A Rocky Seashore at Bamboo island - A soft pastel painting

I love painting seascapes. Having spent my childhood close to the sea, it brings back memories.
I have a big collection of photographs and sketches yet to be painted and I don't think I will ever get tired of painting this subject. In fact the more I paint the more I fall in love with it.

The seashore as below has been created using very soft pastels ( Mungyo and Koh-I-noor ). I rarely use the hard pastels. In fact I have just one set with me and I never felt the need to purchase more. The scene below is from Bamboo island, part of Phi Phi Leh ( Thailand ).

In this particular painting I got to create a few textured rocks, the froth on the sea waves and their shadows. While adding the waves in the shallow waters I had to pay attention to the perspective in the scene. In all painting this scene was a new learning experience. I am looking forward to creating a few more seascapes soon.

A Rocky Seashore

Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 7.5" X 9.5"

I am blogging after a long "Diwali festival" break. As an artist I would love to paint and blog everyday but I have this priority list in which my art is sometimes not at the top. There are other very important personal things to be taken care of. However as and when I get free time to myself I devote it passionately to my art. 

The next painting that I may begin is of a forest pathway from Coorg in soft pastels. It has been a long pending assignment which has already painted visually in my mind and I just have to put it down on the paper. 

Last week while browsing through the net for nature and wildlife photographers in India and I came across some amazingly beautiful photographs taken by Rathika Ramasamy. I am truly inspired and have become a big fan of her works. If you are into photography or nature study you must visit her site.

Ending with a quote  - "Art does not reproduce what you see. It makes us see." Paul Klee

Step by step - charcoal study sketch of a tree trunk

" Creativity is intelligence having fun." Albert Einstein

Creating a simple value sketch in a short duration of fifteen to twenty minutes helps me to simplify
the painting process. My charcoal sketching workshop is coming up in the next week so I decided to spend some moments with the charcoal medium.

I am posting below two different quick tree trunk sketches that I created using willow charcoal and a normal charcoal pencil. These sketches need to be sprayed with a fixative to avoid the sketching from smudging OR as an alternate solution one can keep it protected under butter paper.

Step 1. Applied willow charcoal and smudged it using finger.

Step 2. Created an outline of the tree trunk.

Step 3. Added the darkest values and the highlights lifted using eraser.

Step 4. Added midvalues using willow charcoal and charcoal pencil. A few

details using eraser and pencil.

Step by step charcoal study sketch

created on Favini paper

Size 4"X 5"

Creating a small sketch helps me understand the steps leading to the final execution of the artwork.

Therefore when I start the sketching on a bigger scale, I don't have to think a lot about the value variations as I have already worked on it earlier itself. Both the tree trunks were captured on my mobile while I was in Lonavala recently.

CLICK HERE to see one of my step by step charcaol sketching that I posted earlier in Jan 2016.

I have lately started using "Willow Charcoal" a lot for my quick sketches as it covers up the paper fast and is easy to blend and control. The only drawback is that it smudges a whole lot. Therefore I avoid using it on my final art work except at places where I need to create foliage etc. I will learn more about it as I continue to use it and explore some other possibilities. The paper I have used for the above sketching is an acid free paper from Italy, Favini.

The shadow at the beach - A soft pastel painting

"An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye." Michelangelo

Simple quote that speaks a volume. All the painting starts in the mind itself. The eyes
see it all. The observation gets sharper and better with time.

I recently created a beach scene from Bamboo island ( Thailand ), using the charcoal medium.
The place was so full of colours that I could not resist myself from creating a soft pastel
painting of the same.

Therefore using my cleaned up Soft pastel palette I went ahead to recreate this memorable
scene using vibrant shades of blues and greens. The water of the ocean, changed colours from
green to shades of blue, as it receded towards the horizon.

I titled this painting "The light and the shadow" as the source of light played a predominant
role in the painting. Another appealing factor to me in this particular scene was the rocks that
were so clearly visible under the crystal clear waters.

The light and the shadow

Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6.5" X 8"

I spent my childhood years close to the sea. Hence the affinity is pretty strong. It brings back

sweet memories. The love for the sea and seashore continues to exist but now I am into admiring 

the beauty of nature. Using my creativity and imagination, I am busy trying to capture it live on a blank piece of paper so that I can hear the sea waves splashing at the shore. The sound of the

waves in a continuous rhythm is so relaxing to the mind.

Having completed this painting my latest resolution is to add a few more "Seashore paintings" to 

my " To do" list.