29 faces - I did it!

After day 11 of the 29 faces challenge hosted by Martha of Ayala Art, I took a long break because of a suddenly planned vacation with the kids. I was a little disappointed that I would not be able to complete the first art challenge I ever took up. Today, I took stock of the sketches that I had already managed to make and then took up a daunting task - of sketching the rest! And I ended up with some extra faces as well. You might call me crazy but I enjoyed it thoroughly and badly wanted to complete the challenge too! So here go faces 12 to 29 and some more!

This one is my favorite because it actually resembles a dog ;). This is another stepping stone in my quest to learn watercolors :)

I really enjoyed this journey of 29 faces. Most of mine were pencil sketches as that was the easiest and the least time taking technique for me. I loved this whole exercise where some were sketched from references others from my imagination. The study of different face cuts, eyes, noses, lips was very interesting. Its amazing to see how minor changes in these can change the entire expression of the face.

I wanted to try my hand at a good variety for the challenge. Though I would have loved to try more variety, I think I did pretty well - from a dog, cats and a bird to dancers, a Red Indian, a goddess, a Rajasthani lady in a window to female faces in different moods, Buddha, Swami Vivekananda and a genie as well! 

Please visit all the other artists in the challenge and their wonderful work. Btw  I just counted all the faces and they are 31! one for each day in May!

Thanks Martha for hosting the wonderful challenge. This was a great way to learn faces for people like me.

The May Flower challenge grand finale!

I had hoped to post a flower everyday in Lori Moon's May Flower Challenge. But my sudden travel plans disrupted everything. I was still hopeful I would be able to post flowers once I reached my destination but when on a vacation at your parents place with 2 active kids to be taken care of and entertained while you are working from home all the time, the motivation to blog takes the backseat. 

Today being the last day I thought I will post all the flower pics I had taken in the last few days. 

A blue flower -

Hibiscus -

Spider Lilies -

Oleander -

Trees full of colorful flowers. The violet ones are the flowers of the same tree as these dried pods I had posted earlier. The red ones are known as Gulmohor in India and are also known as Flame of the forest as the entire tree becomes red when the flowers are in blossom.

 

Brocade and embroidered flowers in Indian sarees and a cross stitch tablecloth motif.

 

So this is my first post today and this goes to Lori Moon's May Flower Challenge. Thanks Lori for giving us such a wonderful chance to spot flowers around us, capture them and share them. And it was such a  pleasure visiting all other flower enthusiasts. I wish I'd joined earlier and not had to take the break too.

I'd fallen behind in another challenge too - 29 faces at Ayala Art. So I sketched a few faces to make the total count 29! :) I'll post those in a separate post.

The versatile flowering plant...

Bougainvillea! You see it climbing on roofs, on fences...you see small shrubs of it...you see it pots...you see a myriad range of colors and shades. That's Bougainvillea. 

Here's a collage of some badly taken pics of the beautiful flower :)

This is for Day 16 of the May Flower Challenge. There are some wonderful paintings in today's entry list. I might not be able to take part in this tomorrow as I'm traveling. Hope to be back on Day 18. See you all soon!

Nib painting

I'm sharing another old painting of mine for Day 15 of the May Flower Challenge at Lori Moon Studio. I'd seen something known as a nib painting and wanted to try it out. Evidently you dip a pen nib into paint and use it to fill your picture. I just used all available-at-home stuff for this. Even the nib was replaced by a toothpick and I just let the flowers take shape as I painted. Its best done on a velvet kind of cloth as the end result has a 3D effect to it. But mine was just plain left over fabric. The overall result, I think, was passable. But alas...years of neglect have made it look dirty and I think there are even some oil stains on it now. 

Vinca Rosea

I just managed to get my entry in for Day 14 of May Flower Challenge. I joined only on the Day 10 of Lori Moon's challenge of posting a flower related picture every day of May or at whatever frequency suits you. 

These Vinca Rosea flowers are abundant in India and are found in different colors. But we have only these violet/pink colored ones below our balcony.

Daffodils

For today's May Flower Challenge, I wanted to share a watercolor of Daffodils I had done quite sometime ago. I think I've already put it up in this blog in a post of my watercolors. But I'm putting it up again. 

Do go and check Lori's wonderful tulips!

A garland of white flowers

This is for the May flower challenge Day 12. These garlands of white flowers are used to adorn pictures and figurines of deities. They are also sported in the hair by Indian women, especially in South India.

Flowers or fruits?

