Trying a cloudy sky using water colour medium.

"Avoid illustrating. Express the intangible, the atmosphere, the smell....the sound, the feeling of the place."Alvaro Castagnet 

It is important to know and understand water colour as a medium and reading quotes by master water colorists every once in a while helps. I enjoy reading quotes by Joseph Zbukvik, Alvaro Castagnet and others. I also take out time to watch them doing their paintings. It enlightens me and encourages me to never give up.

Today's post is a painting of a beautiful sun kissed sea and I am sharing a poem which I came across recently while I was browsing through PINTEREST.

The Sun kissed sea

A beauty rare, beyond compare,

is sun kissed sea,

No scene so calm, no scene so fair,

As this to me.

When floods of light dispel the night,

The morning kiss on waves

which sparkle with delight,

Is loveliness.

When ends my day, I trust and pray,

My voyage be

O'er the waters, where some golden ray,

May kiss the sea.

The Sun kissed sea
Water colour painting on hand made paper
Size 7"X 10"

With my soft pastel palette, all organised and cleaned up, I am ready to begin with my pastel art. To begin with I shall be doing a few thumbnail sketches or study sketches, which will help me warm up. Small study works are great in order to understand the composition, value masses, colour etc. It helps you visualize the final outcome. If it looks fine in its initial stages then it encourages me to go ahead to create a bigger sized artwork on the same subject.

Are you into doing study sketches too? If yes, do write to me and share your experience. It will be fun to know more about it.

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM and if you love my works and they inspire you, share them with your friends.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Stepping into 2017 - A new year, a new beginning.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." Albert Einstein

This is my first post in the year 2017 and a lot has happened in the last year. It is time to recollect some happy memories. 

I started my graphite/pencil drawings in my small sketch book. Drawing plays a very significant role in art and with pencil drawings I am getting to do tonal value study of my subjects. I am loving it and it is going to be a regular affair from now on.

Pencil/graphite drawing travel sketch book

Cartridge sheet size 4" X 5.5"

I experimented and explored the possibilities of using water soluble graphite pencils. So now I have in my collection the Derwent, Creatacolour and Camlin brand. Will make use of these in this year.

Water soluble graphite works

Sized 4" X 5.5"

Used willow charcoal in combination with pencils and powder to develop some new techniques to create landscape art.

Landscape in charcoal medium

Using soft pastel medium worked on landscapes with mountains and cliffs. Posting below my favorite one.

A soft pastel painting

Limestone cliffs at Phi Phi Leh

Attempted my first "Waterfall" in May 2016. The iconic Gulfoss or the Golden waterfall from Iceland. From thereon I went on to do many more.

Soft pastel painting of Gulfoss waterfall ( Iceland )

To have a better understanding of the anatomy of seawaves, I went on to create many paintings on this subject. Posting below one of them.

A rocky seashore at Bamboo island

Removed time for my water colour works in the sketch book. Planning to work with this medium on a regular basis.

Small water colour paintings in

my travel sketch book.

At the end of the year I finally purchased my "Table top easel" and now I love working on the easel rather than bending down

My new Table Top Easel

Portrait is a subject which is one of the most challenging. I have got into creating portraits on toned paper and in the year I went on to create a few of them. I am posting one of them below. In the year 2017 I plan to work a lot more on my portrait skills.

Portrait of a woman on toned paper

In the year 2016, I got a lot more involved in my "Study works" or "Thumbnail sketches" as they are the preliminary artworks which help me create a better painting. I plan to continue my disciplined working approach to create many more different works in the coming years using the mediums I love.

In conclusion, I am grateful for all that happened in the year 2016 ( and the years before that ). Art workshops, new paintings, experimenting and exploring new mediums, learning, meeting new people and all the support from family and friends around me who encourage and motivate me all the time.

Art keeps me busy and happy and I look forward to a new day, so that I can get to create once again something that I love and admire. 

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into pictures." Henry Ward Beecher

Thanks for browsing through my artworks. Looking forward to reading your comments.

Thumbnail sketches in soft pastel medium

Creating thumbnail sketches

"Thumbnail sketch" is my preliminary step towards creating my final artwork. It helps me focus on the composition and design elements. It is small in size, loosely done in a short span of time. 

