few braided hangings accentuated her looks. I also loved her traditionally designed nose ring which I found was pretty unique. 

In Quiet Moments

Charcoal and white pastel pencil drawing on

Strathmore gray toned paper.

Size 5" X 7"

As an artist I love doing both "Landscapes" as well as "Portraits". Portrait drawing takes much longer time than a landscape painting. Therefore I do it in stages by taking frequent breaks. The portrait such as above took me about a week to complete but once completed, it gives me immense satisfaction. The feeling cannot be described in words. It motivates me further to create more works such as these. 

Thank you for browsing through my artworks. 

To know about my upcoming workshops CLICK HERE.

From photograph to charcoal drawing

"While drawing, I discover what I really want to say."Dario Fo

As an artist I am always looking for meaningful quotes as they speak my thoughts and keep me inspired. The above quote holds true, I guess for most of us. It is through our art that we slowly discover what we are trying to convey to the viewers. 

Malshej Ghat is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats range in the Thane-Pune district of Maharashtra, India.The site is nestled in the lofty rugged hills of the Western Ghats. The road journey to this place will take you through winding roads, lush greenery on either sides, thick dense fog and countless number of waterfalls touching the highway. 

We visited this place in the monsoon season this year and I found some perfect subjects that I was looking to paint.. My today's post is a charcoal drawing of one such scene from Malshej Ghats wherein the majestic mountain slopes can be seen fading off in the distance. This drawing was not planned but while browsing through my stationery I came across a white sheet of Canson Mi Teintes which initiated the idea of experimenting with this paper out for my charcoal drawing?. 

I love to experiment with new papers all the time. I have created a post regarding the "Papers I use for my charcoal drawings". After using Canson Mi Teintes, I am quite convinced that it will be an added paper in my list for charcoal drawings. It has this beautiful sanded smooth surface ( which I also use for my pastel drawings ) which takes on the charcoal pretty well.

Sometimes it takes just one drawing to come to a conclusion and there are times when you want to check a paper/paint again and again and you are not really sure if it is going to work for you. 

Monsoon at Malshej Ghats

Charcoal drawing on Canson MT paper.

Size 5.5" X 7"

Initial stage of charcoal drawing

The above image shows the initial stages of the charcoal drawing wherein I have "Blocked In" the different elements in the scene, namely the sky, the mountains slopes etc using charcoal powder and my other blending tools.  The distant mountain slopes are kept light and without any details to create atmospheric depth.

In the subsequent layers I use the pencils and the kneaded eraser to create the highlights and shadows

The photograph from Malshej Ghats

which inspired me to create the charcoal

drawing such as above.

While on location, I try and take a few different photographs with different compositions and later after a little editing I use the image that looks good to to be converted into a painting. I also do a few quick "Thumbnail sketches" using my charcoal pencil and sketch book to roughly block in the value scale in the scene. It always helps. 

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM , where in I post my latest artworks regularly. 

Watercolour Artist - Sadhu Aliyur

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instagram is new to me and I have started posting my works on this social media quite recently. Blogging is about my art journey wherein I share my art, my techniques, my experiments and my general thoughts and feelings about creating my art. Instagram on the other hand is a faster way of uploading my work and most important, all my works can be seen in a gallery format. In conclusion, as an artist, I am enjoying being a part of Instagram.

Through Instagram I am getting to meet many different artists from India as well as all around the world. Some of them have inspired me in a lot many ways and I have decided to create a post about each one of them. Today I am posting about a great water colour artist Mr Sadhu Aliyur.

Mr Sadhu Aliyur is a Kerala based water colour artist. His finely honed skills, astute observation and refined aesthetic sensibilities help him capture the essence of a scene in a few strokes. He makes the common look uncommon. He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

In his hands, nature comes alive in all its richness, textures, hues and forms. With a wash here and a dab there, the overwhelming beauty of the monsoon, skies and rain drenched dwellings are frozen for all time for the eyes of the connoisseur. Read more about him.....CLICK HERE.
( COURTESY: SADHU ALIYUR )

All works created by Mr Sadhu Aliyur are absolutely vibrant and stunning. His thoughts, feelings, conviction, and many moods seem to come alive with bare minimal strokes. The simple landscape scenes capture the mood and atmosphere so well. I have been following his works for quite some time now and decided to share some of them with you.

Check out his other works on his official website.

