Portrait drawing on Canson Mi Teintes paper

"How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. What we do this hour and that hour, is what we are doing." Annie Dillard. ( Courtesy: Skinny Artist )

I love to start my day with a good "Quotation." It has now become second nature to me. The above quote throws light on a very important aspect of our life. Living life everyday, and taking small decisions which go a long way to keep you happy and satisfied. I try to paint and draw on a daily basis and the days I am really busy, I take to my sketch book, creating some small study work in it. It keeps my art passion alive.

Today I am posting a "Portrait drawing" which I have created inspired by a lively old woman, I met up in the mountain slopes at Hee Bermiok in West Sikkim. We were climbing up the hills in order to get a clear view of Kanchenjunga Mountain peak, when we were greeted by her and her granddaughter.

She was out in the front yard of her home, relaxing. Looking happy and exuberant, she readily posed for me and when I expressed my desire to create her drawing in future, she immediately went and changed into her traditional attire ( Including the jewelry ). That gave me the opportunity to click more of her photographs from different angles and I am waiting to try them all.

In the drawing as below, she is facing the sun and to avoid the glaring sun rays she squint her eyes. I loved this composition, hence this is the first of her portraits that I have done to start with. Getting to know a person before doing the portrait helps in capturing the inner soul of the person in the drawing. I have tried to do just that.

Facing the morning light

Charcoal and white pastel pencil drawing on Canson MT paper

Size 5" X 7"

Next I am working on few more portraits, so keep browsing and if you are interested in attending any of my art workshops please drop me a mail and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Two Women - Charcoal figurative work

"The vision must be sharper than the pencil". Bob Brendle

Inspired by the Indian tradition and culture, I had started a series on "Portraits and figurative works" in 2004. Back then I was a lot into charcoal medium. I have restarted my portrait works and am also working on some of my past incomplete works.

The Charcoal drawing "Two women" has been inspired by the beautiful women of Rajasthan. The painting is an attempt to portray their unparalleled grace and beauty.

The two women, draped in long veils, who stand together, in silence, dressed in their traditional attire, looking on at the distance. 

Two Women

Charcoal drawing on acid free paper

Size 11" X 15"

There are more charcoal drawings such as these and I am enjoying once again, bringing them back to life. Portrait and figurative works are more challenging than doing landscapes. However I love both these subjects and will continue painting both of them.

My works can be viewed on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK page too.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Mother Teresa - A charcoal portrait study on toned paper

"Be happy in the moment, that's enough.Each moment is all we need, not more." 

Mother Teresa

A portrait study of "Mother Teresa" created on dark grey handmade paper using charcoal and white pastel pencil. The pencils I normally use on toned paper are Camlin soft charcoal pencil, Cretacolour white pastel pencil and General white pastel pencil.

Mother Teresa
Charcoal and white pastel pencil work on handmade paper
Size 5.5"X 7"

In October 2016, I posted yet another portrait study of "Mother Teresa". I am presently working on a soft pastel landscape work of a scene from Karnala Bird Sanctuary. Will post it soon. My works can now be seen at Instagram.

Thanks for browsing through my works and do write your comments below.

Charcoal workshop at Dr D Y Patil College of Architecture ( Nerul )

Art workshop at College

Dr D Y Patil College of Architecture is an institution dedicated to D. Y. Patil Group's mission of imparting modern updated education. It was established in 1992, is recognized by AICTE and affiliated to the University of Mumbai.The institute has made its name in a short period of time. The main emphasis is given to integrating science and technology for the development of student's aptitude towards architecture. The college has excellent infrastructure. Academic excellence is ensured by experienced faculties and facilitated by art facilities.

Dr D. Y. Patil College of Architecture

Dr D. Y. Patil College of Architecture

On the 28th of Deccember I was invited to do a Two hours Charcoal Workshop with forty students who had registered their names for the same as a part of the ongoing Student's annual festival "SRUJAN" Students Annual Festival.

