Class I

Colored pencils and ink on paper

Waterboy

Colored Pencils on paper
7"x8"

Grape Queen

Grape Queen
Colored Pencils on Paper
8"x10"

Thats how I felt when i was allowed by the owner to eat and cut as many bunches of grapes I wanted to from a vineyard on the way to Nandi Hills. Its my first visit to a vineyard and that too at harvest time,every branch and leaf bursting with the profusion of bunches. I went mad and wanted to eat a grape from every bunch which, I suppose would have taken me a few zillion years:D. Finally Rajesh had to drag me out of the place (but not without a huge box full of bunches that i myself had cut:D)

Back to Oils - Work In Progress - Update

Completed more leaves at the bottom right, more water...




Oil on Canvas
18"x14"

After almost one year I'm back to oils , feels like I've been unfair to them after my color pencils came in:( 
I plan to paint without such a long break ever again (aah promises promises, havent we heard them before?) and never let the paint dry on my palette and wash my brushes every night:)

Lots more work on this one- the remaining water, leaves, reflections, waterdrops... Keep watching.

Tutorial

Firstly apologies for the inooooooooordinate delay in the tutorial. Will not bother to give excuses, but i have to mention that i was planning to do one on a Rose and started it off too. However i got so engrossed in it, i forgot to take snaps as i went along! So here is another one. I am sorry if its too complicated, i began thinking its pretty simple, but it did take some time and wasnt that easy. If this is too hard to follow, i will do yet another tutorial with just a single flower or so..

Pencil outline of a plate of green grapes, size would be about 7"x9"
The light source is from the right side, so the grapes will be lighter on that side with a shadow on the opposite.

The most important thing about colored pencils (as in watercolors) is to plan what the lightest color is and leave that space out, for example for that small dot of white shine, leave the area blank right from the first layer.

The next light shade in the grape here is a faded green (called 'pale sage' in Prismacolors) and i have shaded the grapes very lightly WITHOUT using any pressure. The texture will be grainy.
Note that the area where the light falls has been left whitish.




First color shading completed.





Colored pencil effects are achieved through applying various layers of colors.

For the next layer, i have used a color brighter than the last one, and its called 'chartreuse'
Just shaded the same areas as in the previous step with only as much pressure on the pencil.




Second layer completed.




Now i used 'apple green' to shade the darker areas of the grapes.






The next step is to shade the shadow or darker areas of the grapes with yet another green color, I  have used 'olive green' (only on the darker areas, for example between two grapes)

Now that almost 4 layers are done, i used the white pencil to press down with a little pressure in even circular strokes to smoothen out the grains or burnish the layers. ( this means the color settles into the tooth of the paper to give an even finish, not all subjects are burnished, some look fantastic with the rough grainy look, sometimes the entire painting is left that way)









Grapes often have a yellowish glow, to achieve that, i have lightly run the 'canary yellow' pencil all over the grapes, except for the whitish areas.

I have also started the stalk with 'dark umber'





The plate is done with three colors, 'ultramarine', 'electric blue' and black for the edges.

The first layer for the plate begins with a light shade of electric blue. ( i have left the shadows below the grapes for later)





The shadows on the plate are with 'ultramrine'






I have used white again to burnish the layers on the plate, its smoother now.





The first layer for the shadow of the grapes is 'warm grey', topped off with a light layer of black.






Finally the shadow of the plate and the two grapes outside with imperial violet and the same electric blue as for the plate, 
both very light and then burnished.

I have erased two glass buttons that had been drawn in the initial drawing  and some light folds of cloth below the plate as the camera is out of battery:( and i wanted to post this right now:P

Feedback welcome.

Ganesha Completed

colored pencils on paper 8"x10"

Its finally done. I wanted the background to have a rough texture to contrast the smooth metal. I think I'm happy with the outcome:) Comments and criticism welcome!

update

and.....completed some more..

 

Work in Progress - Ganesha

Ok, maaaaaybe i am a liiittle superstitious. Anyways, i had promised myself and Rajesh out of an impulsive moment ( which also explains the delay in my tutorial and all things related)that my first sketch with my new Prisma's will be of Lord Ganesha. Once again Jay, THANKS! because when my brother saw the pencilcase he said there was NO way on earth he would have carried that along for me:(The beautiful idol was gifted to us byRajesh's very good friend (who is himself an art and in specific, a Ganesha 'collector'. We are hoping to gift this sketch to him (if all goes well!)

I am using Stonehenge offwhite paper (the picture itself is 8"x10") and since the actual idol is pretty small, i also took ref pictures of it myself and am working from both. Here is the work...in progress.

Its a free hand sketch, i dont trace pictures ever. The pencil lines are very faint, hope they are visible. I have used about 3 layers of colors so far (the pencils are next to the picture in the last snap) and have to add the final highlights with the darkest tone in the end. I also tried using a colorles blender pencil to burnish the layers for a smooth finish.

Another from Goa

Came across pretty houses like the ones in Italy and Greece in Goa at a place called Fontainhas.

Still alive n kicking

 






To all who were worried (or relieved) about my absence, the past month has been too hectic with travel happening almost every weekend, falling in and out of illness, one temple visit to another, brother came down, etc etc etc. A splendid Goa trip happened too, and since i have not had a chance to sketch anything recently, i squeezed in a couple of two minute sketches at two beaches, the calangute beach and the Colva beach. There are more sketches, which i shall transfer and post in due course. The first is at Calangute, second at Colva.
(FYI: The prismacolor set is still unopened with a protracted wait for sharpener blah blah., i shall not break the promise of a tutorial, just might take a little more time)

'Flavors of Life' - Series at Mahanandi

I am starting a new series of sketches 'Flavors of Life' at Mahanandi today:) To begin with it will be every fortnight (alternate Saturday) i hope to increase the frequency if i can make more time!

