I am on Facebook now!

I am an active user of Facebook, where I have reconnected with long lost friends from school and college. Something that I had not thought about however, was using Facebook to market my Art. I was not really keen on having a business page there, as I felt it was too redundant, since I already have a blog and a website anyway. But Linda Blondheim, in one of her marketing posts, gave it a whole new perspective. Facebook might help to connect with non-artists who are interested in Art, whereas the blog with all nitty gritties about the process is perhaps too technical for a non-artist. I thought that made a lot of sense and decided to give it a try. Click on the image to see my page.

I was very reluctant to get into Twitter too, in fact I do not use it to its fullest even now. But in a very short span of time, Twitter has helped me connect with more Artists than this blog did in 2 years. There are a lot of interesting links being shared, and I find it awesome. I have also discovered a lot of Artists whom I did not know, via Facebook too. A lot many artists have fan pages on FB and its nice to stumble upon them. And I hope having a page of my own helps me connect with a community that's interested in art, artists as well as collectors.

One thing that I find tedious about setting up the page is that the image gallery has to be maintained by uploading images there. Flickr is my preferred service for hosting my images, and I cannot simply import my images from Flickr to the facebook page. So I have uploaded all the images all over again. The good thing though is that we can have many different galleries so that the images are all well categorized. Since the pages for us artists are all about images, it would be great if we could just import images from Flickr.

I have launched this page only yesterday, so it is too early for me to say if it has had any effect. A few months down the line, I shall probably be better positioned to do a post about it. So if you are on Facebook, please check out Nithya Swaminathan on Facebook, where you can see a big chunk of my completed works. I have also included a fan box widget similar to the followers widget in the sidebar here, please have a look. You feedback is welcome, and thank you for all the support.

Links:

• Nithya Swaminathan personal profile on Facebook
• Nithya Swaminathan's Art page on Facebook
• Nithya Swaminathan on Twitter
  

BIG News - now offering originals for sale!

Yes, I am now offering ORIGINALS for sale from Etsy. I spent a lot of time thinking if it would be a good idea to have a dedicated sales blog, or go with a known service provider, and I chose the latter. While my studio blog itself is yet to receive any major hits, it was not a wise option to go with a separate blog. So I have opened my shop on Etsy and will be offering all my recent works there. I have currently uploaded only two paintings, and will soon enhance the collection.

You can have a look at my shop here.

Australian Country side - WIP

When your hands are really itching to get hold of a brush, the fact that you are unable to isn't exactly a very nice feeling. I am in that state of helplessness currently, other than a occasional sketch, I am unable to do any serious painting. So I thought it would be good to post some of my WIP pieces that are waiting for me to take them to completion. These pieces would be completed by end of August.

This is a piece I started a long time ago, around 6 months back I guess. I got too distracted with newer paintings and work coming up that this has been lying around. I got to work some more on it about a month back though. Its on gallery wrapped canvas, 16 * 20 inches.

Australian Country side - Acrylics on Canvas

Step 1 - rough initial sketch

Seen above is the initial sketch done freehand and directly on the canvas. This is also an attempt to paint as loose as possible, so I have deliberately avoided giving any details in the sketch.

I have then laid down the color for the skies, overlapping the sketch coz the trees will be done over this after drying. I do not find it good to do the trees first and then show some sky in between, it makes it very unreal.

Australian Countryside - Acrylics on Canvas, Stage 2

In the next stage, I have marked the darks with burnt sienna. These will be the darkest areas of the tree foliage, with lots of shadow. The picture has really good lighting so shadows have a crucial role to play. The rough marking of the trees looks rather crude, but it is just to guide me where the barks are. I will be painting over this in browns anyway.

Australian Countryside - Stage 3

I have then started with the leaves, and the grass in the foreground. I have kept the grass really light, as it is much more brighter than this. It is nearly bright yellow. What I have observed from my paintings in general is I don't tend to really push my darks and my highlights. It looks like I tend to stick to more mid tones, which I aim to change. Even here, I should ideally be making the shadows much darker, and the highlights much more brighter. I hope I am able to achieve that by the time the piece is done.

As it stands, this painting will not draw the attention of any viewer methinks. In the meanwhile, I have also started work on the foreground. The foreground is absolutely gorgeous with a lot of dried leaves over shallow waters.

Here is where the painting is as of now. A lot more to go, at least 2 more layers to be done. I need to then refine the skies too, right now the clouds look really haphazard. All that and more by mid-August :-)

I have not prepared a slide show as of yet, will do so after the whole painting is completed. Your comments are most welcome until then.

Postcard #2

Continuing with the postcards, here is yet another very colorful bird, done in the same style of a watercolor underpainting followed by colored pencils. I am drawn towards anything blue, and this one was no exception. I am no good at bird watching and do not even know the names of most of these. There is an artist in WetCanvas who gives such jaw dropping bird images for references. Each and every single snap of is a wonder, and all these birds are done from his photos only.

Electric - watercolor pencil underpainting

Electric Blue - colored pencil on paper, 4*6 inches
Private collection.

Among other things, my website is also getting updated with images of these cards. You can locate them under 'Miniatures'. And I guess you would have already noticed the change in my blog layout and color scheme. A reader had suggested long back that I could have a painting as a backdrop, and I felt I could have it only in the header. Finally got around to doing it only now. Let me hear your feedback on the new color scheme, if it is pleasing to the eye.

My first Art exhibition and more.

I am glad that finally took part in an exhibition. It was a great learning experience meeting a lot of artists, having a look at the kind of work that others do etc etc. My first learning was that I need to work larger, I felt my pieces were miniscule compared to the others. Even a 16*20 seemed so small on the wall, especially when hung without a frame.

