Toragal Fort - a Ballpoint Pen Drawing

Though I have been drawing and painting with the usual zeal, I have not had the urge or patience to post them here. Since I particularly liked my effort with this one, I worked up the necessary patience.

This is a part of the Toragal Fort about which you can get a good idea here. I am thankful to Siddeswar who kindly allowed me to use his pictures as reference.

This is A4 in size and drawn with an "ordinary" Reynolds ballpoint pen. This medium is excellent for these types of sketches, the dark parts are really dark and are achieved with cross hatching - vertical and horiszontal and two 45 deg hatches. I ended up worsening my RSI caused by drawing! 

Toragal Fort - a Ballpoint Pen Drawing

Toragal Fort 2

 

Toragal Fort 3

I had the urge to do the first one again with colour and here it is - in a post that is mainly about pen drawings!  

I know a few artists who are superb with this medium. Ranganath Krishnamani is one of them. (More here)

Hard Life

Here are some paintings and sketches done at various times but on the same theme - women working in the fields.

                                                                                                              This is a small watercolour on cartridge paper. Essentially dry brush. The paper would not take much water. The sun drenched sun bleached look was what I was trying to capture and I was successful in doing that. One of my favourite paintings.

Usually I make a preliminary sketch as a study before a watercolour. I have to do more but, I do at least one. This however was done more as an independent sketch rather than as a study for the picture above.

This one is done as an independent sketch too. The same effect as before but I have mostly used strokes only in one direction - about 45 degrees from right top to left bottom to achieve the direction of the light. But now I want to paint the same scene. Sometime soon.

A TED talks video I had seen recently, goaded me to write the following lines as an addendum to this sketch.



Relentless sun, burnt skin,
Eyes paining by squinting
Legs in slush aching legs
Creaking back, fungus between toes


Then we throw food away 

This was started as a preliminary sketch for a watercolour but never painted it! The beauty of the original reference picture sort of scared me. I have to work up the courage soon! Else this will bug me!

Recent Watercolours

Ruins somehow seem to lend themselves to watercolours very well. They do not have clean edges is perhaps the reason. Here is a relatively less photographed part of Hampi. The original looked worked over with some image manipulating software. I painted a less "photoshopped" version.

This is my interpretation of a "hotel" (Gasthaus in German) near Blaubauer. The reference picture was sent to my by Suresh Babu who lives in Freiburg. Just at the time I painted this, I had seen a video of a very good watercolourist and it helped me improve my technique very much in a short time.

This is a picture I wanted to paint for quite some time. I am glad that I waited. As I said above, I have improved my technique which is now more suited to this scene.

In the meantime I have also changed my paints. Moved from Pelican cakes to Pentel tubes. Makes a huge difference to the colours' freshness.

About Art

There has been a long standing debate about social responsibility. Should artists be socially responsible or is it art for art's sake for them. 

I painted the above because it was attractive - in terms of colour, light, form. As luck would have it I saw this video of Anil Gupta on TED Talks soon after. He shows a picture of a woman carrying water in Rajasthan used by some government agency for tourism promotion. What should be the shame of the country, that women have to carry water for long distances in this time and age. I felt guilty.

As an aside, I was excited that the talk was recorded in Mysore. 

There was an easy trick. I could name the painting something like "Shame of India" and act as if I had all the while planned it so. Best of both the world - art for art's sake and act as if I am socially conscious. But that won't do. Would it?

To ease my conscience, I looked at another recent painting of mine - an adivasi lady in front of her hut. This is a stark picture of an impoverished looking lady with none of the accoutrements of modern living. But what does that mean? Perhaps nothing. But at least I am seeking beauty where one is not accustomed to - in a country where the killer product is fairness cream. I wish there was a political fairness cream or a social fairness cream. 

There is another exhortation for artists or art students - work on what you are familiar with. Choose subjects from your milieu and so on. A part of that milieu I have captured in this one. A co-commuter of mine on the bus. 

Here are some recent portraits I made. I have been trying to improve my skills of portraiture and have been getting better at it.

This is a mixed media portrait of a fellow member of Pencil Jammers. She is a friendly, kind lady and I did her portrait from a photograph I had taken of her at an event called "Sunday Soul Sante".

