Cattle Fair - Rajasthan

Murali Alagar, my friend from CWA (Chennai Weekend Artist) visited Rajasthan as part of his photoshoot and has clicked wonderful shots, I admire the angle and view he captures for any shot he takes, especially when he shoots any landscape. My earlier post of Shiv Linga (Lepakshi) was also inspired from one of his photos. He keeps impressing others by his unique clicks and this cattle fair is one in them. After seeing this, I wanted to do a pencil sketch of this angle and guess have drawn it to some extent. This is the first time am trying to do landscape and hope it came out well, here it is for your comments. Used 2B, 5B and 8B for this pencil sketch.

Read More

Alexander and Bucephalus

For a long time I have been thinking of portraiting epic character, that too Alexander the great and am crazy on his black beauty, Bucephalus.

The moment I searched for Alexander, wikipedia had a wonderful portrait of Alexander tamming his Bucephalus, got attracted towards the drawing I tried to depict it in my style and here it is for your critics. I used 5B and 8B for the shades.

Read More

"Rani Mangamma" in my style :)

Few days back while just giving Like to my favorites, happened to see a post of oil painting on canvas of Rani Mangamma on her ferocious horse, unfortunately I downloaded that drawing but didnt notice who posted that and the artist name :( remember him saying it was sold for 1.5 laks, and he could not afford, so just took a shot and left that place.

Today was another fine relaxing sunday, so happened to portrait that drawing in my style and hope it came out well. Used 5B, 8B, 2B in all combinations to finish this drawing. Finally finished it and posting for your critics.

Read More

Shiv Temple, Monolithic Nandi - Lepakshi

After a long gap of hectic work schedule..... I got time to draw, so planned to draw Lord Shiva and was browsing over internet and found this unique shiv lingam sculpture at lepakshi. The moment I saw, got impressed with it and started collecting more information about Lepakshi and came to know there is a monolithic nandi too at the site. Though I didnt visit this place personally, but got into a imagination to bring nandi in front of shiv lingam and started drawing. Actually nandi isnt in front of this statue at lepakshi, its just my imagination.

Read More

Quick Sketches: 20-30 Minutes

After concentrating more on the details, friends and mentors suggested I practice quick sketches not taking more than 30 minutes. This quick sketch improves our visual skills and capturing skills. Practicing thumbnails also increase our capturing skills. Getting the light and shade is the key of drawing thumbnails. Few quick sketches in my style of shading for your critics.....

Read More

Ganapathi baba mouriya....

Hello friends, after almost a month am posting my new drawing. I started drawing on Ganesh Chathurthi, thought I would complete it on same day and wish my friends. Unfortunately I could not and it took more time than I expected :( almost 12hrs in 4 days. Finally I finished and posting for your feedback. After getting into ArtJam, I bought sketchbook, until then I used to draw in normal paper. Thanks for ArtJam to encourage me buy my new Classmate A3 sketchbook 140gsm and Faber Castell 6 drawing pencils. "Pillayar Suzhi pottu aarambikanum... " (start with blessing of Lord Ganesh) matching this, and Ganesh chathuthi, I was inspired to draw Lord Ganesh first in my sketchbook. Am more excited to meet artist in ArtJam @ Cholamandal Artist Village and get their feedback in improving this drawing.

View in all sizes without steps Small Medium Large

Read More

ArtJam @ Valluvar Kottam - 2 Sep '12

ArtJam, is a meetup of artists in neighborhood. Thanks to Muralidharan Alagar, who initiated this in Chennai for the first time @ Valluvar kottam on September 2nd. I was hungry for such a meet long time and it happened, so I immediately attended and learned a lot of information. It was a mix of experts and beginners like me. Very delighted to meet the group

• Muralidharan Alagar
• Caricaturist SugumarJe
• Prabha Subramanian
• Ganapathy Subramaniam
• Kannan

Learnings from the meet

• Anatomy - any portrait requires anatomy to be satisfied at first point, SugumarJe adviced me to just work on anatomy for 3months, without going into shading, starting from face to whole body
• learned about gsm and the kind of papers(130,150,200) to be used
• learned about pencils, and brands like steadler, faber castell 6 pencil set, graphite and charcoal pencil (thanks to Prabha madam for sharing her pencil)
• discussed about riven phonics drawing video tutorials, complete set of more than 150 chapters and planned to buy it online.

