My Book update - Yes its free for the weekend

Post by Shalini Raman.

Yippeee! My Book is Out...

I am excited to share with you that my book is now available on Amazon. This is my first attempt on authoring and illustrating a Children's Book. Here's the link to the published ebook. Let me know what you think of it. I would love to hear back from you.
Thank you for all your support and wishes

Steel plate

Steel plate, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

something I drew last year...

Restaurant

Restaurant, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

My brother and I got into a discussion about how this restaurant used to be H2O not so long ago - until March this year.. and he didn't really know that the restaurant on top of this one - the terrace restaurant also ceased to exist around the same time.. Now it is a plain terrace with a new board on top.. something that I always keep wondering when I'll get to sketch..

Inhaler

Inhaler, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

I am always scared of these treatments for Tanush.. I get worried whenever he starts coughing even a bit.. He seemed to be coughing today morning, I am just hoping it was a stuck in throat trouble and not a real cough..!

Happy New Year.. oops b'day

Happy New Year.. oops b'day, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

High time I posted this - before the lady on the absolute left takes her bridal vows... I wonder what took me so long to post the 1st Jan sketch.. Maybe the date seemed a little too important to be posted on a mundane regular day.. But I like how I managed to capture everything that was special that day...

And today is Swetha's birthday (the lady on the extreme left), so it just makes perfect sense.. Here's where you might have seen her before - Swetha's Profile :) :) Happy B'day girl!

..and Life Goes On..

Testing my pens and paints, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

What better way to test my pens and paints than to draw a page full of a loved one?

Going Bananas

Going Bananas, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

This bunch of bananas grew at my mom-in-law's house. This bunch had a baby bunch in front of it too - pretty rare! We had all the fun eating and distributing it..
Most of the baby bunch plantains for frozen, for probably banana smoothie or something.. :)

Playlist

Playlist, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Sooryansh was at his pose-best when he was concentrating on enjoying his favorite animation playlist on youtube.. I had collected a few songs on the net and created this playlist for the elder one about 3 years back.. But seeing the younger one too enjoy it so much, I am convinced, I should make that a public playlist - let all the kids enjoy it..

Coconut

Coconut, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Even after living all these years eating South Indian food, and after being married to a Malayali since the past 7 and something years, I still don't know how to cut open a coconut. From the past few days I have taken up the challenge to master it.. Lol.. This was my second coconut broken open in 36 blows! :) :) Phew! Hard work!

Crayons

This was part of a page entry of my journal. I wanted to save Tanush's handiwork too; for he too had stamped the page with his imaginative coloring. 

Crayons, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Morning Cuppa

Morning Cuppa, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

with the newspaper

Graphite on Sketchbook sheet

Known Faces

Known Faces, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

What do I do when, at midnight, I have this incredible artist's block and yet can't go to sleep without scribbling a face? I fill up a page with quick faces..

These are quick sketches - the whole page got filled in an hour or so, with the text and the err blue and green lines.. I don't know if the people are recognizable :) but most likely they'll never get to see this picture.

I just kept drawing.. I was tired at one point and you would know when, if you see the person whose face was being drawn at the time. But I kept going. And then I put in those blue and green lines everywhere.. Why? I don't really know! You know the feeling when you are incredibly sleepy or tired and still decide - I'll read just one more page - browse just one more minute - watch TV just 10 more mins - stitch just this one flower - it was like that! When I realized that, I stopped lest I spoil whatever I had drawn!

I went to sleep peacefully way after it was 1 am...

Swe

Swe, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Yesterday we all went for a family get together at Hosur at Ambi Chithappa's house. He's my mom's uncle but Pras and I like addressing him as if our own uncle and we address his son Aravind as if our first cousin.. Aravind is visiting India for a week and it was so nice to catch up with him after so long. We didn't really get much time to speak with each other but nevertheless. I wish Prabha akka was visiting around this time too.. Would have completed the group.

It was mom's 60th b'day too, which we celebrated at home before we all headed across to Hosur..

I missed my two cousins Swe and Shru.. I missed my granny too this time.. I haven't known a get together where we all spent a good deal of time singing songs where both Swe and Shru were not present.. I'm sure they were deeply missed by the whole crowd there! I'm sure their mom missed them a lot - it was her birthday too!

Deepika made up for their loss through her sweet voice and strong melodies. Harish too added his voice in..

