Rose's Portrait - updated

I received some feedback on the portrait and incorporated those. What I have done now is a slight decrease in the size of both eyes, and I have made the glasses a little bigger. Tried to soften some of the edges, since it looked like a hard edged drawing, wonder if it shows. Here is the updated version, and I think I am calling it done.

Rose - completed
Colored pencils on paper, 7 * 10 inches.
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Different Strokes - San Francisco Victorian

Here is my entry for the ongoing challenge at the Different Strokes blog. I had a lot of fun with this one, done entirely in colored pencils. I have tried to bring in more color than in the reference. I initially thought I would do the little trees in acrylics, as I have never handled foliage in CPs. But changed my mind later and went ahead in CPs itself. That's why I love these challenges, they give so much room to experiment. There's another week to go for this one, and I might sneak in another entry, let me see if time permits.

San Francisco Victorian
Colored pencil on paper, 9 * 12 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

You can view all the interpretations here.

Portrait Study - with WIP

I joined in the portrait study group of Rose and others, and committed to do along with the group one portrait every month. So here goes my attempt for January, a portrait of Rose.

My freehand sketch in graphite, with some shading also started. I wanted to do it in graphite initially and changed my mind later.

After seeing another artist's portrait in CPs though, I too was tempted to do it in CPs. They are a great medium for portrait, especially for rendering hair etc. Seen below is an almost completed stage of the painting.
I knew it had some issues to be fixed but was unable to point out exactly. That's what happens when you look at an image for a long time continuously. My husband had a look and told me that the mouth was not okay, and needed some tweaking. I realized that I had made the lip line flat, and not a little angled. I changed that and I think it looks decent now.

Portrait study - Rose
Colored pencil on paper, 7 * 10 inches.

Since this picture is all I have and I do not know Rose otherwise, it is very difficult to even say if it looks like her or not. If it was a portrait of someone I know well, it would be better for me to judge. I'd just have a look in the mirror and I'd know immediately if something is messed up. Now I leave it to Rose and maybe others who have seen her to judge the closeness of the portrait with the person. It was a fun portrait to do, because it was a very close up look at the face. It was a different pose and new for me. The face is at an angle that isn't as simple as it appears to be. I think even now some fine tuning is needed to get the angle accurate. I think I have captured a decent resemblance though.

It is also great to work in a group because it brings in a sense of commitment to an eternal procrastinator like me. That, for me is the most important advantage, apart from getting honest reviews of the work done. The next month's portrait is sure to be a complete blast, and I look forward to it. All your feedback is welcome, whether or not you know Rose ;-)

Going wild with Orange

When the dates for the January VSD were put up, it was mentioned that the reference would really stimulate the artists. I was really looking forward to the reference, and I must mention that on first look I wasn't impressed at all. I later realized that a good painting can inspire any artist even if the reference does not! As the various artists started posting their interpretations, I was quite impressed and started with my version in colored pencil. I simply loved the various tones in the orange peel, and the translucence of the fruit.

What are you waiting for?
Colored pencil on paper, 9 * 12 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

My colored pencil version was taking a lot of time, as I generally work slowly with CPs, building layers meticulously. After a while, I was tired and wanted a break. And guess what I did, decided an ultra-loose version in watercolors, just to unwind myself. Well not watercolors actually, but acrylics painted almost like watercolors. It was a blast. I wanted the painting to ooze color and I think I succeeded reasonably. I don't think it will pass off as a watercolor painting, but it is definitely different from any acrylic painting I have done. While in the colored pencil version, I went in for a lot of complements, in this version I made the colors as intense as possible. The CP version contains a lot of blues and violets, whereas this version does not.

What are you waiting for?
Acrylics on watercolor paper, 9 * 12 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Next I felt I could do one using acrylics as I usually do, and opted for a closer crop this time, and a square canvas. Cropped the right side of the photo and focused more on the fruit. I thought in the CP version, the background almost competes with the fruit, so wanted the acrylic version this way. So this is traditional acrylics, painted loosely, with no underlying sketch. I wanted it to be spontaneous and opted not to sketch, so the fruit looks even more closed and not opened out.

