Exercise # 13

This is another watercolour exercise. I referred to an acrylic painting done by my cousin and deliberately made some minor changes while interpreting it in watercolour. My focus once again was on colour mixing in the palette and on the paper, fine brush control, and an attempt to portray water realistically.

Exercise # 9

During the summer of 2017 I persuaded my friend and colleague artist Saravanan Chandranathan to give me a few lessons in watercolour painting. His tutorials consisted of demos on techniques followed by assignments. This exercise was of a slightly more complicated scene than the ones that he had set me earlier. The main objective here was control of lines with the brush while working on smaller areas.

Naturally formed stone arch

This picture came up as my Windows 10 wallpaper, and cried out to be painted. I had not painted anything like this earlier and found it quite challenging. But I think I finally managed to get a passable result.

Yelagiri Art Holiday - 1

About a year ago my wife, daughter and I went on an art holiday to Yelagiri, a nearby hill resort. We were there for a day and a half and I managed two paintings and two pen and ink sketches during that time. This is the first of them, done on the spot. I was looking forward to painting on location but discovered that I had left my watercolour stuff - paints and brushes - at home in Chennai. Fortunately I had some watercolour pencils in my art bag. I used them and later borrowed my wife's paintbox and brushes to finish up.

Madurai skyline

This is a quick and rough watercolour sketch done in a pocket sketchbook of the view from the 6th floor of Hotel Thangam Grand, Madurai. My wife and I stayed at this hotel during our heritage tour of the region with Mystical Palmyra. Breakfast was served in the rooftop restaurant and this view of the distant Madurai Meenakshi Temple was an added bonus.

Thirumalai Nayakar Palace, Madurai

My wife and I visited this place  along with a cultural tour group called Mystical Palmyra. We were part of a very enjoyable heritage tour organised by them of the Madurai region of Tamilnadu in southern India. We got to the palace shortly before sunset and that is why there are no shadows. Even the colours were muted. But the scale, the detailing, and the workmanship were all very impressive. We capped off the visit by taking in a very nice light and sound programme.

Palazzo Vecchio

This is a pen, ink, and watercolour sketch of the Palazzo Vecchio (meaning Old Palace) in Florence, based on a photograph by T. T. Srinivasaraghavan (Srini/Ramesh). Srini is a keen and good photographer and has been kind enough to permit me to use many of his photographs as reference for my artwork.

The colours in Srini's photograph were different. I chose the ones that I have used to give more warmth and vibrancy to the painting.

Hoopoe

This is one of my better efforts so far. It is a watercolour painting of a hoopoe based on a photograph taken by my good friend Srini. Srini has a blog called Ramblerspost, now unfortunately inactive for quite some time, which is replete with lovely photos and interesting commentary. He also sends out New Year cards every year using his own photographs and this was on one of them.

A Vietnam Landscape

I very much liked an image that I saw of a scene in Vietnam. Realising that reproducing it in watercolour was beyond my ability I simplified it and retained its essence. 

Across The Courtyard @ Old Harbour Hotel, Kochi

A few years ago my wife and I visited Kumarakom and Fort Kochi. At Fort Kochi we stayed at The Old Harbour Hotel, a small and cheerful hotel very close to the waterfront. During this trip I made several sketches on location in pen and ink. A few were quick ones and several were leisurely ones sketched from the comfort of a hotel room or a shaded verandah. The one that I have shared with you here is a watercolour done a few months ago using a photograph taken then as reference.

Startled

This is my attempt to sketch a blackbuck. Although called a "black"buck this antelope is not black but a sort of golden or tan colour. I have sketched a female, the males are darker, heavier, and have horns.

Rescue Mission

I think it was around 18 months since I touched a brush, but seeing all the wonderful colour work in various mediums being produce by my friends in CWA I was inspired to to attempt this watercolour sketch a few weeks ago. 

.

A Heritage Fountain

This is the fountain at Bai Sakarbai Petit Animal Hospital, Parel Mumbai. These days I read the news on my phone because the newspaper is delivered at my home only after I leave for work. I saw this image in an article on heritage fountains in Mumbai and felt compelled to sketch it using pen, ink and watercolour.

Silk Weaver, Kancheepuram

On a recent visit to Kancheepuram we visited a silk weavers' co-operative, where I made this very quick sketch in my pocket sketchbook in ink, and then coloured it later at home. Although I have made it look light and airy the weaver was actually working in a dark confined space and I had difficulty making out many of the details. The weaver had a light attached to the bottom of one of the crosspieces of the loom to light the sari that he was weaving, and he and the loom were mainly in silhouette.

Poignant Memorial Plaques

I had gone to the Madras War Cemetery with my wife Nithya and several friends to sketch on a Sunday morning. Nithya was very much captivated by the quality of the engraving on the plaques and while she was busy noting some of the details, I made a very quick pen and ink thumbnail sketch of the scene. Some days later I made this 10" x 7" (approx. 26cm x 18cm) watercolour painting based on the thumbnail. 

Madras War Cemetery

Although I have lived in Chennai for almost five decades I visited the Madras War Cemetery located at Nandambakkam, Chennai for the first time only weeks ago when my sketching group decided to meet here. This place is a memorial to the lives of commonwealth soldiers lost in the two world wars. It has over 800 plaques and many more names engraved on a memorial wall. No bodies are buried here. 

I made a quick pen and ink thumbnail sketch of this scene on location and then painted the scene at home using the thumbnail as reference.

Playing With Colour

I went along with the rest of the Chennai Weekend Artists to the Madras War Cemetery a couple of Sundays ago. This time I decided to do pen and ink thumbnails on location and then do a watercolour at home based on the thumbnail sketch. This was the last of the thumbnails that I did that day, but the first of my watercolour  work following that. 

Barn & Farmhouse

This is my first effort after attending Dhruba Mazumder's watercolour workshop. It is based on a reference photograph of the same name by Irv made available on WetCanvas to participants in the Monthly Pen & Ink Project - May 2014.

I used a Khyati watercolour A4 pad for this. This was the first time that I was using this paper and I found it very different to what I had used during the later stages of the workshop. I found the difference very disconcerting but managed to complete the painting.  

Dhruba Mazumder's Watercolour Workshop

Towards the end of April 2014 I attended a two day watercolour workshop conducted by Dhruba Mazumder, a very talented and accomplished watercolourist based in Bangalore. The workshop was very well conducted, useful and interesting. Dhruba taught through demos and one-on-one interaction with the attendees while we tried to do what had just been demonstrated to us. These are some of the exercises that we tried out:

This was an exercise in monocolour layering.

An exercise in layering, and value management using several colours.

An exercise in combining layering, and graded washes.

An exercise in brushstrokes.

Putting them all together.

Thappattam Dancers at Lalit Kala Akademi

Recently the Chandra Ilango Art Foundation had arranged for a traditional drummer group to perform at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai and had invited many artists to come and make an artwork on location based on this performance.  The event was very well attended and a huge success.

I had gone to the event only to watch and learn and with no intention of sketching. But once I was there, and after seeing so many artists sketching and painting, I too was tempted. Fortunately I had my pocket sketchbook on me and, although I was overwhelmed by the movement and the spectacle, I managed a small static sketch with my gel pen. I then added the colours at home.