Watercolor

2011-12-21T00:11:00.000-08:00

Watercolor ( Wet - in- wet ) 12X14"

2011-12-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

From my sketchbook, A4

2011-11-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

today morning in a nearby village, 11X15"

2011-11-19T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sketch book, A4

2011-11-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

From sketch book , A4

2011-11-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

2011-11-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

If you find your paper somewhat absorbent, paint wet in wet. Try.

From my sketchbook, A4

2011-11-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Watercolor 11X15"

2011-10-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

2011-10-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

The paper you use

2011-09-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Paper is most important in watercolor. You have to adjust your way of painting according to the properties of the paper. If you are happy with one type of paper don't change it. When you use a new brand or type you waste a lot of time and money also often resulting in frustration.

Watercolor 11X15"

2011-09-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

From my sketchbook, A4

2011-08-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

From my sketchbook, A4

2011-08-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

A sketch, Watercolor A4

2011-08-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

At Jaipur, Watercolor, 11X15"

2011-08-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

A city lane, Watercolor12X14"

2011-08-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

A village hut, Watercolor, 11X15"

2011-07-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

From my Sketch book, A4

2011-05-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

From my sketchbook, 11X15"

2011-05-30T05:10:00.000-07:00

Servants' Quarters, Empress Garden Pune, 11X15"

2011-04-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

At village Uttaravali , 11X15"

2011-03-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

At Bhor, ( near Pune ) 11X15"

2011-03-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

At villageApati 11X15"

2011-03-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

In the Himalayas, Watercolor 11X15"

2011-03-19T07:11:00.001-07:00

NY Street, Watercolor 11X15"

2011-03-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Don't of landscape painting

2011-03-01T03:24:00.000-08:00

Don’t of landscape painting

1. Avoid painting anything, e.g., a house, road etc. parallel to picture plane. It does not make an interesting composition. It should always make an angle to picture plane.
2. Don’t paint a bifurcated road so that the viewers will be in dilemma to decide which way to go.
3. If you are painting a roadscape avoid painting people or vehicle crossing the road. This will stop viewers there only.
4. Never paint people coming towards you. They will bring viewers out of the picture along with them. Always paint people going towards the focal point. You can place the figure facing towards you at the focal point but never in the fore ground.
5. Never place the horizon and focal point at the centre.

Some people might say that they can paint a very good picture even after breaking the rules. It is like saying that I can break the traffic rules, jump the red signal and reach my destination. If you reach safe it is an accident. It is always better to follow the rules.

At a village, Watrcolor 11X15"

2011-02-27T06:22:00.000-08:00

Local colors in landscape

2010-12-31T23:19:00.000-08:00

Local colors are the colors of objects e.g. colors of houses trees doors etc. While painting the landscape we go according to these colors. But this is not the proper approach. We should get away from the influence of these colors. First decide your color scheme. If a particular color is disturbing or does not suit our color scheme then we should change it. If you are successful in getting rid of the influence of these local colors your landscapes will be much better, more creative.

My recent trip with Sanskar Bharati

2010-12-31T03:46:00.000-08:00

Recently I attended an landscape camp arranged by Sanskar Bharati. Working in group is a different and pleasing experience. We were about 50 artists. It was a three day camp. We painted village scenes. One of the villages was in a very beautiful hilly area.We had a heart warming experience of the villagers' hospitality. I painted 6-7 landscapes.I am unable to post them right now due to some computer problems but will post them as early as possible.Thanks to Sanskar Bharati who is doing valuable work in promoting art and culture.

A Tibetan couple at Dharmashala. 11X15"

2010-11-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

Times Square NY 11X15"

2010-11-18T04:55:00.000-08:00

Laxmi, Pen & Ink with watercolor

2010-10-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

At Hingana , watercolor 11X15"

2010-10-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

At Gawilgad, Watercolor 11X15"

2010-10-07T06:59:00.001-07:00

Pune, Watercolor 11X15 "

2010-09-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Spotaneity

2010-09-17T05:20:00.001-07:00

when we paint something ,often we make a sketch first and then make a bigger painting from it. In this process the spontaneity we see in the smaller sketch is lost. the reason , I feel is that we try to add the details not found in the smaller sketch. We paint more 'carefully'. This carefulness results in loss of sontaneity.
To avoid this we should refrain ourselves from this tendency. Another thing is that when we paint in a bigger size we should use proportionally bigger brushes. The tools we use determine what we have to do.
What do you think ?
Here is the example. The lower one (7X10") is the sketch from which the upper one(11X15") was done.

Draw minimum while painting a landscape.

2010-09-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

When you paint a landscape draw minimum. Only important lines. It should take less than a minute.Keep your drawing tentative. The more you draw more you loose your freedom. You will get tied with lines and will paint between the lines like kids who rigidly paint with crayons the printed drawings. Don't lose your freedom

City lane, Watercolor 11X15"

2010-09-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Waiting (?) watercolor 11X15"

2010-09-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

2010-09-04T05:35:00.000-07:00

Illusion & reality
when we paint a landscape we create an illusion of that location on the paper. Everyone knows it. So why push it more and more to make it appear real, by adding details, at the cost of spontaneity and simplification. Let it remain the illusion; suggestive. Let the viewers fill in the blanks.
What do you think?