I normally take my Art workshop over a period of two days in which I teach about the tools, techniques and do several demo's. ( Total of six hours ). Therefore to complete the "Basics of charcoal workshop" in a two hour period was a challenge and I had to plan and work on it. For me it is important to teach, discuss and then help the participants in creating a few works as a warm up exercise.

Prior to the workshop I had sent a list of topics which I had planned to cover during the workshop such as the following

• Use of drawing tools
• Design and composition 
• Significance of values
• Blending and shading
• Making a mark using pencils and willow charcoal
• Techniques involved in creating grass, clouds, sky, rocks, mountains, sea, waves, bushes, trees, foliage, door, wall etc
• Creating an original painting
• Advantages of regular practice
• Use of fixatives
• Framing of paintings
• Care and preservation

During the workshop I discussed in detail about the tools that I use as an artist to create the Charcoal drawings. ( I have blogged about it earlier with images ). Today there are umpteenth variety of tools available in the market but one has to be selective and decide to use only those which work for his/her kind of work.

 In order to have a better understanding of all the above mentioned topics I demonstrated in bits and pieces ( Different elements such as foliage, door, bushes, door etc ) and the participants followed the same exercise in their drawing sheets. This helped them to get to know their tools for charcoal medium.

Using willow charcoal for mark making

( Similar explation was done for using

charcoal pencil as well as charcoal powder )

After getting accustomed to the charcoal tools like the pencil, willow charcoal and the charcoal powder I showed them one of my recent demo works and we discussed the steps involved in creating it.

A demo work that I recently created during

 a charcoal workshop ( Photo reference Courtesy: Geotripper )

In the last hour I started a Charcoal drawing using a photograph as a reference ( Maya Bay ) explaining the steps involved in creating the same. The participants worked along with me and they too created the same work in their Art Book which comprised of cartridge sheets.

As the drawing progressed there was a lot of discussion about the do's and don'ts in charcoal medium and exchange of ideas. I emphasized a lot on creating "Original Drawings" using still life subjects or personal photographs as a reference.

Charcoal drawing and sketching demo

in forty five minutes

To understand the value study, techniques

involved in creating sky, clouds, mountains and rocks,

water and waves.

The workshop went pretty well and I was satisfied as I could cover all the topics as I had planned earlier. It was a great pleasure to share my techniques and style with students of Architecture and I am sure this medium will be of great benefit to them in their future work.

The staff and students were very cordial and I was touched by the hospitality extended to me.

Looking forward to more such workshops in the year 2017.

Thanks to everyone who has been browsing through my blog on a regular basis and please do visit my DEVIANTART gallery and my FACEBOOK page.

Ending my post with a beautiful and inspiring quote

"Drawing is a vision on paper." Andrew Loomis

Portrait sketching of a woman on toned paper.

"Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of the painting. Drawing contains everything except the hue." Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 

With experience we all realise the significance of the words as mentioned above in the beautiful quote by a Master artist.

In 2006, I created a series of portraits using the acrylic and charcoal medium. Back then I was not using toned paper for my charcoal works. After having worked with charcoal and white pastel pencil on toned paper I have developed a tremendous liking for it. Therefore I have decided to take this passion further by sketching portraits on a regular basis. It is challenging though as it requires an in depth understanding of facial anatomy. However I know from experience that by consistently working on a subject will definitely enhance my knowledge. Moreover I believe that learning is a process which has no boundaries. The learning curve steadily climbs up with time.

The charcoal portrait that I just completed is of  a "Woman from Kutch, Gujarat"with traditional jewelry. The morning rays of the sun are fall on her face, casting beautiful shadow of her nose ring. The light and shadow play on the face makes an interesting composition in portrait sketching. It helps me create a range of values. While creating this portrait I wanted to capture the glow, the happiness on her face. I have used Camlin charcoal pencil and Creatacolour white pastel pencil to create this portrait

The Glow
Charcoal sketching on Grey hand made paper
Size 6"X 8"

For portrait sketching I have always enjoyed selecting  "Traditional Indian women" with their colourful attire and exquisite jewelery as it speaks so much about the rich culture of the place that they come from. To browse through some of my other portrait works you can visit my PORTRAIT page.

