Step by step, A Landscape Charcoal drawing using willow charcoal

"To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce

Zero Point, ( 15,300 ft ) also known as Yume Samdong, is a small mountain village in North Sikkim. It is about 118 kms away from Lachung. Most tourists spend a night at Lachung before proceeding to Zero point in the morning. Zero point offers stunning views of snow clad mountains and soaring coniferous trees.

The charcoal drawing as seen below is inspired by my journey to Zero point. This is one of the scene that I came across while we were on the move and it appealed to me a lot. The mountains, the low lying clouds and the coniferous trees in the foreground, it was nothing short of a paradise. These are the moments in life when you truly are in awe of nature's beauty.

For this drawing, I decided to use "Willow charcoal" as a tool because it helps to create a great texture for the mountain slopes. Apart from willow charcoal, I have also used Camlin charcoal pencil and charcoal powder to create the other elements in the scene.

At Zero Point

Charcoal drawing on Cartridge paper

Size 6"X 8" 

I decided to photograph the drawing in stages so that the viewers can see the simple techniques that I have followed in order to complete this artwork.

Step 1. Created a faint outline and then used willow charcoal

for the background mountains.

Step 2. Additional strokes using willow charcoal to block in

 the darker values in the foreground.

Step 3. Lifted out clouds in the distance using kneaded eraser

and used charcoal pencil in the foreground to

to create the coniferous trees and foliage.

In the final steps I added details where ever necessary. In conclusion I have used more of willow charcoal in this artwork and the more I use it the more I discover the advantages of using this tool in combination with the others. Exploring each tool by using it frequently in the artworks, helps to get a better understanding about it. Once you get to know it, you can use it at the right place and create marks that make all the difference. 

VAAYU, the annual festival of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management studies ( NMIMS ) is being held from 13th to the 17th of December, 2017. It was an honor to be invited as a judge for their event in Fine Art Category, titled "La La Land" on the 13th of December. The competition was unique as it was based on music and art combined together. The students were also required to sculpt a candle. It was a very innovative theme and I enjoyed being there and it was a pleasure to judge the participants. 

If you wish to know more about the events being held in NMIMS, you can visit their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks.

Portrait study work on Canson Mi Teintes paper

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." 
Michelangelo

Today I am posting a small quick "Portrait study" of a pretty woman I met at Thangu, where we halted to have breakfast before moving towards Gurudongmar Lake. She was friendly with a pleasant personality. I interacted with her and took her photographs from different angles. Before starting her front face profile I decided to do a quick study of the side face using minimum brush strokes.

For my charcoal and white pencil portraits I have more or less shortlisted two papers. The Strathmore gray toned paper and Canson MT series. For my present work I have used Canson paper. Both these papers are available on Amazon.in.

Portrait study of a woman from Thangu, North Sikkim

on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 5" X 7"

This portrait study was more about getting to know her features and I have not spent much time getting into the details. I am almost done with another of her portraits and shall be posting it soon.

Presently I am also busy doing some charcoal landscape works in preparation for my upcoming one day Charcoal drawing and sketching workshop on the 17th of December at Art Station, Andheri west.

Thank you for browsing through my artworks.

Step by Step, Water colour painting of Gurudongmar Lake

"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else." Pablo Picasso

Every painting is inspired by some thought, some place, some vision that you have in mind. It slowly builds up in layers and then when the final moment of execution arrives, you let the energy flow on to the paper. Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim is one such place which is indelibly printed in my memory and it will continue to inspire me to make many paintings in future.

The moments we spent there were magical. It was like a dream come true to see nature in its pristine form. Today's post is a water colour painting of one such scene that we came across while we were at 17,100 ft, facing the majestic snow covered mountains and the stunning Gurudongmar Lake.

Magical

Water colour painting on Campap paper

Size 5.5" X 8"

For this particular work, I decided to photograph the initial stages of the painting. I have used a very limited palette for this painting. The initial drawing that I do is very light and I use a normal HB pencil for the same. I avoid erasing as it disturbs the surface fibres on the paper.

Step 1. Wet on wet technique, sky and mountains, 

using Winsor and Newton Ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue

 and Alizarin Crimson.

