Attempting the impossible!

Every time that I have tried to sketch my husbands face in the past it has never come out right.

I would always be nervous about messing it up and he would always be nervous about his looks so he would keep moving frequently.

This time I found a solution! 😛 I picked up one of his good pictures and used that as a muse!

Needless to say that the model was much more patient this time and I was a little less nervous.

The result came out pretty satisfactory and got endorsed by family and friends.

It also won the approval of my husband himself! 🙂

It sounds cliche but achieving something after a struggle makes the reward kind of sweet 🙂

My lovely grey sketchbook now has a sketch of me and my husband on consecutive pages. That just makes it even more dear to me.

My new grey sketchbook

Recently I got this new Strathmore toned grey hardbound journal. I have tested it with Faber Castell Pitt Brush Markers and Prismacolor Color pencils. And it responded so well to both the mediums.

I personally love the way white pops out on this background. It just makes every drawing look more close to reality as compared to a plain white background. I love working on it with the colored pencils now.

Here is my first colored pencil drawing of my breakfast a few days back:

The self portrait that I recently drew surprised me by how much I was able to achieve without having to consume the whole of my skin tone color pencil!

Here are some of my initial drawings in the Metropolitan Museum in New York with my fellow Sketchbook Skoolers and our faculty Mr. Tommy Kane

Its safe to say that I will be doing much more sketching in this sketchbook in the days to come! 🙂

From hate to acceptance

Boot Kamp is throwing challenges after another at us. We have to now polish the bits that we never got right and skipped during the courses.

Continuous line drawings was one of my biggest fears even while I attended Brenda’s class up all through Koosje’s class on selfies using the technique. But I managed to squeeze past the challenge somehow.

And now boot kamp has put me face to face with my fears. I could have ignored it and moved ahead but I have had enough of it winning against me. So I tried.

I filled my Noodler’s creaper with Brown ink and picked up my favourite Fabriano Vanecia sketchbook. I stood in front of the mirror in half dread and half determination.

I looked at my face long and hard before I began scratching my pen on the luxurious paper. I decided where I would like to start and how I would like to move to various parts of the face. After about 3-5 mins I began drawing my first continuous line selfie and in a matter of a couple of minutes I was done.

I absolutely hated what I had just drawn!

I recorded this observation in my sketchbook next to the sketch. And just doing that simple thing helped me move on to the next sketch.

So I started again. This time at different angle and a different pose. I changed the positioning of my hair also a little bit to remove the monotony of drawing the same face again.

This sketch came out looking more human but extremely chubby. I did not like so much but I did not hate it either. I noted this observation and moved on to the next sketch.

This time I moved my hair a little bit more and tried not to lift up my pen at all while drawing. I did not quite succeed at that but the result seemed to have improved from the previous attempt a little more.

And slowly I became more accepting towards my mistakes and towards the technique of continuous line drawings.

Bottom line is that as soon as I let go of my interpretation of failure I am able to move on to doing things rather than feeling bad for myself.

I declare these continuous line selfies as my final works for the Day 5 “3 in 5” challenge in sketchbook skool.

Less is more

I think I am slowly catching up and finally beginning to observe a little more than I used to..I am more aware

I am learning when I need to use a thick or a fine nib while drawing.. just like in life when I need to take the pressure and when to let go..

I am learning that trying to do too much good also may lead to bad…sometimes less is more..

I am learning to look at the canvas/page as a whole and not just the detail that I am currently drawing..just like in life you always need to keep the bigger picture in mind to understand where your actions fit in…

I am learning to be one with my medium and to understand it better in order to get the results that I want…

And I am learning that art teaches you more about life than the other way

And I am learning that one is always learning no matter how much they know 🙂

Teachers

Frankly speaking, the whole of last year of my life wouldn’t have been so amazing had it not been for Sketchbook Skool. I have learnt so much!

Not just in technique of making art but also the patience to allow the art to make itself through me. And it is hardly a tribute but I drew 3 out of the many wonderful teachers for the Day 4 of “3 in 5” challenge.

Danny is a man who is stirring up a revolution of art. He believes that all of us are artists and he is determined to make the world get in touch with their art. His connection with art is so spiritual, he feels everything deeply and brings a lot of spontaneity and color to the page.

Prashant is a gently soul. His art is like a poetry. Everything blends into beautiful patterns and connects with your inner child.

Liz is super enthusiastic, bubbly and a tea lover. Her collection of tea cups and their paintings is just amazing. And so are her urban sketches which she makes with such great technique. Her contagious smile and zeal makes you wanna pick your own sketchbook and whip up a sketch like its a piece of cake! 🙂

Growing up

Today is Day 2 of the 3 for 5 challenge. And my theme as you have already guessed is growing up.

Hitting 2 birds with a single arrow I have completed one of SBS Boot Kamp’s assignments and of course concurred another day of the challenge. Yippee!

However, I have to warn you guys that my style hasn’t changed from the Day 1 much.

