La Carte Pastel card by Sennelier

"Great works are performed not by strength but perseverance." Samuel Johnson

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As mentioned in my last post I recently purchased a La Carte Pastel card by Sennelier from Dick Blick, an online art stationery store in States. There are a lot of sanded papers available today, like Ampersand, Uart, Colourfix etc, but I decided to go for La Carte pastel card because I tried small study works on this card last year. The card came as a sample piece along with the Sennelier soft pastel set that I purchased through Amazon.

I pretty much liked its toothy surface and am posting my first landscape painting that I created on it recently. It is a 7.5” X 10.5” painting which I have created referring to my photograph that I took at Coorg, a beautiful hill station in Karnataka. It was a quiet morning and as we walked along the road lined up with trees and bushes, we could hear the sound of nature. John Muir's quote says it all. "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

Solitude

A Soft pastel painting on La Carte Pastel card by Sennelier

Size 7.5" X 10.5"

Initial stage of the painting

La Carte sennelier card pad.

The La Carte pastel pad has come with six different neutral coloured cards. I am more used to the dark coloured papers but will try and select some subjects where in I can use the light neutral shades too. The surface of this pastel card is a lot different from Canson Mi Teintes paper. It is heavyweight, 360 gsm card and has a very toothy surface which can take layers of pastels without the pastel dust falling off. 

Thank you for browsing through my blog and if you have any queries related to any of my artwork or my techniques you can leave a comment below or write to me at manjupanchal5@gmail.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible.

Watercolour Artist - Sadhu Aliyur

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instagram is new to me and I have started posting my works on this social media quite recently. Blogging is about my art journey wherein I share my art, my techniques, my experiments and my general thoughts and feelings about creating my art. Instagram on the other hand is a faster way of uploading my work and most important, all my works can be seen in a gallery format. In conclusion, as an artist, I am enjoying being a part of Instagram.

Through Instagram I am getting to meet many different artists from India as well as all around the world. Some of them have inspired me in a lot many ways and I have decided to create a post about each one of them. Today I am posting about a great water colour artist Mr Sadhu Aliyur.

Mr Sadhu Aliyur is a Kerala based water colour artist. His finely honed skills, astute observation and refined aesthetic sensibilities help him capture the essence of a scene in a few strokes. He makes the common look uncommon. He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

In his hands, nature comes alive in all its richness, textures, hues and forms. With a wash here and a dab there, the overwhelming beauty of the monsoon, skies and rain drenched dwellings are frozen for all time for the eyes of the connoisseur. Read more about him.....CLICK HERE.
( COURTESY: SADHU ALIYUR )

All works created by Mr Sadhu Aliyur are absolutely vibrant and stunning. His thoughts, feelings, conviction, and many moods seem to come alive with bare minimal strokes. The simple landscape scenes capture the mood and atmosphere so well. I have been following his works for quite some time now and decided to share some of them with you.

Check out his other works on his official website.

Each and every painting by Mr Sadhu Aliyur is so unique in itself, be it a still life, portrait or landscape, that you can't help but fall in love with it. 

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM , where in I post my latest artworks regularly. 

Thanks for browsing through my blog.🙏

Study sketches using willow charcoal and charcoal powder

Creating small study sketches using charcoal medium

My "Two days charcoal workshop" is coming up this weekend and therefore I decided to do a few study works in charcoal medium. The last time I created a few of them I felt the need to introduce the very dark black tone, which is not easily possible with willow charcoal and charcoal pencil. Therefore in my present sketches I have combined both the willow charcoal and black charcoal powder to get the desired effect. ( Easily available in most of the stationery stores ).

All the sketches below have been created on ordinary white cartridge sheet. These sketches are a bit of speedy works done in a very loose manner. The sole aim of doing these kind of sketches is to get an understanding of new techniques that can be applied in future for improvising on the art work. This time I decided to add a waterfall scene too along with some forest scenes. All the images below are from places that I have visited in the past. 

A scene from Karnala Bird Sanctuary

A tourist point at Mahableshwar

The Abbey waterfalls

I am posting the image of the small bottle which contains charcoal powder in it. I purchased it from ART STATION, a stationery shop close to my residence. The powder is fairly good and I use a piece of old cloth as blender to apply it on the paper. 

Charcoal powder ( Used for creating charcoal sketches )

Quotations by artists inspire me a lot to continue my journey of art. When I come across an interesting one I post it on my blog. The one below is from MAKING A MARK, an interesting art blog.

"I desperately needed something to hold on to, so I held onto my pencil." Joann Sfar

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.

Florida beaches - water colour study sketches

The white sandy beaches of Florida are just beautiful. For my next study sketches I referred to some beautiful images from Florida and manipulated the photographs a bit by shifting the sand dunes and the grasses so as to create a good composition. In each of them I have tried some different technique or colour combination. I have also experimented with different skies. 