Thanks to

• Murali for the wonderful initiative and his 25 years experience sharing. Thanks also for the snacks ;)
• SugumarJe for his caricatures to everyone of us who met and the public who visited and the security men as well :)
• Thanks to Padma, Ganapathy and Kannan for sharing their experience

Clicks @ ArtJam

more photos in facebook profiles....

Read More

Sleeping Beauty...... In Progress

Hey Friends, let me start this way, I dont try my hands on drawing portrait, because of spoiling the natural expressions in the face... but was really drove when I saw a painting of a sleeping beauty, so started drawing and its in progress. posting the progress here for your suggestions which I should improve on in this drawing.

Wish me good luck.....

Read More

Dancing with Fish - Pencil Drawing

Last Month happened to visit an aquarium exhibition and was impressed with the collection they had. The movement of those fishes looked like they dancing all the time in water. So I decided to bring those dance movements in paper and pencil very quickly. I tried lot of movements of those fishes in various angles and found these to be well done. Posting them for your comments, please do give your credits and critics which drives me more to explore various forms of drawing.

All five sketches were drawn using HB, I didnt use any dark shade pencils, so as not to deviate from those transparent fins. Actually these would be great if drawn using a oil brush in golden orange color, somehow I did not try my hands on colors yet, very soon I may try exploring colors. Wish me luck friends :)

Read More

Olympics Shotput 2012 - Pencil Drawing

2012 London Olympics was awesome and the time it started, I was awestruck with those marvelous photographs released by professionals. My mind kept thinking to portrait one photograph from one of those, but was totally driven by Kumki songs and had to draw Kumki movie stills. This weekend had little time to explore other drawing techniques, so took one photograph from Olympics 2012 and did a fast sketch of that.

Finally decided to sketch Latvia's Maris Urtans, because of two reasons, he had tatoo and a beard :) thought they would be difficult to portrait fastly. This sketch took me around 1 hour to complete, I know this is long but am far better than before, compared to more than 5 hours to complete any drawing :)

Read More

"Kumki" Special - Pencil Drawings Part 2

After posting "Kumki Special - Pencil Drawings Part 1", Kumki fever has never gone down, infact it has increased. I am humming Kumki songs whole day, especially "sollitale....". The craze for the movie has gone up after recieving credits from

• D.Iman, music diector of Kumki - "nice to meet an artist..beautiful no words" 
• Vikram Prabu - tweeted my drawings to his friends
• Santhomer, asst director to Prabu Solomon - commented on part 1

Encouragement from my friends and Kumki team drove me more towards Kumki and I finished part 2 with one more drawing from the prerelease stills. There should be more critics for this drawing, please do share them in comments for me to improve next time.

All the best and Kumki team please dont make us wait long for the movie :)

Read More

"Kumki" Special - Pencil Drawings Part 1

Kumki, the name itself sounds different and when browsed to know what it really means, I was attracted to it, may be related to elephants ;) last week happened to see Kumki audio release function in Vijay TV and was carried away by the emotional moments, and today Independence Day Special of Kumki songs in Vijay TV again attracted me more towards the film.

Before even the release, the movie has attracted the audience in mass, am sure this movie is going to be great blockbuster than Myna. How can I stop me from drawing the awesome stills release by Kumki team, and here are two of them drawn on Independence Day holiday watching all TV programmes ;)


Even though I could not bring the exact feeling which the stills revealed, I tried my best to bring out the Kumki stills, few more drawings in progress which I will post very soon, before the film release.

Read More

My Fav Technique

Hello friends, after exploring the techniques of pencil drawing like vector, contour, hatching, shading, gesture, scribbling am still not satisfied and keep exploring other techniques. Meanwhile I came across a drawing by Ernst Cole in a academic class, which attracted me very much. It was not gesture nor crosshatch or shading, it was combination of all three to me... so tried my hands on the one which atracted me. Althouh I could not match the original sketch I almost achieved it 90%.