Given below are two of my recently created thumbnail sketches on black coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper. In due course of time, referring to these sketches, I shall be creating an enlarged version of the same painting but with more details in the foreground. 

Working on small sketches saves me from loads of frustration later. A thumbnail sketch helps me plan out my colours, composition, design elements right at the beginning which proves very beneficial later when I am creating the final artwork. 

Thumbnail sketches of 

Niagara Falls

and Emerald green waters of Phi Phi island

Size 3.5" X 4.5"

I have been posting regularly about my "Thumbnail sketches" and to view one of them you can CLICK HERE. 

A Quote

"Painting is a means of self-enlightenment." John Olsen

New Sketch book - Water colour study work

" Color is my day long obsession, joy and torment." Claude Monet

Recently I started my fifth sketch book sized 4" X 5", made of cartridge sheets. I have posted in detail about this book earlier too. CLICK HERE to know more about it. I have fallen in love with these books because they help me learn and evolve. Each painting that I create in these small sketch books is a small study in itself. Study sketch/Thumbnail sketch plays a very significant role in my painting process. It is a preliminary step which helps me connect with the subject that I am painting.

Once the study sketch gets done, I evaluate the possibilities of it's getting converted into a bigger piece of art OR if there are a few errors then I go ahead and rectify them by creating another study work by making the relevant changes. Moreover I have realised that study sketches that I have been creating the past using soft pastel medium gets difficult to store. Therefore I decided to dedicate my present sketch book only to landscapes created using water colour medium. If the work looks satisfactory then I can recreate it using any medium, be it charcoals or soft pastels.

Fifth Sketch book devoted to water colour

study works of landscapes.

Given below are two water colour paintings created in the sketch book. I also make small notes if necessary with respect to my technique or colours used etc and always write the date for my future reference.

Two study works in water colour medium.

I am a lot involved in soft pastel as well as charcoal medium. However I love the water colour medium too. Hence creating small water colour sketches ( Fifteen to twenty minutes ) helps me to keep in touch with my water colour painting skills. The paints used in the above paintings are by Camlin.

Two of my favourite water colour paintings that I created after referring to the study works that I created in one such sketch book. ( Himachal Pradesh )

Two water colour works done in the past

on hand made water colour paper.

Sometimes when I am looking for inspiration, I sit down browsing through my sketch books.

Looking at some interesting works in the past motivates me a lot. These sketch books are like most artists say "A Visual diary". I keep them safe at a convenient place and during the "Art workshops" that I conduct on a regular basis, students enjoy going through them. 

Creating and storing Thumbnail sketches

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

My blogging has taken a backseat. I am busy creating several thumbnail sketches or studyworks

so that I can start a fresh series of "ARTWORKS". Posting individual sketch can be a tedious task.

Therefore I group some of them together after editing, which makes blogging more convenient.

As I mentioned in my previous post, only some of my study sketches get converted into serious

artwork. In the sketches below there are scenes from Iceland, Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, Panchgani and Phi Phi Leh. 

Four out of six of these painting have appealed to me with respect to composition and colours so I may go ahead and paint them soon on black Canson Mi Teintes paper.

Thumbnail sketches or Study sketches of Landscapes

on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 3.5" X 4.5"

I have been painting for several years now and "Thumbnail sketches" was not part of my routine until the year 2014. Slowly and steadily as I worked my way up the ladder, I realised that spending

a few minutes at creating a preliminary sketch takes care of lot of issues and helps the

final art piece to reach its desired stage. In other words nine out of my ten works reach completion.

Storing thumbnail sketches was a big concern in the beginning. So I came up with the idea of

using my old "Photo Albums". It worked really well for me.

Old Photo Albums

for storing Thumbnail sketches.

After completing the sketch I normally lift the polythene sheet carefully and then slide the 

painting inside from the open side. As the sketch is created in soft pastels, there is always a 

chance of its getting smudged, however the smudging is negligible and it can be easily

corrected if required. 

I have posted below two images of some of my initial study works in 2014when I was deeply 

into landscape study. It is a pleasure at times to go through some of the past works. 