Step 2.  Created the mountains in the Middleground using Raw Sienna,

Ultramarine blue, Indian red and Burnt Sienna ( Camlin brand )

In the final stage I created the lake waters, which are reflection of colours of the sky ie Ultramarine blue and Cerulean blue. For the shadows on the snow I have used a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson colour.

Hope you have enjoyed going through my blog. It feels great to be painting and blogging and thanks to my blog, I am getting connected with people who are as passionate about art as me. If you love water colour medium, do browse through the works of Joseph Zbukvik, Alvaro Castagnet and Keiko Tanabe to name a few. All these world famous master water colorists have a style of their own and it is a pleasure watching their works.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Road to Gurudongmar Lake, North Sikkim - A water colour painting

"You start painting the moment you look at the subject, not with the first brushstroke." 

Joseph Zbukvik

The last stretch of the road that leads to Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim passes through a dry barren landscape and offers breathtaking views. The dark grey road against the pale surroundings, leading to the distant snow covered mountains looks majestic. The beauty of nature cannot be explained in words. We have to be there to see it, feel it and get inspired by it. 

As quoted by Artist Joseph Zbukvik, you start painting a beautiful scene the moment you set eyes on it. This scene appealed to me a lot and that very moment when we were travelling through this beautiful terrain, I had decided to paint it some day. I enjoyed working on this painting and used my newly purchased Paynes grey colour ( Camlin Artists water colour tubes ) for the road.

Road to Gurudongmar Lake

Water colour painting on handmade paper

Size 11" X 15"

Posted below is the initial stage of the painting where in I have blocked in the simple basic shapes using diluted colours. Once it is dry, I redo the second layer adding the right values and details where ever necessary.

Initial stage of the water colour painting

on hand made paper

As mentioned in my last post I am in the process of trying out Fabriano CP 300gsm paper. I plan to create a few small study works to understand the paper. Later if I like the paper a lot, I shall continue using it for my future works too. 

I conduct art workshops from time to time to teach the basics of different mediums and to share the techniques that I use to create a painting. If you wish to attend one of them you can mail me at 

manjupanchal5@gmail.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible.

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

The snow capped mountains around Gurudongmar Lake.

"People come and go, the mountains remain. Mountains are permanent things. They are stubborn, they refuse to move." Ruskin Bond

Today I am posting a water colour painting of a scene that I came across when I visited Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim. At an altitude of 17,100 ft above the sea level the snow capped mountains look magnificent against the backdrop of clear azure sky. In fact every view around was picturesque in its own way.

When I painted the Gurudongmar lake, I enjoyed creating the reflections in the water. In this particular painting I tried to get the sand and rocky texture in the foreground plateau. I have used raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and ultramarine blue ( Camlin artists water colour tubes ) in the foreground plateau.

A view from Gurudongmar Lake

Water colour painting on Fabriano Artistico hot pressed paper

Size 5.5" X 7.5"

For this painting I have used Fabriano Artistico hot pressed paper  which is great but I want to use the cold pressed version next time. So yesterday I managed to buy a sheet for Rs 415/- and am excited to try it out soon. The hot pressed paper will go well for my water colour portrait works as it has a smooth surface.

Presently I want to continue working on few more landscapes and seascapes as I am enjoying experimenting and exploring the water colour medium.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Teesta river flowing down the Yumthang valley

"There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature." Aristotle

When you stand there looking at the creation by nature, it overwhelms you and you begin to appreciate everything around more than ever.

While returning from Zero point ( Yumesamdong )  in North Sikkim, we came across this particular scene with Teesta river flowing down the Yumthang Valley, surrounded by white grey rocks, a sandy patch and greenery in the background. We stopped for a while here and spent few moments soaking in the beauty, then went ahead to click a few photographs.

Teesta river is a 309 km long river flowing through the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim, before going to Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh.It carves our from the verdant Himalayas in temperate and tropical river valleys and forms the border between Sikkim and West Bengal.
( Courtesy: Wikipedia )

I wanted to try out this scene in water colour medium and used a small cut out of Strathmore water colour paper ( 4" X 5" ). The river water was beautiful shades of blue and I have used a mix of Winsor and Newton ( Cotman colours ) and Camlin paints for this artwork.