What are you waiting for?
Acrylics on canvas paper, 8 * 8 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I really like how the colored pencil version turned out, and I like it best in thumbnail. In the larger format, it shows the mess that I have done to the paper, literally pushing it to its limits. So I dont like it much larger. I used watercolor pencils for the background and washed them with a wet brush as well, and the paper reached its limits beyond a point! As far as the work on the peels go, I think the CP one captures the colors correctly than the acrylic paintings. 

After painting the image 3 times in a span of 2 days, it was well etched in my mind and I wanted to have a go from memory. Decided to have a go with a different medium, and I chose graphite. This was the last one I did and really like how it turned out. So the graphite drawing is from memory, trying to create the values without the help of the grayscaled version of the photo. I picked up my graphite pencils after quite a long time and had a lot of fun with them.

What are you waiting for?
Graphite on paper, 6 * 9 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I fell in love head over heels with the Orange and had a blast doing each version. My favorite is version #2, because it is totally new for me. It is the most un-acrylic Acrylic painting I have done. I'd love to hear from you, dear reader, as to which version works and which sucks. Or if all of them are terrible, let me know that too.

The great news is that the Virtual Sketch Date has its own Flickr pool. It is stunning to see all the images together, what gorgeous pieces! You can view all of them here in Flickr (signin required), or ofcourse in the Virtual Sketch Date blog on Sunday, 25th January 2009.

Different Strokes - Jefferson Memorial

My entry for the ongoing challenge at the Different Strokes blog.

Jefferson Memorial
Acrylics on Canvas, 9 * 12 inches

Some personal updates

About 3 weeks ago, we have moved from the cozy comforts of Madras to Germany. And bulk of my time thereafter has gone in setting up the new house and making it more livable. It is easier to set up a house from scratch, than to set right one maintained by a guy :-D Well, my husband was here for a couple of months before me and things were lying around all over.  

And then of course, a good deal of time has gone in getting used to the cold! Whats with all the -15!! I have never seen even a +15, the least I have seen prior to coming here is warmer than that. Phew! I come from a city that has only hot, hotter and hottest months in a year, with a good part falling under hottest. So this is entirely new to me and I cannot really say that I am having fun. I hate so much of preparation in terms of clothes layers, to even step out of the house. I miss the times when I could just decide at the drop of my hat and start on my bike. 

One thing I like though is the winter landscape, though it is painfully cold. I like the muted palette, the barren trees, everything that's in complete contrast to my Madras. The whole region seems like its been painted, a visual treat to an artist. It snowed here a week ago, and while my daughter wanted to go out and play in the ice, I thought it was a good excuse to click snaps. I have never painted snow, mainly because I have never experienced snow. Now that I have seen a snowfall for the first time ever, I thought I just HAD to paint it. I have accumulated a lot of snowy references, and I am just sorting them out in terms of crops etc. 

I have packed as many canvas panels as I could from home, and a good supply of materials to last me for a few months. Since I wasn't sure when I would locate a good stationery store, I did not want to take a risk. However, I am mighty glad that I have already found a good store, very nearby to where I live. Yay! So look forward to some genuine wintery scenes in this space. 

My to-do list for 2009

2008 was a year that brought in some drastic changes in my personal life, that most of the time Art had to take a back seat. I quit my job and we have relocated to a different country couple of weeks ago and I am still settling down to the new place and most importantly, new weather! Its time for art again once all the dust settles down and here is a preliminary list of what I'd like to accomplish this year.

Butterflies
A collage of all ATCs done for a recent Art Trade
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

1. Participate in all the VSDs this year - I love the Virtual Sketch Date and look forward to it every month. Though I started late this year, I hope I don't miss a month next year.

2. Participate in at least 10 Different Strokes projects -I love this project mainly because of the references that Karin chooses, they make wonderful subjects. She also sets the bar higher each time and motivates the fellow participants. The DSFDF project runs fortnightly, and I hope to make it on time for at least 10 out of a possible 24.

3. Paint a series of photos from my Europe trip - I had visited a lot of towns during my visit this summer and had taken loads of reference images. I'd like to start working on them instead of the photos just lying around. This would be a collection of series, with photos from every single place we went to.

4. Start selling from my blog - I have done some preliminary research and will start posting smaller works for sale. I plan to commence this shortly, in the earlier part of 2009 itself. It will be a part of this blog or I might have a separate blog for sales, I am yet to finalize on that. To start with, I will be selling Realistic Landscapes/Cityscapes done in Acrylics, around the size 8 * 10 inches.

