Nature's ho-NEST-y...

There is no wonder greater than Nature in the universe. It's always pure, honest and beautiful! Art is nothing but a creation of natural things around us in some form or other with Artist's ideas added to it.

Birds are such an innocent creatures on the earth and their feelings always symbolize honesty and innocence. A beautiful landscape painting is never complete without having birds in it. Birds naturally belong in nature.

Weaver Bird's Nest has been one of the things in my wish-list of sketches/paintings. In my childhood, I used to very closely observe the nests that these birds weave and build on the Toddy palm trees seen all over the rice fields in my village Damaramadugu in Nellore, AP, India. Every nest that I could touch with my hands was a wonder to me, wondering how nicely and patiently those birds would go around in search of a little grass strip and bring it back to weave it into the nest. Some nests used to have multiple chambers ranging from one to four. I used to think the nests that have more chambers have more children. Also, by noticing the progress of those nests day after day, I always used to wonder- if a human ever had to weave such a nest, how long would it take.

I tried to recall and recollect my childhood memories from my Heart into my Art through this "Nest of a Weaver Bird" sketch.

Now, honestly- I can say, I have experienced the patience of Building a Nest in my (He)art. ;)

Title: Nest of a Weaver Bird
Media: Pen (Uni-ball Deluxe Micro Pen), Ink and Watercolors
Surface: Strathmore Smooth Bristol Paper 11" x 17" (27.9 cm x 43.2 cm)

Logo for a Lego League...

It's this year's Robotics season with Kids again. Once again, we decided to have our own group T-Shirts with our own Logo for this years Kids' First lego League (FLL) Challenge. This year's FLL challenge is Nature's Fury. The idea that I depicted in this logo is a Robot protecting a house during a storm. Initially, I did another idea very similar to this but with Robot arms around the house. But, with kids suggestion I changed it to a Robot holding a sword and a shield, indicating that it is ready to fight any force that tries to destroy the house. Kids always have innovative ideas ;)

Of course, Category 6 is our Team's name and Masters of Disasters is the tag line chosen by kids.

I also did one for our team at last year's FLL Senior Solutions Challenge. Check it out in the Gallery.

Media: Ink Pen on paper (8" x 11")

Keep Sharpening your Skills...

Everyone has some skill or other. Some recognize it early and take it as their profession; they are the ones who truly enjoy their profession and take their skill to new levels to put themselves on the top. Others keep it as a hobby, using once in a while, dreaming in their little hobby world, and using their skill when they feel like or when some kind of inspiration suddenly strikes them. Knowingly or unknowingly these are the people who don't know how to sharpen their skills like professionals do.

Like in life- there is no substitute for hard work, in Arts- there is no substitute for practice. I have been trying to follow lately "The Best Ever Advice" for hobbyists by the most admired Telugu Artist Sri Bapu. When asked for an advice, he always says...keep drawing everything you see around you, make paper cuttings of pictures you come across in newspapers, keep those cuttings and make an album of  your reference for drawings and illustrations, and more than anything practice, practice and practice. What more one can do other than this to sharpen skills?

Life never gives what we want. It only gives what it had already decided to give. "I don't have time for doing it", we all hear this everyday from many. That's very true, we don't have time for doing anything that we truly want to do. That's how life always goes on. But, if we won't do it, we don't know what we are capable of doing. Even if we do it once in a while, we don't know if we need to improve it any further, and we end up there thinking- that's all I can do. No...one can always do more and can always do even better. One should keep on doing it, practicing it more and more and more. Take practice as a never-ending journey. One day when we look back where and how we started, sure- we get surprised with how sharp our skills have become.

Lately, I have started sharpening my drawing skills by putting them into a constant practice-- an essential foundation in Art. I started to use my daily morning and evening commute time for doing it. With this I don't need to keep any special time aside, it is already set aside for me.

Now, I can say, I found what I wanted, within what life had decided and had given me. No more complaints and no more saying "I don't have time for sharpening my skills" ;) I would rather prefer saying to myself, " I should always find time..."

It's your skill. Keep sharpening it!
Happy sketching ;)

Media: Pen (Uni-ball Deluxe Micro Pen), Ink and Watercolors on paper (8" x 11")