Pencils and Brushes

Scenic Tuscan

2011-06-25T11:53:00.000+05:30

Graphite on 180gsm Paper, 10"*6'"

Practicing clouds. Diane Wright, whom I have mentioned before has excellent tutorials on her website. I keep going back to her blog and website for inspiration and tips.
Following Diane's tutorial on clouds, I crosshatched the sky area with a F .5mm mechanical pencil. After blending the whole area with a paper towel, I sculpt the clouds with a plastic eraser. I keep working on the clouds erasing and darkening till I am satisfied with the results.
For the rest of the picture I have used .5mm mechanical pencils with a 2B lead for the darkest tones, F, 2H and 4H for the lighter tones.

Iron Chain Completed

2011-06-22T11:55:00.000+05:30

Charcoal, carbon and graphite pencil on Vellum Bristol. 10"*6"

Tried so many different techniques in this one piece alone. The idea was to to get a realistic rusted iron chain texture. What worked eventually was, for the shadowed regions of the drawing, stippling with carbon pencil first and then with a hard charcoal pencil. Then a light blending with a brush.

For the bright sun lite parts of the chain, a series of reverse burnishing, starting with 7H then 4H and finally 2H to get the rough texture. The white of the paper were preserved by stippling with a empty ballpoint pen before hand.

Iron Chain WIP

2011-06-18T11:11:00.000+05:30

Charcoal,carbon and graphite pencil on Vellum Bristol.

Working on an another charcoal, carbon and graphite combination. Posting the quarter part of the piece that I have been working on. More to come soon.

Marigold

2011-06-12T10:47:00.000+05:30

Acrylics on gessoed watercolor paper.

Inspired be some amazing watercolor works by pencil jammers, I did try a few myself, with disastrous results. Now am back to acrylics, watercolors will have to wait.
Wanted to paint loose with minimal attention to detail, with emphasis on the brush strokes. The whole painting took me about 2 hrs in two sittings Spent an hour or so drawing the sketch on a rough paper, transferring it onto the watercolor paper and laying down few initials layers of paint. I let the paint dry over night and finished the painting the next day.

Landscape Struggles Finished

2011-06-10T05:59:00.006+05:30

Graphite on A4 paper.

Finally completed this piece. Have kept it pending for quite some time now. The techniques I used, back when I started this drawing did not let me darken the grass as much as I wanted. And also I destroyed a few portions of the paper by erasing too much.
After a few days of mourning I have made peace with the fact that I might not achieve the required results. After a few final adjustments, am calling this finished.

Cherries in a Bowl.

2011-06-08T05:55:00.002+05:30

Acrylics on canvas panel. 8"*10"

Wanted to try painting a glass or porcelain bowl. Was too intimidated by the glass, picked a porcelain bowl instead.

Eagle

2011-06-06T10:24:00.000+05:30

Graphite pencil on 130gsm Paper. 6" * 7" approx.

Back to Animals and Birds after a long time. Used 4B for the background, 6B, 2B, HB, 2H and 4H for the eagle. Taking the picture was a struggle as usual.

Waiting for Spring

2011-05-30T12:00:00.000+05:30

Charcoal and 2B graphite pencil on A4 paper.

Another work with charcoal and graphite combination. I am falling in love with the charcoal pencils.

Old Barn in Watercolor

2011-05-27T18:10:00.000+05:30

Watercolor, Acrylic gesso on watercolor paper.

This old barn in between the various shades of green fields was a real challenge to paint. mixing so many greens from blue and yellow.. whew.. hats off to all the superb watercolorist out there.

Watercolor trials

2011-05-25T16:39:00.000+05:30

Watercolors, color pencil, micron pen on watercolor paper

Watercolors on watercolor paper

Water color trials. Watercolors are tough, after getting used to Acrylics, trying to paint in watercolors is very very difficult. I have to practice a lot to achieve the kind of results that I am looking for.

Canna Leaves

2011-05-24T11:09:00.000+05:30

Carbon, charcoal and Graphite pencil on A4 130gsm Paper.