I wish more people had turned up, though I do not know anything about how the average turnout would be for events like these. I did not have any enquiries or anything, but got to develop a few contacts. That was the most important goal of the event, to create a platform for art lovers to interact. Two of my friends dropped in and I did not expect either. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Altoid for the first time, and Cheti after almost 3 yrs! Thank you both!:)

The event was great overall, a great initiative by the BYOA guys. They plan to have more events in future to help artists network, let us see. Great job guys!

Me with both my pieces that were exhibited

Among other things, I got my website up and running finally. I have my domain name booked for well over 6 months now, but never got around to building a decent looking site. This time the motivation was different. I had to market myself at a public event and it was a must that my site was updated. I have gone in with SiteKreator, which is very popular amongst artists for the good image handling capabilities. Have a look at http://www.nithyachander.com and give me your valued opinions.

Bring your own art!

There is going to be an Art festival in Bangalore this weekend, and I am glad to be a part of it. The 'Bring your own art' festival is aimed at providing a platform for several 'unknown artists'. What a unique idea! I read about this unique event in yesterday's edition of the Hindu. I sent in about 6 of my paintings and 2 have been selected to be exhibited. Needless to say, I am hyper excited!

The event is at the Chitrakala Parishad in Bangalore, and is over a period of 3 days - 7th, 8th and 9th of Dec 2007. I am exhibiting on the 8th, when I will be available at the venue all through the day. I hope to come again as a visitor on Sunday too, to have a look at all the undiscovered art.

More than anything else, this event is supposed to be a platform for artists to meet fellow artists and other art lovers. I am hoping to have a lot of fun! If any of you are around, do drop in:-) And spread the word. Thank you.

I am selling prints now!

Recently, one of my blog readers had commented that I should check out ImageKind and its print-on-demand services. I did go through the site after that comment and also reading some more reviews, and I have opened my gallery at ImageKind. The reader had asked me to mail him/her if I open my gallery, but unfortunately did not leave any mail id behind and I am unable to contact the person. Anyway, thank you dear reader for letting me know about this site and service.

Imagekind is pretty easy to use, and it takes hardly a minute to set up your gallery. Right now since I am trying out, I have gone in for a free membership. I might consider upgrading later on. The print on demand provides professional quality prints on canvas and other surfaces, and sends them custom framed.

You can find a link to my gallery at ImageKind on the right sidebar. Currently though it has only one image, Focussed. I am not very happy with the photo quality of my other paintings. This one is an exception, since I had got it photographed by a professional as I had to send it to a competition. I will be soon taking better snaps of my other paintings and will upload them. Look out for some more images that I will be uploading there.

To new beginnings

My art has been undergoing some minor but important changes these days. Don’t worry, I still do paint only realism and still use my favorite media of colored pencils and acrylics. The only change is that I am trying to make painting as a habit and not as something I do when I have nothing else to do! I am spending time everyday, yeah, every single day to do something, even if it is a miniscule part of a larger painting. So yeah, the change is more in me as an artist and not really in my art. Besides, I have been doing a lot of soul searching in “trying to find my own”.

I generally paint anything and everything that appeals to me. I save images for later reference if they appeal to me, but later I would trash them if they aren’t very inspiring. My paintings are basically born “in an instant”, with absolutely no planning or such. I am trying to change that now. I am putting in the effort to plan my paintings in advance so that I don’t waste time sitting with the canvas. I am trying to bring in some consistency in my paintings, in the style, subject, medium etc etc. These are baby steps in the direction of turning a pro and not just being a hobby artist.

As I am trying to change a lot of things related to my art, it is only fair that my blog underwent a change too. Hence this new blog altogether. I hope to post more often than I ever did, so watch this space for something new every day. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my work.

Stained Glass

Stained glass is a medium that I ventured into not long ago. Actually I got to know of the medium when my art teacher organized a workshop some years back, and I could not go to Madras to attend it. When I was in Madras next, I went and had a look at the lovely panels that the participants had done, and was immediately enamored. I wanted to try it out on my own and did so with some help from materials online.

One thing about stained glass is how less time consuming it is. I can finish a piece from scratch in about an hour. In any other medium, my free-hand sketch alone will take that much time. So when I got my first set of stained glass paints, I did about 4-5 pieces in one shot. The whole thing took less than a week. Aint it cool!? Ofcourse, laying the outline needs a lot of control as even a slight shake in your hands would spoil the painting. Once we get the hang of it, stained glass is a thoroughly enjoyable medium.

Sunflowers, stained glass

Love birds, stained glass

Gossip, stained glass

Peacock, stained glass

In the vineyard, stained glass

If you are wondering at my imaginative titles, I am sorry! I couldn't come up with anything better. All of these are about 9 * 12 inches in size. All the pieces are done on textured glass, as it glows better when hung in the direction of light. Yeah, thats how a stained glass piece is to be enjoyed in all its glory. Hang it on a window where ample light passes through, and the translucent paints will glow.

My first ACEO

Once I signed up for the ATC exchange, there was no looking back. I was the only Indian participant, and initially thought that I should send everyone a card that depicts something Indian. But then, I started doing some birds and they were such a pleasure to do in the small size, that I forgot all about the Indian theme and stuff. I did a dozen cards of colorful birds, and another dozen fall landscapes. They were such a delight to do.

Scarlet Macaws - 2.5 * 3.5 inches.
Private collection of Charlene
copyright Nithya Swaminathan

My first card was of a pair of scarlett macaws, I was pretty pleased with the result. Have a look, and do shoot in your C & C. This was done for an artist Charlene, and I am glad she loved it.