Jammed! Sketch- Soft pastels

I came early from work yesterday as I had to reach someplace for some work but couldn't reach because of this in Hiranandani, Powai (Mumbai, india)!

Well, the first showers that we were so waiting for are gonna also bring these jams..that means long hours in traffic, clutch- brake- escalator syndrome, petrol bills hike and exhaustion! Phew!

This is a tiny sketch I did to try out some soft pastels that i bought the other day. They are amazing and blend very well on plain paper.

They are Artists' Soft Pastels by brand Gallery ( munovo) . They come for INR 300 ( in India).

Signs of a Maverick Artist :)

You know you have become a maverick artist when:

1. You start losing interest in the way the clothes are scattered in your house and instead look at their folds thinking how to draw the shadows to show the folds in the garments.
2. Your living room has various artworks in various stages of completion!
3. You have oil paints on your nails and elbows and don't bother much to remove them.
4. You aren't interested in the way the food is cooked but wonder how you will paint the kitchen/ fruits/ vegetebles , so that they look real!
5. You want to go to a mall not to shop but to draw people shopping and sitting around.
6. You stare at members from the opposite sex not because they belong to the opposite sex but because you want to study the way the clothes have folded and the way the posture can be captured in a drawing!
7. You go to a cafe with a special friend and stare hard at the people around, imagining how will will re-draw the scene once you get back home!
8. Your house smells of linseed oil and turpentine!
9. YOU smell of linseed oil and turpentine instead of Dior or Elizabeth Arden and you just love it!
10. Your sunday beauty parlour/hair massage trips have been completely taken over by paintouts!
11. You look at the car in front of your car, when driving in traffic, wondering how you will fit it in ina cityscape!
12.  You stare at trees and leaves and think 'wow! sap green mixed with lemon yellow! ' or you look at the sky and think 'Hey a little veridian mixed with cobalt blue, highlighted with prussian blue and slight touches of crimson red!'
13. You aren't bored at the traffic signal, because you are busy clicking snaps of the sky with your cell phone, thinking how you're gonna paint this!
14. You are ready to make a trip out of the city when you are dead tired just because there is the promise of an artistic meet out there.
15. You wake up at 3 A .M and walk to your easel and make changes to your current work after looking at it from 2, 3 angles.
16. You get into sms marathons with artistic people like painters , photographers analysing art/ drawing perspectives and techniqniques!
17. Sunday mornings are exciting not because you can sleep late but because you will rise early and go on a paintout!
18. Movies are time consuming because they take 3 hours away from drawing!
19. You arent bothered about the artist as much for his/ her work of art.
20. Finally , when you dip your brush into your cup of tea instead of your cup of linseed oil and hell , God forbid (which I almost did once)... even worse...drink linseed oil while dipping the brush into the cup of tea!  

P.S.:More comments added on comments section by C. B. Prasad by email to me :
Posted link to his website
http://meylah.com/prasad

      

Who will cry when we die! (Prize Winner)

Acrylic on A4 canvas -Sketch

                        A sketch submitted as an entry in a competition for World Environment Day Celebrations.( it won a prize).

Just got to know from an artist who viewed this work that this may be called an anthropomorphic tree.

Anthropomorphism is a term coined in the mid 1700s, to refer to any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to non-human animals or non-living things, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts, such as god(s). Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), "human" and μορφή (morphē), "shape" or "form". Characters from the story of Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story are great examples of anthropomorphism.

As a literary device, anthropomorphism is strongly associated with art and storytelling where it has ancient roots. Most cultures possess a long-standing fable tradition with anthropomorphised animals as characters that can stand as commonly recognised types of human behavior. In contrast to this, such religious doctrines as the Christian Great Chain of Being propound the opposite, anthropocentric belief that animals, plants and non-living things, unlike humans, lack spiritual and mental attributes, immortal souls, and anything other than relatively limited awareness

.Sourced from Wikipedia.

Quite White - Oil on A4 size Canvas Sheet

This is a  pallete knife painting done without any brushes, except for the background.

I am trying out some pallete knives that I bought recently. I find the knives too fragile either to scoop or paste the paints. Will have to buy some sturdier ones, so I don't have to think of them breaking when I am pasting!

Palette knife is excellent for oil painters who prefer the impasto kind of technique. It requires a little maouevering and understanding of shadows and impressions that could be created with different colours.
You require a few rags to wiipe the paint clean thats all.

Merits of this technique:

1) It is quick.

2) It makes the colours " come out strong'' , as there is usually no solvent mixed. Paint is directly blobbed onto the canvas.

3) Its initially great for still life and sceneries, where you want to show impressionist layers (e.g. seascapes). Once you have manoeuvered the technique, you can take it forward to cityscapes and figures as well!

4) No solvents, medium required. Just wipe the paint clean!

Demerits:

1) It's messy! You end up having oil paint all over!

2) If you can't plan out shapes and shadows in your head, you may end up 'not really being there'!

3) Its expensive!! You use double the amount of paints in this technique, vis - a -vis the usualy brush technique.!

All in all, I'm all for palette knife technique. It suits my style and I love the finish.

I hope to do more on my larger canvases!




  

'Lalit'.. Acrylic on Canvas Sheet A4

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A quick painting I made to gift to a young friend who is still a student, an IIM graduate. She is leaving the city tomorrow and I made this as a gift for her.

Due to shortage of time I used acrylic paints, so that it dries fast.

Hope she likes it.

I was humming raag Lalit when i was painting this and I associate this evening (though its an early morning raaga) and this painting with Lalit raaga.

For those who are interested :

Lalit is a raga in Hindustani classical music. It is commonly described as serene and devotional and is performed at dawn.

The swara (notes of the Indian musical scale) of Lalit put emphasis on the minor second (Re) and minor sixth (Dha), and include natural and sharp fourth (Ma), but omit the commonly used perfect fifth (Pa).(Wikipedia).
Link for song Badi dheere Jali from Hindi movie " ishquiya" in lalit..Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2deEik7kEcs