Here are my materials

132 set of prismacolors. I have heard equally good things about faber Castell Polychromos pencils. (Aside:Tom is a new acquisition:D too)




The color chart that comes with the set, arranging them in this order makes it easier to choose the warmer/cooler tones and complimentary colors etc for shadows.



I use a refill eraser (extreme left) though even that does not help in minute areas. ordinary HB pencils for outlines and a ruler. The two identical pencils at the extreme right are colorless blender pencils for pressing down on the color pencil layers to get a smooth finish. This is called 'burnishing'




There are various kinds of paper, supposedly the best is Strathmore smooth and Stonehenge(see below). If the paper is grainy it may be difficult to fill it up. The one on the left is Frabriano paper which i find is a little grainy for CPs.

Stonehenge Paper pad and black paper

Besides these, a battery operated sharpner is needed for the prismas, i still havent got it so the inauguration will have to wait:(

Prismacolors for Christmas!

My Prismacolors and Stonehenge sketchbooks (long time wish fulfilled!) have finally arrived! Thanks a million Jay for lugging it along, the box turned out to be MUCH bigger and heavier than i expected, noone else would have done this for me!
Composing the post on materials and methods to colored pencils....

Macaw

Here is a painfully long sketch about 8"x6"(took much longer than i expected). Its a blue-yellow (as is obvious!) Macaw, one of the many *beautiful* birds at the Jurong Bird park in Singapore (my brother stays a hop away from it). This birdie was so smart during one of the entertainment shows, and after enjoying a round of eulogies and photographs, sat down to rest his feet:D

I am posting a few of the Work-In-Progress snaps, hope to keep my promise of the long post with materials and explanation one of these days. I'm getting my new pencils and paper any minute! Yaaaaaaaaaay, Jaaaaaaay is here!

Burst of Pink!

Colored Pencils on paper
8.5"x7.5"

Cannas

Colored pencils on paper 8"x10"

Hollyhock

Colored Pencils on paper
6"x10"

Grassius:D

Colored Pencil on Paper
7"x9"

Loved working on this one, decided to give him a name:D
(No, I am not turning into an insect lover, part of a monthly project in an art forum:)

Pomegranate

Pomegranate
Colored Pencils on paper 6"x6"

Hydrangeas I am out of patience!

Colored Pencils on paper
6x9"



Vijayadashami Sketch, wanted to complete it yesterday, but rushed through it today. Just wanted to get it done with, the paper i am using is HORRIBLE. Cant wait until December to get my new sketch books..

Step By Step - Lotus in colored pencils

I was requested to post tips, here is an entire post with commentry!



Line drawing with HB pencil. Basic outlines will suffice




I understand that the right way is to do the background first. I dont normally follow this rule strictly, but have done so in this! The blue was a tad too dark, so i erased some of the pigment off since i have only 16 pencils with me and did not have the lightest shade of blue.



Fill in the leaves in varying shades of green. Since shading works in layers for colored pencils, I gave it a shade of lemon yellow before adding a layer of light green and then some leaf green.



Petals first take a layer of yellow, leaving white spaces as it is for the 'light' areas.



Next light pink and highlights with deep pink and red. (same for the buds, except i added some olive green as well)





Filled in the remaining background voids with black/darkbrown for contrast. 

Note that the drawing i have posted is not made on the paper ideal for colored pencils, nor have i used the right set of pencils. I have used an ordinary Faber castell set on an ordinary sketch pad. With a good set and paper strokes are smooth and not as obvious as in the one i have made.
From what i have understood ideal are
Faber castell Polychromos Artist's color pencils Or Prismacolors Or Derwents.
Stonehenge paper or Strathmore smooth.

Hope that helps! Please excuse the shaky snaps:(

Missing Kerala

Colored Pencil on Paper
10"x15"

Ought to be flogged for the casual treatment of details. But this is a quick sketch, on browsing through some of the old Kerala photos on my drive. Now that i am in Bangalore, I miss the coconut trees, backwaters and boats:(

Yet another floral

Colored Pencil on paper
10"x15"

Banner for Dining Hall

The first sketch

The next one- too small to be integrated into the webpage, plus the central bee looks like its going to be cooked as well!




Finally....

Manisha asked me if i could do a banner image for Dining Hall. I told her i would try, at the end of a few weeks, its finally happened. I am glad everyone liked the image. Manisha egged me on to create a large sized image using Photoshop, not having time to read through instructions, i struggled but its finally yielded results. (Jay, i wish i had learnt it from you when you offered to teach me).
Thanks to Indira, who lent her wonderful inputs to the drawing, the 'diners' by the banana leaves are from the town of Mahanandi:)
Personally the first sketch is closest to my heart, since its pure drawing! Am yet to take to digital art!

Roses from Venice

Color Pencils on paper

I have been a rose maniac since childhood ( i have made a police inspector, our neighbour STEAL roses for me from another neighbour's house by wailing so loud, he had no choice but to try) The obsession for roses was replaced by the lotus and water lily over time:D When in college, i had participated in an exhibition with only 'flower paintings', 90% of them were roses. Since its been a while, i decided to do one with pencils. These are roses i saw on the roadside in Venice. I was tempted to pluck them, until i saw a surveillance camera across the street! Rajesh said he would not bail me out..

Croton Assembly

Color pencils on paper

I chose this humble assembly of crotons from the Flower show for the sketch since they looked lost underneath a huge tree, in an obscure corner, away from the limelight enjoyed by their petalled counterparts. I think crotons are so lively and beautiful, they are sometimes more beautiful than flowers, Plus, they never wilt!