Long format sketching

Sketching on an unusual format, a plant from our neighbour across the street.

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 13" H x 5" W
time: 45 min approx.
Source: live.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
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Season of water melons

 

I think this is the time of the year for watermelon as they are available everywhere. From roadside vendors, small carts, neighborhood shops to supermarkets, everybody is selling them. Considering the daytime warm temperature Bangalore is going through, this fruit is the right choice to have now. And of course for some painting too as they are great examples of complimentary colors !

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5" H x 6 1/2" W
time: 45 min approx.
source: live

When you have such an interesting element in front, you can not just have only one sketch! So, here's the 2nd one I did of this watermelon !

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5" H x 6 1/2" W
time: 45 min approx.
source: live

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
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Quick study sketches

A page of quick study sketches.

Left: Facial structure/forms with simple planes. Rough composition.
Middle: Quick tonal value placement.
Right: Color Study in Ink & Watercolor wash

Medium: Graphite, waterproof ink and watercolor on Photocopy paper.
source: From Own reference picture.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights resrved.
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Step by step lesson

Here are few steps about how the initial observation was done and carried over next stages to the final render of the flower plant sketch done in graphite from live. Your feedback is welcome.

If you are interested to learn more something similar like this, Kindly leave a comment below.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Small flower painting available for sale

It's time for those beautiful flowers all around! This small flower painting is available for personal collection or you can also give it as a gift to your dear ones. Feel free to leave a comment here or write a mail to know more about this !

Title: Purple and Blue
Medium: watercolor in 300 gsm archival paper
Size: 6 3/4" H x 4 1/2" W [painting area]

Status: Available for sale.

Kindly leave a comment here or mail at -

dhrubafinearts[at]gmail[dot]com

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart.

Old wine in new bottle - an Ink & Wash sketch.

"Old wine in new bottle"! Same China Pink flower plant sketched for the third time now. This time in ink and watercolor wash. If you want to view the previous versions, kindly browse through my previous posts.
Thanks!

medium: waterproof gel pen with watercolor on sketchbook
size: 6 1/2" H x 5" W
time: approx. 60 min.
source: live

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Color temperature experimantaion

playing around with different color temperatures and color combinations, hence experimenting different moods with the same composition. so, which one do you prefer??!! let me know on the comment below! just cover one of them at a time and try to experience your feeling about it!

medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 5" H x 6 1/2" W
time: approx 30 min each.
source: from own reference picture.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Retro Suv car doodles

more car doodles. I think this is kind of retro SUV !

medium: waterproof gel pen and felt tip sketch pens on photocopy paper notebook.
source: imagination

another fun doodling of a imaginary car......!!!

medium: waterproof gel pen with felt tip sketching pen on photocopy paper notebook
source: imagination

another one. this time a conceptual truck...

medium: graphite on photocopy paper notebook.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Sketching shapes of light and shadows

If there are interesting shapes of light and shadow, anything can become an inspiring element to work from. Also non conventional vantage point adds extra interest. Sketched this from our living room window around post lunch time when the Sun hits hard on the roof creating hard edged shadow.

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 6 1/2" H x 5" W
time: 75 min approx.
source: live

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Chrysanthemum flower plant

Did another sketch of the chrysanthemum flower plant wifey got from Bangalore Flower show last month.

medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 6 1'2" H x 5" W
time: 90 min approx.
source: live

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

China Pink in watercolor & Graphite versions

Me and my wifey got this beauty Dianthus Chinensis, commonly called as China Pink yesterday and couldn't resist to sketch it when I saw this under early morning sun today. I loved the cluster of its flowers and the grass like shapes of the leaves, a challenge to capture. But every time we pick up a pencil to sketch or draw and a brush to paint, its a challenge to overcome. Every single time!!

medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 6 1'2" H x 5" W
time: 90 min approx.
source: live

The graphite version of the flower pot sketch I posted earlier today. This is part of a simple step by step process I have decided to do of how simple way we can analyze and structure the underlying line drawing of a fairly complicated subject which I will post soon. so stay tuned !

medium: graphite on 75 gsm photocopy paper.

 
© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
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Sketching around City Central Library, Cubbon Park, Bangalore

Did this sketch of City Central Library situated at Cubbon Park, Bangalore, yesterday morning. It was a warm day but still feels good to go out and sketch on location..