Each and every painting by Mr Sadhu Aliyur is so unique in itself, be it a still life, portrait or landscape, that you can't help but fall in love with it. 

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM , where in I post my latest artworks regularly. 

Thanks for browsing through my blog.🙏

Step by Step, Water colour painting of Gurudongmar Lake

"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else." Pablo Picasso

Every painting is inspired by some thought, some place, some vision that you have in mind. It slowly builds up in layers and then when the final moment of execution arrives, you let the energy flow on to the paper. Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim is one such place which is indelibly printed in my memory and it will continue to inspire me to make many paintings in future.

The moments we spent there were magical. It was like a dream come true to see nature in its pristine form. Today's post is a water colour painting of one such scene that we came across while we were at 17,100 ft, facing the majestic snow covered mountains and the stunning Gurudongmar Lake.

Magical

Water colour painting on Campap paper

Size 5.5" X 8"

For this particular work, I decided to photograph the initial stages of the painting. I have used a very limited palette for this painting. The initial drawing that I do is very light and I use a normal HB pencil for the same. I avoid erasing as it disturbs the surface fibres on the paper.

Step 1. Wet on wet technique, sky and mountains, 

using Winsor and Newton Ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue

 and Alizarin Crimson.

Step 2.  Created the mountains in the Middleground using Raw Sienna,

Ultramarine blue, Indian red and Burnt Sienna ( Camlin brand )

In the final stage I created the lake waters, which are reflection of colours of the sky ie Ultramarine blue and Cerulean blue. For the shadows on the snow I have used a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson colour.

Hope you have enjoyed going through my blog. It feels great to be painting and blogging and thanks to my blog, I am getting connected with people who are as passionate about art as me. If you love water colour medium, do browse through the works of Joseph Zbukvik, Alvaro Castagnet and Keiko Tanabe to name a few. All these world famous master water colorists have a style of their own and it is a pleasure watching their works.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Arto Campap paper - Water colour study

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstein

A beautiful quote by Einstein. I am a great admirer of all his quotes which are so very meaningful. 

My today's painting is a 5.5"X 7.5" water colour painting which I have tried on Arto Campap paper. It is a beautiful beach scene that I came across while I was holidaying in Goa. I had to work on the rocky landscape and the bushes on the right, which when combined together, it got a bit challenging. So for my next painting I may bring about some change of technique to tackle this situation. I call it the step by step learning process. 

I have also added two small figures in the distance using a rigger brush. There are no details and it is created using simple vertical brush strokes. Adding figures in a landscape adds to the story. I paint a particular scene because I enjoyed being present there. Through my artwork I am trying to capture those moments, the mood, the atmoshpere. The painting may evoke some other memories in the viewer's mind and that becomes his/her story. 

Walking on the sand

Water colour painting on Arto Campap paper

Size 5.5" X 7.5"

If you love creating water colour paintings, you must browse through works of Milind Mulick, Ananta Mandal, Rajkumar Sthabathy Bijay Biswaal, Ramesh Jhawar to name a few.

If you are into water colour paintings I would love to know about the papers and colours used by you. Thanks for visiting my blog and any comments shall be appreciated.

Charcoal Drawing Sketch book

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." Vincent Van Gogh

Posting two of my recent charcoal drawings in my "Charcoal sketch book" using charcoal pencil, willow charcoal and kneaded eraser. This particular sketch book has a history. I created it in Sept 2015, when I was travelling. At that moment I was looking for a book with butter paper in between for protecting my study works from smudging. When I did not find one, I went on to create one myself. CLICK HERE to read more about this book.

 By creating these small value studies, I get to simplify the landscape that I am working on. Now that my preliminary drawing is done and I am happy with the design, composition and placement of values, I can go ahead and recreate these paintings in a larger format in any medium that I desire.

A seashore at Langkawi

Size 4"X 5"

A scene from West Sikkim

Size 4" X 5"

Painting is fun but as mentioned in the quote as above by Vincent Van Gogh, the pleasure of getting back to simple drawings is something cannot be described in words. Another beautiful quote which speaks of significance of drawing is "Drawing is the bones of art. You have to be able to walk before you can run."Dion Archibald

Check out my "ART WORKSHOP" page to know about some of my upcoming workshops in this month and October.

Thanks you all for browsing through my artworks.

A beach at Maldives

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." 

