Two Simple Watercolor Paintings

In this post, I am sharing with you, the two very simple watercolor paintings. For beginners like me, simplicity is almost a necessity because it allows us to focus on the core subject rather than get dismayed by the distractions.

Painting with watercolors isn't a joke and it requires a lot of practice. As a newbie, we apply watercolors randomly - in whatever way we like - but there are certain techniques that should be followed to give an artistic effect to our arts. These techniques can be learnt either through reading and research or from practice.

Technical details:

Size: 14 x 17.5 cm
Paint: Acron Students' Poster Color

In this palm tree painting, I have simplified the scene by removing all the distractions but now, I think that a suitable background is necessary to give the painting a more realistic look.


Also because of my tendency to make neat and clear painting, I perhaps didn't do justice to the watercolor medium. I have varied many colors in the leaves and I think that part is good. Another good thing I have done was in making the brick-like structure in the house. So, I would say this is a simple painting but not good enough for everyone to appreciate.

Technical details:

Size: 14 x 17.5 cm
Paint: Acron Students' Poster Color

This second scene is a simple landscape of desert mountains or sand dunes. This painting is technically a bit better than the previous painting but lacks the attraction in the subject which makes it look more like a monochrome useless painting. I say that it is technically correct because the farthest mountains are dim as compared to the nearest mountains and the horizon is blurry! Moreover, in the panting front, I haven't tried to be too neat with this one.

Those are my self-comments about my own works. I wish to know your views and comments too. So, don't hesitate to comment on them. I will welcome any type of critiques and comments from you.

Color Pencil Drawing of Bulbul!

Here is my color pencil art of Bulbul - a type of bird. I made it from a black and white sketch, and that is the reason behind using imaginary colors which are looking quite complementary.

I made it in 17.5 x 14 cm chart paper using the Nataraj Color Pencils.

If you are curious why I am using color pencil medium instead of using watercolor or oil paints, I would like to share some useful lessons with you which I learnt at WetCanvas.

First, the mediums doesn't matter. I am doing this using the colored pencils which the children use as a first set of mediums to color their drawing. Yet, I can see some beauty in this art. The knowledge of highlighting and shading and perspective are more important than which medium of expression is used. If used correctly, the arts look beautiful in any medium.

Second, learning the techniques can enhance arts greatly. Same techniques I discussed above, highlighting, shading, and perspective, if used correctly can make your art shine even with little efforts. Other important techniques include varying tones and color mixing. With these techniques you can make arts even more real and vibrant.

Third lesson I learnt is that joining online forums like WetCanvas is a great way to get motivated in your work. So, search for some suitable forums and post your work. You will get comments, suggestions and critiques on your work from experts, or at least the people in the same field. This can help you improve your art skills as well as remain motivated in your work.

That's all for now. I will be sharing more works, and my experience, in the days to come as I explore the various dimensions of art.

First Real Landscape Sketch From Me

For the first time, I drew an almost complete sketch of a landscape on the spot! I am sharing you that sketch along with a photograph of the real scene in this post.

The landscape below is the outcome of my 3 hours of hard labor.

Sketch Details:

Size: 14 x 17.5 cm
Pencils: 2B, 4B & 6B Camlin Lead Graphite pencils
Paper: 220 gram paper

I have used fingers to smooth the shading. The grainy look of the sketch is because of the texture of the paper I used for drawing this.

This is the photograph of the real scene. The photo was taken by zooming the scene and hence it isn't of good quality. Although I could have taken the photo from a nearer location, I didn't do so because, the perspective would then be distorted and the image would look quite different from the sketch I made above. That would make the reference look altogether different from the sketch and hence I had to forsake the quality of photo.

I know that it isn't perfect and I need to improve a lot. However, this is my first try of doing the real scene and I am quite motivated to make more landscape sketches in the days to come!

Your feedback is welcome as always.

The Top and My Childhood Memory!

This is the picture of modern day top!

While roaming around the town yesterday, I came across the 'tops' – after a long time.

The name 'top' refers to various objects, but the one I am taking about is the children's plaything that can be tied to a string and thrown on the floor such that it spins for a while – the longer it spins, the better.

Yesterday, I had been to the wholesalers' marketplace in the town with my elder cousin to purchase inventories, goods for resale, for his all in one grocery store. The tops I found there were manufactured in a factory perhaps and had beautiful circular curves carved beautifully in the wooden structure. I took out one piece and tried it on the floor with my bare hands which reminded me of my own childhood when one of the other cousins of mine had made me a top out of a branch of rhododendron trees.

