Huevember Challenge

First it was INKtober with friends.. and then Huevember. Huevember as the name itself suggests is a Art challenge for each day of November with hues and we just added the prompts! Most of my work is a word play or picturizing the meaning in how I draw the word. Arranged them like a color wheel to take this picture.

You may have to zoom in to see each of the word.

The prompts are very much Fall/Halloween theme :) I did not do the ones in red.. got lazy (blush!)

1. leaves 2. Sweater 3. Warm drink 4. Spider 5. Apples 6. Bunting 7. Pumpkin 8. Pie 9. Boots 10. Hat 11. Spice 12. FunkySocks 13. Love potion 14. Ghost with mustache 15. Wicked. 16. Moon 17. Brew 18.Candy corn 19. Owl 20. Kitty 21. Fire 22. Scary 23. Warm Dessert 24. Little monster 25. Wreath 26. Vampire 27. Boo 28. Bat 29. Spooky 30. Candy 

Experiments in blues - Macrocosm

Macrocosm.. a concept that is present in many philosophies.. both ancient and modern to a vision of the whole that is made of the parts. Swami Vivekananda says: "The whole of the universe is built upon the same plan as a part of it. So, just as I have a mind there is a cosmic mind. As in the individual, so in the universal. There is the universal gross body; behind that there is a universal fine body; behind that a universal mind; behind that universal intelligence. And all this is in nature, the manifestation of nature, not outside of it".

I decided to build on this concept and paint the gross manifestations of this macrocosm that we see around us. It had to be in blues..it represents the infinite!

The values in the colors help to define the layers and thus the effect of the large numbers. Watercolors are my current favorite and I started with a painting of trees. Then mountains with Acrylics. Followed by a sea in sharpies. And the last one are the clouds with oils.

Ganesha thanks those helped the cause!

More Zentangles of Ganesha and this time I doodled them as thank yous for those who helped with our 5th year of RFL! This is an addiction now, as I can sit with Sharpies and my sketch book and go on for days. I have more in the works....

Inspired by Keshav

Keshav is an AMAZING artist who I follow on facebook (obviously so does my beloved sister-in-law! as this request came from her to paint a similar Krishna like his!)


Both of these Krishnas are my adaptations from Keshav with a different touch :) One is with watercolor pencils and the second (Egyptian-like Krishna) is with acrylics and sharpies for the zentangle.





If you want to explore more of Keshav's work, please check out:  http://www.kamadenu.blogspot.in/

Lost in Krishna with Rumi as companion

"In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art." - Rumi

The moment i read this quote, i knew that one day it will come back to me when i draw Lord Krishna. And then when i sketched Krishna's lotus feet in a bed of flowers, there was a ecstatic feeling when the quote came back to me. Rumi's poetry then started me off on this journey of sketches. It was so amazing how each poem just blended so beautifully with each sketch.







"I once had a thousand desires.But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away" - Rumi

The concept of the Lord's hand alone reaching to take butter from pots of butter was mind boggling. This is by far, my favorite in the series.I had another view.. how jealous the other pots must have felt when He took pot from that specific special pot and not the others!

 "Love calls - everywhere and always.
We're sky bound.
Are you coming?" - Rumi

The flute represents being hollow and empty so that He can play His beautiful music through us. When the sketch of His hands playing the flute was done, i wanted to fill the empty white space around it. i went freehand with paisleys and swirls and went berserk with colors. Like dreams --- drifting.

 "I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home." - Rumi

The peacock feather - a symbol of integrity and beauty showing what we can achieve when we truly endeavor and show our true colors. And end up adorning His head. The colors were enchanting. To think I had 12 color pencils and still looks so colorful!

"You think you are alive
because you breathe air?
Shame on you,
that you are alive in such a limited way.
Don't be without Love,
so you wont feel dead.
Die in Love and stay alive forever." - Rumi

This was a simple fun sketch. His tiny dancing feet trampling our senses which sometimes go haywire without control was a joy to put in paper.

 "This is how I would die
into the Love I have for you:
As pieces of cloud
dissolve in sunlight." - Rumi

With rains pounding outside the windows, i could not but think of His little finger holding the Govardhan mountain protecting the Brijwasis from the great deluge.

"You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean in a drop." - Rumi

Ras lila - the dance that symbolizes the soul's unceasing struggle to break clear of the constraints of the body, to make contact with the supreme reality. And this abstraction is symbolized by the supreme reality personifying and dancing with everyone and everywhere where there is this intense longing for Him. The thought behind the sketch started with Radha's and Krishna's feet.and then the reflection with the multiple Krishnas with Gopis came with a spark.

Taking a break from tangling Ganesha

After 8 days of ZenGaneshas on Facebook and the expectations built around it, i had to force myself to a break. While my creativity was tickled, i was under pressure to come with a fresh idea everyday. Showering and Driving are 2 best times in a day for me to get brainwaves and this idea of Ganesha escaping from a tangle appeared at the latter instance. And so the 9th night after dinner, sat with my sketch book and sharpies and drew him escaping with mooshika and then resting. It could work the other way around that Ganesha is dreaming that he was tangled at some point in time. It is all in perspective.

ZenGaneshas - a New Year resolution!

It has been a long time since I last drew or blogged. It was a dry 2014. While i continued to admire Keshav's daily sketches of Krishna and Abhishek Singh's drawings of Lord Siva on facebook and i asked myself why i cannot do the same. i challenged myself to zentangle Ganesha year-round but after 8 i decided to take a break :) i got a lot of love for these and the comments on facebook have been very encouraging.

                               

                                                   

Hide and seek with Krishna.. how He plays with me..

Krishna made me do this!                    I started on this project for Ram and Suma as they had wanted a Zentangled Ganesha but the flute just landed in His hands and the peacock feather just settled to crown His head! It was like Krishna wanted to be part of the art and wanted me to find Him in those lines. The paper was spray painted with blues and yellows - a leftover from an earlier project ;) I used black paint pens to fill in the details of this flute playing Ganesha..or a modak eating Krishna... Oh I Love Him so - the games He plays and the way He makes me smile.. no.. i am not losing it.. just gaining it ;)

Spot the avatars or not

This was one of my experiments with zentangle and somehow it fizzled out :( I challenge you to spot the 10 avatars and other details. If you spot atleast 2, I would be redeemed in some way! I warn you - it is abstract!

Originally intended as a gift for a friend, I scrapped the idea as it did not turn out the way I planned. I have to try another and this time, my thoughts are more organized! I think...

zentangled Ganeshas

This zentangle with sharpies was a complete timepass and a superquick project. I had the foam board lying around in the garage and I outlined the Ganeshas by pencil roughly from memory (based on the other musical Ganeshas I had painted and gifted away) After that one just has to let oneself loose with the sharpies. It is a therapy as the repetitive designs can mesmerize one. I did outline the some parts with a red sharpie as an after-thought.