More Carbon, Charcoal and Graphite pencil experiments. I am pleased with this piece compared to the previous one. The details on the leaves are much better in this drawing as compared to Maple leaves, where I think I ended up with too much dark background.

Mapel Leaves

2011-05-22T07:57:00.000+05:30

carbon pencil and graphite on A4 paper

Marsha Robinett who is an amazing artist and one of my favorite, uses carbon pencil for most of her work and gets amazing results. She also has a squidoo page Drawing Techniques: using carbon, charcoal, and graphite where one can learn more about her unique technique and the advantages of using all three pencils ( graphite, carbon and charcoal) in a single piece of work.

Cherry Blossoms

2011-05-20T07:44:00.000+05:30

Graphite on handmade paper.

More experimenting with the background. Applied a dark layer of 6B blended it with a paper towel to remove excess graphite and reapplied 6B. After a few times of doing the same ... the paper refused to take any more graphite :(
Was trying to achieve a light breezy back ground but now I am not sure what it looks like.

Reflection

2011-05-18T11:15:00.000+05:30

Graphite on handmade paper.

Another small piece, 14 * 7 cms. This is the first time I have tried to get a black background in graphite, achieving a perfect dark black in graphite is very frustrating and time consuming.

Tiger

2011-05-16T11:07:00.001+05:30

Graphite on handmade Paper

A very small study, its 5.5 * 5 cms. Used 6B for the back ground but in this photo, the left side has more glare than in the actual drawing.

Waterfront.

2011-05-14T10:55:00.001+05:30

Graphite on handmade paper.

Trying landscapes again. Water front this time around. Not a very clear photograph though.

A few sketches

2011-05-11T10:51:00.000+05:30

A few quick sketches in graphite over the last few weeks.

Tree Bark

2011-04-18T11:13:00.000+05:30

Graphite on Handmade paper.

Photographing pencil sketches is such a tricky thing. After an year or more of trying I am yet to click a perfect picture of my sketches. Should try scanning soon...

Jeans

2011-04-12T17:44:00.000+05:30

Grapite on handmade paper

The reference image for this drawing is from the blog 'The Artistic Biker', a great place for reference images for still life works.

Ballpoint Pen

2011-04-07T11:02:00.000+05:30

Ballpoint pen on A4 printer paper.

This sketch was supposed to be a quick value drawing for a future painting... but I got carried away and spent a whole week on this Dahlia closeup. The drawing is done with a ballpoint pen on A4 copier paper.
Note to self: Next time I spend so much time on a sketch I should at least ensure I am doing it on a better archival paper.

Tomatoes

2011-04-05T12:56:00.001+05:30

Charcoal on Handmade paper.

Inspired by Priya Sebastian, who blogs at the fabulous 'tHe pLum tRee'. Charcoal as a medium was very scary and still is to a large extent. But slowly trying to over come those fears.

Pots... lots of them..WIP

2010-11-25T16:53:00.004+05:30

The present stage of the painting.
Posting a few WIP pictures.

The pencil sketch and a few initial layers of color

Few of the foreground pots have been given a little detail.

Forgot to click more picture after this stage ... :(.

The first few layers are done.

Now a few days of contemplating. Will keep touching up the painting here and there...... as and when I want..

Will post the completed final picture in a few days.

Frangipani

2010-11-20T11:10:00.002+05:30

.I have had this reference photo with me for quite some time now. I always thought it would be too complicated but finally mustered enough strength to try it out.

Acrylics on canvas panel

Water color Technique with Acrylics.

2010-11-18T15:20:00.004+05:30

I have had the book "ACRYLIC LANDSCAPES THE WATERCOLOR WAY by Charles Harrington" for quite some time now. After many reading and re-readings, I finally decided to try out the techniques described in the book. Happy with the end result, thought have a lot to improve on color mixing.

Deepavali celebrations 2010

2010-11-17T18:21:00.004+05:30

Had a fabulous deepavali this year, rangolis, diyas and colors all around the house.