Old Photo Albums, now used for storing

my Thumbnail sketches created in

Soft pastel medium.

Thanks for visiting my blog and browsing through my works. Do leave a comment to let me know how you store your artworks?

Thumbnail sketches - study works for future paintings

After having done a couple of soft pastel paintings on different subjects, it is time to shortlist
the next few paintings to be done. For me it all starts with "Thumbnail sketches". These days I
create a couple of them after a careful analysis with respect to composition, colours and values.
Once my thumbnails are done, I pin them up on the flannel board next to my workplace so that
I can have a clear view of them all day along.

After several views, I start the preliminary painting process in the mind itself. It's like I am working on the different possible techniques which I can apply to go ahead with a particular painting. All of my thumbnail sketches do not necessarily get converted into the final art piece. It's only a selected few. The ones that start speaking to me and I can feel the connection.

Given below is the collective image of three different sketches that I just completed using the soft pastel medium. All are "Sea based subjects" my all time favorite.

Thumbnail sketches 

created on Canson Mi Teintes paper.

Size 4" X 5"

I am posting an old image which shows how my ART BOARD looks like with a display of all

my thumbnail sketches. Many of the sketches as in the board below finally saw the light of day

as I converted them into bigger pieces of artwork. 

Creating thumbnail sketches is a lot of fun work as I do them very freely and loose manner.

So its done without any fear or inhibition and many a times a small little work looks like a 

masterpiece to me and I take a quick decision to refer to it and go ahead with my bigger artwork.

I also call these small works as "Study works" as they help me to learn a lot. It is an exercise

in "Experimentation" wherein I get to evolve my technique by trying out new ideas and theories.

I have done several posts on "THUMBNAIL SKETCHES" and to view all of them you can

go to the search column at the right column of the BLOG.

Few more Thumbnail sketches of Landscapes and trees

Painting every single piece of art is a journey in itself. It starts with the visit to a beautiful place.
Then I capture the most breathtaking views in my mind as well as the camera. I make all my
observations pertaining to the colours, atmospsheric perspective, etc. Many a times I squint my
eyes to gauge the right values. Seeing and observing well helps me in rendering the right
colours to get the feel of the atmosphere.

It is much later some day when I am browsing through my photographs that I take the decision
to finally go ahead and create the painting and to capture my memories on paper. Then starts
the process of creating a Thumbnail Sketch followed by the Actual painting.

What I enjoy the most is the entire procedure or the steps involved in creating every single
painting. I do it loosely and with a free mind not worrying about how the painting will
eventually look in the end. Not every painting meets my expectations. I make mistakes and I personally that these mistakes help me learn better because it gets me "Thinking". I reevaluate
my technique and colour theory and try to analyse how and where I went wrong?

In conclusion Every painting that I create makes me "Experiment and Explore" and the whole
journey of art is a thrilling experience. Given below are some more of my recently done
thumbnail sketches using soft pastels.

Thumbnail sketches from

Himachal, Phuket and Coorg.

" We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to."  Terri Swearingen.

I came across this beautiful quote recently which is so inspiring. We all need to make a 

collective effort to save trees and to maintain the beauty of the nature. When I am travelling,

I come across some amazingly beautiful old trees and I do not miss out the opportunity

to sketch it out or capture it in the Camera. In the above collection of Thumbnail sketches

I have done some study works of trees too and hopefully soon I plan to create some artworks

referring to them.

From photograph to thumbnail sketches - soft pastel medium

Most of my landscape paintings are inspired by NATURE.

Over a period of years, I have shortlisted a whole lot of photographs for my future artworks.
The intention is to create Landscape paintings as and when I get time. Therefore I decided to
create a series of thumbnail sketches which will help me visualize the final outcome as
the painting will look on completion.

Thumbnail sketch or study sketch is "The most important deciding factor for me" to go ahead
with the final painting procedure. I have used charcoal and water colour medium too for
creating these small study works but this time around I have used only soft pastels. The size
is more or less, always 4" X 5".

Given below are four thumbnail sketches created by referring to photographs taken by me
on different locations.

Thumbnail sketches

Created on Fabriano Elle erre paper

and Canson Mi Teintes paper.

