Showing posts with label Strathmore Art Papers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strathmore Art Papers. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Sketching Every Day


2013 India Sketch Journal: At Dulles Airport June 7 by Meera Rao

I started another journal this year as I do my turn at my M-i-L's place in India till end of August. As always the journal starts with sketches at the airport and this time I challenged myself to choose vignettes showing something different :)  While waiting at Dulles, DC I sketched the wide corridor with huge black board gate info etc and various colorful national flags hanging from the high ceilings.  It was late night and our flight was delayed and there were few passengers wandering around and even fewer shops or restaurants that were still open. 


2013 India Sketches: At London Airport June 8 by Meera Rao

At Heathrow in London, I sat in the lounge waiting for the gate to be announced. I had a perfect to place to watch and sketch people as they came by to check the Departure board with the 'time planner.'  It was a challenge to get the moving people down on the paper! But the positive was that almost everyone slowed down or paused near the gates and boards long enough for me to notice and commit a part of a gesture, a limb, a slant of the head, a pose or piece of clothing on to the page :)  So mostly, the people are composites of a few passengers!


2013 India Sketches : Page 1 by Meera Rao

 Above is the first page from my journal with both sketches showing. I am using 8.5x6" Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Surface 300 series 90lb  sketchbook with 40 sheets of paper.  I have my trusty Koi watercolor pocket Field sketch box,  3 waterbrush pens, a 3B pencil, and a ball point pen for sketching. I also have a few color pens, sketch pens but not in my carry on. I intend to use them once I am unpacked! So far I am excited about my second journal and am looking forward to sketching about 80-90 sketches this time, one a day, two to a page mostly and every now and then one or four :)  Now to make sure I am able to sketch every day at least for 30 minutes!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Keys to happiness

India Art Journal Sept.16 2012 by Meera Rao

One exciting news that I missed mentioning here on my blog is that my India Art journal and I were  featured on Strathmore Art Papers Facebook page about three weeks ago :)  It happened during my last week in India and I guess it is understandable that I shared it only on my Facebook page in all the rush and excitement! Thank you Strathmore !

I noticed around our neighborhood  in the narrow alleyways tucked here and there, how people find creative ways to hang the laundry!  The colorful clothes draped around brighten the drab dusty streets. 

 India Art Journal Sept. 17 2012 by Meera Rao

Everyday I passed by this tailor shop and I felt seeing him sitting in front of his sewing machine day in and day out that he embodied the phrase -nose to the grinding stone! His cluttered shop was tiny with fabric strewn, stuffed and hung everywhere. I wondered if and how he was able to keep up with all the different clients' items! 
India Art Journal Sept 18 2012 by Meera Rao

One of the side streets has shop after shop, and also little 'kiosks' (really a small table or a bench) on the sidewalks exclusively specializing in making keys!  A few of them have computers to assist them but most use old fashioned metal files and muscle power to make copies of keys! It was interesting to see all kinds of key skeletons hanging in bunches and glistening in the sun. 

 India Art Journal Sept 19 2012 by Meera Rao

September 19th was Ganesha Chathurthy, festival of the god with an elephant head, remover of all obstacles in life.  Streets were filled with all different size statues of the Lord for puja/worship which are then taken in a procession and immersed in a body of water. This year there was much awareness of environmental impact of the ritual and there were many more statues in just clay with minimal colored paint on them. 

Below is the full page view of the four sketches all together. Each sketch is 2.5x4" on Strathmore Mixed media visual Journal 5.5x8" and 90lbs wt. 

India Art journal Sept 16-19 2012 by Meera Rao

Once again, sharing the sketches individually from the post Sketching the Spirit of a Place from July. 

 India Art Journal July 22 2012 Meera Rao
 India Art Journal July23 2012 By Meera Rao
 India Art Journal July24 2012 by Meera Rao
India Art Journal July 25 2012 by Meera Rao

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