Sketching on a Long Distance Train

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Few of my recent sketches done on board while traveling by a long distance train. Traveling by train in India is a unique experience, specially if it's a long distance route passing through different states with their own uniqueness and to be able to see the beautiful rural landscape and their settings. Every states has their unique lifestyle with different vegetation, houses, people, landscapes. You wake up every morning to see something different and interesting. My decision to travel recently by train after many years turned up to be a nice one as I was excited to see the beautiful landscapes every single day.

Medium: ink on recycled paper journal
Size: 4" H x 6" W
Time: very quick ones
Source: live

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© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.

Boat at Guwahati Jetty

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Did this quick sketch today at the jetty in Guwahati. These are one of the many versions and sizes of boat available that runs between both sides of Guwahati ( Guwahati and North Guwahati) over the mighty river Brahmaputra, helping thousands of commuters every single day to cross it. These wooden boats are around 50 feet long. People sit on the roof also along with two wheel vehicles!!

Medium: ink on recycled paper journal
Size: 4" H x 6" W
Time: 20 min.
Source: live

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 © Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.

yesterday, i almost missed my daily sketch [i am hoping to do at least 1 sketch a day :)] as the day quickly passed by while i painted a watercolor. i somehow dont find much inspiration to sketch at home, specially at night as i love to go out and sketch on location. i still had to find something to do a quick sketch before diner and here it is, the bell peppers! i wished i had the other colored ones too. may be next time i will add the yellow and the red ones too :).

medium: waterproof gel ink on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 60 min approx.
source: as u can see, live :)!!

yesterday, i replaced the original watercolor cakes in my plein air watercolor box with freshly squeezed colors from tube. the original cakes were too dry. i had to add too much of water to make them moist resulting in weak washes eventually taking more layers to reach the certain level of dark tones. it makes the colors appear dull and not fresh. i added the basic primary colors in both warm and cool temperatures, the earth colors and couple of extra ones like payen's grey, sepia, a green [which i hardly use as i mix green from the primary colors] and kept the white cake intact. hope these colors will be better to use on location maintaining freshness. the two brushes are cheap synthetic round brushes but forms very nice points, size: 10 and 6 and on the right is the Reynolds waterproof gel pen i use.

medium: waterproof gel ink and watercolor wash on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 60 mins approx.
source: live

the pedal boats for hire at Ulsoor lake. i have again realized few days back, how beautiful it is to sit there on the steps of this lake in the heart of Bangalore and enjoy the reflected afternoon sunlit water, the pedal boats and to view the defense personals' everyday routine practice of their sail boats, rowing and kayaking activities. i was thinking initially to spend an hour there before i had to visit a post office regarding the parcel, however i loved so much being there that i ended up viewing a beautiful sunset! if u have some free time to spare in the afternoon somewhere nearby, pls step in to this beautiful place and enjoy the setting sun with a cup of tea. well i did not have the tea but did couple of sketches. btw, apart from the green wooden boat, all the other ones there went for a paddle and returned while i was sketching this. its a nice part of outdoor sketching :)!

medium: waterproof ink and watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 60 min approx.
source: live

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 25 min approx.
source: live

for the last couple of days, i had a good experience of trying to track and following a parcel  sent to me by cipa from romania and i was going from one postal office to another postal office to find its where about. finally i went to the foreign parcel office at Museum Road, Bangalore. it has a very old building along with its new customer care section building. this structure is very old [no idea yet about the year of construction though] and it is very beautiful with its walls and specially the tiled roofs. i had to wait there during the lunch hour and i did this sketch during that time. i was very happy to utilize the time in a nice and pleasant way sketching peacefully under a tree :)!

medium: pental brush pen on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 40 min approx, added few washes later on
source: live

this was more of an experimentation with colors rather than trying to paint a subject. sometime bak i read a comment by another artist that using or dropping some complimentary colors while still wet creates nice vibrancy [cant remember the exact words] and i think it is true. i dropped blues and purples on orange and yellows and it seems to work nice!

medium: waterproof ink and watercolor on sketchbook
size: 5 3/4" x 8"
time: 25 min approx for the sketch. added the texts from web later on
source: live