Playing with Photoshop

2010-10-21T10:48:00.000+05:30

Playing around with photoshop. An old color pencil looks nice and bright on a black background.

Painted Pots

2010-10-14T16:01:00.000+05:30

Hand painted terracotta pots.

Landscape stuggles

2010-10-07T10:39:00.000+05:30

One more attempt at trees and landscapes in general. Having trouble laying the graphite for the grass. I can't seem to get it neither as dark nor as even as I want. Am still working on it. Hopefully few more days of work will have some improvement.

Image courtesy: Wetcanvas RIL

Cherries

2010-07-17T15:58:00.001+05:30

Cherries.... graphite on canson sketch paper.

Jade...

2010-07-17T11:29:00.001+05:30

Small Jade plants in my garden. The ceramic pot is just about the size of a small tea cup. Had a tough time trying to pot this plant. Only two of my fingers would fit into the pot at any one time.

Reactivating

2010-07-13T13:09:00.000+05:30

Back to this blog after a gap of two years. Baby break. Hopefully will able to draw and post here more frequently. That is if my two year old lets me do it.

Daisy

2008-08-07T14:57:00.004+05:30

Reference Photo from a website

Enjoyed playing with the background with this painting.

Lotus

2008-07-24T17:55:00.005+05:30

The reference photo for this painting was on a magazine cover with the name of the magazine on the upper portion making it difficult for me to clearly see the details of the upper leaves and the water. Lesson learnt : Choose a clear reference.

Leopards

2008-07-04T16:30:00.005+05:30

Reference photo from a Newspaper
Have been working on this the whole of this week. Am not sure how many hours it took. I used .5 mm mechanical pencils HB, 2B, 2H and a 4B wood pencil.

Goose

2008-06-27T17:20:00.003+05:30

Reference photo from a magzine
A quick sketch done a few months back.

Black buck

2008-06-21T22:13:00.007+05:30

Reference photo from a newspaper article

Black buck is a species of antelope found mainly in India. This drawing took me around 10 hours to complete. The pencils used were .5mm 2B, HB and a 2H clutch.

Tutorials

2008-06-21T08:34:00.004+05:30

Reference photos from Diane Wright Fine Art

Diane Wright is an graphite artist living in Iowa US. Her website Diane Wright Fine art has some fabulous tutorials. The above sketches are from her tree, rock and landscape tutorials respectively

Charcoal and Graphite

2008-06-20T20:46:00.003+05:30

Reference photo from a newspaper
Trying a combination of charcoal and graphite.

Bell Peppers

2008-06-20T10:32:00.004+05:30

Reference photo from webshots free downloads
More Acrylic trials... have to put in a lot more work on the yellow bell pepper. Having trouble mixing the colors.

Acrylic Works

2008-06-19T17:04:00.005+05:30

Trying a hand at Acrylics

Experiment with Color Pencils

2008-06-19T13:32:00.010+05:30

My first color pencil trials ... not very happy with them .. will keep trying

A few Practice Pencil Sketches

2008-06-19T12:40:00.006+05:30

A few practice pencil sketches ... the reference photos are from a few art instruction books, wet canvas and magazines. I use Prismacolor Turquoise pencils and Canson recycled Sketch book for most of my practise work.

Pathos

2006-11-04T03:08:00.000+05:30

The first plant I started with was the Money Plant or Pathos ivy. It survived the winter very well and early this summer I re potted the plant in 3 different containers. Got those beautiful orange ceramic pots from Ikea. I think the orange offsets the green beautifully.

My Indoor Garden

2006-11-03T02:02:00.000+05:30

Gardening was one of those hobbies that I was unable to pursue until this summer. Finally having had the time and resources to do so I am excited to share my experiences with the many gardening enthusiast out there.

Gerbera and Marigold (chammanthi in Telugu) were the first flowers to bloom in my garden. The red gerbera which I planted way back in june is in its finest today. After months of experimenting and waiting, ... finally there are a total of 5 full bloom flowers and many more buds. Waiting to see them all.

Growing marigolds was much more easier. Got to enjoy the flowers all thru the summer.