Step by step -Water colour painting on hand made paper

"The artist does not see things as they are, but as he is." Alfred Tonnelle

It feels good to be blogging once again after a long number of days. I have not painted much for a while as I have been busy travelling. 

The water colour painting that I am posting today got completed last month just before I left home for my holidays. Its a painting which has been inspired by "A Journey to Ladakh". Ladakh is one of my dream destinations and some day soon I plan to visit this place with famuly and friends. The reference photograph for the painting below has been provided to me by a close friend and I am thankful to her for the same.

It is a 11" X 14" painting on hand made paper and I have used Camlin Artists water colour tubes for the same. To view my Palette, CLICK HERE. 

The road to heaven

A water colour painting on hand made paper

Size 11" X 14"

Posted below are the steps involved in creating this water colour painting. I have used both, the wet on wet and wet on dry techniques to complete the above painting.

Step 1. Wet on wet, creating the sky and distant mountains

Step 2. Adding the foreground using flat brush and painting the 

mountain in the foreground using warm colours

Step 3. Adding details on the mountain slopes using

wet on dry technique

While I was away, I carried my small travel sketch book, water colour palette, two round brushes, few pencils and an eraser in order to create some plein air paintings provided I got time and opportunity. Fortunately on some days I did get a good view from the Homestay where we were put up and I managed to create a few small water colour study works. I shall try and post them soon.

In the meantime I am also gearing up to get started with my portrait works. I also have plan to create a few landscapes especially with reference to some beautiful photographs that I took while I was at Gurudongmar Lake in North Sikkim.

Thanks for browsing through my works and do visit my ART WORKSHOP page in case you are interested in taking one of my workshops to learn the basics of different mediums.

On the way to Ladakh - a water colour painting

"Choose only one master - Nature" - Rembrandt

Leh Ladakh is beautiful. The landscape is stunning and the snow capped mountains
offer a breathtaking view. Nature has been one of the most inspiring factors in my paintings.

Ladakh is at the top of my list in "MUST VISIT" places. I have a few photographs which
have been given to me by a close friend Preeti Jhaveri. After having done a few study works
as seen in my last post, I decided to create a 4" X 5" water colour painting on Canson Vidalon paper. 

In fact one of the reasons for selecting this subject is to submit my work in the weekly
challenge of Daily Paint Works. This has been one of my most important "RESOLUTIONS"
of this year and I am glad that I finally am getting into something that I always wanted to.

For most of my study works I only depend on my Camel water colour tubes but for this
particular painting I decided to use my Winsor and Newton Cotman water colour tubes
which have been with me since may be last fifteen years or so. I am trying to use them up as
some of the colours are drying up.

On the way to Ladakh

Water colour painting on Canson Vidalon paper ( 425 gsm )

Size 4"X 5"

Next I am planning to use Arches cold pressed water colour paper which is one of

the most popular choices by many artists of the world.

Trees and shadows from a reference photograph from Perth

This soft pastel painting was an unplanned one. A friend who was on a holiday in Perth and who knows about the subjects that I am always painting, sent me a picture of this scene from a tourist location and it appealed to me a lot. So just took a quick decision to paint it.

Under normal circumstances I take time to decide regarding my subject that I am going to paint.

The idea takes shape in the mind and then passively I start upon a step by step procedure that I would follow to execute the art work. Finally when I am sure about the mental picture that I have developed in my mind then I start off with my thumbnail sketch and then the actual painting.

In the shadows

Soft pastel painting on canson paper

Size 6" x 9"

My paintings can also be viewed on my facebook page www.facebook.com/charcoalspastelsandmore

If you have any inquiry wrt to purchasing my artworks you can write to me at

manjupanchal@hotmail.com.

Pastel painting from a reference photograph

Finally I indulged in a pastel painting after a very long time. Pastel medium is one of my favourite mediums. It is very versatile and gets done much faster as compared to canvas and charcoal work.

The photograph I used as a reference for this particular painting was clicked by my son while we were holidaying in COORG. I particularly liked the perspective of the tree and its exposed roots. A very different composition from my normal previous works.

 It looked pretty simple to begin with but as I progressed I realised that it had too many details and finally I landed up using my MUNGYO, KOH-I-NOOR and GALLERY pastels too. A challenging photograph always helps in learning new lessons. I enjoyed doing this painting and am working on my next pastel painting which too is from my reference photograph taken at Himachal Pradesh.

The Mighty one

Soft Pastel painting on FABRIANO TIZIANO paper

size 6.5" X 9" ( Excluding the mountboard )

For this particular work I have used Fabriano paper but for my other works I shall continue using Canson Mi Tentes paper as well. Both the papers I find are good for creating pastel works.

I have used Winsor and Newton fixative after blocking in the values in the first layer. Normally after the last layer I avoid adding further fixative as it dulls the colours.

Narkanda - Hatu peak. A painting done from reference photograph

Continuing with my 6" X 6" series of acrylics and oils , I used my reference photograph from Himachal Tour. Hatu Peak stands at 11,000 feet, 5 kms away from a small town in Narkanda. The view around was heavenly. The huge rocks around were piled up and created beautiful compositions. I had to edit my original photograph to get the composition that I was looking for.

Hatu Peak

Acrylic painting on canvas

Size 6" X 6"

I have used Camel artists acrylic tubes in order to create the above painting.

Leh -Ladakh painting - from a reference photograph.

From photograph to Painting

My 5th water colour painting in the Leh Ladakh series. 

As I mentioned in my earlier post I am referring to photographs given by my friend who visited Leh Ladakh a few years back. For my present painting For my present painting referred to the photograph as given below. 

But I wanted to make a few changes in the colour and composition. So I decided to keep just  one 

vehicle, give the road a wet effect and add the reflections of red light . Never painted or sketched a

vehicle before . The paper I used for this particular painting is FABRIANO AQUARELLA cold pressed

200gsm paper. 

On the Road

Water colour painting on Fabriano paper

Size 9" X 11" ( Including the size of mountboard )

The better quality paper in Fabriano for water colour painting is 300gsm, ARTISTICO cold pressed.

Right now I have the 200gsm pad since I purchased it in one of he sale sessions but I plan to buy the 300gsm paper soon. Most other papers tend to buckle with application of water especially when we 

are doing wet on wet technique where lot of water is applied right at the beginning.