I think I have entered a phase of obsession with my brush pen, Le Pens and the small ring bound Utrecht journal. 😛

So please bear with me…

That baby is me

Awkward growing up years

The one on the right is me

Brush with portraits

So here is the thing, I like to buy pens and notebooks and sketches etc etc writing, painting and sketching and craft supplies are my weakness… You can leave me in a craft store, an office depot, a books store for hours and forget about me 😛

I buy things that I think I might need but I have no idea how to use them. So they keep sitting on my desk. Until one day, in a moment of inspiration, I happen to pick them up and make something.

So the same thing happened with my Pitt Artist Brush Pens..

I bought them in September last year and have just managed to find the right moment to use them.

I picked up the Dark Sepia one and suddenly I felt confident of my strokes.
I felt the connection and just felt ready to start…

I don’t know if anyone else has these moments. But I am only able to create in such bursts.

Anyway, it started as just a nonchalant experiment and ended up being my first activity for the “3 for 5” challenge.

My Sketchbook Skool friend Michele nominated me for this fun and exciting challenge and I mark today as the Day 1 of the challenge.

I present to you brush pen portraits of 3 actors.

Where is your sense of humor?

It is sad..Extremely sad..That people have lost their sense of humor..

War is giving rise to more war…which is giving rise to even more misery and sadness…

People have forgotten to take things with a pinch of salt.

Everyone is all about teaching a lesson to the other..

What are we learning and what is our next generation learning?

People fight for things that they don’t completely understand themselves but want to teach to other people..

What can we do to bring the peace back to bring the sanity the serenity the smiles?

Can we no longer “Laugh it off” ? Can we no longer “hug it out”? Can we no longer “agree to disagree”?

Can we no longer be humans? just humans for once? Not from a race, religion, caste, creed or dynasty?

Have we lost the value for everything that we have got?

Its like when you give a gift to a child and tell them “its yours do whatever you want with it”.

And the child breaks it into pieces. Because he feels that there is more where that came from.

Have we lost the value of the beautiful world that we were given (by whoever you might wanna imagine)?

Can’t we make it beautiful?

In the search of a heaven so promised we destroy the heaven that we live in. What fools!

Can’t we look at ourselves before we find faults in other?? Why?

Because we don’t like the truth! We want to blame others for everything that is wrong in our lives..

I plead to people please do something creative with your lives. Develop healthy habits. Spread smiles.
Help as many people as you can.

Make this world a better place!

Public sketching : A fear conquered!

Yes it used to scare the hell out of me. And yes I have tried it a number of times before.

But this time for Melanie Reim’s class I gave it another try. Because her energy was so inspiring! It was contagious!

So here is the story!

I stopped my husband when he was trying to leave in a hurry with his friend to a local bar to watch a football game.

I made him drop me at Walnut street. The street has quite a character and is always bustling with people and also it is a half an hour walk from my place which ensured I couldn’t run back to the safety of my home.

I roamed about at first looking at book shops and mentally deciding whether it would be a good idea or not. And suddenly god decided that I had speculated enough! So he made the weather super chilly.

So I had to go and grab a coffee. And meanwhile I grabbed a little courage too!

I sat on a small table very close to the counter so that I could see all the people standing in line for their coffees and vise versa.

Being inconspicuous was useless. So I decided not to think about it and started.

Some people intentionally moved away and some stayed and posed while I tried to roughly draw them. And one particular guy even came and asked to see what I had drawn. Of course I was a little embarrassed but I showed him what I had drawn. He may or may not have been happy with the drawing but he did smile and said it was good. That is enough for me.

So at the end of the day I had a few pages full of sketches in my Moleskine, something to show in class for homework.

Also I cannot forget the little baby girl in a stroller behind me with her mommy in line to get her coffee. She kept waving at me and then smiling and then I waved at her and she waved back. And then I showed her the henna on my hand and she kept staring at it in surprise. Ha ha she was so adorable!

I felt so happy after the whole experience that I went and grabbed a nice dinner at restaurant near the cafe and then walked all the way back home!

Here are the sketches that I made.

The very first

Hairstyles and jeans

The old man next to me

some more

The guy who posed

Love makes it own traditions

Karva chauth: A day Indian women fast for their husband’s long life. Yes its a damn serious fast: no water no food until the moon comes out!

Surprise surprise! This year my husband decided that he would fast for me and with me. 🙂

Consider me lucky yet?

He also spent the whole day with me. We went out did some grocery shopping and some random chores.

Then he helped me cook the feast for the night when we would un-fast our fasts. He he..

He dressed up in traditional attire and so did I. We prepared the paraphernalia for the prayer. He sat next to me and participated equally.

Then we went out in the search of moon so that we could finally put our misery to an end. But Mr. Moon of course had other plans. So after half an hour of unsuccessful attempts at finding the moon we finally decided that we will look just do the prayer in the approximate direction of the moon and that would be it.

So we did just that and then helped each other to some water. It seemed more romantic than the wine glasses that couples hold at a candle light dinner. Then we fed each other first bites of solid food.

And then we devoured the entire spread to our hearts content. After which we clicked our happy and content faces for the much in vogue selfie.

Then we spoke to our parents and told them about our day.

And so all was well in paradise.

Even though I did not follow the rituals to the T. The whole experience felt very blissful and complete.

And perhaps some of these small little things will become our own traditions for the coming years…