I picked these lovely dried flowers during my walk this morning. These are actually the dried fruits of a tree that has beautiful violet flowers. I don't know the name. The fruits after drying split open in this wonderful way to disperse the seeds. 

And the vase is an empty glass bottle with almost white sand and shells that I got from my Andaman holiday. More about it another day :)

This one is for the May Flower Challenge hosted by Lori Moon. If you want to see some beautiful flower pics do go and visit the participants.

29 faces May - Days 9,10,11

This has been a busy week. I did manage to sketch/paint a face every day, I couldn't find time to post them every day. Not very great ones this time.....but here are faces 9, 10 and 11.

The first one is a pencil sketch of a Bharatnatyam dancer. That's another classical dance form of India. I kind of messed up her eyes.

I read an interesting article on the Ivory-billed woodpecker in an old Nat Geo magazine.It was believed to have become extinct in 1950's but a team of bird watchers in the recent years reported sightings and produced evidence. But it seems, the evidence isn't concrete enough to prove the existence of this beautiful bird.

And the last is one of my favorite cartoon characters - Tintin and his dog Snowy. As a child I loved reading all the books of the series and now my son loves watching the movies.

And these go to Paint Party Friday too! A nice party hosted every Friday by 2 very talented artists, Eva and Kristen.

May Flower Challenge at Lori Moon Studio

Ok....so I have jumped into another challenge. This time its the May flower challenge hosted by Lori Moon of Lori Moon Studio. The rules or the lack of them make it easy :) Thanks Lori! So every day in May you have to post a flower - either a painting or a photo or any art/craft or anything and anywhere you see a flower. And the best part is Lori says you can participate any number of days you wish to. 

If I had come across this earlier, I would have started earlier....but better late than never. And I love flowers too! So here goes my first flower entry-

This is a pic I had posted earlier here. But I love the urli (that's what the container is known in India) filled with bright yellow flowers.

29 faces - Days 5,6,7 and 8

I'm clearing the backlog of 4 days. 

I tried to sketch a famous personality but it didn't come out as intended. :( The resemblance hasn't come out at all. Well, all I can do is...keep trying.

 This is my first 'own' face i.e I drew it on my own without any reference. Although Budhha doesn't seem like a handsome man in my sketch but at least all parts are in the correct place :)

This is a Rajasthani man with his camel. Can I consider the camel's face as another one in the 29;) Rajasthan is the only desert state in India. To make up the lack of color in the terrain, Rajasthanis wear wonderful colorful costumes. They even dress up their camels with lots

Goddess Durga is said to have killed a fearful demon to save the world from his atrocities. The day the Goddess slayed the demon, is celebrated as Vijayadashami. Week long celebrations are held in India and huge clay statues of the Goddess are put up in public places accompanied by fairs. 

Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. I felt too lazy to scan and took photos in the fading light of the evening.

Kathakali Dancer

This is my entry for 29 faces May (Day 4) and PPF Week 8, Year 2.

I used acrylics on sketching paper. And I'm happy with the outcome :)

Kathakali is a dance-drama form from the southern Indian state, Kerala. It is said to have its origins in the 17th century. The most striking feature of this classical dance form is the elaborate makeup of the characters. They enact parts of the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana and other stories from Indian mythology.

I had this dream of painting a Kathakali dancer and finally...thanks to PPF and 29 faces I did it!

29 faces May - Day 3

To catch up with the delay, I sketched both day 2 and day 3 faces today. And both are from the feline family. I think this challenge will help me learn draw faces.

It's a cat today -

29 faces May - Day 2

I'm late by a day :)

This time its a pencil sketch of Cheetah or Leopard. 

I keep the drawing/sketching/ painting for late evening as I hardly get time during the day. But the downside is poor quality photographs.

29 faces - May Challenge

Yipee! Martha of Ayala Art is back with another 29 faces challenge! I was so interested in the February's 29 faces challenge but didn't have the courage to take it up. :( and have been kind of regretting since then. But now I have been given a second chance. I've decided to take it and try my best. I might not be able to make it every day but I will try to and of course will have a lot of fun trying :) Thanks Martha!

So here's my first face, a pencil sketch - Swami Vivekananda deep in meditation. 

Swami Vivekanada is one of greatest spiritual Gurus from India. There's a postcard on our desk with this portrait and one of his quotes "Do not spend your energy in talking but meditate in silence and become a dynamo of spirituality". 

Though I can't say I'm anywhere close to that...I still talk a lot ;)

The resemblance isn't too great but I was happy with the outcome nevertheless! Now am off to enjoy what others have made and hope to be ready with another face tomorrow!