Sunday, 6 July 2025
Sennelier La Carta Pastel card ( Review )
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Watercolor paintings of Icebergs on Chitrapat handmade paper
Wednesday, 27 March 2024
A Ship ( Geared cargo vessel ) at port - A watercolor painting
“Watercolor and it’s application have become a moving force, directing and enriching my life.” Theresa R Einhorn
In the year 2019, I was at New Mangalore Port with my husband who is a marine officer. Our ship was berthed opposite to the the scene that I am posting today. From the porthole of our cabin, I watched the loading taking place on the geared bulk carrier on the opposite berth. I painted this experience on Chitrapat handmade paper ( one of my favourite papers for Watercolor painting ).*
Saturday, 23 March 2024
Figurative study works on Chitrapat handmade paper
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Step by step soft pastel painting - Road to Spiti
Step 1. I lightly draw the outline using a white pastel pencil on a medium toned Canson Mi Teintes paper
Sunday, 5 November 2023
Golden Gate Bridge - A watercolor painting on Chitrapat handmade paper
“ Watercolor condenses time and consolidates experience.” Frank Marcello
PIXABAY is a free stock photography and royalty free stock media website. It is used for sharing photos, illustrations and a lot more, under the custom PIXABAY License, which generally allows the free use of material with some restrictions. I personally enjoy browsing through this site for some interesting reference photos of places that I haven’t visited so far but would love to paint them anyway.
I have already painted the “Golden Gate Bridge” ( “A suspension bridge that connects the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. ) on earlier occasions but the photo that I found recently caught my eye mainly because, it had quite a different composition as it was an evening scene and also captured the cars racing across the bridge. This scene looked a bit challenging as I decided to use the watercolor medium and had to capture the racing cars, which were going to be gestural strokes and not too much of details.
I finally painted it on Chitrapat handmade paper using my usual Winsor and Newton Cotman and Camlin Artists water color tubes.
After having completed a painting, every artist looks back and reflects on the entire process of creating it. I do the same. I haven’t painted this kind of a scene before and by the time I completed it, I was happy. Trying something new and different is always very exciting. It motivates you further to pursue the journey.
Friday, 11 August 2023
“Beach Reflections” A soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper
“ Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.” Heinrich Zimmer
Friday, 3 February 2023
Step by Step, soft pastel forest landscape ( Coorg, Karnataka )
“Perfection is no small thing but is made up of small things.” Michelangelo
Sunday, 28 August 2022
Seascape - A water color Painting on Chitrapat handmade paper
“Translucence is an effect unique to the medium of watercolor and the lure that beckons me into the studio for yet another creative adventure.” Michele Cooper
Using Chitrapat handmade paper has always been a delight. I have written a lot already about the advantages of using this paper in my previous posts and I personally use this paper a lot. Apart from this paper I also like using Arches cold pressed paper and Fabriano Acquarello paper.
For the painting below I have used very few colors, namely raw sienna, burnt sienna, orange and ultramarine blue. Using wet on wet wash technique, I initially painted the sky, the ocean and the sandy beach. Then I let the paper dry. Later I used ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to create the rocky structures in the distance, followed by the ocean and the beach. I also added few sailboats in the distance, using a very dilute wash of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. The reflections of the rocks were added pretty much in the end. Can you also spot the birds flying in the sky? It was fun painting this seascape which has an overall warm tone and I forgot to mention that I have used Winsor and Newton Cotman paints and Camlin Artist watercolor tubes for this work.
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Senibel beach Florida , Step by step watercolor painting
“Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.” Heinrich Zimmer
My today’s post is a small water colour painting that I created recently on Campap watercolor paper. I posted it on my INSTAGRAM feed a while ago and decided to blog about it as I captured the steps involved in creating it. This Senibel beach scene from Florida is inspired by a photograph from @tryatrip and I am grateful for the same. Most of the times, I try using my own reference photo, however there are times when I come across something beautiful which I cannot resist and therefore go ahead and paint it.
If you have been following my works on INSTAGRAM you would know that I am a lot into Chitrapat handmade paper for my watercolor paintings which is really a great economical paper to start with but sometimes I do try on other papers which are in my collection and are fairly good.
Monday, 3 May 2021
Why I love using Strathmore toned paper
“A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art does not.” Leonardo Da Vinci
Today apart from posting my two more drawings in the “Sparrow series”, I decided to dedicate this post to “How and when I started using Strathmore toned paper” and “what I love most about it”. To be frank, it’s been years and it is difficult to keep a track of lots of things that have happened while I have been moving ahead in my art journey. Therefore my BLOG and INSTAGRAM help me go down the memory lane to browse through the recorded facts and I feel so grateful that I started sharing my artworks with the art community from around the world.
After checking the data I realised that my earliest drawing of “Eye Study” was posted on April 17th, 2017. So it was definitely around that time when I visited Art Lounge, which during those days was situated at Churchgate. I along with a friend of mine had traveled by local train to do our yearly “Art Stationery Shopping”. It see to be fun. I had seen some lovely charcoal and graphite drawings on Strathmore paper and that inspired me to one for myself and check it out. My first pad that I purchased, as shown below, continues to be used even today as there are still some papers left in it.
Wednesday, 28 April 2021
Watercolor thumbnail sketch to simplify the painting process
“It is not the ship so much as the skilful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.” George William Curtis
Water color medium by itself is challenging medium as compared to others. Therefore before attempting the final painting, I love to explore the different possibilities by doing small “Thumbnail sketch” or “Preliminary Study”.
The subject “Cargo Ship” is a little out of my comfort zone and moreover it also involves the understanding of ship structure in general. Therefore, I felt it appropriate to create the two “Thumbnail sketches” as below to visualise the final painting. It also helps me to simplify a very complicated painting and most importantly it is a great mental warm up exercise.
Both works are created on Chitrapat handmade paper which is made of 100% cotton fibreand very economical too. CLICK HERE to know more about this paper.
For both the paintings as shown below I have used a limited palette of Camlin Artists water color tubes namely
1. Ultramarine Blue
2. Raw Sienna
3. Burnt Sienna
4. Light red
5. Permanent orange
6. Chinese white ( for highlights )
Sunday, 25 April 2021
Sparrow - A Graphite drawing on Strathmore gray toned paper
“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on its wings”
If you are following me on INSTAGRAM , you probably must have already gone through my recent graphite drawings on “Sparrow series”. ( I have to admit that I have been more regular on my Instagram as compared to my blogging. I wish I could dedicate more time to writing in my blog. )
After having done watercolor medium for months, I suddenly felt the need to take a break and so decided to get back to my toned paper drawing and sketching. As far as stationery is concerned, I have enough of art materials for every possible medium. ( Over a period of time I have accumulated a whole lot of pencils, papers, paints and brushes and it helps because in COVID situations it is not easy to procure the desired materials easily. )
When it comes to toned paper, the two papers that I absolutely love and recommend to everyone are
1. Strathmore toned paper ( Gray and Tan shade )
2. Canson Mi Teintes paper ( Beige and Gray shade )
For my “Sparrow series” I decided to go with Strathmore gray toned paper as I wanted to create soft strokes of graphite and white pastel pencil. The smooth textured surface of the paper, I felt was ideal for these drawings.