After completing the thumbnail sketches, I analyse the final colours, values, composition etc

which helps me to decide whether to go ahead with the painting or redo the thumbnail sketch

by making the required changes. 

The upper two sketches turned out fine as planned in the mind but the lower two were a bit complicated scenes with a whole lot of overlapping elements. So the technique and steps that I followed did not quite work out. Therefore I may have to redo the lower two by following a totally different plan altogether. The photographs that I referred to for the lower two thumbnail sketches

are as below. They are from LANGKAWI island ( Malaysia ) and I am definitely planning

to do both these landscapes some day in my style.

Two landscape photographs from Langkawi ( Malaysia )

Creating thumbnail sketches, I feel, has brought about a lot of discipline in my art journey.
I was inspired to do so after seeing many other artists doing the same. My personal
experience also taught me that whenever I went ahead with a large sized artwork
without a preliminary study, the painting either got ruined or did not turn out
satisfactory.

Three water colour study works on cartridge paper

Be it "Thumbnail sketches" OR "Study works", I believe in working this way to have a better understanding of the medium. With more experience in handling the medium, the confidence to create bigger works comes easily.

Given below is three images water colour paintings of randomly selected landscapes. I have tried the wet on wet technique in most of them. The last of the images is of the view in front of the Coorg Homestay, early morning. The far off land was covered with fog and everything was hazy. Tried to capture the atmosphere in the paintings.

Three small water colour works on 

Cartridge paper.

Each one is sized 4" X 5"

Quotation

By

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it."

Study sketches of landscapes from Himachal Pradesh

Soft pastels is a great medium to work with and one can easily get addicted to using them. I had decided some time back to shift to acrylics on canvas but then changed my mind as I am enjoying my recent works based on my visit to Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh. I have a whole lot of reference material in the form of photographs and sketches that I created on location and the places there are so amazing that I cannot resist myself from painting them.

Given below are images of some study sketches that I created on canson paper sized 3" x 4". I create a whole lot of study sketches but I do not necessarily enlarge all of them into actual paintings. I get selective. The ones which appeal a whole lot to me in terms of composition and right values become the reference as my next subject for a bigger painting which normally by my standard is 6" x 9".

Study sketches of landscapes from Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh

As I stated above I may not use all my sketches to create bigger works, however I take care to preserve all of them in a folder by protecting each of them with a butter paper in between so as to avoid smudging of pastels. Sometime in future you never know, one of them may come in use.

Study sketches for my future paintings of Spiti Valley

For quite some time now I have been busy creating landscapes with emphasis on forests, trees etc. Now for a change I want to make some paintings from the scenic Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh. We made a trip there in June 2013 visiting some amazing places like Nako, Tabo, Kaza etc. 

Before embarking on a new subject I try to get comfortable with the elements in the landscapes by doing a series of Quick study sketches OR thumbnail sketches. Given below are a few sketches mostly sized 4" x 5". Doing these sketches helps me in to understand the colours and values, the light and shadow and in general it helps me to take a decision regarding the scenes which I can enlarge 

to create a bigger art work.

Once I have handled the difficult issues while doing a small sketch, creating a larger painting gets a lot more easier and that way I I know for sure that I will not be overusing my pastels on the paper which in turn creates a muddy effect. 

Study sketches created from my journey to SPITI valley in Himachal Pradesh

Using Fabriano Elle Erre paper for creating Thumbnail sketches

Over a period of time, I have collected a whole lot of different papers, experimenting with the surface, the colours etc. Now that I have settled finally with Canson and Fabriano Tiziano as my choice for soft pastel painitngs, I decided to look into the unused collection of different papers.

When I initially got into soft pastel art works, I began with Fabriano Elle Erre as it had texture. I still have these papers with me so I decided to put it to use to create my "Thumbnail sketches"
or "Study sketches"

Steel grey coloured Fabriano Elle erre paper

Parallel line texture on it

Thumbnail sketch of a forest scene

on Fabriano Elle erre paper

Since creating a thumbnail sketch has become a habit with me, more out of necessity as it helps clear a lot of confusion before doing a bigger painting, therefore I also have to constantly think of storing ideas. I posted quite some time back about how I use old albums to store my thumbnail sketches. ( Mostly for size 4" X 6" works ). It is fun to flip through the works some time later to realise how much efforts went into the variety of quick works created in a short time.

