Strange Village

Village & A Tree - Not satisfied !! 

When I started this one, First of all had no plans of what to paint.. Had no prior thoughts in my mind, Had few pictures from here and there and set off to paint on a Saturday night after kids went to bed

All along I wanted to paint a scenery with a large tree and some great mountains in the background + some village stuff + some bushes here and there.. I think I underestimated the difficulty of making such a combination, Background wasnt coming good (May be I wasnt in much stress), Village was becoming messy, Tree was not coming good.. 

Somehow unlike earlier painting, I didnt have much patience to go on with this.. Finished it after 3 hours of starting this one :( 

Color combination of tree trunks are delicate ones, should have been more careful there and I should practice to have some patience

Still few gave very good feedback and one of my friend and collegue liked it very much.. Gifted it to him :) Now this painting resides in UK (London)

Mountain Cottage

Trial with palette knife

After few of these paintings, Thought of more experiments and tried this with palette knife for the first time ! Bob Ross makes it look so simple.. Trust me, I saw that video many times and thought it must be OK to try.. No its not, It requires some real hands to use that knife to make snow mountains.. This painting did not finish in one shot, I took well over 5 hours of multiple tries (Many times in between I thought of quitting it) to come to this shape ! It was called 'simple one' by Mr.Ross (You are genious Mr. Ross) but it was the toughest one for me

But thoroughly enjoyed the whole painting.. I have to admit that clouds have not come good, I didnt prepare the black canvas properly (I should have used Gesso rather than using a black paint), Trees look ameturish.. 

All those with whom I shared this via whatsapp gave good feedback (Except few who have been my good critics ;) because of whom I try to improve further) 

Personally I was quite satisfied with the outcome.. Was overwhelmed by some cute responses my kids gave specially regarding the cottage and mountains, Few collegues offered to buy this. I dont think I would sell these, rather I would gift them as and when I can and will keep painting :) whenever I can.. 

Now this painting is hung in my living room

Mystic Forest..

A Surreal painting of Mystic Forest.. 

Again with a thirst of experimentation.. went back to Youtube in search of something new and serene.. watched many videos, demos etc but somehow came back to this one by Tim Gagnon - Its a fast forward version and looked very simple, however it wasnt as simple as it looked.. But I at least earn enough that, I can throw that canvas out if it doesnt come good :) With that in my mind.. Painted this on one of the late night on Friday (I dont like to disturb family and like some silent space, thus I usually paint after 10PM till 3-4AM in the mornings on weekends) 

Trust me, all professional stress goes away with the paintings and I at times feel that my stress level is equally proportional to quality of the painting.. simpler the painting, stress is lower ;) 

Just so that you can also do this painting, here is the video which I followed to do this painting.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVOqjsa5IXY

I never thought that I would write these in blogs, so never took quality photos !! 
Later, I gifted this to one of my good friends in UK, He says its in his kids room now.. 

Meditating Monk

Meditating Monk in Himalayas... 

After 3 paintings by now.. started browsing many videos of how to paint, Bob Ross was too ecstatic, Tim gagnon was very cool and similarly many more artists were providing free lessons on the internet (few links I have provided in this blog at the end) 

After several such speed browsing, thought of creating something of my own.. with no photos to follow or no videos to refer, only refered some of the techniques (how to draw snow caped mountains etc), came up with this one.. Didnt have courage to make that monk looking towards me ;) 

After painting this one, I felt yes, I can do some better ones.. 

Some of the useful channels I started following.. 

Bob Ross - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxcnsr1R5Ge_fbTu5ajt8DQ

Tim Gagnon - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkeSxwMmON04vvmRpXSiAOQ

Do let me know what you think of this.. 

Love Birds Painting in a moon light - Another try

Love Birds..

One of my good friend and collegue was having his marriage anniversary in Feb, Thought of various things to gift the couples.. however ended up deciding to make a painting for them.. Wanted to make something which also represents love and togetherness.. 

Chose to paint 2 birds (Of course, not humans as its tough to paint) and moon light in the backdrop, Here it is.. 

Painted on a canvas and friend and his wife were really happy to get this.. Many more folks liked it and also gave me courage to buy few more accessories like easel and some better quality paints and brushes (I started this with cheapest available ones)

Lion & The Sunset

Lion and Sunset.. 

After my first try with Acrylic, got some interest to create some silhoutte type of paintings, thus chose to paint a lion in the backdrop of a sunset. 

If you search in internet for such things, you have abundant material with which anyone can start painting.. So here it is.. 

Even to some it looks like more of a buffalo, my 2 year old Khushi identified it as Lion and same with my son Naman who said Lion looks majestic :) That was enough for me to convince myself that I can also Paint ;) 

My First Acrylic Painting..

My First try with Acrylic on Canvas.. 

I have been thinking to paint for too long time, Bought all necessary things loong back from various places but never had the courage to start it... Finally Jan 2015, I made up my mind to give it a try.. Chose my most favorite folk tradition of Southern part of Karnataka - Yakshagana as a theme and searched all over the internet for a picture which I can paint, Got many.. chose the simplest one and that night after office hours, set off to paint... Since I was completely novice, had loads of trouble in getting right colors, textures on the canvas (which I didnt know that, had to be primed or prepared ahead of time), However.. final one was not that bad :) 

At least some liked it.. 

Naman and Khushi (My kids) liked it a lot.. they and Radhika (My wife) encouraged me to paint next one.. Thus my painting hobby kicked off...