6" X 9" Soft pastel paintings - Landscapes

"Art is not what you see but what you make others see." By Edgar Degas

After a long break, I created two soft pastel paintings using my miscellaneous collection of

soft pastels. I worked with soft pastels for many months at a stretch in 2014 and the beginning 

of 2015. In the past few months I have been indulging in a lot of water colour artwork and 

the water colour medium is undoubtedly the most challenging one. 

With my water colour paintings I am still experimenting and exploring. However with my soft

pastels my technique is almost set. But I am open to trying out something new.  

Charcoals and soft pastels are both dry mediums and a lot in the painting happens as per your 

technique of holding the chalk and creating the strokes and blending. Over a period of time we 

all get used to a particular way of doing our artwork and that starts defining our individual style.

I complete my painting in two layers. In the first layer I usually do a little blending but in the 

second layer I normally use a lot of strokes and very little blending.

Apart from using soft pastels, I have also used Camel charcoal pencil at places to define a few

things such as rocks, crevices in mountains etc.

Road to leh

Soft pastel painting on Canson paper

Size 6" X  9"

Komic village

Soft pastel painting on Canson paper

Size 6" X  9"

My pastel palette

Which has broken pastels from different brands.

Both the above paintings have been submitted in the DPW challenge

I have a Two days soft pastel workshop coming up soon and thats

another reason for getting into a few pastel works.

My works can also be viewed on my FACEBOOK page.

The snow capped mountains

" I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process." 

 Vincent Van Gogh

Created four more study works in water colour medium using my photographs from Himachal.

I have also used a few photographs from Leh Ladakh trip which were provided to me by a close

friend of mine. 

Most of the paintings as below are done with very limited colours. Since a major part of the 

landscape is covered with snow, the other colours that I use are ultramarine blue, crimson, 

burnt sienna, sap green, raw sienna and sometimes Indian red.

I keep creating these small works and then when I want to create a larger work then along with

the photograph I use these water colour sketches. After completing each one of them, I write a

few notes under each of these paintings, as a reminder to myself regarding some new colour 

that I used OR if I have made a mistake and how to rectify it when doing a bigger painting.

Most of the times it helps.

Water colour study sketches

of snow covered mountains

as seen in Himachal

and Leh-Ladakh

Combining Charcoal and acrylic on canvas

Past few days have been busy as I have personal commitments and other work like designing 

NAMEPLATES for the wall. Under these circumstances I feel it convenient to create charcoal works and check out ideas that have been playing on my mind for long.

Tried charcoal sketching on 8" x 10" canvas board referring to a scene at Narkanda in Himachal Pradesh. I have mainly used willow charcoal and Camel pencil in the first image. 

A scene from Narkanda ( Himachal Pradesh )

Charcoal work on canvas

Since this is more of an experimental work, I went one step further and added black acrylic paint in certain areas to add depth. Charcoal is not water soluble which caused a lot of discomfort while adding it on as second layer.  Therefore probably in my next experimental series I shall try putting a thin layer of acrylic coat in the beginning itself.

Charcoal and acrylic work on canvas

After completing the work I sprayed it heavily with fixative in order to avoid glass during framing.

Painting everyday is my resolution every night before I go to sleep. The day to day art that I create to capture the simple scenes of nature that appeal to me, gives me immense pleasure. My art endeavors has also brought me close to more people of "MY KIND" who love anything about art. This interaction with the art community adds to the excitement and fun and life gets a new definition.

That's the reason I always say " I am living my dream by drawing, painting and sketching every day of my life."

My works can be viewed on my FACEBOOK page.