Somewhere near Bhubaneswar, Watercolor 11X15"

2010-09-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

Facets of Times Square NY 1

2010-08-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Let us discuss

2010-07-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

I started this blog not only for sharing my wtercolors but also for sharing our views and exchange our ideas and whatever knowledge we have aquired through experienence. Your questions on techniques of watercolor painting are most welcome. Please feel free to ask.

For whom do we paint?

2010-07-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

If we ask this question to ourselves the answer will be we paint for ourselves, for our own satisfaction. For our own happiness. We do not paint for buyers or for viewers. Whether the painting will be sold or whether viewers will like it or not is not important for the artist when he paints. Whether we give the buyer what he expects in return for the price he pays or whether the painting will last for years, all these things are very secondary. Even the shows we hold are for our own stisfaction. Of course we are happy when number of people visit the show and feel happy when they appreciate our work but that was not our purpose at that time. When a painting is sold we have mixed feelings joy for the price it has fetched and sorrow for parting with it. It is the same feeling a father has when his daughter gets married.
What do you think?

Better material will not necessarily make a better painting

2010-07-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

When I came here at Atlanta for two months I brought my brushes, my board etc with me but not the colors and papers exept a few pieces. I thought I will buy better material, better colors and paeper so that I will be able to get better results. I had been to a art material shop. W&N colors and Arches papers were beyond my budget so I purchased Canson and Reeves watercolors. I found that they didn't give me better results.On the contarary I was worse with these things. I got far better work with Indian Camlin colors and hand made paper. Conclusion- You work better with the material you are comfortable with. Better material will not necessarily make a better painting. "Shewati aplach gao bara'.

2010-06-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

Reflections on landscape painting

When we paint a lnandscape on location, what we do ? We first paint the sky. Then we come to mid or fore-ground . We look at the tree and paint it. Then we look at the house on the left and paint it . Then we move to a car parked on the road and paint it and so on. This way we complete our landscape. In this process we are constantly shifting our attention from one object to another, from one focal point to another. We do not paint the totality but paint several focal ponits. Actually there should be only one focal point in a picutre. When we look at the tree we don't notice the branches . We don't see the details unless we want to. It is the totality that we should paint and not different objects individually.
What do you think?

Raghurajpur 3

2010-04-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

At Bhubaneswar, Waterclor 11X15"

2010-04-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

Konark Temple, a sketch, 11x7.5"

2010-04-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

At Konark, W/C 11X15"

2010-04-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Homeward W/C 11X15"

2010-04-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

Somewhere near Konark W/C 11x15"

2010-04-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

Koradi, W/C 11X15"

2010-04-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

At Ratnagiri, Watercolor 11X15"

2010-04-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

Pune Roadscape, Watercolor 11X15"

2010-04-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

At Raghurajpur, Orissa. Watercolor 11X15"

2010-04-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

Beauty 1 , Watercolor 11X15"

2010-03-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

At Krishna River, Wai. 11X15"

2010-03-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Blissful Slumber 11X15"

2010-03-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Ayachit Mandir, Nagpur

2010-03-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hingana Hut 11X15"

2010-03-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

At Simala, 11X17"

2010-02-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Mahalaxmi temple, Kolhapur

2010-02-28T18:10:00.000-08:00

At the river

2009-07-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

At Gokhle Institute, Pune.

2009-07-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

konkan

2009-07-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Kufri, Himachal

2009-06-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Brick loadind, Himachal

2009-06-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Pune street

2009-05-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

She

2009-05-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

Kothrud

2009-05-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

At Ramtek

2009-05-12T00:57:00.000-07:00

Young Artist

2009-04-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

2009-04-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here is my method of using watercolors. I use Indian Camlin artists watercolors and hand-made paper. Camlins are the only Indian colors. A few years back imported colors were not available in India. Now a days WN and some other brands are available here but they are very expensive. Camlin colors are used by most of the artists. They may not be as good as imported but they are not bad either. Artist’s quality are OK. I feel comfortable with these. These colors come in 20 ML tubes and are available any art shop all over India. The same case is with handmade papers. They are available in all the art material stores. But since they are manually made there is no quality control as such. They are available in different thicknesses and textures. Slightly rough papers are best for watercolors. Avoid using very rough paper in the beginning. Testing paper is easy put a drop of water in the corner .It should stay as is and not get absorbed.

I use following colors on my pallet

Yellow lemon, Gamboge, & Ochre

Blue Prussian, Cobalt, & Ultramarine*

Red Vermillion, Crimson, & Orange

Green Hookers green deep and light, Viridian*

In addition to these I use Payne’s Gray and Violet

For pallet I use a round dish. I arrange these colors on the edge of the dish as they occur on the color wheel. Middle space can be used for mixing.

This arrangement makes it easy to find the complementary of any color

· ultramarine is very special color that gives you granular wash

· Viridian is for making dark shades

Wet on wet is not that difficult as it appears in the beginning. Watercolors flow better on wet paper

Mahalaxmi Temple, Kolhapur

2009-04-07T21:43:00.001-07:00

At Simala

2009-04-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Ramaswamy Temple, Rameswaram

2009-04-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

Way to Coimbtore

2009-03-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is my first post.