5. Not to have an unfinished painting in my studio - this is more to do with a work culture. I have this habit of working on multiple paintings at once. When the count is withint 2 or 3 this is manageable but when the number shoots up too high, it ends up in a mess. Having seen first hand how messy things can get, I decided I need to get rid of this habit, once and for all.

6. Work on my portrait and figure drawing skills - I commit to do a minimum of 1 portrait each month, which makes it 12 for the year. If there is time, I shall do more. I also commit to work on different media for these portraits. They would be done in colored pencil, Acrylics, Graphite, and maybe in Ink as well.

7. Do some plein-air painting - I'd like to give plein air painting a shot this year. I greatly admire several artists who work plein-air and I think it will change my whole approach to a painting in handling the details and color. I know its ridiculous that I am not committing to a specific number of paintings I plan to do, but I can assess that better once I make a start.

8. Go a little easy on Art Trades - I love ATC trades, and I am quite addicted to them. I tend to jump in at the first chance if there is a trade happening, and most of the times I do this without assessing my current work load properly. While trades are great fun, they tend to take away a lot of time from my own art. I do not want to do more than two trades this year.

There are other things related to working habit, like making time for art everyday and sketching something or the other, those I don't think need to be mentioned here explicitly.

Have a colorful New Year and may all your dreams come true!

As another year goes by...

This is what I started the year with, making a set of goals for 2008. Now that we are at the end of the year, I think it's time to revisit them. Broadly speaking, it makes no sense for me to go over each of the plans and see if I have achieved them. I did not have any time for art for half the year, and most of the work this year was done in the last 3 months. However, there have been some positives worth mentioning.

Prehistoric Trade Cards
A collage of ATCs from a recent Prehistoric Trade
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

1. Getting better at composition - I read a couple of books on composition and design elements in paintings. It gave me a great idea into what exactly is meant by "planning" a painting and doing preliminary studies. I really think I have gotten better, and that's not just by reading a few books. I tried setting up my own still life arrangements, and was fairly successful with a couple of them.

The completed paintings don't show the many different alternate arrangements that were rejected outright, but that's where bulk of the learning lies. It has certainly helped me grow and it has changed the way I approach paintings.

2. Getting my self portrait and my daughter's done - The self portrait was done for a challenge on WetCanvas. I moved out of my country recently and wanted to present my mom with a portrait of my daughter. My motivation was higher than ever to get it done, because my mom would miss her granddaughter a lot and this was all I could do. I completed it within the available time and my mom is mighty pleased with it.

Between my self portrait that was done sometime in March, and my daughter's that was done in December, I think I have improved significantly. My daughter's was a much tougher portrait but I think I did much better there. I also had a chance to look back at my husband's portrait that I had done 5 years ago when he was still my boyfriend. It looks so ridiculous now, I seemed to have just scribbled something. I'd like to have another go at his portrait maybe in the coming year.

3. Sketching from life - it was one of my plans to sketch more from life with a stress on human figures. I took part in a sketchcrawl for this purpose and also did sketches of simple still life set up usings day today objects. Cannot say I have improved greatly, because I did not spend the kind of time required for it in the first place. One thing is after the sketchcrawl, I did not sketch figures at all. I'd again like to spend time on it this year.

4. Participating in projects - I did 4 Art trades this year, and took part in the last 3 VSDs. I also did take part in 2 of the Different Strokes projects. Online projects are always great fun, besides offering some great learning as well. This was something I had not planned for at the beginning of the year, but was glad it came across.

5. Working from reference photos - Reading some books on composition and paying closer attention to composition has helped me work better with reference photos. In the last 3 months or so, I have stopped working from references from others. I have switched to using my own sketches or photos for my paintings and I am loving it so far. I'd like to continue this way and completely stop using images from others.

The biggest plus this year was my visit to several museums in Europe, during my trip this summer. It was a huge learning experience for me. Can't say it was a great year, and I certainly look forward to a much better year in 2009. Lots more art to come.

My Masterpiece

Ever since my daughter was born in mid 2006, it has been my wish to paint her. If I had captured every pose that I wanted, my house would be running out of space now. I never got to doing it though, as I was too apprehensive to try my hand at her. Whether the artist in me was good enough to satisfy the mom in me was the big question. No matter what the artist did, the mom would always feel that justice has not been done to the original masterpiece.