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5 " H x 6 1/2" W
time: 45 min. approx.
source: live

 A picture from yesterday's on location sketch at City Central Library situated at Cubbon Park, Balgalore.

________________________________________________________________________________

 Here is the 2nd sketch from yesterday at Cubbon park, Bangalore. it was a very warm day and people were gathering for a cool drink at this vendor.

medium: waterproof ink and watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5" H x 6 1/2" W
time: 40 min approx.
source: live

And above is the on location picture from yesterday's 2nd sketch at Cubbon Park, Bangalore. a cool refreshment for all in a warm sunny day!

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Featured at www.neralu.in

a small feature of me at www.neralu.in  blog

 http://neralu.in/dhruba-mazumder/

the statue of Edward VII

In conjunction to the Bangalore Tree Festival happening on 8th and 9th february, 2014 in this city, Neralu Blog has posted a small writeup about me and my love for sketching/drawing trees from around this city and why they feature prominently in my paintings. You can read more about it in the link below.

thanks a lot Radha Rangarajan for the effort !

http://neralu.in/dhruba-mazumder/

© dhruba mazumder, 2014.
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Chrysanthemum flower plant sketch

finally sketched the chrysanthemum flower plant my wife bought from the Bangalore flower show a couple of weeks back. thanks wifey for this sweet little thingy !!

medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 9" H x 7" W
time: approx. 60 min.
source: live

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Color swatehces - a study

Fellow watercolor artist Nirupam Konwar has recently posted this beautiful, moody and atmospheric image clicked early in the morning hours from his native in Assam and it immedietly caught my attention. It has limited but nice color range. I did a small exercise of picking up the existing colors into swatches, both warm and cool hues and also analyzed their postion in tonal value scale from light to dark. These kind of exersize can help to simplify and narrow down the color range to a limited palette creating harmonious color combinations. Also the grey values help to build the solid underlying structure bringing out the more saturated hues inside the picture. Hopefully I will post a quick sketch based on these studies soon.

Original picture courtesy Nirupam Konwar.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
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Commission portrait

recently did this commission work for Suvitha Ramaswamy, of her husband and their son which she gifted him as a surprise birthday present! thanks Suvitha for trusting me with this work!!

medium: watercolor on Fabriano, 300 gsm archival cold press paper.
size: 11 1/4" H x 8 1/2" w [A4]

© dhruba mazumder, 2014.
dhrubafinearts[at]gmail[dot]com
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Comparision of sketches done over a period of time.

Do you keep your old, older and oldest sketches for comparison with your recent ones to see how much improvement you are doing over a period of time?! Do you ever take them out?!! Here are three sketches of mine done of the same subject over 3 years and their analysis.

#1 was sketched in early January '11 when for the first time I started going for plein air studies. It was very hard to handle overload of details. Tendency was to look at 'subjects' rather than interesting shapes. Focus went on everything including the distance vegetation. Struggled on the reflection and on the main foliage of the tree itself. Was not happy but I was hopeful to overcome these obstacles.

#2 was sketched on a sunny afternoon of December '12. Improvement on the foliage of the main tree, bolder approach to render them as masses of shapes and not individual leaves. Reflection was better though not confident strokes and I still went on to add unwanted details on the faraway vegetation. and that red roof on the right attracted too much attention. more lessons learned, more improvement required.

# 3 was sketched recently on January '14 from a reference picture by Shyam Deshpande. Tried to simplify as much as possible and visualize everything in shapes of different value masses. Background vegetation was kept to a minimum hint. foliage from the main tree were just a group of different colors all mixed together and the reflection was done in minimum strokes. also tried a different format for dramatic effect. better applications of brush marks. still need improvement.

Its a good idea to take out our old study sketches and do some analysis to understand where we have improved so far, where we still need to improve and where we may be actually going wrong. After all, sketches are or can be for studies, right?! well sometime they themselves are pieces of finished artworks too!

So, dig out your old sketches and start doing that honest comparison! You don't have to share however it will be nice to see the self analysis. I am sure, analysis of the #4 will be interesting too when it will be done in coming time. Still way to go, more to learn. it's a lifelong learning process.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart

Fun car doodling

fun with car doodle...

medium: graphite, micro tip pen, felt tip sketchpens, correction white...
source: imagination

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
www.facebook.com/dhrubamazumderfineart