A Tree

"Drawing is not the form, it is the way of seeing a form." Edgar Degas

Trees mean a lot to me. I love painting them. To me a "Tree" is a symbol of "Beauty, Strength, Endurance, Stability, and Wisdom".

I came across this beautiful old tree with exposed roots, anchored beautifully in the soil at Dubare forest on the banks of Kaveri river ( Near Coorg ). Since I had already created the study work of this tree on a small black Canson MT paper, it did not take me long to recreate this on a bigger paper.

Dubare forest, in Karnataka is known for its elephant camp and the area is a host to beautiful archaic deciduous trees. I did not have time to do any kind of Plein air sketching or drawing but I did manage to photograph many such trees. In the scene as below, there were other trees and bushes in the background, however I decided to keep it simple as I wanted the tree to be in focus.

Perennial

Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6.5" X 9.5"

My works can be seen on my FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM page too. Thank you for browsing through my works.

Two study works of "Trees" in soft pastel medium

"Good drawing forms the 'bones' on which a strong painting hangs." Chris Bingle

 Before I start off with my painting, I like to study the subject so as to get an understanding of the composition, the colours, the values and the techniques that I will apply in order to get the effect that I am visualizing in the mind. My vision of the artwork must meet what I create on paper.

The soft pastel artworks as below are of two majestic trees as seen and photographed at Kaveri river bank, Dubare forest near Coorg. During monsoon the river is overflowing and hence these exposed roots are not visible as they are submerged under water. We visited this place during the month of March when the water flow was bare minimum and I got to photograph some of these old archaic trees

Two Soft pastel study works of trees
as seen at Dubare forest, Coorg.
Size 4" X 5.5"

Every tree has its unique character, shape, form and identity. It's a great experience to sketch and paint these graceful elements of nature.

The "study works" as above will guide me in future to create a larger painting if required.

Tree trunk in shadow - A soft pastel painting

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." Rabindranath Tagore

Beautifully written quote by Rabindranath Tagore. Trees are such an essential part of beautiful nature that surrounds us. I have been doing a series on "Trees" using different mediums and my love for this subject continues to grow. 

This particular tree on the banks of river Kaveri, was in the shadows and the sunlight perforated through the foliage to light up the raised areas of the exposed roots. The light and contrast in the scene appealed a lot to me and I selected this scene for my soft pastel work. While in Dubare forest area last March we got the opportunity to photograph many such strongly rooted beautiful trees and I will be painting many of them soon.

Tree trunk in shadow

A soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6.5"X 8"

I started this work on a black coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper which was taped on to a hard board for support and then I placed this board on the on the Easel. Having purchased a table top Easel is a great advantage and I am putting it to use for most of my art works. It is very convenient to work with the easel as I can look at eye level and sketch. Once placed on the easel I begin with the first step which involves creating the basic outline of the tree trunk and the exposed roots. At this stage I put in efforts to check on the design and composition.

Step 1

Creating an outline

keeping in mind the design and composition

Next came the "BLOCK IN" stage wherein I carefully selected the colours keeping in mind the values and I filled in the masses. I keep the detailing for the final stage.

Step 2

Blocking in the colours

paying attention to the values

In the final step I add the details and the darker values to create the depth. I also add a few pastel marks in earthen shades on the trunk to suggest barks and other growth on trees.

I got into drawing and sketching trees somewhere in 2014 when I was making a transition from "Still Lives" to "Landscapes". That is the time when I felt the need to understand the anatomy of the tree in order to paint it well. From then on I have created a series on "Trees" and continue painting and sketching them.

This weekend I had a great workshop in soft pastel medium with three participants who were very passionate about art. They learnt the basic techniques involved in creating a soft pastel painting and then went on to create a soft pastel painting of "Santorini, Greece" and "Maya Bay". I shall be posting the images of their works soon in my art workshop page.

Thanks for browsing through my works and please do leave your comments.

Exposed roots - A study work on Canson Mi Teintes paper

I came across this tree when I last visited Karnala Bird Sanctuary. It is a fairly simple 

composition and I have used a beige coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper this time for a 

change. The colour of the paper acts as the mid tone value. The brightest shade is achieved

by using the white pastel pencil and the darker shades are obtained by scribbling with 

Camlin and General soft charcoal pencil.