The sky in all the paintings below has been completed in just one wash. I have also used two new colours which are my latest additions in the Camel artists colour tubes collection, namely Rose madder and French ultramarine blue. Over a long period of time we get used to using only a particular set of colours and it reflects in most of our paintings. So I took the decision to try out new colour mixes every time I do a study work. For example  to create a dark shadow I mixed viridian green and rose madder which worked out fine.

In two of paintings as below, I have added raw sienna in the foreground to add a little warmth. For grasses I have tried different brushes like flat brush, round brush and fan brush. An old worn out brush with stiff hair also works fine at times and I realised that with practise the grass creation will get better.

Painting beaches of Florida on cartridge sheet
using water colour medium.

My next project is to use my technique and colours that I applied in the study work and create larger pieces of work. I may not use all four images as above but it all depends on the MOOD and RHYTHM. Many a times I decide to do just one but get so carried away in the flow that I land up doing many more. Then there are times when my study sketches remain in the sketch book and I shift to some different work or medium.

There are no set RULES that I follow. There is no FIXED PLAN or ROUTINE. I take each day as it comes. Painting and sketching what comes to my mind each morning. Fresh ideas keep cropping in my head all the time and it is like a list of work that gets built up like a future PROJECT.

I may not execute all my ideas and projects the very same day and they remain stagnant in some part of the brain but I know for sure that each of the ideas will take shape some day be it a charcoal painting of a tree trunk or a portrait study or whatever else.

Right now my water colour seascapes is a definite yes and I plan to do at least four to five of them.

Portrait study - Charcoal and white pastel sketching

"Even when you paint, you never stop drawing." Igor Babailov

My today's post is a portrait drawing on toned paper. The paper that I am using is Canson Mi Teintes. This paper has great texture and works good for me. It comes in many different colours but I love the dark gray a lot for my charcoal and white pastel pencil drawings like the one as given below.

For my present portrait drawing I have used Camlin and Conte A Paris charcoal pencil. For the lighter tones I have made use of General white pastel pencil. 

Portrait study work
Size 5"X 7"

Portrait drawing is a very challenging subject as compared to landscapes and others, however it is very satisfying experience too. 

Thank you for visiting my blog and you can browse through my works on my INSTAGRAM page too.

Portrait study on gray hand made paper

"I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David." Michelangelo

I am enjoying creating portraits on toned paper. ( I have selected a simple handmade gray toned paper which has cost me about 30 Rs a sheet ). For my present portrait study, I have selected a face at an angle. The pencils used are Camel charcoal pencil and a white pastel pencil. 

Erasing, which I keep to bare minimum is done using kneaded eraser. Kneaded eraser can be moulded to any shape and it really helps to lift the charcoal and pastel.

Portrait study work

Size 5"X 7"

Thank you for visiting my blog and do browse through my latest works in INSTAGRAM.

Portrait of a friend - another study work.

The portrait as done below is of a close friend of mine. I clicked her photograph using the camera on my mobile and later the photograph as a reference. The curly hair was created by scumbling technique and I used the Camel charcoal pencil for the same.

I have a miscellaneous collection of charcoal pencils and will write a post on it soon. Each pencil has its own good use. Some are smooth, others are coarse. For toned paper especially the Canson series, the Camel brand goes well for me.

Portrait of a friend

Charcoal and white pastel work in Canson Mi Teintes paoer

Size 5"X 7"

No matter what medium and what subject I do, I get addicted to doing all of it. Art as a passion can make you create things which are sometimes totally unplanned. Along with doing portraits I am also taking out time to continue with my water colour studies in an attempt to zero in on the paper of my choice and to learn the Wet on Wet water colour technique. 

During my recent visit to town, I paid a visit to Himalaya Stationery and managed to get handmade paper for just Rs 35 a sheet. Surprisingly the paper has turned out pretty well. The wet on wet technique works pretty good on it. I have created two small works on it and am thinking of buying some more of these.

Carol Marine - An artist with great still life works

An artist I admire - Carol Marine

During one of my browsing sessions I came across a you tube video of Fine Artist Carol Marine.

She has a very different style of creating the still life works and her paintings are amazing.

I follow her works even now. She is from Texas, USA

Do watch her video as given below. ( COURTESY : YOUTUBE )

A Demo session by Fine Artist  CAROL MARINE

An apple and a sweet lime.

Still Life - Soft Pastel paintings of an apple and a sweet lime. Both Paintings are done on
fabriano paper. The size of painting is my standard 6" X 6".

SOLD WORKS

Size 12" X 12" ( including frame )