Adora

                                                    Water color on paper

Here's my contribution to The Adora Art Project started by lovely lil' Adora's father. It's interesting to see over 490 original artworks based on the little girl published on her blog. She has a wish list of over 300 interesting ideas for the artists to choose from. I somehow found my inspiration in this photograph..

Oil Study - 2, Pomegranate

                                           oil on canvas, 8"x10" (approx)

The water wasn't a part of my initial set up but there was too much negative space to deal with, so added water and reflections to it. It also is the part I most enjoyed painting. It was easier to paint water since I was more observant while painting it. I realized I have a tendency to paint what I know instead of what I see. Oh, and I had a hard time saving the pomegranates from my brother. There's a box full of these but for some reason these three interested him the most. He seemed to have as much fun spoiling my set up as I had painting it!

Self portrait

Click to enlarge

Water color on paper

Painting a self portrait isn't easy! This has been the toughest portrait I've ever painted. Never mind the eyes, I still achieved the likeness I aimed for and it was testified by the friends and family who instantly recognized it as me. Mission accomplished! :)

Pages from my Greece journal

I haven't posted in a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been painting, just couldn't take time out to post or maybe I've been lazy. It's been quite a busy month, there were a lot of fun moments and there had been some miss-happenings too. Oh, and the imaginary trip is still on too, after Ireland it's Greece now! This time it's quite a large group and the phrase "the more the merrier" couldn't have been proved better! we are having so much fun here. Here are two pages from my Greece journal.

                                                        Water color on paper

A value study in oil

                                                  Oil on canvas 8"x10" (approx)

Every time I used the metal vessel or the container, I said to myself, I would love to paint it some day. So when I decided to do a value study these were my obvious choice for objects. I added the garlic to balance the composition.The challenge in this study was to get the vessel to read as metal and the container as porcelain. Considering the size of the painting, I am satisfied with what I've achieved here and, am ready to move on to the next study.

Updated...

Innocence

                                                     Click to enlarge
                                                    Watercolor on paper

Not that I don't keep painting children otherwise, I was tempted to paint one after watching Satyamev.. couldnt sit through the whole program though.. Here's to the little girls who bring so much happiness to the world!

Celebrating Motherhood

                                                  Click to enlarge
                                                  8"x12" Watercolor

I quite liked the sketch, so as I held the brush and looked down at it, I told myself if I spoil this I have another paper. It works!

In Trance

                                                      Click to enlarge
                                                 Water color on paper

I know it was quite ambitious of me to choose this to be my second portrait in watercolor, but I so wanted to paint it.  There were lot of learnings and as always saving whites was a struggle, and ofcourse water is just so uncontrollable! I also missed ultramarine blue as always which I am yet to get. I still would like to make a lot of changes to it, but I have succeeded in consoling myself for the shortcomings by reminding myself that I am still using the student colors and a paper I am not too found of! :)

A Broken Cart

It pinches when you end up buying student grade colors for the price of artist grade and the paper either bloats or comes off every time you try to go wet or lift color! Not an excuse for the shortcomings in my work though!  I found this broken discarded cart quite picturesque. The yellows in the field don't look quite as bright as they do in the sketch but I still feel I could have made better use of light.

Guardian Rooster

                                                           Click to enlarge 

My hands have been itching to do a portrait for a while now. Since I 've just started in water color I wasn't sure if I should even attempt it. While I was checking out the pics of one of my contacts on flickr, I found my inspiration. You can check his work out on  http://hellosapa.com/  I realize portraits is what I really love painting and would love to paint this again in oil.

PS: Looking at the post I realize the yellow on the rooster is a tad dark! Need to lighten it.

A study of glass

Fuchsia was my 1st flower painting. I haven't really painted flowers in oil either and really enjoyed painting it. Had been wondering what to paint next and was reminded of this pic from my sister's album which I had always wanted to paint but couldn't come around to it. This picture was taken by my sis during her vacation in Germany. I found it challenging as I have never painted a glass before. Painting white is challenging too and the only white when you are working with water color is your paper!

 I didn't track the time taken to paint it but I must have taken the longest in drawing the goblet. I had a hard time getting the shape right! The other challenge was saving the whites. I don't have a white pen so couldn't reinstate the highlights.

Fuchsia

                                                                click to enlarge