Gateway (Theme 79)

 

This is one of the photos I took on my trip to Delhi..Used Photoshop filters and some arabic calligraphy

Contemporary calligraphy after a long gap!!

This is an attempt to revive the contemporary calligraphy work I used to do... Photoshop is a great tool for such art!!

Passion (Theme 76)

One of the things I am passionate about is abstract art.. So here goes my entry for the theme 'Passion'
Credits : Textures from http://www.cgtextures.com/ .Calligraphy image from google images..

Mirror (Theme 75)

Sketched and colored with photoshop tools.

Journey (Theme # 35 Picture # 26)

The journey a bride take to the bridegrooms place after marriage was considered the most important journey of her life in the last century. The bride traveled in a palanquin and many artists and poets have captured the essence of this journey.Here is my creation under this theme with a poem 'The Palanquin Bearers' written by one of India's famous poets, Sarojini Naidu.The poem talks of the journey from the point of view of the palanquin bearers.

Lightly, O lightly we bear her along,
She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;
She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream,
She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.
Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

Softly, O softly we bear her along,
She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;
She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,
She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.
Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string. 

HUNTED - (Theme # 23, Picture # 13)

Paintings are an age old tradition in India where during the 11th and 12 century the concept of illustrated palm leaf manuscripts came into being. Manuscripts are very small in size hence the painting done on it had to be comparatively smaller. With this need the concept of miniature paintings came into existence.

Miniature paintings are delicate, small paintings done on paper, ivory panels, wooden tables, leather, marble, cloth and walls. A high degree of expertise is required and this art is carried out delicately with a very fine brush and is characteristic of intricate, colorful and rational impressions. The colors used are mainly derived from minerals, vegetables, precious stones, indigo, conch shells, gold and silver which are obtained through a laborious process.

This picture is done following the miniature painting style. I have created the background and copied the hunter and the boar from one of the miniature painting on the net.. You can view the original picture here

Theme # 9 - Waiting(#55)

I enjoyed making this..I sketched an Indian tribal lady in a waiting posture and colored it on photoshop.. I adorned her with bangles on hand and some leg ornaments called 'payal' in India and of course the red dot on the forehead called the 'bindi'....

I also learnt how to transfer a sketch into photoshop and digitize the lines..The tutorials available on the net are fabulous..

Brushes are from brusheezy and textures from photoshop..

Theme # 4 - Umbrella

Participating in the 100 themes challenge is a good learning experience... Doing this picture, I learnt how to make silk texture with folds on photoshop..I enjoyed the entire creation process..hope you all enjoy this too..

Credits : Umbrella - http://www.neublack.com/art-design/biodegradable-umbrella/
The Lady - Indian actress Asin
The inspiration - Rainbow Umbrella -flickr photo

Theme No 3 - Music

The 'Sitar Player' is a tribute to one of my favourite Indian artists Raja Ravi Varma. I sketched the figure and scanned the image. The image was colored on photoshop. Then I created the background on photoshop and superimposed the figure on the background.

The inspiration behind this picture is this lovely painting:

Hindi Calligraphy

The hindi alphabet is very curvy and this makes it a calligrapher's delight. I experimented with hindi calligraphy in a few of my paintings and I was quite satisfied with the results.

My first attempt at hindi calligraphy was this picture. The words in the painting read 'Shanthi, shanthi, shanthi' which in english translates to 'let there be peace, peace, peace'.

This was followed by many more paintings where I experimented with hindi typography. I tried to create two different fonts of the alphabet one with soft flowing lines and the other more angular. This one is all curvy and twined called the Perinneal Vine

The second one a more angular attempt at writing the words depiciting the seven notes of Indian music called Sapta Swar.

The final painting of this post is an inspiration form an arabic calligraphy painting I came across in a magazine. It was a lovely maze created by alphabets. I wanted to try if the hindi alphabets would look as lovely if depicted in such a style and the outcome is this painting which I have named Maze.