Drinking Tea

Ramesh doesn’t like being photographed at least not when he has just woken up. As you can see I havent let that stop me I was trying out my father-in-laws new Canon S3 and its 12 X zoom and caught Ramesh in the act of swallowing some tea.

This is my first real attempt at using Pastels and I must say that it has been fun. The first time that I used them 2 years ago I gave up in disgust because of their chalky texture. I was expecting a buttery smooth one based on the marketing spiel I’d read.

For this piece, I’ve used soft pastels initially and then sharpened details and made corrections with Pastel Pencils. I’m finally beginning to understand the meaning of adding layers and that is what has been done here.

Approx 6″ X 8″ Pastels on Paper.

While reading a book on Van Gogh

After making a sketch of my left hand for the umpteenth time, I decided to copy a photograph of Van Gogh at 13 that I found in the book that I was reading. I’ve bought about 6 of them on different Masters and this is the first that I picked up to read. While I know most of his story from earlier, I still enjoyed the book and his paintings in it.

Finding myself wide awake I did yet another Van Gogh Self Portrait in pen which was on the inner cover of the book. And then a few days ago when looking around for something to do, I found the sketch again and decided to fill it with oil pastels and it was fun.

Both these were made in the small sketchbook that I carry around in my handbag currently. It is about 5″ by 7″ filled with handmade paper.

I had the opportunity, this summer to visit the Met and MOMA and see many of the paintings that I earlier seen only in books. I must say that the reproductions and reduced sizes don’t quite capture the beauty, colors or texture of the paintings. I’m really glad to have had the chance to see them in person.

Bust my laptop :(

My screen froze this morning. This in a mac is pretty unusual but I didnt give it much thought and rebooted. And when it came back on again it was without the display. I can hear the computer starting but can see nothing on the screen. I’m already missing it!

So soon after 10 in the morning when this happened and I’d finished trying to boot it with the battery, without the battery and all sorts of other combinations and getting no results I called up a friend to get a mac service providers number. She suggested that I spend the extra time i now had to draw and sketch.

These were made earlier today from a wonderful Photo Reference from Sudharshan. I’ve used the same reference for both the Pastel as well as the Poster Color piece and all 3 are different

It kept me distracted for quite a while. After which I even caught up on some reading and then Ramesh was back home with his laptop

I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the problem is a minor one and not the one the service personnel think it may be – requiring changing of the motherboard and having to import the spare part!

UPDATE: July 8, 2006: Good news! I have my PB back in action. Yay! Took it to the Genius Bar at the new Manhattan Apple Store. A wonderful “genius” by the name of Arion advised me of a flat service charge option for 350usd. Sent it in and it was back with me in a weeks time. And it was the motherboard that needed replacing which cost 900usd ++ Since I had almost given up on my PB and had gone to the store expecting to upgrade to another I was happy with the option provided to me. I must add that I was very impressed with the friendliness of the folks at the Apple Store. My father who accompanied me couldnt stop talking about them either.

Reflection – WIP

I’ve got stuck on the earlier WIP. Decided to start another instead of procrastinating further. I started this at my Monday morning Art Group meet. Worked on it some more this afternoon.

I chose this particular photograph by Sanzen as a reference as it had water and reflection which i want to learn to paint and it also had my current favorite subject – a sadhu! I was trying to think up of a name for this and until earlier this afternoon it was given a title of “Sadhu taking a dip”. Very boring. Today while looking closer at the photograph I noticed that he looks to be in deep thought, reflective and it is connected to my purpose in attempting this particular photograph – and there was my title – “Reflection”

While I have not managed to do much in terms of learning to tackle water or reflections, what i have learnt is to ensure that there is a flow across the paper in terms of the colors used to indicate the direction of the water, its depth or the reflection from other objects. Right now the angles on the left hand side dont match with right. Also it currently looks as though he has been buried in the ground instead of taking a dip in the water. Hopefully, it will improve a bit in the next stage. Advice is always welcome.

This is about 8″ X 10″ in pastel. I have a terrible memory and have already forgotten what little I had learnt of pastels last year. So I start again with this work. It is not complete but I wanted to take a step back. One area that I want to work on is the eyes. I’m also desperately thinking up of ways to tackle getting an edge and a point with my pastels. They’re all quite blunt and stubby. Sharpening them is too much of a waste. Any other ideas?