I have done little blending at places but mostly used the pencil strokes to achieve the bark

effect. I do these works very often and call them study works because everytime I do one of 

these I try out some different stroke or effect in an attempt to evolve my technique and to learn something further.

Charcoal and pastel study work.

Size 5" X 7" 

In my last post I wrote about having purchased the water soluble graphite sticks by Camlin

I am posting an image of the same below ( Courtesy google.com )

The pack has three graphite broad diameter sticks. I would have preferred something thinner as creating strokes can get difficult with these. So the next better option was to sharpen the tip of 

one of these. I have used it to create few thumbnail sketches which I will be posting soon.

When I see a new product such as this, I buy it off instantly because if it works good with

me and my kind of works then I know I can incorporate it along with some other medium later.

I think I can combine this with my normal graphite pencil to create small forest sketches. It is

a THOUGHT PROCESS which may eventually work out. Trying out new materials and techniques is a great way of challenging oneself and I truly enjoy doing these things.

Thanks for browsing.

Drawing and Sketching a tree - Students work

Some tree sketchings done by a student during a ONE DAY WORKSHOP during which the student learnt the use of charcoal pencil and white pastel pencil on grey paper. The works are done on hand made paper and Canson Mi teintes paper. 

Canson Mi Teintes comes in many different colours and pastel or charcoal pencil work good on it. It is a good exercise for " Tonal value study". This is the third workshop attended by the same student who has previously come for soft pastel and charcoal workshop too.

Two tree trunk sketchings

done by a student during a workshop

Art workshops are fun. I get to interact with people who are passionate about art. I teach the simple techniques which I have learnt myself over a period of time by experimenting and exploring and doing my own kind of research. It has been a journey of rediscovering myself. 

Art workshop brings people of all age groups together and the passion speaks for itself. The work of each participant is different and unique because they think differently, apply the strokes in a unique manner and that is really so important for me. An art workshop infuses new energy in all of us and we all get so motivated and inspired. I teach or rather I should say " When I teach, I learn." The language of ART is universal. I see that in all my workshops where people meet and talk a lot about their work, their passion and share their ideas.

Sometimes I revisit my older posts in my blog. I started on tree sketchings last year in order to understand the tree anatomy better as I was planning to get into landscape paintings.

Given below are the links to my two old works.

http://charcoalspastelsandmore.blogspot.in/2014/06/another-tree-sketching-in-charcoal-by.html

http://charcoalspastelsandmore.blogspot.in/2014/12/exposed-roots-of-tree-in-charcoal-and.html

Checking out the Strathmore Artagain paper 400 series

In my last post I wrote about Strathmore drawing paper which turned out quite good for charcoal work. Therefore I decided to use some other books by Strathmore as well.

This time I have created a small sketching of tree trunk on the Artagain 400 series , drawing paper by Strathmore ( black coloured sheets ). This is a pad of 24 sheets sized 12" X 18". ( Available on Amazon )

 Image: Courtesy Google

 

"Grounded"

White pencil sketching on black Strathmore paper

Size 5.5" X 7"

 

My fascination for drawing/sketching tree continues. The above sketching has been done on Artagain Strathmore paper using Conte and General white pastel pencil. I enjoyed using this paper which is 160 gsm and feels smooth on the surface but the pastel pencil works good on it and fixes pretty well.

 

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. 

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.

Painting a Tree Trunk - Soft Pastel work

My landscape painting from my Coorg reference photographs continues and this particular tree was

right in front of the Homestay where we stayed on three different occasions. The colours, the

textures were so fascinating that keeping the tree in focus I have eliminated lot of other elements from the photograph and given a blurred background. the far distance is again covered by beautiful hills.

With this particular soft pastel painting I learnt to manipulate the photograph to add and subtract few

elements and to create a work which I want to see. The viewer I feel should be left

to analyse his interpretation of the painting.

Textured tree trunk

Soft Pastels on Canson Mi Tentes paper.

Size 12" X 16" ( Including the mount board )

Available for sale