Part 3: Pencil Sketching - The Lonely Tree

GIVE ME STRENGTH

Give me strength when my will is weak

Give me strength when my heart is frail

Give me strength when my life gets rough

Give me strength when my spirit gives up

Give me strength when the sky is gray

Give me strength when the day is bleak

Give me strength when storm clouds hover

Give me strength to survive any storm

Give me strength when life seems lonely

Give me strength when friends are not near

Give me strength when life's journey is not easy

Give me strength to cast out fear.

 - By Champs Ulysses Cabination

By seeing the sketch, this poem came across my mind so thought of sharing it with all of you. 

I like the idea of being alone. I like the idea of often being alone in all aspects of my life. I like to feel lonely. I like to need things.
- Robert Plant 

I hope you all like my post, do share your thought in comments section below.

Part 2: Pencil Sketching - The Roman Colosseum

Winston Churchill once said that "we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us".
In my mind, buildings personify and embody the diverse cultures that exist today, reflecting the power and endless potential of man's genius. It is my passion for Architecture that acts as a catalyst for inspiration and therefore have given me an opportunity to appreciate the aesthetic beauty.
To me, viewing a structure in person is substantially more potent than a mere image. Travelling has succeeded in broadening my horizons and opening up my mind, therefore allowing me to appreciate traditional Architecture. Hopefully some day I will travel around the world and see the beauty it beholds, but for now its the images that inspires me to sketch them.

One such place is the Colosseum, built by the ancient Romans, is a masterpiece of architecture. This great amphitheater was built nearly two thousand years ago for the purpose of hosting violent gladiator games (wild beasts to fight in with men in the sandy arena). Scary but true !!! This reminds me of the movie Gladiator where Maximus proves a fierce gladiator. The Roman Colosseum is the most famous monument to have survived from the classical world. 

The Colosseum also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre is an elliptical amphitheater in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. It is the largest amphitheatre in the world. The three emperors who built it were from the Flavian dynasty, and thus was named in Latin for its association with their family name (Flavius). The Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome.

So moving away from history, the Roman Colosseum is one such architectural monument that I personally like and hope to see it in person someday,so for now here is the pencil sketch of it drawn by me.

So do tell me all about your travel experiences to such places or about your sketches on monuments/places.
And let me know if you liked the post in the comments section below. 

Part 1: Pencil Sketching - Forest Barn

Here is sneak peek to my personal favorite - pencil sketching. I love to do pencil sketching more than anything else. So here are some basic tips and my drawing.

The standard writing pencil is graded HB. The used "B" stands for black and "H" stands for hard and successive Hs or Bs such as BB or BBB indicates successively softer leads and HH or HHH for successively harder ones.

A set of pencils ranging from a very hard, light marking pencil to a very soft pencil, black-marking pencil usually ranges from hardest to softest as shown :

9H

8H

7H

6H

5H

4H

3H

2H

H

F

HB

B

2B

3B

4B

5B

6B

7B

8B

9B

Hardest

→

Medium

→

Softest

I have done using these drawing pencils (2B, 3B, 4B, 6B, 8B) for shading and HB pencil to draw the outline of the sketch.

This is a simple sketch of a forest barn drawn by me.

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space
      between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” 
― Maya Angelou 

To preserve the pencil sketches for long you can generally use the fixatives available in the market like this one,

Or you can also use a home-made fixative, like this one- take a little bit of Fevicol gum and dissolve it completely in water to make a thin liquid base and using a regular paint brush apply it to the pencil sketch and allow it to dry. This technique will also help you to preserve your sketches for longer time.

This is one of the many pencil sketches drawn by me and more are yet to come.
Have you ever attempted your hand at pencil sketching? Keep watching this space for more of my pencil sketches and do let me know if u like it or not in the comments section below.

DIY: Artwork On Newspaper/Old Text Book Pages

We generally sell away our newspaper and used books, so why not use them to do something creative.
Here are some tips to utilize the old to many some beautiful artworks.

Things I have used to create the different types of drawings:
1. Newspaper/Used text book paper
2. Black Gel pen
3. Camlin Watercolors Prussian Blue and Ivory Black
4. Paint brushes (No. 5,9,12)
5. Color Palette
6. Water in a bowl

In the below drawing I have only used the black gel pen to draw the lady on a old text book page.

The next art I have done, using watercolors Prussian Blue and Ivory Black. In black I have mixed blue to give it a little lighter shade bluish black mix, black with a tint of blue.

In the process of completion,

This is the final drawing with little patchwork to make it look torn and soiled paper.

So what do you do with your old newspaper and old text books? If you are planning to throw, then try doing these its nice and creative, and u can frame and display it.
Let me know how helpful did u find this article. And tell me what creative things did you try out in the comments section below.