Anyway after mustering sufficient courage, I went ahead with it, near life size. The piece measures 20 * 30 inches. Capturing her million dollar smile was such a big challenge. Her naughty smile and her endearing eyes took much more time than I ever imagined. Neither the artist nor the mom are satisfied, for obvious reasons. While the artist feels there is always scope some improvement, the mom is quite convinced no artist can ever match her precious princess. :-)

My Masterpiece
Acrylics on Canvas, 20 * 30 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

This would not have been possible without the help of my dad, who was guiding me through every step and was pointing out minor mistakes and suggesting changes. After every time when I thought I had got the resemblance right, my dad would point out at least 2 mistakes, and so it was a very slow progress. I should quickly add though, that he did not touch the canvas and it is entirely mine.

I posted the portrait on WetCanvas and got some very valuable feedback. Almost everyone felt that the foot was oversized. It was pointed out by my dad too earlier, but since I was too engrossed in getting her face right, I did not pay attention to the foot. Also, when the see the image in real, since the canvas is quite large, the proportion did not strike me. It looked terrible though when I saw the image on my system, in a smaller size. I have now corrected the foot, made it more like a baby's than mine :-D I also made the face a tad more chubby, just one more stroke and I feel it has made a huge difference. See the updated version below.

My Masterpiece - updated
Acrylics on Canvas, 20 * 30 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

This painting has been done from a photo of my little girl on her first birthday, so she is all dressed up wearing the traditional South Indian attire. I hope I get to paint a little more of her. Your comments are welcome.

December Virtual Sketch Date

This time the VSD is held much earlier so as to accomodate the holiday season. I loved the reference, the two little cottages and the snow. But I wasn't entirely happy with the white background and foreground and wanted to give it more color. So I decided to make it an early evening shot instead of the good daylight shot that it is in the reference.

Winter Evening - Acrylics on Canvas, 9 * 12 inches
copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Check out all the entries in the Virtual Sketch Date blog on Sunday, 14th Dec. Your comments and critiques are welcome.

Sketching from life - tomatoes and jar

Started this still life from life. We got a new pickle jar and I thought I'd use it first before any pickle gets into it :-) I like still lifes where the fabric forms a part of the background also. So set up my fabric in that matter. I did the folds meticulously like those in a sari, and set it up behind my jar, so that the folds flow unidirectionally into the foreground.

Here is my sketch from life, which would be the basis for the painting that would follow shortly. The sketch is in colored pencils as usual.

Untitled - sketch from life
Colored pencils on paper
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I am yet to start the painting, so if you have any suggestions/crits before I put my brush onto the canvas, they are more than welcome. Thank you!

November Virtual Sketch Date

This time around the VSD image is a landscape. I was not very excited about the image at first, since I was in a still life mode of late and was expecting one. :-) But had a blast doing it. I went in for a very loose style, no sketching whatsoever. Just painted as I felt like. It is Acrylics on Paper.

Shadow Play
Acrylics on Paper, 6 * 9 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Be sure to check the Virtual Sketch Date blog tomorrow to see all the entries. I am really looking forward to it.

Apples and lace - completed

Apples and Lace, Acrylics on Canvas, 12 * 16 inches.
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan
Email me for purchase info
Prints available here

It isn't easy painting from life with a toddler around. She was waiting to disturb my arrangement and I had to give up after a lot of efforts! Anticipating this I had anyway taken a backup photo of my arrangement so completed the painting from the image.

I have done more work done on the fruits, and given some final highlights on the cloth and the basket. Touched up the shadows on the table as well. This is done and signed now, and I am pretty happy with the outcome. However, any last minute tweaks or suggestions are welcome. Let me know your thoughts.

Apples and lace - some more progress

This is taking longer than I expected, mainly because of the laced cloth. It is taking a lot of time to get the laced effect, yet not go photo realistic, proving o be a big challenge. I am not fully convinced yet with the cloth, it is not done yet, but about 80% done.

My progress so far -

Apples and lace - stage 5
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 * 16 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I would like to have your comments on the fabric, does it look "lacy" enough? Is there anything that can be improved? A fresh perspective would always be useful, so let me know folks.

Apples and lace - a minor update

Apples and Lace - Stage 4
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 * 16 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Got some work done on the fabric, have started the lace dropping down on the table. Lots more work to be done, here is the image as it is now.