Back from Mysore Trip

I made a trip to the heritage city of Mysore last weekend with fellow artist Madhu Kumar. Mysore is at a distance of 140 kms from Bangalore. We started very early on Saturday and were back in Bangalore on Monday evening. Mysore is a very beautiful city. Mysore is known for monuments like the Mysore palace, Chamundi Hills, KRS Dam and Vrindavan Gardens etc. But the artist's eye sees much more than that. Mysore was simply stunning. We were surely spoilt for choices, when we started painting. I felt like a greedy child who was left to swim in a ocean of candies, and he did not know where to start from.

The only let down was the weather. It was too hot and in the afternoon we had to stay indoors and could not paint during that time. But otherwise it was a great trip for learning and exploring my creative side further.

One thing that I learnt was that such trips with fellow artists are a great time to learn and share. As painting is the only thing that everyone has on their minds, it creates great energy, focus and intensity. It surely brings out certain aspect of an artist which otherwise may have been laying dormant. And moreover the discussions, critiques etc by other artists is a great value add to one's learning. I am really looking forward to more such trips in future.

And couple of days and half was no way good to be in Mysore for. One needs at least a couple of weeks to do some justice to the beauty of Mysore.

I'll be posting the works in the coming weeks, when I photograph them. Till then I'll leave you with a study from my trip and another plein air work that I had done a couple of weeks ago.

Plein air at RMZ Infinity 23 march 2014 - I
12 x 9 inch

Study at Srirangapatna (20 kms from Mysore)

Thats me painting on Chamundi Hills

Compilation of Madu and my works at the end of the trip

Sketchbook again

I thought of sharing some more sketches with you from my sketchbook. All these sketches are done either sitting in cafes, parks or even standing on the roadside. 

To be honest I never really liked sketching so much. I used to do it as a mandatory thing to really improve on my painting. But I must confess that gradually I have started enjoying it quiet a bit. Hopefully you enjoy these sketches too. :)

Sketchbook time

Hi there. Its been long since I posted anything from my sketchbook. I know many of you out there love to get a peek into other artist's sketchbooks. I too always look forward to it. 

These two sketches were done yesterday (15th August, Independence day of India) at a coffee shop. While I was sketching the gentleman below he realized in quick time that he was being sketched and exclaimed to me 'Oh looks like I am being sketched'! I dont know why but for a moment I felt like a thief who has been caught red handed by the police. But being a nice person he was he gave a nod for me to continue. Other sketches were just gesture studies of people who did not realize they were being sketched. :)

While I was just cleaning up my book shelf I found this abstract doodle I had done about 12-13 years back. Completely meaning less doodle, but thought it would be an interesting post.

Have a happy weekend everyone.

Sketchbook time

I have not painted anything after the small sunset painting I posted in my last post. So I thought of sharing a few pages from my sketchbook with you. 

Since a few months I have been using normal notebooks (spiral bound ones) for sketching. Reasons being

1. They come in variety of sizes to choose from

2. They are easier to carry around 

3. They are much cheaper

I am finding these better for sketching, because they are very portable. You can not do WC wash on it, but it works well with pen, pencil, charcoal etc. Most of these sketches are done quickly as they have been done live. Hope you enjoy them. 

In the next post I'll post some WC sketches, which should be more interesting. Till then take care and stay well.

Some Sketches and a Video

Watercolor sketch of a painting to be

Contour drawing (without lifting the pencil from paper) - Anthony Martin getting wicket of Suresh Raina in recently concluded one-day series in West Indies.

Another Contour drawing - My sister having a really nice nap.

I have not painted much since last week. So nothing really worthwhile to post. In such situations generally my sketchbook comes to my rescue. So here are some sketches from my sketchbook.

And yes a video. I made a small video as a trailer for my upcoming show. Have a look. Share it with your friends if you like it.

Click here to watch the video.

Somewhere in Germany.. in progress

I saw this picture in newspaper last week and thought of painting it.. I made a line drawing and then a value sketch. The painting is in progress. Till I complete the painting I hope you enjoy this.

November morning

Title - November Morning
Size - 11 x 15 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper
Photo by - Satyesh

I tried this 15 minutes sketch which got over in 10 minutes. It was fun as I was trying to use the left over colors from my palette.

Sketches

These are the preparatory sketches for one of the most difficult paintings I am planning to do next.

Saturday Skecthing

Watercolor sketch of a house in the backwaters of Alleppy.