Old photo album

Slipping the thumbnail sketch into the 

album for long term storage

I have collected a whole lot of such albums which are filled up with my sketches done in charcoals and soft pastels. 

Few more thumbnail sketches of different landscapes

I created some more thumbnail sketches on Canson paper, sized 3" x 4" approx. So now I have plenty of subjects to choose from to create my next soft pastel painting.

A thumbnail sketch helps to simplify the landscape by getting the right values and composition. It then becomes a good reference to add the right colours. Moreover it does not take  more than fifteen to twenty minutes to create each one of them.

Thumbnail sketches of Landscapes

Thumbnail sketches or study works in soft pastel medium.

 "The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection." Michelangelo

 Making a thumbnail sketch helps me plan my procedure better. The steps I follow in creating a small sketch helps me proceed with the painting in a much easier way. It also helps me to improve on my technique and to tackle issues which otherwise would get complicated.

Given below are three different thumbnail sketches from COORG created using the soft pastel medium. I used leftover cutout pieces of Canson Mi Teintes  paper for the same and avoided spending more than fifteen minutes on each of them. When I finally create a bigger piece of art work referring to these sketches, I would be adding more details.

Three thumbnail sketches from COORG photographs

created on 3" X 4" Canson paper using soft pastels

My works can also be browsed at on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK page.

Thumbnail sketches of trees, rocks and mountains

Thumbnail Sketches are Shorthand Notes for Artists:

Thumbnail sketches are drawing quick, abbreviated drawings. Usually, they are done very rapidly and with no corrections - you can use any medium, though pen or pencil is the most common. Thumbnails sketches are usually very small, often only an inch or two high.

Thumbnails can be Colored:

Thumbnail sketches are a great way to plan color schemes. Use textas, colored pencil or watercolor to put in major areas of color in your picture. Small but intense colors can also be noted, as these can attract the eye, but don't get bogged down with detail.

(The detailed explanation as given above about Thumbnail sketch is from www.drawsketch.about.com)

Since I am getting into doing landscapes, it is imperative to understand a lot about all the different elements that play an important role in Landscape Composition. I find , creating thumbnail sketches , is a great way of enhancing one's knowledge. The medium used in these creations is SOFT PASTELS.

Thumbnail sketches of trees

Thumbnail sketches of rocks and mountains

Thumbnail sketches can also be done in charcoals, graphite or water colours. It all depends on individual artists as to what they are comfortable in. 

Two more thumbnail sketches done in soft pastels

The two days soft pastel painting workshop ended today. Had loads of fun. Lots of art talk and sharing of ideas. In all the excitement forgot to click photos of some of the paintings. But whatever taken, will be posting it tomorrow. It was a small group and all were art enthusiasts which charged up the atmosphere and the painting was a lot of pleasure.

In the meanwhile, managed to take out my old thumbnail sketches and retouched them with soft pastels. Was very keen on doing a night scene , hence remember having selected the Eiffel Tower. Doing a small work has its own charm. 

Two thumbnail sketches.

A mountain landscape and

Eiffel Tower

Thumbnail sketches done in water colours - by Manju Panchal

Loosely done water colour sketches

The five paintings done below have been done on different occasions on cartridge sheet using Camel artists water colours. They are more or less like study sketches or thumbnail sketches where I have used the brush

strokes very freely ( wet on wet technique ) just to get an overall idea about the results or what it would like

if I were to create it in a bigger size. 

There is a landscape, a foilage created using spray technique, a wet street scene, 

a slice of melon ( as placed on my dining table ) and the last one is done out of imagination. A wet road

with reflections. 

I have used the App PicCollage to put together these five different sketches together.

Thumbnail sketches

Photographed six thumbnail sketches together. One beach scene, rest all are still lives

done on grey paper and black paper. Tomato, ginger, cup etc.

Early morning sunlight casts beautiful shadows

and I enjoy capturing the image on paper.

All of them are of size 3" X 4.5"