Flora

I drew this one from a stalk of flower at home.. They looked lovely.. 

And here below is the lovely model.. standing all majestic! :)

I think I should buy more flowers... Oh and by the way, the vase in which this flower was restful, just broke today in a freak accident.. 

Watercolor on not-so-good cartridge journal paper

Dad and Son playing a game

Bhagini Rooftop

Something from last year. Just before this year's Father's Day. For this one, I made a record of the series of steps I took to come to this final look of the painting. I wish it was better paper. This is a cheap quality thin cartridge paper, which would not take washes. It had been generous that day to accommodate my attempt of splashing three colors on the building's window panes.

The initial pencil sketch on the crazy, already quite crumpled paper.

First wash

The actual finished painting - without the journal words...

Photograph comparison

Gouache Study

What? I didn't publish this post? This was just my first ever attempt at gouache. It's not like I have done too many pages with gouache, but I have done just enough to not think of gouache as some difficult project.

Gouache is a whole different animal compared with watercolor. And yet, look at the tender feel it has just like watercolor. I enjoyed making this page.

Apps and Games

Tanush loves to play with any kind of a hand held tablet.. He has games installed in all of them (well, except in my phone). He finds all kinds of excuses to be allowed to play with a tablet.. I can't call it an addiction considering how much lesser than other kids he is allowed to play on it.. but it irks me all the time that he gets even so much!!!

Tanush would wait for Saturdays so that he could get his Kinect time. In fact, throughout the week he would try to barter that hour for one of the weekday hours and make promises that he would really not ask for Kinect time on Saturday. But he would forget it the very next day. He loves it when I say, 'You are not well.. So you can't go out to play' because all he hears is, 'Tanush, guess what? It is your Kinect time today!!!! How about a Hi-Five? Yeaaahhhh' But I would be sobbing over the missed opportunity to go down and run with the wind on his face.. 

Grandpa's phone is like a personal den with all games installed. My dad's and my dad-in-law's phones always go out of charge or overloaded with a few games open and running at the same time. I find it hard to discipline him when I am at my dad's. And grandpa, being the loving grandpa, overrides my orders with sweet talks and gets Tanush what he wants. Again, there are only so many people the kids can throw their weight around, and more importantly, it is not too much, so I don't usually throw a fit. Did you read the word 'usually'? That's important, because I do make an interruption when I feel he's played for too long on a handheld.

Here's Tanush taking some time to play an app game after a hands-on craft making - He made the Traffic Police hat that he's wearing!

I make it a point to not offer them (S and T) my phone when we are waiting say, at the doctor's clinic or in traffic or wherever. We play some other games. Sometimes that gets on my nerves, for they need my absolute participation, but I think it is worth it. When I look around, though, I find kids on android devices, with their parents on their own cellphones trying to kill the waiting time without having to look at the world around them. I am not for it.. I like observing everything that goes on around me, and would like my kids to be able to do the same too.. Boredom should be treated with some respect!! Not everyone gets the chance to meet it. And it does wonders, at times, to your creativity!! Think Newton.