I drew this real quick portrait of Swetha last time we all were together - at her engagement.. I don't think it came bad.. Nah! Not for a 5 min quickie! :) :)

The Lullaby

The Lullaby, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

I see them.. Sleeping

I see them.. Sleeping, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Usually the peace and quite and those few free minutes come by only when they are sleeping.. And most of the times, though I would want to grab my sketchbook, I would be too uninspired to make a mark..!!

Sooryansh has a cloth in his mouth.. that's how he likes to sleep.. If you pull that out, then God save you while you desperately apologize and try putting him to bed without it!

Yours sincerely

Yours sincerely, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

No.. they are not one sketch in each of its developmental phase.. They are 6 sketches drawn for 4 mins, 2 mins, 1 min, 30 sec, 15 sec and 5 sec..
(courtesy: an exercise from the book Cartooning by Ivan Brunetti)

To see it better, here it is in a different arrangement:

DJ Got us falling in Love

DJ Got us falling in Love, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Sometimes songs work just fine for gesture studies.. I feel as though the whole page is dancing! Freeze and draw!

Bhagawathy Paati and Sidharth

Grandma, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Continuing with my ballpen portraits, here is Grandma.. And then here's my cousin - Sidharth.. This is fun.

But there is always a fear in drawing someone you know - wonder if it would come out looking like them.. And when known people look at them, they tend to become a little more critical than usual.. While an unknown face colored with an olive shadow looks like creativity, a known friend will take that green shade as ogrifying LOL..

Steve Dines for JKPP

Steve Dines for JKPP, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Every once in a while I get this craving to draw a face.. :) I tried soft caricature here. I think I may be a little too scared to try out some good deep caricature!

Ref Picture here at JKPP.
Steve's photostream.

Charming

Charming, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Tanush sparkles this look whenever he wants me to do something for him - sorry, with him.. read with him, play Kinect with him, go somewhere with him...!! He'll even make it for getting a permission to eat a treat!

I drew this one - not from life, but from a photograph that I took before he decided to get a bit conscious! :)

I wish I had used better paper! This one crumbled with all the water!

Tanush

Tanush, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

..and a small note for a day in the far future.. to remind us of how he was this day.. :) :)

Snowman

Snowman, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

One of those sad journal entries.. It can't be sunshine always!!

From window

From window, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

The view right in front of our apartment. This is across the road.. the busy road that I am now scared to cross - now that I would have an accessory or two always with me, in the form of my kids!

Sooryansh

Sooryansh, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

.. asleep in his swing.. That was a few months ago.. Now he won't doze off in it!

Umbrella

Umbrella, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Tanush

Tanush, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Backlight testing

Backlight testing again, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Something about the light from outside interests me a lot! It always seems to challenge me to see if I can paint it..

This is a scene from the sitting room at my uncle, Sridhar Mama's house.. The interiors are decorated well with pretty, ethnic Indian pieces, yet when you look to marvel at them by day, the light from outside just screams for attention of its own..

I just obliged and painted it all!!!

Baby brother napping

Baby brother napping, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

Sooryansh came to drop Tanush to his bus stop.. Tucked in the cozy kangaroo pouch, he loved looking at the huge traffic whizzing past on the big road.

Big brother was mighty excited that his baby brother was coming all the way to drop him.. He insisted that Sooryansh watches him when he alights the bus. He boarded the bus and said 'Bye' to Sooryansh - he doesn't really care to look back and say bye to me!

On his way back Sooryansh dozed off and remained asleep till I could get home, draw him looking down, and finish a couple of chores.. I should do this more often I guess..

The view outside

The view outside, a photo by Linisha on Flickr.

I painted this small scene as a view from inside my uncle, Sridhar Mama's car. We were listening to the cassette that my grandpa had recorded with our voices when we were very young! Sridhar Mama still owns that treasure, and he was sharing those memories by playing the cassette in his car stereo!

The streets lit with incandescent streetlamps, it seemed like the cool green trees next to my mom's house wore a more warm black-green that day.
Sridhar Mama keeps pink lotuses on the dashboard of his car. They too lost their cool colors giving way to a more sepia appearance.

Interestingly, the steering wheel still held a cool feel to it - thanks to internal light! No, there were no lights lit inside the car - just the light from inside reflected by the silver interior colors..

The painting is actually a small part of a journal page. I was quite unprepared for how I should handle the subject. I didn't want to put in time to plan it either - so short of time I was... But, here's the journal page (minus the notes that I put in later - much later!!)