If you notice closely, its pretty much simple with very few lines, but the depth of matter revealed in those lines are tremendous. The expreesion in the eyes, its sharpness and thinking pose... everything has been portraited very well. Rather drawing the complete picture, he most important dark shades are shown exactly and the rest are made with shades and crosshatching. The portrait loks like our great poet Rabindranath Tagore, but I dont know whether it was him because I have not seen this drawing in any site apart from this one academic book. I am planning to draw more with just lines and either shading or crosshatching to reveal the depth of expression.

This may be one form of vector sketches too, but the shading or hatching makes it stand apart from vector.
I used only HB and 2H pencils for this drawing. Asusual want all your valuable comments in improving myself.

Read More

Pencil Drawing - Female Model

Friends, after a long time am posting my latest drawing, that too first time in my blog with step by step explanation of my own drawing. Soon am planning to post video of my drawing steps so it is more clear. This time I tried a female model posing on a sofa for fashion photograph. The original picture I found somewhere in flickr, could not get the link now :( so these are the steps I followed for the drawing. Asusual need your valuable critics to improve myself

Step 1: First I got the gestures correct, i mean the outline of the whole picture. The proportion of the figure matters for any human drawing, rest all comes next. This drawing looks something like taken from lower angle, so the legs looks very very little big than the top part of the figure. I used 4H to draw the outline of this drawing. then wherever i knew there would be shadows I used HB to mark them permanant. I can draw the eyes well compared to the whole face, so I just made the eyes initially to get the photography pose feel of the model.
Step 2: Next I started with the shading of the drawing, actually not drawing, but its darken the places where shadows are. I started with the clothes because its what we draw and the viewer cannot visualize how it would be in real, but the face is not like that, everyone of us know how a human face is and we have to careful in portraiting human face. I use 6B and HB to darken the clothes line.
Step 3: So I completed drawing the darker shades of dress and then started with the hairs, it was pretty simple, because the model has black hairs, drawing blonde hair is difficult to get that shiny blonde feel. but this was ok, since she also had a cap, so dont have to struggle lot. Then slowly finished shading the nose shadows and outline of the lips to get a feel of the model before moving to other part like hands legs and the sofa she sits in.
Step 4: I finished the hands and legs and started with shading of the cheeks and upper lips. Slowly shaded the face for a long time till I get the model's face as it should be, but took a long time. Dress needs some 10% more work on the darker shades.
Step 5: Got the complete drawing finally. Took me around 7-8 hrs to finish this, am not a professional so took this long, but I would say, if i practice this kind of drawing weekly once, then I can make it fast after 10 such drawings.

Read More

Spiderman Series - Pencil Sketches

Season of Spider Man 3D, theaters are all full and everyone's favorite character is back amazing this time.... so thought why not I draw spider man in different poses. One easiest thing in drawing spiderman is, we do not have to concentrate on face and expression, its simple ovals for eyes, no nose and no mouth.. very simple isnt it :) that is one another reason to draw.

Childrens can be trained easily to draw spiderman, simple techniques are all around internet. Only the proportions are important and difficult to draw, once they are outlined, rest is simple shading and there is no such thing like dark and light shades. I missed the proportion in one of the four poses, thighs are little big which screwed up the drawing. Asusual waiting for your critics :)

Read More

Female Portrait Series - Club Dancer

A step ahead with portraits, I decided to try expressions, which will express something like dance, singing, modelling or anything, to the audience. I usually spoil a little while drawing face, so decided to draw something where face is not exposed more and some expression, this club dancer photograph which I took had the hairs covering the face and a nice dancing pose. So decided to draw this. Some proportions of the figure isnt correct which needs to be improved, but overall the drawing looks good, thats what the comment received from my friends, now posting it here for your comments and critics for improving myself :)

Read More

Female Portrait Series - Part 2

Back with another set of portraits. I tried to improve in details as practicing one by one, but spoil at times, have posted the spoiled ones also :) Asusual need your critics for improvements. It would be great if you can share the paper medium and pencil you use for drawing portraits, which also helps me. Once I get the portraits well, I will also share step by step of each portrait.

