Thursday 27 December 2012

New Sketch Book.

 Start of a new sketch book. Finished two of these in the last two months..!

Happy Holidays!!


The letter 'P' obviously stands for me..

Monday 17 December 2012

An artist's profile: Cynthia Emerlye

I discovered the website of this multi-talented lady while surfing the net one day, and it was love at first sight for me. She is Cynthia Emerlye, kirigami paper cutter, artist, illustrator, designer and life coach. It boggles the mind to think that one person can excel in so many fields, while also bringing up six children. Her intricate work in paper is what I am showing in this post today.  Here it is -








Isn't it  beautiful? I am very, very inspired by her work and I am also trying my hand at kirigami. The day I create something worth showing on the blog, I will post it here. Till then, :)

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Pack Unpack

Pack, travel, unpack, settle down, pack, travel, unpack, settle down, pack, travel, unpack.....SIGH......!! Did anyone ever get the feeling of being on a big Merry-go -Round? That's how my life has been going lately. It seems that no sooner do I put down my roots in one place (and start liking it) than I have to uproot myself again and go somewhere else. Well, there was a time when I was younger and longed for precisely this sort of thing, but I guess lugging a small kid around everywhere kinda changes your perspective about a lot of things.
         I was getting too down in the dumps. So, in order to cheer myself up, I did some drawing with pen and ink. Nothing too detailed; just a quick fix for dark mood. Here it is....



(The blank box in the corner is for writing the initial of a special person who I am going to give it to.)
Coming back to the topic of dark mood, a friend did suggest another good option for lifting spirits...spirits, or to be more precise, Vodka. Good for spirits and good for keeping the cold away. What do you think? 

Sunday 9 December 2012

She's just a devil woman.....

Dear Friends,

           I am posting my latest effort here today. I must admit that it is not my original idea. I saw this work on another artist's site and was totally inspired to try it. I am not too ashamed of it as I am an amateur and students of art have always copied other, more experienced artists' work. Its practically a tradition, so......:)

She's just a devil woman, with evil on her mind..
Beware the devil woman, she's gonna get you...






Please see the original work by the other artist here

Thursday 6 December 2012

One more doodle..flowers and leaves

                                                   
I seem to have fallen in love with doodling. All I want to do these days is draw on a crisp white paper with a black ink pen. There is something magical and mysterious about the combination of black and white that is kind of lost if you colour it in....Anyhow, that's how I feel at present. Tomorrow, who knows...I might find magic in colours. Until then, its black on white for me. I had a wonderful time creating it and hope you enjoy looking at it.




Tuesday 4 December 2012

Happy doodling!

Hello friends!
 Our world has turned white. Kiev had its first snowfall yesterday, and I had my first fall in the snow today

(ouch!) Not daring to go out again, just sat in front of the TV and doodled away. Happy and safe winter to

all...








                     

Monday 26 November 2012

Hello all ! Its been quite a while since my last post (close to a year, I think). Blame it on the massive change in shifting countries and moving home and hearth to a new country - a beautiful country called Ukraine with beautiful people, beautiful flowers and strange weather (strange to me!). I long to write about all I've seen and experienced here but that is another story, for another time.
       Meanwhile, I've been staying mostly at home and exploring many new art forms. The one that I've discovered most recently is an old tradition from my own country, India. It is the tradition of applying mehndi or henna. Mehndi is traditionally applied to the palms of a girl just before her marriage. There are all sorts of stories and beliefs associated with it, such as the darker the colour of mehndi on a girl's palm, the more love she receives from her husband/mother-in-law and many others.
                  Apart from being a sweet tradition, the designs and patterns of mehndi are simply beautiful. Literally, they are simple and very beautiful. Most of the designs consist of repetition of simple loops, swirls, dots and paisleys. Peacocks are a common motif seen in most designs, as are bride and bridegroom. I tried a few mehndi designs on my sketchbook and was happy with the results. In this post I am showing two of my earliest attempts. More will follow in later posts. 



Paisleys in myriad sizes.

                                     
                                           A henna tattoo design.