Blind Contour Friday # 2

I hope it is ok to upload the picture for Blind Contour Friday, on a Monday! This is supposed to be Tanush's Mickey Mouse.. he he doesn't look like one!

Interesting, what you can make when you are drawing blind! 

Hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving.. I have a lot more from this weekend to upload... I may do that only slowly..

500 Faces - Barkha

The label says Bad Caricature 1, but this wasn't the first one I drew.. 

Name: Barkha

Know her from: School

Memory: Amazing dancer... ever smiling..

500 Faces I have known...

Ok... I've been doing this from some time now... Apart from being a part of Julia Kay's Portrait Party, I have been practicing drawing portraits and caricatures of people whom I have known.. I didn't post them in till now, because I wasn't really sure whether I should.. Caricatures being a delicate subject, may hurt a few of them..

But, since I have so religiously been making it now since the past two months, I would rather post them in and have some critiques on them.. I would love it if you guys could tell me where I could improve (e.g., most of my caricatures still look like a portrait.. I have to work on decreasing the detailing I guess..).

So I am creating the Self Project which I shall call '500 Faces I have known' and shall keep drawing faces that are familiar to me, so that I improve my portrait, caricature and cartoon making skills..
They will have less celebrities though.. The reason..? They have been caricatured one time, one way or another, and I don't want to be influenced by those images when I am caricaturing them.. So maybe here and there, but not much...
Why 'Faces I know'? ..Because then other people who also know them can tell me whether I am on the right track..
Why 500? ..Hmm, I read here that I would have to make some 500 bad caricatures before I am able to really start noticing the subtle things that hide inside an 'ordinary' face.

I start posting here with my own caricature! :) :)

Beer

I like the way it's come....

This is also a submission to NaNoDrawMo 2010

View outside my window - rain

Joined another project.... This one is my first entry for NaNoDrawMo.. This is a group that aims at drawing 50 drawings in the month of November, every year... Well, ideally I should have started on November 1st and should have made some 50 drawings in 30 days - but since I am starting only on November 22, I am going to give myself 30 days from now, and draw 50 drawings in that time... This is like a compulsory drawing assignment - it should get me better with my lines...

View outside my window..

The view outside my window, from my desk... It was a beautiful day this Friday, and when Tanush was sleeping, I sketched this up.. I was also watching creativeLIVE's Children's Portrait Photography workshop - filling in for Manu who had office... Well, when Tanush was sleeping, there wasn't anything important being discussed in the workshop, so I started sketching this... Normally this would be a nightmare for me to sketch (I am scared of so much detail, if I can't do it in one sitting..) but it came out well...

Blind Contour Friday # 1

Officially kicking off my participation in Blind Contour Fridays... I need to be a part of these projects for me to keep doing good practice!

Tanush's First Trial Class

I drew these sketches while watching Tanush through a semi opaque window in his class.. He could not see me, though I could see how he was doing... For a first time trial of half a day without mom, he didn't miss me ONE bit!!! He had his meal decently, and even took a good 2.5 hr nap! He liked it there... But we eventually decided to not join him there.. because the fees was steep... 

Sketching the Baby portraits

This is the view from my front room, looking into the house... I am trying to capture these two portraits on the wall...  Tanush calls the 'babies' as Kutty (means 'little') Baby. And when you ask him who that baby is, he just says 'Me'! But we aren't sure he really understands that it is him.. He just repeats after us, that it is supposed to be him... He sees Manu's hand in the picture and says with enthusiasm that it is Dad's hand., but that same excitement doesn't remain when he says 'Me' for 'Kutty Baby'. There is some uncertainty, which he choses not to question I guess.. He even offered to donate to this baby, some of his clothes that he can no longer get into! 

I tried coloring it, and it became like this :-

Saturday library sketches and Sushi...

Had a wonderful Saturday this weekend... I sketched at the library - only to discover that not too many people crossed my way - so I wasn't able to find models at all... the 2-3 who came, thankfully stood long enough for me to be able to sketch them - with my double triple lines (somehow I have this compulsion of drawing and redrawing the same line, instead of a quick single stroke...)

We went to a Sushi bar for a finale of the day.. I couldn't journal about it, though I wanted to mention that the chef was an absolute wonderful performer... I am waiting for the days when Tanush would give me more freedom to be able to pull out my sketchbook at occasions such as these (though the poor guy is quite generous with what he does allow..)

Pooh and Mickey

Art - journaled after quite a long time...

Goat Transforming into Cathedral (JKPP)

I'll tell you the conversation inside my head before, during and after this sketch...

-- Now, before I start with my actual work, I think I should warm up..

-- Hmm, let me try out some simple portrait.. Let's go through Julia Kay's page

-- Whichever would be the first photo there, I'm gonna draw that...

And I opened up the discussion page - and the first one was Goat...'s.. I went through the page, thanking somewhat for the one sort-of monochrome photographs - half light half shadow one. Many good portraits, people had sketched of him...

-- Cool, let me try this one...

-- hmm, let me not use the pencil this time.. Something different - let's pick up a ballpoint pen..

After the eyes

-- Wow, this one should be cool... He has selected such a good picture of himself for the portrait

After the nose

-- I guess I should've stuck to pencil - would have been easier to shade on with...

After some more time

-- I guess I should have taken a more normal photograph! This is supposed to be a warm up sketch, damn!!!

After some more time

-- I hope I don't run out of ink!

After still more time

-- I can hear my pen moan..

After the pic got done

-- Ooops! I can hear Tanush - he's up!! So much for a warm up sketch before I get to start on my actual work!!! Now here goes today's productivity!!!

But, I am happy with the sketch!!

Breakfast

Tanush now wants to eat all by himself.. He doesn't like me or Manu to feed him.. I have to imagine and cook things that he can handle without messing up the place and his clothes (and his face, hair and the chair.. and the walls and toys and whatever else he can see).. At the same time, I have to make some of those soft squishy things too, 'cause absolute solids are not always nutritious..

Rob McKenzie (JKPP)

Another one for Julia Kay's Portrait Party - after pretty long!

Reference photo here - www.flickr.com/photos/rob_mckenzie/5059038596/

5 minute Faces..

Artist's Block again... I was supposed to work on an assignment.. I was making some good work, and then all my drawings started to look alike! And I just couldn't come up with any more new twists..

So I opened up my Picasa albums, and randomly clicked on people's faces. Drew each face for just 5 mins..
Fast.. My self imposed rules were - no eraser, no looking at the faces to find out if something's missing (you pay too much attention to details, you lose the time to complete the face), no pencil sharpening, no rechecking at the end of each face to see if it really looked like the person.

I liked the exercise.. I am amazed, how much an artist's block can bring out your creativity, if you let it...

Some of you may be able to identify some of the faces (ya, and some are skewed in their angle)... :) :) have fun..

NY (I think)

I painted this a few months back.. I didn't know where it was until now, when it is almost on the verge of being cooked alive by Tanush.. ya the page came off my book, and I am not sure how long it'll be before my sonny decides to execute it.. So for a copy I decided to display it here..