Still life in graphite

I watched the movie Hannibal a few days ago. Yes, I know, ‘where have I been?’ But I was so terrified of the plotline of Silence of the Lambs that I could muster the courage to watch it only a year ago. And after I saw it, I really wanted to kick myself for not watching it earlier (not that my parents would have allowed it). It is such a marvelously fantastic movie! What I like about Jodie Foster is that she takes on the role of strong, independent women, whether it is in Flight Plan, Contact or The Accused, and she infuses into the character a living, breathing female who feels frightened and vulnerable sometimes, just like any of us, yet that does not stop her from doing what she has to do.

Although, in terms of comparison Hannibal is no where in the league of SITL, it is still a great movie. I was quite taken with it. Ridley Scott imprints all over, I would say.

Okay, enough with the movie reviews. Back to drawing. This time I tried a still life. It’s not yet done – few hours work remains. I’ll post it in the gallery when it is complete. Think I’ll name it Sans Serenade.

Also, I have added a link to where you can purchase my prints in the gallery page right at the bottom. Bye for now.

Waiting for Winter

Whew! September was a crazy month, personally and professionally. The crazy hasn’t gone away completely. The art fair went well, although not quite as well as I wanted. Still, can’t complain – there were sales. An image of one of the ‘sold’ works is posted below.

In the next few weeks, prints of my work (graphite and coloured) will be available through Fine Art America. I’ll post a link in the side bar for your convenience.

My favourite time of the year is on its way. Winter in the UAE. Ah! Can’t wait to switch off the air conditioners, open the windows and let the cool breeze swish at my face.

Art and Crafts Fair

This Friday, September 2nd, I will be exhibiting work at ARTE’s art and craft fair at Festival Centre at Dubai Festival City. This venue is new for me so I am slightly anxious.

The fair is open from 12 pm to 9pm. If you are in the area, drop in – I have a couple of new drawings that I haven’t uploaded in the gallery yet. See you there!

A small announcement

I have an announcement to make – well, it’s hardly an announcement, just this: slight change to the frequency of new blog posts. I will have new posts ready for you on the 10^th, 20^th and 30^th of a month instead of weekly posts. My graphite works sometimes takes longer than expected and lately, my personal life has gotten a little too distracting for my taste. So coming up with weekly posts is getting difficult. And frankly, wouldn’t you rather have something to read every 10 days than to have to read, “sorry, I promise to upload the wip in the next post” and other excuses when you eagerly open up my blog page every week? I first thought of fortnightly posts then I realized I would hate to wait that long for the latest post on a blog I follow regularly.

So, see you on the 30th! And oh, check out my new gallery page!

New Beginning – Leopard

So started layering on the leopard a few days ago. Sorry for the not-so-great photos. This is a big one – the first big graphite project, measuring approximately 24″ x 18″. For some reason, I didn’t want to start with the eyes. I did put down a few pencil strokes, then promptly rubbed it off. So the leopard is going to be Zombie Leo until I am done with the entire face (at least). Till next time.

By the way, do you like my studio’ s name?

A new journey

I have been fiddling around with watercolors (pencils) for some time. You might remember the time I purchased a set of Inktense pencils, wanting to buy watercolor tubes and changing my mind at the last moment. I have finally decided to take up watercolors and start a new journey – into the world of watercolors. Yesterday, I bought a few basic colors in the Winsor Newton Cotman series and some good brushes. All set to start out!

But I am not abandoning graphite art – that’s going to continue until I lose interest, which I don’t see happening in the near future When I get to the stage where I can show my watercolor art though, I’ll start a separate blog for ‘colored’ art.

My leopard piece flopped in the beginning stage. I wish I could say it wasn’t me, it was the paper but the fact is the paper had a textured side and a smooth side. I don’t know where my mind was as I only noticed I was working on the textured side after transferring the entire line drawing on to the paper. I was undecided on posting that stage here because I had a nagging suspicion I wouldn’t be able to complete it. Still, I thought oh what the heck, I’ll give it a try. Bad move. I struggled with the face and ears for a couple of days and realized it was better to start all over again on the smooth side. Here’s the part I managed to do before giving up :

Thursday is a public holiday. Regardless, I am off to the drawing board. See ya!

Canadian geese and a Cat

I have started the composition work on the leopard painting. Sorry, no WIPs to post yet – I should have the first stage image ready to upload next week. Meanwhile here are two drawings (or paintings) that I had done a month ago.

Evening Walk

7.4″ x 9.2″

Graphite pencils on paper

I have wanted to draw a Canadian goose for a long time and when I watched Alpha and Omega with my 3-year-old cousin,  I decided to try a Canadian goose. Their silky black heads and neck were achieved after a loooot of layering.

I See You

6.8″ x 4.6″

Graphite pencils on paper

I wanted to name this work – here’s looking at you, kid but instead opted for I See You. It is more in conjunction with ‘the look’ or  ’the stare’. What do you think?