A water color painting on Chitrapat paper

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. R. W. Emerson"

I purchased Van Gogh watercolor set from Amazon.in some time back and decided to use it on Chitrapat handmade paper. The subject I chose is a simple seascape with "Boats in the distance" and a bright sky. I normally use the wet on wet technique to create the sky but for this painting I decided to use the simple wet on dry wash technique. The colors I used for the sky are Azo yellow medium, permanent red light and Ultramarine blue deep.

In conclusion, I personally feel that Van Gogh watercolor set is small, easily portable, has all the essential colors required for a basic watercolor painting and is very economical too. It also comes with a great brush and has a removable six well palette too.  The painting as created below has come out looking more brighter as compared to the ones in which I use Camlin Artists watercolor tubes. I would definitely recommend this set to all watercolor enthusiasts.

Boats in the distance
Water color painting on Chitrapat handmade paper
Size 5" X 7"

This is my first post of 2020. I do have plans to be more regular, so that I can share in details about the materials I use and the techniques I use in my painting, however a lot of my time goes in painting and other related activities which leaves me with little time to be on the computer. But I am taking out time to post a lot of my works on my Instagram page. Do browse through them and if my works inspire you, please share with others.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Reflections in the water - soft pastel work

One of my favourite photographs taken at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. It has been on my laptop since last year or so. I finally decided to give it a try in my way. I started off by selecting the black coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper. I started off by simplifying the bigger shapes and coloured 

them as a whole using the soft pastel medium. Blended the colours using my fingers. 

Then I fixed the layer with Winsor and Newton fixative.

In the second layer I added the tree trunks, foliage and other details. Signed at the bottom left 

with a white pastel pencil. I have also made use of the black charcoal pencil at places especially

to create the thin branches.

Solitude

Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6" X 9"

What is most challenging in any forest landscape is the greens. No matter how many shades 

you have, you still fall short of the right shade. Unlike water colours, oils and acrylics

it is not easy to get the green shades by mixing different colours. Moreover with

my past experience I know for sure that if I use more than two colours on each

other it creates a muddy effect and the freshness of the colour fades away.

I have created a few more small Demo works in soft pastel medium and I shall

be posting them soon.

Experimenting with water colour techniques

Painting with water colour medium is teaching me new lessons everyday. Each day is a new revelation. I am getting more deep into "COLOUR STUDY" as I realise that some colours work and some don't for a particular scene and atmosphere. Then there are transparent and opaque colours, warm and cool colours. Knowledge about these fundamental aspects definitely helps in better painting.

Everytime a painting completes, I evaluate and analyse the artwork looking for areas where I could do a little better next time. Given below are two small study works on hand made paper using camel paints. Both the scenes are from my "TRIP TO HIMACHAL". The scenic beauty of Himachal is unparalleled. Its truly a paradise on earth. Painting scenes from Himachal gives me true happiness.

It revives the beautiful memories of the past. 

Two water colour studies of landscapes

from Himachal on handmade paper.

Joseph Zbukvik  ( Eminent water colour artist from melbourne )said in one of his interview's that "If you succeed everytime, you are not painting properly." 

Read his interview HERE. Courtesy Artist Sterkhov

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.