More Journal Snippets

As an artist, I find myself using journals to express myself very often. A journal is like a diary, only more visual. You are already seeing pages from my Nature Journal every month. So thought of sharing a few pages from my Transition Journal that I finished earlier this month.

The above picture is the front cover, and the picture below features an amalgamation of some individual pages along with the back cover.

In these difficult days when our world is in the grip of the pandemic, maintaining a daily/weekly/fortnightly or even monthly journal is a good way to release some pent up stress, sadness and frustration. Try it, dear readers!

Valentine Heart Inchies

Since February is the month of love, I had to post a Valentine special!

So here's a glimpse of the challenge I set up.... To fill up an entire page with little heart inchies, thinking up myriad ways of representation using the ❤️ symbol. Now if that doesn't spell love!

I had a whole lot of fun doing this challenge, and got ideas from the kiddos to help me along. The aim is not to repeat patterns or colour schemes. Go on, try it out yourself with your Valentine and loved ones.

Little Miss Sunshine

When the sun plays rookie and the chill freezes your bones, this is how folks like me warm up....

Meet 'Little Miss Sunshine' who is full of beans and frolicking under the warm sun. :)

Hope seeing her warms the cockles of your heart, as creating her warmed up mine!

Jest Like That

This is a fun post to celebrate that most important annual event in a school mom's life - the summer break. Never mind that it gets shorter every year and the brats get more difficult to handle. Just that freedom from the daily routine, without any stresses of daily homework, are enough to pep up this mom!

So here comes a doodle bird to cheer you all up, and wish you wonderful vacations. How I wish we could go back to those times when we would let our kids just be themselves during the holidays instead of rushing them off to some camp or class all summer. Or let them do as they please around the house.

Like my son, whose idea of getting creative meant giving the dashing Irrfan (a popular actor) these googly eyes! Kids will be kids after all.... hahaha!!

Nature Journal: The July Page

Umm, well, I don't know how to start this post.... Writing about the July page of the Nature Journal is somewhat embarrassing because the page never got written on time! The July page got written in August.... well, most of it.

All through July I was so preoccupied with the upcoming exhibition that the Nature Journal got a royal ignore. Scrambling to create enough inventory for a 3-day showing, I had no scope whatsoever to think about what I wanted to put in the journal. That explains the lack of a natural specimen on the page!

Couple of random observations got recorded, but the remaining month an almost-blank page stared back at me. Till I jotted down major topics on my phone, and proceeded to write about them after the exhibition was over. Thankfully, by then, my favourite creations around this time of the year - the toadstools - bailed me out. So you have a mushroom bloom garden finishing off the July page. Hope that gives you some ideas to go mushroom hunting whenever it rains.

Soar

One of my first tries at doing an intuitive painting. Takes a lot of courage to let go of all plans, shun any pre-defined ideas and not look for pointers.... an intuitive process demands that one just jumps into the fray with a brush and paints.

However, since this was my first attempt, I tried to make the process easier by adding another background layer to the piece. I started with some doodling or random sketching using permanent pens. After that I splashed paint on the page - no order, no specific plan. Just put whatever you please wherever. And see what emerges.... Make things up as you go along.



After the paint wash on the pen sketches, I approached small sections one-by-one. Adding a detail here, a motif there. Till it all seemed to come together. Especially loved how the first layer showed up in parts through the final layers, bringing an extra dimension to the piece.





But what was most interesting about this piece was to see the transformation to the central part of the painting. What started out as a checked criss-cross metamorphosed into a flying bird by the time the painting ended (click on the second picture to see up close). And that is why I named the painting Soar.... a celebration of life!

Doodle Mania - Part 2

Just a quick post to tell you how seriously I'm taking my doodling. Last weekend I met up with a dear friend amidst running household errands. Now these meet-ups are something I really look forward to because they help throw up new ideas and clear your head. And since my friend is also creatively inclined, we give each other a much-needed boost to follow our hearts and our dreams.

So as we sat chatting our hearts out at the cafe, and I was telling her how difficult it is for me to find time for my creative pursuits, it suddenly dawned on me that I could use some of this relaxing time to draw out something. And yes, bang in the middle of our conversations, I went so far as to doodle behind the coffee bill. Go figure!!!! :)

Thankfully, my friend is a sport and was rather amused by my antics.And I loved that I could capture her smile so well.... Just look at the picture; don't the smiles match perfectly? :)

It is not for nothing that we are told to value our friendships. Not only do friends love us despite our quirks, they even help stir creative sparks in us!

Tete-a tete with Doodles

Hello there! Enjoying your Sunday, I hope.... I am sure most of my regular readers would have noticed that the blog has been operating in snooze mode for a while. No post in over a month!!! 

While I started the year with a lot of aplomb, the only creative output so far seems to have been the Nature Journal. Every month I diligently post a picture of the completed page from my journal.... and return to snoozing. Okay, let us not be so harsh.... so most of the last 3 months have seen at least two blog posts in a month and hey, that is not so bad. But it isn't as good as I want!

What I am trying to say here is that despite all my goal setting at the start of the year, I haven't been able to achieve the creative output I was wanting. Part of the reason is my having picked up a full-time day job, and that too miles away from where I live. The commute and work pressure leave me feeling tired and listless, unable to focus on anything creative. And of course, where is the time? Weekends are packed with household to-do lists and even before I know, I am staring at Monday and a new work week.

But the other day, the clouds parted and I saw some sun. As I was surfing through some arty blogs, I came upon folks mentioning doodling. And I decided to doodle.... as often as I can, wherever, whenever, and on whatever I could lay my hands on!! Who knows, maybe this process will help me get back on my feet creatively. If nothing else, I'll have a bunch of doodles to play around with..... like this one below. Guess what it is?

Yes, it is me waiting for my Eureka! moment. :D Don't they say art and creativity is all about attitude? 

Expect to see more doodles on my April page when I post it along with the March page (I missed that one) soon. I'm also working on a couple of other paintings that I'll share in the coming weeks. 

In the meanwhile, happy doodling! Do leave a link in the comments so I can see some of your doodles.