A dozen smiles!

water falls behind me!

It was all grey and misty in Toyland..

Water color painting of a man carrying a water pot..(Got bored of women carrying water pots
all the time)

Tried another oil painting. I wanted to get the shadows right..Still have not completed the painting..the paint has to dry..

I drew this image of the woman from different images I have seen. The pillow I tried to paint sort of started looking ugly after I painted it dark. Dont ask me if you think what she is holding is not a pillow!

This are few images I painted for art walk. I used the Adobe to do fill color to the images I drew.
I had actually painted using lot of colors but the black and yellow sort of looked elegant.

When I travelled to shirdi with my Amma, Appa and cousin Siva - we stopped at a place to have tiffin. Dutta who was our guide cum driver took us to a place that was more like a dhaba. We had chapatti there. While coming out they had an agarbatti advertisement pasted on the wall. It was a beautiful picture of Meera. I could not resist. I wanted to paint it one day. So I asked the dhaba owner if I could have the painting. My cousin sridhar also tried doing a sketch of it. Today since I have the time I decided to do a pastel version of it..making meera into a bride...taking her veena away..

Its been a while since I painted Indian women. I wanted to paint a indian lady in saree..I liked a painting in vikatan. I guess it was a one page story. ..just followed the idea..



I cut the canvas into a round shape. It looked fine but I am not able to find a round frame..Next time I should get a frame then touch the painting..

Throwing some light on windows..I wanted to experiment with light and some buildings. I started painting a small window. This is based on a photograph (taken from the internet)

My first try..once I can paint a window I will paint a chair , a person..may be just some plants next to the window.

I got one more similar window. Honestly It looks fine bt I still have doubts about the proportion and the angle of the light. Sometimes my scientific mind analyzes the painting too much...I believe that there are two ways of doing it..either make it like a painting and just convey the idea..or make it realistic like a photograph. I chose the realistic approach so I have to justify my scientific mind.

I painted these flowers from a greeting card long time I bought and never mailed anyone..
I lost the card few years back but the painting stayed..





















-April 3rd

This painting is from a book that I bought that teaches water color techniques.

This is a oil painting I did in oil painting class. I am sure many who learn this (Bob ross) technique would have done something similar.

















I have not started the geyser painting yet.

Okay so I havent done the geyser yet. I had severe cold and fever and I couldnt paint..
So instead of not updating the blog I thought I will still post what I have. I learnt portrait painting from Dorris Hays in Renton. She was a very good teacher and the class was usually from 6.00-9.00 PM. Although I did not complete the class and any of these paintings I still have very good memories of the class and a christmas party we had at our teachers place.

This is from National Geographic. I liked her smile and the leaves that covered her hair.
Although my teacher didnt like the way I did her smile. She says that we dont have so many
teeth showing in the front when we smile...Try counting them.. She is right.




















This is another one from National Geographic..I really dont know these ladies personally. I feel she is little haughty arrogant by her looks. I can still say she is pretty. I felt her eyes could have been done better. There are no wrinkles on the sides..























- Next week I will have the geyser done.

This is from a photograph Suman took in seattle. The photograph is with him..well the memories are always there.

..trying to remember .I think this photo was on a greeting card. I liked the lighthouse and the waves.
















I wanted do do an acrylic and a pastel based on the idea. I was learning portrait painting and my teacher gave me a dark paper for my portrait..that was greyish brown in color so was perfect to use because it had the same tone as that of the background in the photograph. This is my pastel painting based on the photograph above.













Again I was not so happy with the pastel one so I did an oil painting that had the lighthouse
and the ocean but in a different perspective..and a sunny day



















More to come...

First let me start with this painting that was in a book of sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda.














This is the painting that I based it on the photo above.














I did a water color since I thought it would be fun to do the clouds. I got a little too lazy when I did the line where the water meets the mountains. I should have got a ruler to make it straight. I know it looks stanting and spoiled what would have been a good picture!