Sketching by Brahamaputra river at Guwahati

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Went again today to the jetty by the river Brahmaputra in Guwahati and glad to do couple of plein air sketches, specially this beautiful view towards west. On farthest distance is the glimpse of the Saraighat bridge which connects both north and south banks of the grand Brahmaputra river. This is the first bridge constructed over river Brahmaputra which was opened in 1962 and has a motor road on top and railroad underneath. The closest hill on left is the Nilachal hill and on top of it is situated the famous Kamakhya Temple, towards the west of Guawahati. As winter is approaching, the water level of the river has gone down revealing the beautiful sand. It's pleasing to sit down by the river, feeling the fresh wind and looking at the busy boats crossing every now and then.

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
Size: 10" H x 13" W.
Time: 60 min.
Source: live.

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© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.

Sketchin at Deeghali Pukhuri, Guwahati

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I don't know what this old structure is but this is a beautifully decayed one situated just off the water level on the north side bank of 'Deeghali Pukhuri' in the heart of Guwahati. In Assamese language 'Deeghali' means long and 'Pukhuri' means pond. This is a naturally developed pond from a discarded portion of the river Brahmaputra, it's very long and hence the name!

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook. (Touches of opaque white for the cranes)
Size: 10" H x 13" W
Time: 100 min. Approx.
Source: live

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 © Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.

Boats at River Brahmaputra

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The mighty river Brahmaputra runs almost whole across the state of Assam from east to west and definitely one of the biggest river in India. You have to see it to believe it where at places it's almost couple of kms wide!! Along with this, there are numerous other small and big rivers flow all over the state from the surrounding hills, into the valleys and merging with Brahmaputra. Not long time ago, there was only one bridge connecting both banks of this river. Hence these boats of different sizes and shapes were the only mode of commuting option for common people to cross it. Even now, these run on the heart of Brahmaputra. This boat is capable of carrying not only people but also couple of small vehicles on the open space in between the enclosed cabins. Traveling on these boats across this river is a memorable experience.

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
Size: 10" H x 13" W
Time: 120 min.
Source: line work on location, colored at home.

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© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.

Charcoal sketches [soft charcoal]

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After almost a gap of 2 years, I did these few sketches in soft charcoal and it is absolutely fun. Though I used simple photocopy papers, this fluid medium works amazingly even on these cheaper papers which hardly has any teeth to absorb the charcoals. I loved how easy and versatile this medium is to play with soft and hard edges just by smudging with hands or paper tissues or by adding stokes. Also lifting lighter areas including highlights and adding dark patches is quite easy. It's called a medium between drawing and painting as it is very fluid like paint but the application is like drawing. I am going to give it some serious try on proper surface. Till then, enjoy these small sketches.

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Just to add, since it has been raining a little bit here in Bangalore these last few days after a long and dry spell for months, the sky has suddenly become beautiful with fluffy clouds of different shapes, sizes and values making it one of the pleasing elements to observe now. And I think charcoal is one of the most convenient medium to explore and study and capture this element!

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The 3rd one from the exploration with soft charcoal. I was trying to capture mood and atmosphere with light and this dry but fluid medium is excellent to play around as it can be smudged, edges can be softened or defined and tonal values can be lifted or added at will!


mediums: Soft charcoal on bond paper.
size: A4
Source: Imaginations

© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.
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Sketches at Chennai Beach

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I visited Chennai last weekend to conduct a watercolor workshop on watercolor techniques which went on very well. There, I was staying at Balaji sir and Nithya madam's place which is just next to the sea. On Monday morning I took the opportunity for a walk to the beach which is only few meters away and did this sketch of a fisherman's village [ Thiruvanmiyur Beach ]. This was done very quickly standing right on the edge of the beach with waves touching the feet every now and then, So I had to be extra careful not to loose any sketching tools. This was painted with my new paint box recycled from a small mint tin box. In spite of the hot and humid weather of Chennai, the morning breeze was very pleasant at the beach.

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 5" H x 13" W
time: 20 min aprox.
Source: live

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This is the second sketch from my morning walk at the beach in Chennai. This view is of another fisherman's village towards south [may be Kottivakkam Beach.]. It was getting hotter slowly and I was in dilemma of sketching or not as there were no shade but finally deiced to do a very quick one. To save time, this was sketched directly with a brush and color without any underlying guidelines. At the end I was pleased to have couple of quick sketches at this Chennai beach !

Medium: watercolor on sketchbook.
size: 5" H x 6 1/2" W
time: 15 min approx.
Source: live

© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.
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Watercolor Workshop Demo at Chennai, 26th-27th April, 2014

My demo on Techniques of Watercolor at the recent 2 days Watercolor Workshop in Chennai on 26th - 27th April, 2014. 

We practiced from simple washes to building tonal values with transparent watercolor layers, differences of using various pigments, usages of warm and cool colors within a composition, some brushstrokes and fun tricks too. 

Thank you everyone for your participation and I am pleased to see your passion for this beautiful medium! Looking forward to meet you all again!!!

Medium: watercolor on 300 gsm Fabriano paper [cold pressed]
Size: 10 1/4" H x 14" W

© Dhruba Mazumder, 2014. All rights reserved.
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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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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
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Value shapes comparision

we often talk about using different numbers of value as shapes for compositional purpose, for example either of 3/4/5 etc. also we often do a quick thumbnail or detailed value sketch before going for the colored version to use as a 'road map', more specially for watercolor, to construct the composition in stronger way. but afterwards how often do we check or know if we have achieved it closely if not exactly.

so this is a small exercise i do most often if not every time after a sketch or a painting has been completed in color and turned into a digital format. i not only often do a value sketch before the colored version, but also convert the final digitized color version back to grey scale or completely desaturated it discarding all its colors keeping only the value shapes to see if the colors i have used holds the desired initial value shapes.

as you already know, all colors apart from their hue and intensity also holds a value of its own. all colors are relatively more or less darker or lighter than the other ones and vise versa and more than often we ignore this hidden but important aspect of colors as we get carried away with our emotions while applying the beautiful hues. and at the end the results may be disappointing because of not using enough value range and contrast from light to dark resulting the painting as 'flat'. by observing a finished painting or sketch as a grey scale or desaturated image helps us to check and analyze this again how close we are to our initial planned value sketch.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved.
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Ulsoor lake sketch

sketched this view of Ulsoor lake situated at the heart of bangalore city from a picture clicked by Shyam Deshpande. this lake has these small islands in the middle with their specific names and some trees on them which give them beautiful contrast to their backgrounds. it's also a nice place to visit early in the morning or to view the sunset.

medium: watercolor on sketchbook
size: 9" H x 7" W
time: 60 min approx.
source: from a reference picture.

Reference picture courtesy Shyam Deshpande. Used with permission.

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved
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On location at Varkala Beach, Kerala.

this one is from beautiful Varkala, Kerala. there's a pure joy when one sketch/draws/paints on location as you can feel the atmosphere, sound etc around you, hence the other senses are also connected to it and keeps the artwork even more refreshing in one's memory.

medium: watercolor on cartridge paper sketchbook

© dhruba mazumder, 2014. all rights reserved.
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