Many of my paintings are available for sale and if you wish to purchase any of them you can Contact me for further information about the same. 

Step by Step - The Exposed roots of a tree, a Charcoal sketching

During my last visit to Karnala Bird Sanctuary I made it a point to click some beautiful photographs of trees. All kinds of trees. I was particular about the composition and also was interested in the light source and shadows. From my previous experience and having created so many artworks in the last two years, I knew what exactly I was looking for.

The Charcoal sketching as below is with reference to one such tree which had these beautiful
exposed roots spreading out in different angles. The roots that keep the tree grounded.

Once again I have photographed the painting during its various stages of creation. This time
around I made use of my General charcoal pencil and made a few observations about it
as compared to Camel charcoal pencil.

General charcoal pencil is more soft, darker in tone/value and spreads more uniformly on the
paper. From now on I plan to use this pencil on a regular basis to create my charcoal works.

Grounded

Charcoal and white soft pastel sketching on Canson Mi Teintes paper.

Size 5" X  7"

This sketching suddenly reminded me of a soft pastel painting which I did last year

with reference to my COORG photograph. This tree was part of the coffee plantation

near our homestay.

Soft pastel painting from past.

Step by Step - Charcoal sketching of a tree my way

I had this image of a tree trunk on my ipad since very long and I finally decided to create a charcoal sketching of the same on FABRIANO ACADEMIA paper. It is an acid free paper and I already mentioned in my last post that I use it for both charcoal and pencil medium. It has an amazing texture and it adds to the character of the subject especially if I am creating a tree.

Also I made a deliberate attempt to remember photographing the images as my work progressed.

1.     The size of the paper is 5.5" X 7". I did a very rough outline of the tree trunk in the first 

        stage as shown below using a HB pencil.

2. Next I used my charcoal tools and pencils to add the tonal values and the darkest tones to 

    establish depth. I also blended the strokes at places. The background was kept hazy and I 

    used a soft cloth to cover the distance. The foreground was similarly created by using

    cloth and blending tools.

3. At this stage I used more of my charcoal pencils namely Camel charcoal pencil and

    General charcoal pencil to create the details like small outgrowths, barks and other 

    twisted shapes, bark strokes etc. I also added few strokes in foreground to create grassy 

    effect. The source of light is from the right direction so I used eraser and kneaded putty 

    to create the highlights.

4. In the final stages I keep the sketch at a distance and evaluate. I keep it aside for a day 

    to look back at it the next day with FRESH MIND and EYES so I can redo the fine 

    touch up ie adding few details, the dark and light values, creating wild grassy growth 

    in foreground etc. At some point then I decide to call it an end as overworking, I have

   realised can cause more harm than good.

The Knotted tree trunk

Charcoal sketching on Fabriano Academia paper

Size 5.5" X 7" 

I have a big collection of charcoal pencils of different brands which I picked up from different 

in an attempt to try it out for its darkness and quality. I have not had the time to try

all of them but among the ones that I have given a try, I find Camel , Primo and

pretty satisfying for my work. Very soon I will try and photograph

the other tools as well and write a post about it.

Skogafoss waterfall ( Iceland ) - A charcoal drawing

This particular painting of waterfall in charcoal medium was done by me quite some time back but I had framed it behind the glass leaving no space in between. At that moment of time I was unaware about the right framing technique. But now I know that it is best to keep space between the painting and glass. Therefore I opened up the frame, managed to take a close up photograph and now I will be framing it with off white mountboard around it. 

It is a lot of hard work to reframe a painting but framing a painting the right way enhances its look manifold.Moreover for the durability of the art work ( to avoid fungus and deterioration over a period of time ) one has to follow the right technique. As I paint and sketch everyday, I get to learn lessons. About framing, about the right composition in a painting and about so many other aspects with respect to art. 

The waterfall

Charcoal painting on Canson paper

Size 11" x 18"

Thanks a lot for browsing through my artworks and do visit my Instagram page where I have recently started uploading my works.