Beautiful and Sublime

The Stream

2013-12-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

Good Earth

2013-06-04T05:16:00.002-07:00

Vintage teenage pastoral love in its idyllic form

2013-04-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

This painting, finished in December, 2012, very whole-heartedly tries to depict the teenage pastoral love in its idyllic form that existed during the Victorian era (1837-1901) or before. Those were some grand old, glittering pastoral days when in the name of love the young hearts used to flutter like the wings of a flying butterfly.
A delicately pretty maiden in red and a gleaming young lad with a cap on, both in their teens, could be seen in this painting, rushing towards home after a brief meeting, with an apprehensive mind that may their love affair forever remain a secret.
This form of love still exists and hearts still flutter I suppose, but have changed its colour in many a ways, mainly because of social and economic changes and a gradually increasingly materialistic attitude towards love and life.

A mid-19th century restaurant at Montmartre

2013-03-02T00:56:00.000-08:00

The completed painting. A mid-19th century restaurant at Montmartre, the then principal artistic centre of Paris. I have tried to capture the mood and essence of the place, though I have never been there, let alone in the mid-19th century. Do forgive me if there is any mistake in my visualization. The saying goes like one could smell art in Montmartre's earth. One could find art in Montmartre's every facet and sphere. The footstep marks of the great master artists are possibly still there!!!!!! My humble, respectful salute to all their departed souls!!!!!!

A Form of Nature

2013-01-09T08:17:00.001-08:00

A few unique paintings

2013-01-06T01:36:00.001-08:00

Contrasting styles

2013-01-06T00:55:00.001-08:00

After Study

2012-10-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

Owl's Wisdom

2012-07-20T06:56:00.002-07:00

Tutorial on how to paint attractive houses

2012-04-29T13:38:00.007-07:00

In order to do a painting of houses, one has to go to the spot, sit at a suitable position, and do the drawing first.

The very first thing that needs to be done is to draw the perspective lines, as the row of houses get smaller and smaller. Then, the roof line has to be drawn for every house. Concentration remains on one or two houses, and the other houses on either sides are done sketchily. Once the roof lines are drawn, one needs to come down and do the windows, doors and balcony, if any. The top lines of these have to be drawn in a way so that the lines remain parallelly aligned to the line immediately above it (roof line - see the drawing ). The bottom lines of doors and windows will be a bit slanted downwards to keep the perspective right. Any mismatch will immediately hurt your vision. Then do the necessary correction. Architectural designs are very important. Do not ignore them. Look for the smallest details. They also play such an important part in the whole painting.

Human Figures should be drawn with minimum of pencil (or brush) strokes. That is the trick.

A house has basically four sides. But only two sides are visible to us from a given angle, one in full, the other in part. Only one side should be receiving the full light. That is the main focus.

These paintings are done in three (or four) stages. Colours of three tonal values are used. There are some very small areas that are very dark, like narrow strip of the Wall under the roof, areas just below any projected architectural work, inside of the rooms etc. Next there is the bulk area which is receiving partial light. This bulk area can be subdivided into two parts. But it is better for beginners to keep it as one. In this example two middle tone colour values have been used, brown and a bit darker blue. The front has some blue, but that falls under the category of very lighted up areas. Lastly, there are some heavily lighted small areas on the side that is receiving full light. While drawing, mark each such area with the appropriate pencil tone so that the painting work can be done later at the studio.

In the rough sketch below, note how the four beams have been extracted by painting the surrounding areas. This is negative painting. This method is very helpful while painting houses.

Painting - Paint the bulk middle tone areas first. Secondly the very little, very dark areas. Then paint the little heavily lighted areas (railings, lighted up areas of the wall, beam ends,etc) in white or any very light matching colour. Lastly if you need to put some objects here and there, (clothes hanging from ropes etc.) do it in white or some light colour. Humans should be done in very dark colours with minimum brush strokes. Keep them somewhat unfinished. Some very little part of the human body may be shown as ighted up by doing them in white or the very light shade that you have used earlier.

At last, to show depth (inside of the room, not every inside, one or two) or distance, you may put just a little very dark blue. Use your artistic vision here. Paint the sky according to your liking. All edges, dark or light, must be very sharp.

Before starting study the pictures of this post very carefully. The pictures are arranged accordingly.

That's it. Now give it a try. Happy painting!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

Dreams come true

2012-04-09T00:14:00.003-07:00

Reading the book

2012-03-26T00:30:00.001-07:00

Evergreen

2012-03-24T02:48:00.003-07:00

Emotion

2012-03-20T07:53:00.003-07:00

Line art - An example

2012-03-09T07:46:00.004-08:00

This is an example of line art. This shows how a figure can be drawn with very simple lines. Please note each and every line, from the largest to the smallest. Each and every line has a very distinct role to play in the entire drawing. This forms the basis of constructing a figure. Once the form is created, depths can be created by marking areas with darker and lighter shades, using colour. The whole picture can be kept in monochrome also. This provides a good example for students of art, who are learning figure drawing.

Happy viewing!!!!!

The Surface

2012-03-08T22:46:00.003-08:00

The Bridge

2012-03-07T09:19:00.003-08:00

Contemplation

2012-02-28T11:03:00.003-08:00

Composure

2012-02-28T10:41:00.003-08:00

A Holistic View

2012-02-23T21:32:00.002-08:00

Pastel on board

Barren Trees

2012-02-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

Spirit of Holiness

2012-02-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

Nature Sublime

2012-02-10T09:30:00.001-08:00

Disagreement - from the sketchbook

2012-02-03T13:30:00.000-08:00

Pen Sketch

The Wait - 2

2012-02-02T10:52:00.000-08:00