Albert Einstein

Maldives is known for its stunning beaches. The site "VISIT MALDIVES" describes it as "Where the sands are white as the smiles of the locals, where fish swim happily in the warm waters of the Indian ocean, where the weather is a dream, and the deep rays of the sun waits to engulf you in their arms."

My today's painting is created with reference to a photograph shared by a friend who recently visited Maldives and I am grateful to her for the same. In fact she sent me a couple of photographs but I chose this one to begin with as I was fascinated by the interesting patterns of shadows cast by the foliage of the tree.

The Silence

Water colour painting on Fabriano paper

Size 8.5" X 11.5"

The greens continue to intimidate me and in this painting too I have tried different permutations and combinations to arrive at the final results. Colour mixing is a challenge and it will take some practical experience to understand the whole process. For every painting that I begin, I try out some new colours on a test paper so that my palette gets a little different with time.

As an artist I am always looking for inspiration and now that I have regularly started posting in INSTAGRAM, I am fortunately getting to know some great artists around the world who inspire me further to pursue my passion for art.

Thanks for browsing through my artworks. Any comments would be appreciated.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands." Leonardo Da Vinci

My today's post is about the world famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci whose drawings, paintings and other artworks have inspired artists around the world.

Leonardo Da Vinci ( 1452 - 1519 ) was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance who is known for his enduring works "The Last Supper" and the "Mona Lisa". He was a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman and the epitome of "Renaissance man". With a curious mind and keen intellect, Da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work. His ideas and body of work have influenced countless artists around the world.
( COURTESY: www.biography.com )

Posted below are a few drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci which covers diverse subjects such as portraits, head study, anatomy drawings, machinery drawings and still life drawing. Every work is a masterpiece and it is such a pleasure to browse through each one of them.

Leonardo's study of nature and anatomy emerged in his stunningly realistic paintings, and his dissections of the human body paved the way for remarkable accurate figures. All in all, Leonardo believed that the artist must know not just the rules of the perspective, but all the laws of nature. The eye, he believed was the perfect instrument for learning these laws, and the artist the perfect person to illustrate them.

Head of a girl

 ( Coutesy: www.webneel.com )

Study for the head of Leda 1505 - 7

 ( Courtesy www.drawingsofleoardo.org )

Self portrait

 (Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Head of a young woman

 (Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Cross bow machine

 (Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Water lifting devices

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Woman's head

 (Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Study of hands

 (Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Skull study

( Coutesy: www.webneel.com )

Heart and its blood vessels

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Drawing of drapery

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Head of a man

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Profile of an old man

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Anatomical studies of the shoulder

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Drawing of a botanical study

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Black berries

(Courtesy: www.leonardodavinci.net )

Browsing through artworks created by world famous artists like Leonardo Da Vinci is a great way of starting the day. Who will not get inspired by such brilliant works? 

When I am not painting, I take out time on a regular basis to go through the works of artists I admire. I shall be posting about some more artists very soon.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Water colour painting of a seashore from Langkawi island, Malaysia

"Because watercolour actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art." Nita Engle

The above quote truly states the beauty of water colour medium. It is a very challenging medium. I start with a very definite plan, create a small study sketch and then I paint the whole scene in my mind before I actually begin my work. But somehow you can never control the process completely. In water colour painting, I feel, art just happens. One has to be quick with the brush and the flow. It all gets over even before you know it. Water colour is fun and I am loving every moment of it.

My today's painting is inspired by a beautiful beach that we came across while we were at Langkawi island, Malaysia. It was very quiet. There were not many tourists around. The shadows of the trees, branches and the foliage mingled with the ocean waves gently crashing at the shore. I spent some great moments at this stunning beach. Through this painting, I have tried to capture those moments.

"In every outthrust of headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth." Rachel Carson. Beautiful quote.

The shadows at the beach

Water colour painting on Fabriano CP paper

Size 8.5" X 11.5" 

The tree foliage in this painting was a challenge. Creating it as study work in a small sketchbook comes easy as I am more free with the brush movements. However, when I am doing a bigger size work such as above, the brush strokes kind of get a little restricted. May be it is the fear of making a mistake. With time and experience I shall be doing more loose and free brush movements which in turn will bring out some happy outcomes. Until then, I shall continue my water colour journey painting different subjects.

.CLICK HERE to view a soft pastel painting of a beach from Langkawi.

Thank you for visiting my blog and browsing through my works.