LDC sketch - I. Close up of Chikkatata

LDC sketch - II. Complete profile of Chkkatata

Yesterday I attended a session of Life Drawing Club (LDC) and it was great fun. For the first time I drew someone who had actually posed for the sketch. :)
In the evening I did a watercolor sketch from a photograph that I had taken during my visit to Alleppy.

Sketchbook time

It has been a long time since I have posted anything from my sketchbook. Finally took a few pictures and here they are. Enjoy.

Odissi sketch II

Before and while doing these sketches of Odissi dancer I actually did read up about the dance a bit, so that I would do a better job depicting the dance form. And now I want to share a little bit of the gist with you all.

Odissi is the only dance form to have another basic body position besides the centered ‘Plie’ stance. The second stance Tribhangi, literally meaning three bends. Tribhang divides the body into three parts, head, bust and torso. The postures dealing with these three elements are called Tribhangi. As this is inspired by the temple scultures, Odissi creates an illusion of sculpture coming to life. Isolated torso movements, typical to the Odissi style only, help create these curves and therefore an ‘S’ pattern is seen in the form of the dancer. Mudra is also an important component of Odissi dance. The term Mudra means "stamp" and is a hand position which suggests things. You can see a lot of Mudras here.

Odissi has its own traditional costumes and jewellery. The saree is draped in a particular fashion which creates a fan-shaped structure in the front. The saree used by dancers is the Sambalpuri sarees (local saree of Orissa) in most cases. Only white metal jewellery is worn in Odissi, including earrings that coves the whole ear and resemble the shape of a peacock’s feather. The waist belt is a must for a Odissi dancer. Other ornaments are bangles, necklace, and armlets. The headpiece (Mukut) worn by Odissi dancer is the typical symbol of Odissi dance which is made only in Orissa with special dried leaves. The costume and jewellery are considered sacred and should never be worn while performing other light dance forms.

p.s. My next post will be a watercolor painting of an Odissi dancer.

Odissi sketch

Last Friday I went to an Odissi dance concert here in Bangalore by Srajana kaikini . After a long time I was actually watching Odissi dance live. This is the oldest classical dance form of India and its roots are traced to 1st century BC. Traditional Odissi repertoire consists of 6 performances accompanied by live music. The music is set to Odissi style of Indian classical music. I was mesmerized by the combined effect of classical music and dance. It was very inspiring and this sketch is a result of that.

The dancer is depicting a woman doing 'shringaar' (basically kind of putting on makeup :)) while looking into a mirror.

Some more

Here are some recent watercolor sketches. I just do these sketches without any preparation at all and very quickly, so that my mind has no time to think and hence no bias whatsoever dominates the sketch. No pencil is used for any marking at all and the colors are kept to a maximum of 3-4. If the sketch looks good it sometimes becomes a painting (though the painting never come out better than the sketch).

Sun Temple, Konark

Brihadeshwara temple complex, Tanajavur

Odia village temple

Some sketches again

Some pages from my sketchbook.....

Evening Landscape

Kitchen still life

Coconut fronds

Lets talk

Market scene with....

Sometimes no matter what one tries the painting just does not become half as good as the sketch.

When I did the sketch I though I had been able to capture the 'buzz' in the market. When I did the first painting I did not have the sketch with me. So when I finally had both of them together I realized how badly I had missed the sketch during the painting. So I tried a new version with different treatment. But still to me the sketch remains the best of them all. It just captures the essence better than the others.

Market scene with melons sketch

Title - Market scene with melons
Size - 19 inch x 14.5 inch
Medium - Watercolor on handmade paper
Title - Market scene with pumpkins
Size - 24 inch x 13.5 inch
Medium - Ink and acrylic on brown tinted paper

More sketches

Still continuing with my quick sketching exercises. All these paintings are done on 1/8th imperial size paper. The first two are on Montval and the last on Guarro. I am finding that Montval gives a good fluidity to the paintings if you just get things right in the first wash.

The alley

This is a sketch done from a picture from the Internet.

Morning chat

This was done at Cubbon park in Bangalore. This was my second plein air outing. I took about 20-30 mins to do this. And the group of friends who are seen here were chatting there almost till the completion of this sketch. Must thank them for their involuntary cooperation. :)

Karnataka High Court

This too was done in Cubbon park. This is more of a painting than a sketch. This place is bang opposite to the place shown in the second sketch.