Update

My mil passed away two weeks back after battling with cancer for almost 15 years.  This has forced me to stay away from my regular painting routine. I thank regular visitors for checking this blog from time to time in hope to see a new post. I will resume my painting as soon as possible.

Alene

I have managed to finish a drawing before this month gets over. I can see that I have done only a couple of art projects this month. I guess those miniatures have burned me out. I miss painting in watercolor after this short gap. On a happy note, I have been able to overcome a lot of doubts on how to paint crystals after watching Joyce Faulknor’s DVD that I had borrowed from my local library. She makes it looks so easy and simple. Learning a technique from print is so different from watch-and-learn. I find myself trying things out mostly through watch-and-learn. I think it gives you a lot of confidence when you see others doing it.  Having said that now I can add a  crystals/glass project in my to-paint list.

Alene
9 by 12 inches on heavy-weight drawing paper with graphite and charcoal

Addentum (Nov.5) :

Here is the reference picture:

Alene’s parents took her picture at their standing height which resulted in a skewed image. I opted for a cropped portrait because I thought the full-figure drawing at this angle would be too jarring. The resolution was not so sharp so I had to make do with what I have on hand.

This drawing is gifted to Alene’s parents. Photo courtesy of Mrs.&Mr. Sebastian.

Fresh Catch of the Day

I tried a totally new technique to do this painting. It is Gouache with Ink Resist and then finally you finish off with watercolor. There is a wonderful article in WetCanvas giving a demo on how to do this. The only extra requisitions apart from your regular watercolor supplies are white gouache and waterproof black India ink. You can use this technique to play down the details in your composition and get that wonderful print-like effect.

I did this painting from my reference photo which I took while I was visiting my hometown in South India about five years back. Since I was living along the coastal area, there was no shortage for the availability of seafood. I am basically a seafood lover and these snappers are my personal favorite. They are especially good when you shallow fry in oil after marinating them in hot spices. We bought the fishes from the fishmonger who used to come to our doorstep every weekdays. As the fishes were sitting beside the kitchen sink for the prep, I had a light bulb moment to capture this moment digitally.  After “artistically” arranging the snappers, I snapped the picture with our hired help looking on with an amazed curiosity. When I started painting in watercolor, I wanted to paint a seafood and this photo was on the top of my list. But the chance to paint this materialized only now.

The paper size is 5 by 8 inches. So this is also in miniature format.

P.S :  Visit the artist Kay Robbins’  website to find more inspirational paintings using Gouache and Ink Resist technique.

Fresh Catch of the Day
5 by 8 inches on W&N Cotman 140lb cp watercolor paper

Canna Miniatures Set 2

Both the paintings are done on 4 by 6 inches 140# cp watercolor paper.

Facebook Page for Art Pearls

I have been staving off from creating a facebook page for so long. But seeing the wild popularity of Facebook worldwide,  I bite the dust and created an art page for myself . You are welcome to take a look at it here :  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Pearls/131065583341

Also see my self-portrait I submitted for the online challenge blog  Self Portrait Global Love In

Canna Miniatures Set 1

It looks like I am doing miniatures in series. Though it is quite trying for me to paint in miniatures, I find it to be a great pleasure to look back and enjoy these little gems. I believe they look best if you display them together in groups. I have two more canna miniatures to go and I think I might pause my miniature paintings for the time being. I already miss my usual painting groove.

Canna leaves
4 by 6 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Canna lily series No.2
4 by 6 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Koi Miniatures # 2

Here is the second set of koi miniatures. In my subsequent painting of koi, I can see that I have improved my skill in scrubbing out ripples from the background. I find that it takes a lot of elbow grease to do the scrubbing and get this result.

Kois in the pond 3 & 4
4 by 6 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Koi Miniatures #1

Here are couple of koi miniatures I finished a while ago. When I started sketching the kois, I had no idea how I could paint the water. I just hoped that I would take it as I tackled with it. The ripples were achieved by scrubbing. Since I don’t use masking fluid, I had to do quite a lot of scrubbing.

I just finished my second set of koi miniatures which I will post soon. Please do watch this space…

Kois in the pond 1 & 2
4 by 6 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Floral Miniatures

I have been doing a series of miniatures for the past few days. That explains the gap since my last post. All these miniatures are postcard size (4 by 6 inches) and this is the first time I am doing small scale. I find that miniatures are easy to sketch but time consuming to paint compared to my usual scale. Speaking of which I have begun to appreciate artists who do their paintings in ACEO(art trade cards). I plan to do a series of miniatures until I run out of steam. Let me see how far I can go keeping in mind that I am not putting myself under pressure. So the visitors can expect a flurry of images in few of my future posts.

The Ballerina

I happened to come across this forum thread in WetCanvas where the contributor, Amelia Jordan offered the challenge to draw the ballerina from her photo. If you browse the thread, you can see various versions in watercolor. The adorable pose of the dancer inspired me to try it out. This is my first try to do a figure painting with an indoor background. I have never painted a wooden flooring before. So for my first try, it came out okay.

The Ballerina
9 by 12 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper
Reference photo by Amelia Jordan