I first start with the outline, which is to get the gesture correctly, then slowly finish the face elements, eyes, lips, cheeks, and nose finally..... then slowly cover others in detail. Waiting for your critics as usual :)

Read More

Female Portrait Series - Part 1

Now starts the most interesting series, atleast for me... yes Portraits, which I lag a lot in finishing it in correct proportions. Practice makes man perfect, (ofcourse women too ;) ), so I started practicing portraits atleast one daily. Drawing portraits is itself an art, getting the correct proportions, the cheeks, lips nose eyes, which when drawn in correct proportion brings the portrait complete. Another difficult one in drawing portraits is hair, which needs seperate training all together.

My first series on portraits, which needs your critics for improvements. It would be great if you can share the paper medium and pencil you use for drawing portraits, which also helps me. Once I get the portraits well, I will also share step by step of each portrait.

I first start with the outline, which is to get the gesture correctly, then slowly finish the face elements, eyes, lips, cheeks, and nose finally..... then slowly cover others in detail. Waiting for your critics as usual :)

Read More

Violin Series - Mostly Gesture, little Cross hatching

I started collecting model photographs, ofcourse female ;) to use as reference for drawing, that is coming soon as seperate series of drawings. For now towards my interest to violin some drawings related to violin. I have used 4H, HB to complete this drawing using cross hatching and gesture techniques. 4H to finish the gesture first and then slowly using cross hatching filled the rest of the drawing with details. Next post I will post step by step details of how I start with gesture and slowly finish the drawing.

View in all sizes Large Medium Small

Read More

Cross hatching technique

Cross hatching is another technique I learned in the past months... really easy but we have to careful where to use dark hatch and where to use light hatch... Tried few from samples got from web, later I tried some from model photographs. Few of the samples I tried from web are posted... as usual need your critics :) I think the pencil also makes difference in this cross hatching technique. Am just using HB pencil, which is where am making mistake I think. Going to browse more on this technique and the paper, pencil which should be used at what places and try some more....

View in all sizes Large Medium Small

Read More

Gesture sketching.... exploring further

In my earlier post I posted on how I was surprised to know about gesure sketches.I also uploaded few of my first try on gesture sketches. As usual I started exploring more on google and youtube howto videos and learned different techniques followed by different people. There is no hard and fast rule that a gesture drawing has, only one we have to make sure is to bring the pose and mood of the drawing to others who see. This is a great way to explain the scene to others and mostly used by animators, cartoonist, graphic illustrators to explain the scene well to others. This also helps lot to finish the final sketch, because with gesture you finalize what should stay where and in what proportion before you actually go into the details of the drawing.

View in all sizes Large Medium Small

Read More

Gesture Sketches - My first try

Its been a long time I concentrated on drawing, struck up with other personal work... Anyway back to form. This time I wanted to try something new and started browsing for drawing books and methods which led me to learn this new method of drawing. Gesture drawing, when I found this way I was surprised and found it interesting. This may sound funny to many professionals since this method is the basic to start with, but I didnt learn drawing formally and its only through my passion. I love horses and there were many tutorials on horse gesture drawing, so tried some of horses. Asusual i need your critics in this to improve myself. Many professionals tell gesture drawing is what everyone should start practicing and fill their sketchbook. This is also the method many animators, illustrators, cartoonist, graphic designers etc follow. Waiting for your critics...

View in all sizes Large Medium Small

Read More

Women's Day 2012 Drawing Competition

After almost a year after am back with my new drawing.. This was a request from my sister to participate in women's day competition. She wanted to project uniqueness of women, immediately which stuck my mind was Motherhood, which is the only one a man cannot feel, or experience, so kept that as concept and started my hunt on web, I liked lot of drawings, but with the 2 hour time I had, I could only draw this. First time tried this freestyle drawing. We never expected anything, but just wanted to participate in the celebration, and to our surprise we won 1st prize in the competition... :)

View in all sizes Large Medium Small

Read More