At Matheran - A Charcoal drawing

“The environment is everything that is not me.” Albert Einstein

When we are out in the wild in the proximity of nature, we come across scenes which capture our attention instantly. The painting actually begins in the mind, the moment we set our eyes on a beautiful scenic landscape.The forest pathway as below was a little away from our Homestay in Matheran and being early morning the sun rays found its way through the dense foliage to create a beautiful contrast of light and shadow on the forest floor.

It is interesting to create a dense forest scene using any medium. With charcoal medium it is mostly about getting the values right. I used kneaded eraser and Staedtler eraser to create the highlights on the pathway and at other places where ever required. Creating thin branches come easy using using any sharp charcoal pencil.

At Matheran

A Charcoal drawing on Favini paper

Size 6"X 7"

I have been working with charcoal medium for very long and I am a little saturated. It is not that I do not love this medium but at times we all need a change. So I am shifting to water colour medium to start with. Will be doing some seascapes and landscapes. No matter what medium, I personally feel that every medium gives me same amount of joy. It is this journey of art which defines me and I am loving every moment of it.

The year 2017 has almost come to an end and I shall be posting soon about some "New year  resolutions" that I have in mind for 2018.

Thank you for browsing through my artworks. 

The Morning shadows - A soft pastel painting

"The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it." Gustave Courbet

I love to paint both landscapes and portraits. In fact what unifies every subject is light. The light that falls on the different elements in the subject defines its form and shape and helps reveal its colours. Pastels are a vibrant and ideal medium to capture this light and shadow effect in paintings.

Today's post is a soft pastel painting of a scene that I came across while I was at Karnala Bird Sanctuary recently. It was about ten in the morning and the shadows of the tall trees fell across the road creating interesting patterns. There is so much beauty that lies hidden in the nature and as an artist we try to capture it on to the paper using our vision and interpretation.

To know about the pastel palette that I use, CLICK HERE.

The Morning Shadows

Soft Pastel painting on Canson MT paper

Size 5" X 7"

The initial steps involved in creating the above painting are as follows. I have used a beige coloured Canson paper for this artwork. Canson MT comes in many different colours which is a big advantage to the artist. In this painting a major part of the composition was sky, hence I wanted to use a light toned paper as the base.

Step 1. After drawing a faint outline keeping the one third rule of composition, 

I blocked in the major shapes. At this stage I only look at simplifying the 

shapes and adding the colours as per value study.

Step 2. I add another layer of colours, laying emphasis on the dark tones, mid tones and the

highlights. At this moment, I pay attention to linear and atmospheric perspective

creating depth. I work on the shadows, the tree trunks and foliage.

In the final step I added a few necessary details like branches, sunlit foliage etc in the middle ground. At this stage I make use of my Koh-I-Noor soft pastel pencils. At some point of time I decide to call it quits to avoid overworking on the artwork.

Thanks for browsing through my artworks.Visit my INSTAGRAM page to view my works in other mediums as well.