The Mind of an Artist ...

The beauty about the NID campus is that it is enveloped with nature. Live drawing amidst the campus greens and sketching is practised by many. Hence it is of little surprise that this scenery has often paved way into my artbooks by way of various media - inks, watercolors, rotring pens, oils, pastels, poster paints etc. One such lazy summer @ the NID campus led me to begin a series called the NID trees. Below, you can see the artwork of this series which I intermittently kept coming back to whenever I was in campus. Also covered in my artbooks were sihouettes and plants of other various types seen around college. The campus has truly kept the artist in me alive.

An artwork from the drawing overview course @ NID.

Medium: Watercolors on 250 GSM Ivory Paper

Creating painted vectors like silhouettes in our Drawing Overview course with Rajesh Thakare

Medium: Black ink and Fine-tip Staedler on 170 GSM Cartridge paper

A tree @ Eames, NID. #NIDtrees
Medium: Watercolors on a special handmade generously given by Kaagazi (Kavya Agarwal)

Badam tree @ the NID parking lot. #NIDtrees

Medium: Watercolors, Ink, Rotring Pen and Fine-Tip Gel pen on 250 GSM Handmade Paper

WIP and after of a rendition of a blossoming tree @ Eames Plaza, NID. #NIDtrees

Medium: Watercolors, Poster Colors and Black fine-tip marker on 250 GSM handmade Paper

Abstract version of a Banyan tree seen @ NID. Just a exression of creative freedom. #NIDtrees

Medium: Watercolors, Poster colors and Black fine-tip marker on 300 GSM matt-finish paper.

Re-drawing the Banyan tree @ NID parking lot. #NIDTrees

Medium: Watercolors, Ink and Staedlers on Kalamkhush Khadi Handmade Paper

The NID campus has some beautiful Bougainvilleas! #NIDtrees

Medium: Poster Colors, Oil pastels, Sketch pens, Fine tip ball point pen and Water colors on 250 GSM handmade paper

Drawing from memory... I remember one such tree in campus which had this amazing blend of colored leaves and unfortunately as I wasnt on campus, I could'nt live draw. However, It had to be drawn, so here it is.

Medium: Watercolors only on 300 GSM Ivory Paper

So NID has amazing flora not just inside campus but outside it too. There is a beautiful tree near the chai ka galla just outside the NID gate. One early morning I managed to just about capture it.

Medium: Watercolors on 200 GSM paper

The view from my window.

Medium: Watercolors and Fine -tip black marker on 300 GSM textured paper

Nature has always been a major inspiration for me hence when I had an opportunity to go Nainital, the land of hills with beautiful trees and flowers, my sketchbook accompanied me. Thankfully I had my faithful art-set as it rained a lot and being cooped up in my room, I had plenty of time to capture the beauty of Nainital from my balcony.

The view of the hills through my french windows on a windy evening. @Nainital

Medium: Watercolors and Charcoal on 100 GSM textured paper

Just after heavy rains ... a chilly morning. @ Nainital

Medium: Watercolors and Poster colors on 100 GSM textured paper

It is tough to re-create the Xanthophyll pigments of the Nainital flowers but that wasnt going to stop me from giving it a shot! @Nainital

Medium: Watercolors and Ink on 100 GSM handmade paper

One resort that I happened to visit on my way to back, was laden with flowers so instead of a stop-over, I stayed over for the entire day stay where I spent my time trying to capture the beauty of the flowers. @Nainital

Medium: Watercolors on 100 GSM handmade paper

Medium: Watercolors and Black marker on 250 GSM Khadi paper. @ Bhowali, Nainital

Creating textures through paint... if you look at the artwork close enough you can see the leaf texture for the surface and veins that I've tried to create.

Medium: Watercolors, Ink and Fine-tip black marker @ Bhowali, Nainital

This is was one of the most difficult ones to emulate. I had to do @ least three versions to get the colors right! @Nainital

Medium: Watercolors on 270 GSM Cartridge paper

An experiment just to get the colors and background right... it took me @ least 5 versions. Here are some of them.

Medium: Watercolors, Pen and Ink on 300 GSM Handmade paper

As you can see, for every frame that I create there is an entire process involved. If i don't like a particular frame w.r.t the composition or colors, I re-trace my steps to begin again. Its tedious but to do justice to such beauty, slack or mediocrity is not an option. Here's a behind-the-scenes into the some of the intermittent frames followed by the finished piece.

Medium: Watercolors, rotring pen and Ink on 270 GSM off white Cartridge paper

The mind of an artist is always on the move, it never rests ... it never stops thinking or trying create or emulate something novel, beautiful and inspiring. I dont know whether I really have the mind of a true artist but I still try a little everyday. Maybe one day I'll get there...