sketched her sketching...

I am glad I went with my friend to accompany her for the workshop she was attending. I sat there as she was sketching and I started sketching her to kill time. I would say, this is my first portrait of a person. I could not get much time, so I had to do the shading part off-line, where I need to improve a lot. I love the shading I did with the hair using HB and B4 pencils.

But I disappointed her as the portrait was not exactly like her. :( Any comments regarding this is welcome. Anyway, I have promised her that I will portray her exactly in the next portrait. Hope I can do that...

There are so many things we see all the time but do not notice! I realised this while sketching her sleeves. If I had to sketch a girl out of my imagination, I would have, perhaps, drawn two almost parallel lines and think that this is sufficient. But when I did it while watching her, I could find out where I was wrong. That's what happens with us in real life too, isn't it? We do not notice so many things even if we see them and keep asking where did it all go wrong...All that we need is to slow down, stop and watch..the same things will look so different to us!

A king in his own terms

Well, this is another photo in the campus. The dog, its furry skin, the different planes in the photo(that of the platform on which the dog was sitting, the hut and the background behind it) were in my mind when I sketched this picture.

Well, I would like to share something about the dog. This dog used to be the favourite of many in the campus. Many people pampered him, fed him, played with him and gave him a nickname of their own. He was kind of nice and royal unlike other dogs. And when I went near him to click his photo, he did not react at all. He just turned his face towards me and turned back, as if he was thinking, "kahan kahan se chale aate hain photo khinchne meri... lelo..tum bhi kya yaad karogi.." :)

the beauty, the softness and the glory

This was one of the photos that I clicked when I was exploring the campus in the beginning. There are many aspects to the photo that seemed both interesting and challenging to me. The beautiful sky in the background that becomes lighter from right to left, the colour of leaves that were darker in shade and brighter in afternoon sunlight. The petals of the flowers were transparent while the inner portion was dark and opaque.

I tried my best to bring all these into my sketch. I have used pencil colours as medium. For the varying level of transparency, I had to give multiple coatings of different colours on the petals as I moved from outward to inward. I had to give grey, blue, pink, magenta, lavender, purple and finally black in the centre. The leaves, however, were easier. I had to use only 3 tones, light green, leaf green and blue. For the portions exposed to sunlight, I added leaf green to light green. For the shadow areas, I added blue to leaf green to make it look darker. I omitted the building in the background in my sketch partly because I don't like to sketch the straight-lined structures and partly because I was lazy to use so much of scale n all :P

It took me whole 4 hours to complete this...I gained some patience when I did this :P But when I finished it, I was like 'O My God! It's done..huh!'... Anyways, the beautiful colours and the movements of pencils that were sometimes rapid and sometimes slow, lightened up my mood. :)

sketching myself sketching...

It is a completely different experience when you watch things in front of you and try to sketch/paint them and this one was amazing. I enjoyed noticing and sketching the shapes of my hands, the folds of the fingers, the shape of nails, the shadow and, of course, the depth. I feel, fingers are the most difficult part of human body to sketch for they need so much detailed attention. Hence, this was an attempt to improve upon that aspect.

As I said, I was amazed at myself when I did it. It was a winter evening... I didn't have anything to do...so I started practising different pictures of hands from a picture book. When I was done with them, I thought I should, now, start sketching a real hand. But I didn't have anyone around me at that time...and that is when this idea came into my mind and I started sketching my hands the way they were, keeping the sheet on my lap....Only difference is that on the drawing sheet, I have put a face rather than putting my hands again (that would have been so tedious... :P I'm lazy again :P)...

Happily living in their small world...

This sketch was my first serious attempt to observe the real world and try to put it on a sheet of paper. I have copied it from a page of the magazine "Down to earth". While making it, my main focus was on the darker and lighter shades of the scene, the clothing of the people, the depth of the scene and the texture of the background. I think, I lack in giving lively expressions in the faces, which I am trying hard to improve upon... :)

Now...come to the story. This is the sketch I took the longest time to complete. I don't have the thing called 'patience' that is essential for an artist. I started it in 2006 summer, during my internship. I had got a very nice room-mate, who helped me a lot during my stay with her. She had given me some magazines before leaving. I liked the photo from 'Down to Earth' because of its humble surroundings and started sketching. But, I stopped as soon as I was done with the foreground ,i.e., the mother, the child and the baby...You can say I was tired, bored or lazy...anything will do. :) And..finally I finished it last year, when I was back to be a student 'again' from the hectic job life. Yes! I resumed my hobby with this sketch! :)