Food For Thought: Rainy Day

Rain, Rain Go Away
Come Again Another Day
Little Johnny wants to play
Rain, Rain Go Away !!
A perfect nursery rhyme to sing when the rain is pouring down outside.
What are you reminded of your childhood when it starts raining?
School closed because of heavy rainfall, rain water inside the classrooms. Or maybe playing in the water puddles or making paper boats and sailing them in the rain waters. Or maybe playing in the rain and getting drenched. It was so much fun then.
But now our lives have become so busy that we don't even get time to relax, let alone have time to enjoy the rains.

Today off from work, rains pouring and weather so chilled I thought to enjoy the weather and to pen down my thoughts. This is the view outside my home, pouring heavily, perfect rainy day !!!

“Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.” 
― Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Its been long time that I have taken out time for myself, its always work or busy with some or the other stuff.
So today I decided to treat myself by taking the day off, and making some hot coffee, cuddling under the blanket and reading some good novel. Then I watched a movie too "How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days". The movie was so much fun, whenever I see it, its a laughing riot for me and a romantic touch to it, so sweet. The day couldn't have been better :)

I felt good doing this after a long time, so I thought to share my feeling with you guys with some of my clicks. Feeling Refreshed and wish it could go on and on for ever.

We should find some time for our self to enjoy the beautiful things around us, before we find out, it might be too late.
So what are your experiences? Have you ever taken a day off all for yourself. If so, what did you do?
Do let me know all about your experiences by posting in comments section below.

Paint using Water colors

LIGHTHOUSE
I don't know why but I have a strange fascination for lighthouses. I love to walk along the beaches and sea shores and love to watch the lighthouses, it gives a very relaxing feeling. 

I had recently been to Pondicherry where I had clicked this snap. The old lighthouse looks so beautiful all lighted up on the beach road over- looking the beach.

“Man must behave like a lighthouse; he must shine day and night for the goodness of mankind.” 
― Mehmet Murat ildan

 So I tried to paint a lighthouse using my watercolors.

My mini water color palette, which is bit messy with all colors spilled :)

I tried to create my fascination onto paper, my lighthouse using watercolors.
So have you ever tried to paint down your imagination onto paper. 
What have you painted down?

Quick Tips: On Charcoal Art

Mystique, eerie, dreamy !!!!

                   “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. 
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” 

― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

For Beginners What is this Charcoal Art? What are the different types of Charcoal used?

Here I will give you a brief insight about types of charcoal and how to use it to create a charcoal sketch.

 There are various types of Charcoal used for drawing, making rough sketches in painting. Mostly people/artist use the below mentioned types of Charcoal to draw. 

Vine Charcoal - It is created by burning wood (usually willow wood) and is turned into soft, medium and hard consistencies.

Powdered Charcoal - It is often used to "tone" or cover large section of drawing surface. Drawing over toned areas darken it further and to lighten the tone it can be erased.

Compressed Charcoal - Charcoal powder mixed with gum binder is compressed into square or round sticks The amount of binder determines the hardness of the stick. These compressed charcoal is used in charcoal pencils.

Kneaded eraser - is usually made of grey or white pliable material and resemble putty or gum. It functions by adsorbing and picking up graphite and charcoal particles. It does not wear away or leave behind eraser residue and lasts longer than other erasers. Kneaded erasers can be shaped by hand for precision erasing, creating highlights or performing detailing work. However they are ill-suited for completely erasing larger areas and my stick if too warm. 

Fixative - It is a liquid similar to varnish which is usually sprayed over a fixed piece of artwok, to better preserve it and prevent smudging. Artwork media requiring fixative include drawings done in pencil, charcoal and pastels. An artist will often fix layers of a work in progress, in order to easily add further layers, such a technique requires a workable fixative. Fixatives comes in liquid form that can be used from the bottle via a manual spray diffuser.

I got this Daler Rowney Perfix Colourless Fixative from flipkart.com

Price- Rs 450/- for 150ml

Now I will just tell you how I used these to create my very own Charcoal sketch.
The things I have used to draw:

1. Drawing Sheet 

2. Camlin Charcoal Pencils (Soft, Medium, Hard)

3. Compressed Charcoal Block

4. Cretacolor Kneaded Eraser (bought from filpkart.com) or use can use any normal eraser

5. Daler Rowney Perfix Colourless Fixative

Basically I have used Compressed Charcoal to create the background for the sky and the ocean. To detail the ship I have used the Charcoal Pencils (Soft, Medium, Hard), different types to give the shade and depth to the drawing. I have also used the Charcoal Pencils to create the waves. Using the kneaded (or normal eraser can also be used) to create the highlighted waves. After completing the Charcoal sketch I have sprayed the fixative to prevent further smudging of charcoal.

Hope you find this informative and do tell me all about your charcoal art and stuff in the comments below.