Flavour of the month

We’re having people over for dinner tonight and suddenly there is this urge to draw.  Must be something to do with the fact that there are chores that need to be taken care of. 

While looking for the crossword puzzle in yesterdays newspaper I came across an ad promoting a music concert  “James Unplugged”.  There was a photograph accompanying the copy, of an intense, handsome young man which grabbed my attention and I’m assuming he is James.  I hope the concert is going well for him.  He must be playing at the Sheraton Hotel as I type this.

Continuing to enjoy the freedom of using any medium I fancy and the current flavour of the month is pen & ink.  Used  the 0.30 Rotring with brown ink and tried for some values by varying pressure and the number of passes.

And now I’d better get going before my guests arrive!

Approx 4″ X 4″ Pen & Ink on handmade paper in my sketchbook.

Mannat

Mannat is one of the few people we know here in Dhaka who is below 40. Waaaay below 40, at 8 going on 9.  She is a willing model for many of her fathers photography experiments.  And I get some great references to work with.

5″ X 7″ Pen & Ink on hand made paper. Brown ink, black ink and white chalk.

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Photo reference copyright Anil Advani. Used with permission.

Father and child

This time I was determined to visit the art supply store on my own. I did not want to bore the others to tears and nor did I want to rush over what was a big treat for me. I did pick up a few new things to try and one of them was transparent photo colours – warm brown and black. I discovered today that the brown has lovely shades of pink and rose in it.

My niece with her father.  She is frowning in this one too but I couldnt capture that.  I was worried about using too many dark lines on her face.  Used a photo reference. Pen & Ink with a wash of warm brown Camel tranparent photo colour in my sketchbook.

Restating Lines

It was after reading Danny Gregory’s website that I took to restating lines with a pen without a care and have now grown to like them. Soon after, I joined Every Day Matters (EDM) the group started by him. Without doubt this is one of the best groups that I belong to. The members are knowledgeable, helpful and encouraging. I have learnt a lot from them and the exchanges that take place. Some of it has got absorbed and is now a part of the way I draw and paint and the rest is on its way to being assimilated.

This pen & ink wash of the boy holding a flag is from a fabulous reference taken by one of my favourite photographers on Flickr, Ashit Parikh. I know that it bears little resemblance but I have now reached the point where I’m not fixated on getting a likeness at least that’s how I feel today!

Rotring : Brown ink : Watercolour Pencils : sketchbook : 8″ X 10″

Some quotes that I’ve fished out on Perfection from Robert Genn’s The Painter’s Key website

It’s always necessary to seek for perfection. Obviously, for us, this word no longer has the same meaning. To me, it means: from one canvas to the next, always go further, further… (Pablo Picasso)

No one is perfect. It’s not interesting to be perfect. (Lindsay Lohan)

Exactitude is not truth. (Henri Matisse)

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. (Salvador Dali)

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. (Eugene Delacroix)

Being happy doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections. (unknown)

sorry for going overboard but here’s a last one

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation. (John Updike)

Right side up

I’ve been postponing trying this out right side up. Finally got around to it earlier in the evening. I find that my lines were looser and more confident in the last one that I made. In this one there is more of a likeness. I’ve used brown ink and a Rotring 0.7 technical pen. It’s approx 8″ X 10″ in my sketchbook.  Doesnt look brown as I havent cleaned out the pen!

Work on my art resolutions has begun and I’m very pleased about it. But because of this finished pieces and posts will be far fewer for a while.

Another Upside Down

One of the art blogs that I consider a must read is Katherine Tyrell’s “Making a Mark“. I visit it often. It contains all kinds of useful information and links for artists. A couple of days ago I followed a link from there to Margaret Stiefvater’s post on “How to Juggle and other Parlor Tricks“. The post struck a chord in me and if you too have been procrastinating and need to give yourself a swift kick in the rear to get going, go read it! I’m hoping that the effects last at least a few days. I’m sure I’ll be heading back in a few days to refresh my conveniently failing memory.

I started a couple of watercolour portraits of Andrew Wyeth yesterday. Just the first wash layer has been put in. And this morning [wonder of wonders!] I made another upside down Pen & Ink drawing. I used brown ink in the Rotring and black drawing ink for the wash. It doesnt resemble the artist, Maqbool Fida Hussain, who I was trying to capture but I do like most things that I make and this one is no exception. I will give it another go but right side up. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me to succeed in my goal of doing some art related activity everyday.

Stuck on College of Art

A quick sketch of the Painting HOD at the Delhi College of Art. Mr Abhimanue Govindan