Pink it is!

Oil on 4"*8" canvas panel

My second oil painting, loving them.

Succulent II

Oil on Canvas 4" * 4".

The second painting of the series.

Image credit: Gennine.

Succulent series. I

Mixed media on 4" * 4" canvas .

I have been planning to paint a series of succulents for ages.

 I am a long time admirer  of  Geninne's amazing work. I love every thing about her work. Watercolors, pottery, stamps, photography.... the list goes on and on.

Her collection of succulents are a huge source of inspiration to me. 

This painting is from one of her many amazing photos of succulents on her blog.

Tropical Fruit.

Graphite on 130 gsm A4 paper.

Back to graphite, thought I am still playing with my charcoal sticks.
Some thing that I have been frustrated for a long time now, is the glare in my pencil work photographs. Pencil works are best photographed in a bright shade. But it is easier said than done. Even in the shade some part of the drawings got more light than the the rest, resulting in a glare or over darkening of one side of the drawing etc.
I have tried photographing at different times of the day. Afternoon works best if you have access to a terrace or open space where the light hits from all directions. But even then, even lighting is tricky (tricky sentence :) ). Evenings have never worked for me.
This particular photo, with which I am really happy was taken early in the morning just before sun rise. It was very bright outside but no sun rays hitting the art work, no glare, no shadows and very little editing required. I am all smiles.

Charcoal Sketches.

Charcoal sticks on cartridge paper. 

My new obsession.  Charcoal sticks...
I am in love with this medium.
Though I have used charcoal pencils before... was reluctant to use charcoal in any other form (chunky, vine, willow or compressed charcoal.).

Now that I have tried it,... am not going to stop.

Fruit Anybody??

Acrylic on Panel, 8" * 11"

I have had a couple of hardboard panels that I bought ages ago when I was starting to teach my self Acrylic paintings. I wanted to experiment with different surfaces and hence the purchase. I don't exactly remember what was on these panels, but a few years ago I painted white gesso over them. I sanded them to a smooth finish using fine grit sandpaper before starting with this piece.
I think I like the smooth panel better than the canvas texture.  

Browns

An exercise in browns.

Acrylics on canvas panel. 4"*6".

Cherries in a Bowl.

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.

Reflection

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.

A few sketches

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

Jeans

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.

Tomatoes

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.

Cherries

Cherries.... graphite on canson sketch paper.

Bell Peppers

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.