old glory

Been to Bannerghatta National park this weekend. There's an ancient temple besides the park (Champak swamy temple). The corridor of the temple has signs of old glory in the form of these ruined structures

  Size : 11"x7"
 
wanted to paint loose and complete the painting in minimum washes.

Cow Herd

I had taken a photograph of these cows during a cycling trip and wanted to paint since then.
There was a subtle mist and the morning sun was shining down upon the tar road and the green grass.

Am not very happy with the results as the overall painting turned dull :( .
Prabal had warned me to wash and dry the paper before painting..but was too lazy/impatient for that procedure :)

village alley

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Tried on a smaller area (10" x 7") this time.
Made this one without any reference..
Wanted to get a perspective looking upwards from gound.
Spent considerable time correcting the perspectives.

you see any mistakes with the perspective ?



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crayon sketch

while sonal was fixing breakfast for me, made this quick sketch.
Had seen a similar landscape in last weekend's cycling trip

hoping to paint this sometime soon..

Mustard field

I wanted to finish this painting since almost 2 weeks and here it comes.. Prabal found this pic on the net (without a copyright :) )..
When I saw prabal's painting, I thought the mustard flowers should've been a bit more yellow.
But, when I completed mine, I figured out that the yellow had faded too !
Tried to apply a mild wash of yellow all over again, but did not yield good result after drying..
Any suggestions for retaining the freshness of yellow ?
I used lemon yellow in this painting.

size : 1/4 imperial

paper : imported from Pune :)

And here's a quickie as usual. Tried to retain as much yellow in here..

size : 5" x 7"

paper : Canson Montval

kaccha-pakka

While I was away getting my bicycle serviced, Prabal had already decided to paint this scene. The old and new houses attached to one another makes this interesting (no prizes for guessing the title now :) )

I tried to add more detail to the foliage which has somehow cluttered the background. Should have painted the trees more loose to add more emphasis on the foreground. what say ?

As I wasn't really happy with the outcome, I made a 10 minute quickie as usual

village house

Happened to visit a village (GamanagaTTi) adjacent to my locality in Hubli. Clicked some pictures of the old houses. I could see a lot of such old and beautiful houses have been replaced with box-like cement houses :( .So clicked as many pictures of the structures that I felt were close to extinction :) Liked this one most of all and so painted it first.

This is a rough-grained handmade paper specially imported from Pune :) (Thanks Ajay for the suggestion).

I could apply more washes than the Montval Canson. But, prabal is of the opinion that it dulls the colour.

Overall, I am kinda satisfied with this painting. any feedback ?

window of a haveli

The first reaction that I got is the wrong use of blue (ultramarine). I did not realize it when I started with it, but when I did, it was too late.

Prabal helped me lift off some colour. But, I wanted to keep it that way to remind me of the mistake. Also the red bricks seem too saturated.

As again, I have a smaller version which I sketched and painted in 10 minutes..and looks better than the bigger one :)

misty trail

..This was an attempt to depict the mist in this photo taken in Kemmangundi after a heavy downpour and the sun about to set.

size : 1/4 imperial

time taken : 2.5 hrs

The idea was to paint loose and quicker than our usual pace.

Initially I struggled with the wet-on-wet. resulted in cauliflowers and frustrations..

Adding a darker tone seemed to lift off the lower layers !

I am not sure why ? and I seemed to blame the paper for it :)

I used a canson montval paper.

Any suggestions please..

I tried the same mix on a test paper : Arches aquarelle - rough grain.

On this sheet, wet-on-wet was a lot under control..

I am not sure though, as the test sheet was only 6" x 8" ..and size does matter

I liked this quickie more than the normal one..and this one took me just 10 minutes :)

size : 6" x 8"

time taken : 10 minutes

a thing of the past..

Prabal and me decided to paint this old house after scouring our old pics.

This time I had 2 things in mind

1. make a tonal value sketch and plan before I start applying paint

2. keep the perspectives right (by following the eye-line)

I think I got both right to a fair extent. But could not refrain from committing the same old mistakes :

"darks are too dark" (i almost used undiluted mixes) - which Prabal calls is anti-purist or acryllic-style :)

I stuck to the reference as I found the tree in the front and the clothes-line interesting. Prabal however customized it a bit.

This time, I also experimented with the masking fluid to save the whites.

bamboos

just to keep my blog in-sync with prabal's, I fished out a couple of oldies :)

These were painted way back in 2007

When on a bike trip to Savandurga, me and Shashwath couldn't miss these bright bamboo bushes. Not equipped with a camera, we captured the details on a piece of paper with rough pencil sketches (study).

En Plein Air

It was Prabal's Idea again.. to paint "en plein air"..

Place and time was decided..7:00 am, Cubbon Park..

But the rain forced us back.. the only shelter we could think of..."office !!" - our second home :) ..

With only a handful of options at hand, we settled to paint the UB city view..

I was painting on a pretty good quality paper and was quite thrilled and conscious at the same time...

This paper, unlike the handmades I used, was not very absorbent..which means more cauliflowers if you are not careful..

While painting the sky, I washed the sheet with a light tone of grey and started applying a darker tone with lot of water in brush. I was a little late for the second quote and a way too early for a dry-on-dry..This lifted the already applied tone and started spreading !..

some cauliflowers are seen near the edge of the building ..

I must be careful about the "timing" next time..

here's the final frame..

not satisfied with the results..

The dried branches on the left was added as the left of the composition looked too empty..

But, prabal thinks this makes the painting sad..

Neverthelss, we had a fun "en plein air"..

first watercolour..after a long break

tried my hand at watercolour after a very long time....

setup time : 2 hours

painting time : 1 hour ..

this speaks it all !!

I had to search for my paints and brushes, and prepare a surface from an old handmade paper...

The paper turned out bad and it did blot the paint in few areas..

Thanks Prabal for the motivation :) ..