I was born in a very remote village of Narethanti VDC in Baglung district. There were only a few houses nearby my house - 3 as far as I can remember. And the nearest one was perhaps more than 150 meters away. The water tap, which was shared among the three houses of my village, was also about the same distance far. However, a forest was nearer and we had to walk by its edge to reach our nearest neighbors'.

On the house of my nearest neighbor, who was also a relative, lived one of my cousins, Krishna or Ramu, whom I don't remember well now. He used to attend school down in the basin ('beshi' in Nepali) which was as far as one hour distance to go on foot.). His original house was about 45 minutes away up in the hill, known as lekha, and he had shifted to our neighborhood to curb the distance to his school or high school which I again remember hardly because I had not been even admitted to a primary school and I must have been barely 5 years old then.

This cousin of mine was very skilled at making tops and playing them that I used to get very much amazed at his great ability. He was also quite good at making other playthings which would entice none but children and we used to be quite fond of him.

Once, I remember only one incident, I insisted him to make a small beautiful top for me. He was a good old cousin and he happened to listen to me on that particular insistence or incident. And I too happened to remember this incident quite vividly despite my small age.

Accordingly, he went to the forest, not farther than 50 meters away; cut down a small rhododendron tree; brought it to the 'aagan', a small yard in front of a house for the children to play; and then started cutting the thick hard part of the twig. He knew very well that the twig should be big, thick and sufficiently hard to make a good top. However, for this particular top he had chosen a smaller twig since I was a child.

Within about 20 minutes (just my guess) the top was ready in shape, smoothed as allowed by the free hands and the sickle, a type of wedge used for cutting twigs, grasses, and fodder. Now, I needed a string to play it but my cousin could play it with his free hands as well for its size. I got a string.

This is the picture of the top that my cousin made for me.
I drew this from my memory!

Although my cousin handed a 'ready-to-play' top to me his job wasn’t over yet. Since I had never played a top before he had to teach me how to play it. I don’t think I was too stubborn but I was a child! So, I got my cousin do a demo for me anyway with some instructions and guidance for me to be able to play the top. I, however, don’t remember whether I learnt to play it successfully that day or not and I also don’t remember what I did with the top the next day.

A few years later, after my family had migrated to another village, I tried to make my own top out of a different tree. When I tried to play it, it spun a few times. However, I never became as skilled as my cousin.

Color Pencil Drawing of Deer!

In this post, I am sharing with you the color pencil drawing of deer.

Color Pencil Drawing of a Deer

This drawing of the deer is done on a A3 (24.5 x 34.5 cm) sized chart paper using only the color pencils. This sketch portrays only the head of the deer.

I love the easiness, comfort and flexibility of color pencils. They are quite handy.

Express your views about the color pencil drawing in the comments below!

Watercolor Painting of Mountains

After blogging has enabled me to publish whatever I do including arts and paintings, I am being more motivated to work hard at them. Also internet technology has made it possible for me to learn new styles of painting. Therefore, in a way, information technology has revolutionized arts and has enabled artists to keep going on, at least for me!

This is the painting of the Mount Everest from the north face. I found this subject in the cover page of my sketch pad! I completed this in three different sittings. On the first sitting, I made the head of the mountain and painted the sky (which I consider the easiest part in any painting but lately my concept is changing, thanks to this picture!). At this point, I was like dropping the art because it didn't turn out good. However, the next day, I thought to continue it even if it doesn't turn out good - just for a practice! So, I made the lower mountains and had to work very hard with them to get them absolutely dark. However, at the end, after making the darker part alright, the main part of the mountain started to look shiny and good without any modification! Wow!

So, I learnt that I shouldn't judge my painting unless it is fully completed and I should keep going until I finish it off! It was a great lesson for the beginners like me!

On the third sitting ,I tried to brighten the bright part by darkening more the shady regions (it was like editing in writing!). I made the sky also darker, in the meantime, and immediately hated what I had just done! I thought that I had once again ruined the painting by adding more colors to the sky. It looked a bit better after drying but for the most part I had overdone it and there was no way to reverse it.

This is the watercolor painting of another famous mountain of Nepal, Mt. Ama Dablam which is quite near to Mt. Everest. I painted this by referencing a postcard image. I have made the sky better as compared to previous picture. However, I messed up with the hills and mountains below the mountain.

And this much comments from me on my own work. I wish to know your views too. So, do not forget to leave your comments below.