This is the portrait of George Supreeth, a "serial entrepreneur" by his own admission - the co-founder of Pencil Jammers, Pencil Jam, Pencil Sauce and so on. Here he is portrayed listening to a young colleague of his talking about her sketchbook at an event called "Sketchbook Saturday" organised by him. A difficult perspective, slightly exaggerated for effect. To be frank I am very pleased with this and gives me a lot of confidence to approach portraiture and figure drawings.

This is the portrait of Kamal Narayanan, an architect and an avid painter. Here, he is listening to George Supreeth elaborating a point on art. This was also done from a photograph taken at the Sketchbook Saturday. 

I have many pictures from that evening which I plan to use as reference for further portraits.

I hope you enjoy these and the ones to come.

Musicians

I have always felt that the visual beauty of a performance of Indian music has not been exploited by visual artists. I have tried to fill the gap at least for myself. In this series done over a fairly large time I have explored various media and instruments but only individual artists, not a group. I plan to explore groups of performing musicians soon.

Some of these are not "finished" works but studies that show musicians in action. I feel that these are static action, with no attempt to exaggerate the action. Many photographs and posters catch the artist in intense effort and action. These reposeful ones suit the meditative nature, which is the essence for me, of Indian music.

Some of the artists listed in the Labels are the reference for these pictures without seriously attempting to bring their likeness.

  

A Portrait

Here is the portrait of a young friend. 

The sketch does not do her justice and the scan does not do justice to the sketch! That should give you an idea of sorts about the 'subject'?

A Few Sketches and Studies

Van Gogh Church, Nuenen, Netherlands

A Nadaswaram Player

R K Laxman

Indian Kitchen

Himalyan Twilight

The village of Lachung in North Sikkim at the foothills of Himalayas. Based on a photograph I had taken sometime ago

Varanasi

Varanasi

Based on a photo by "Vicky" who generously allowed some of us to use his beautiful picture as reference.

Fallingwater

Homage to Frank Lloyd Wright

A4, watercolours, ~250 gsm paper.

Early Bird

Early Bird

A scene from the "world famous" Devaraja Market in Mysore, early in the morning.

The Lock Keeper's Lodge

The Lock Keeper's Lodge

I had been in the British Midlands in 1985. I had lunch in such a place as this, which was converted into a fancy restaurant. Hence the urge to paint this. 

(based on the photograph here)

Study

Lock Keeper's Lodge

Study for a Watercolour

Village Road

Village Road

Watercolour on A4 watercolour paper.

Drums for Dreams

Drums for Dreams

A seller of drums seen on Commercial Street, Bangalore.

A4, Watercolours on Cartridge Paper.

Day Lily

Day Lily

A rare flower painting by me

A Mixed Bag - From India's Northeast

Clock Tower, Darjeeling

A Living Fossil - Street Scene, Darjeeling

A View From the Balcony - Bon Farmhouse, Kewzing, Sikkim

 View From the Balcony - Bon Farmhouse, Kewzing, Sikkim

Two Faces from The Swiss Hotel, Darjeeling

New Ones

Each of the paintings below has a story about how I came to paint it. But a picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. So, Let them speak.

The inspiration (reference) for all came from photographs taken by a friend, let us call him Babu, who lives in Germany and tours interesting places over the weekends. He had also been to China some time ago and hence the Chinese Bridge. 

For me, these meant an exercise in patience and I passed with reasonably good grades.

This was painted to mark the 226th birthday of J J Audubon, triggered by the beautiful doodle Google put up on the occasion.

Young Shoulders, Heavy Responsibility

This is Akshay. The son of my friendly neighbourhood "iron man". He is studying commerce and helps out at his father's shop ironing clothes. Very graceful and shy! He was thrilled to see his painting and his father more so.

His shop was recently renovated and he now has electricity - that means light and he can work after dark. He still uses the charcoal fired iron.

le coq gaulois

This painting has French title only because a rooster happens to be the unofficial symbol of France. But apparently this particular specimen is from Kentucky. They apparenlty do not use roosters for making the (in)famous KFC but still, this guy is in trouble. Read more about him here.