Teesta River

Water colour study work on Strathmore paper

Size 4"X 5"

The rocky path in the foreground is the path through which most vehicles travel. It is a very bumpy ride. There used to be a road earlier which got destroyed in the past earthquake. Many parts of North Sikkim face the same situation, however the final destination is worth the ride.

I enjoyed painting on Strathmore 300 gsm water colour paper. It has good water retaining capacity and the paper does not abosrb the colours much. As a result the colours remain bright with minimum application. I am tempted to create some more works on this paper so as to know my final review in comparison to Arches and Fabriano papers.

Thanks a lot for visiting my blog. If you are into water colour painting, I would love to hear about the papers and colours used by you. Do leave in a comment to share the same.

Using Arches 300 gsm cold pressed paper

"Master water first and then paint." Josh Goldberg

Gurudongmar Lake is a stunning lake situated at a height of 17100 ft above sea level in north Sikkim.
The lake can be reached by road from Lachen via Thangu. The approach road from Thangu to Gurudongmar passes through a rugged and enchanting terrain with high alpine pastures covered with many rhododendron trees. It is a difficult journey and most tourists leave Lachen early morning by 4 or 5 am as it takes three to four hours to reach the lake. However once the destination is reached it is an unbelievable sight and the beautiful view all around is mesmerising. To me it was like a dream come true.

Before creating any painting, as a rule I always create a few study works which helps me simplify the shapes, understand the values and colours. Creating a study work also helps me to decide on my technique that I would apply in order to create that particular work. Sometimes it is wet on wet and other times I go with wet on dry technique. I have used my newly purchased Arches cold pressed paper for this painting and if everything works out well I may use it as my preferred choice for water colour medium.

Gurudongmar lake

Water colour painting on Arches cold pressed paper

Size 7" X 9"

In conclusion, I enjoyed working with Arches cold pressed paper. It has a great textured surface which is ideal for landscape painting and being 300 gsm, it can hold water for long and does not buckle much. I am planning to create a seashore painting next on the same paper. After creating a couple of works on this paper I will be able to understand its quality better.

Thanks for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks.

Gurudongmar Lake and Zero point - water colour study works

"All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child." Marie Curie

The above quote says exactly what I feel while I am in the arms of nature. My recent visit to North Sikkim made my dream come true as I got the opportunity to visit Gurudongmar lake, Yumthang valley and Zero point. Words cannot express the beauty of these places and as I always write in my posts, one has to be there to feel it and live it.

I captured the beauty of north Sikkim in my Camera ( Cannon and Sony ). Gurudongmar lake is the second highest lake in India, at a height of 17100 feet above sea level. It is one of the most beautiful, spectacular and sacred lakes surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains.

Legend has it that, Guru Padmasambhava ( also known as Guru Dongmar ), touched and sanctified the lake, and thus even in extreme winter, a portion of the lake does not freeze. The lake is also one of the sources of river Teesta, which flows through Sikkim, West Bengal and Bangladesh to merge with the Bay of Bengal.

Given below are a few water colour study works of Gurudongmar lake and scenes from Zero Point in north Sikkim. Study works help me to understand the composition, brush strokes, colour mixing etc so that when late I am trying to recreate the same scene on a larger scale I will know the exact technique to follow.

Gurudongmar Lake 

Study works on cartridge sheet

Size 4" X 5"

At Zero point ( North Sikkim ) 

Study works on cartridge sheet

Size 4" X 5"

After having done the "Study works" where in I tried out different techniques to get the scene as desired, I shall now decide on creating a larger painting on "Arches 300gsm cold pressed paper". 

I purchased a few sheets of Arches paper some months back but have somehow not gathered the courage to start on it. It is an expensive paper and I wanted to have the free and loose brush movements, and a little bit of experience in handling the water colour medium. It is time now to shift from handmade paper to Arches and I will know the difference once I paint on it. I would love to create a "Gurudongmar lake" painting on it soon.

Thank you all for your support and keep browsing.