I just completed a Charcoal sketching with reference to a view from "End Point, Manipal"(Karnataka ). During one of my morning walks that I came across this scene and it appealed to me a lot. The distant land slowly faded away and merged with the Arabian sea. The wild growth in the proximity and the intertwining blades of grasses and branches all around made the foreground very dramatic and in all I loved the composition.
For this particular sketching I made use of willow charcoal to lay down the initial leaves as seen on the left. Later I added the details and the variation of values using my different charcoal pencils. For the background I have used my charcoal smudging tools. Since the view is taken from a cliff, the land at the distance is pretty much hazy, so I did not have to add any details to it.
A morning at End Point, Manipal
Charcoal sketching on Scholar drawing paper
Size 5" X 7"
I have started integrating the willow charcoal in my charcoal works quite recently and feel that I am still on an experimental level. Every time I create a small work I get to know the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. As I work more and more, my technique will slowly evolve. I have started two more small works in the same medium to get a better understanding of this beautiful versatile medium.
When I have time on my hands I devote a little of it to browsing through some beautiful photgraphs of nature. I recently came across some stunning photographs taken by Kalyan Verma who is a wildlife photgrapher, a naturalist and explorer dedicated to documenting wildlife and enviornmental issues that define our time.
Ending the post with a very meaningful quote
"A good artist has less time than ideas." Martin Kippenberger