Stage 3 – Ramesh seems to think that it looks like water but I still dont see it I’ve worked some more on the water to change it from bright green by adding brown and yellow and some orange in the reflections. I havent got to the eyes so far. And another learning has been that I need to work much larger as it is very difficult to get details with stubby crayons.

Photo reference copyright Sanzen.  Used here with permission.

Bobby Bare

I must confess that I had not heard of Bobby Bare until today. This was the second time I was attending an art get together with Harriet's group and it turned out to be an everybody do your own thing. I hadnt taken any references with me and was not in the mood to use my imagination so I went through a couple of magazines. Came across this picture in one corner of the page on music reviews. It was on a CD Cover. I found the photograph very striking. In fact, thinking about it now, it reminds me of another similar photo reference that i'd used over a year ago of another singer, Kishori Amonkar. You can have a look at it here.

Used Oil Pastels and this is about 10" X 8". Didnt manage to complete it at this mornings session. Finished it in the evening, before dinner. I'm now attempting to do the pastels on colored paper. You can find this photo reference on the upper left hand corner of page 22 in UTNE's Jan-Feb '06 issue. The CD is called "The Moon was Blue" and i think I might just check it out.

And one more thing. Do leave a comment to tell me which photograph you prefer – the one above taken with a flash or the one below?

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Life drawing at Harriets

I was invited to join an art group for their Monday morning session. And that was this morning. Harriet is lovely, warm and friendly and I was immediately put at ease. They were going to have a Life Portrait session and the model was Parvati.

Decided to try her out in pencil first. Spent about half an hour on this. Found it difficult to handle her hair and maybe the next time i should try and sit in a bit closer. I havent managed to capture a likeness and in mine Parvati looks stern and angry while in reality she was laughing and smiling all the while! Parvati had posed for an art group earlier too and so was quite comfortable with sitting in one position and gave us a good one hour of her time.

Not wanting to hold the others back especially not the first time I met them, i decided not to make an attempt with acrylics but to do something else. Used darker paper for the oil pastels and tried capturing Harriet.

Sadly, it’s a very poor effort. I’ve realised i’ve forgotten the little i’d picked up of using pastels and will have to start all over again plus the black back ground was tough to work on. Need to try using it again.

It really felt good to be with people who were also interested in drawing ‘n painting and the morning passed by very swiftly. We had tea and a delicious apple cake too!

I’m now thinking of looking for a subject to try out something in acrylics.

 

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Shy

Delhi in winter gets really cold when compared with most other part of India especially the South.  We would sit in the gardens after lunch to catch some sun.  I was then on a mission to learn to take better photographs as well as references of my classmates for future paintings.  Another classmate, Yadvendra took this photograph with my camera.  Vibhuti had covered her head with shawl to protect her face from the midday sun. 

This was made at the tail end of my Pastel phase.   I was doing one every few nights just before sleeping.  I got help from Ramesh on this one.  In fact, I value his opinion and comments a lot.  They help me take a step back. 

Update: June 12, 2006:  just remembered that i have forgotten to add that i really enjoyed using this paper surface.  it's the reverse side of regular mount board and is a shade of dirt brown to start with.  You can see it peeping through but still it isnt as harsh as it would've been had the surface been white to start with.

Copying Van Gogh

There’s something about his self portraits that make you want to try them out. This one was reworked on. I did another one with poster colors which I will add to this post later. I think this one was the better of the two.

I’ve somehow made him look Indian   Reminds me of a character in the movie Monsoon Wedding – P.K.Dubey.  I wonder if we naturally tend to change features to resemble those that we are used to seeing.

I went through a pastel phase and this is one of 9-10 pastel pieces made in the Fab India sketch book. About 6″ by 5″.

I’m now hoping to make one just using his style.

Amma

This photograph was taken while on a barge in the Suez Canal.   I was quite pleased with the effort when it was made in October 2005. Looking at it now…..

The EDM challenge for the week is to draw a picture of your mother.  And here I am in Kolkata visiting her but not able to get her to sit still to do a sketch.  I think I shall resort to using another picture.

I’ve been trying to update this blog with earlier artwork and decided to use this weeks topic as the incentive to put this one up.  I hope to have a more recent one up on the other blog soon.