The most Precious Drawing of my Lifetime...

The oldest of my Drawing

Of all my Art works, the most precious one is- this drawing of a Horse which I did when I was a child. It was done on a typical hot-summer-day at my Grandma's home in Kavali, Nellore, AP, India. This is the oldest of my Art works that I could save and preserve through all these years.

I just can't imagine how fast the life moves on. It's been 37 years already since I did this. It's no surprise to me, when I look at any of my Art works and think of those moments when I did it, I go back in time and recollect all moments around it. When I did this, I had my brother Sridhar Pottepalem sitting with me on the floor in the middle room of our Grandma's house watching while I was doing it. After I finished it with a pencil outline first and then with blue ink pen, I wanted to make it in black ink. When I tried to put black ink over the blue ink lines, the thin paper I used started to spread the ink. So, I did not proceed any further. The little black-ink-line that spread over blue-line can still be seen on the forehead of the horse.

After I finished it, I showed it to my uncle Sudhakar Jaladanki who was a wonderful Artist. I always used to take his opinion and he used to encourage me a lot. When I showed it to him, he took a red ballpoint pen out and showed me how to do shades of lines. All red line shades seen in this drawing were done by him. I used the same red ballpoint pen to sign it afterwards. I still remember, next few days, how proud I was of my Art work, looking at it numerous times in joy. I would have not known at that age, how much love I was in with Art, but I remember how happy I was with the outcome.

It was based on a full-page colorful Art work done by Artist Sankar published in Mar, 1978 edition of Chandamama monthly Telugu magazine for children. Those days, Chandamama used to have a monthly running serial of Indian epic stories. The epic Ramayana was published around that time with the name Veerahanuman. Today, I found the original beautiful drawing that I did mine based on after googling long enough before I found a site in which all scanned Chandamama monthly magazines were made available. I went patiently through each page of several months of archives to finally find the following original picture which inspired me so much at that age. Like many children of those times, Chandamama was a big part of my childhood life. It played even a bigger role in my Art. The beautiful Drawing illustrations by all wonderful Artists: Vaddadi Papayya, Sankar, Jaya, Chitra and Razi were all early inspirations to my Art.

Chandamama - 1978 March - Veerahanuman
Artist: Sankar

I can't pay my respects any better than dedicating my Art work to those two Telugu Legends B.NagiReddy Garu and Chakrapani Garu and all above mentioned Artists of those days. I dedicate my Art work to these two Telugu Legends and all Artists who were behind the beautiful Telugu magazine Chandamama!

Long live Art! Happy Drawing!

Details

Mediums: Ink and Ballpoint Pen on Paper
Dated: July 9, 1979
Inspiration: A beautiful illustration by Telugu Artist Sankar in Chandamama, Telugu monthly magazine for children

Size: 6" x 8" (15 cm x 20 cm)

Find ways...

Kuchipudi - Indian Classical Dance

After hectic weeks of work, one needs a break to regain energies and get going in life. For Artists, Art  helps more than anything to refresh mind, body and soul. Just attempted this to be in my own world for a couple of hours. As long as Art doesn't leave me, I am just fine ;)

When you lose energies, find ways to regain. Never give up!
Happy Painting!

Details

Mediums: Ink and Watercolors on Paper
Title: Kuchipudi - Indian Classical Dance
Category: Portraits
Inspiration: A picture I took at a recent Rangapravesam by one of my friend's daughter

Size: 11" x 17" (28 cm x 43 cm)

This Day that Age...

Coastal Andhra, India - Ink on regular Paper

My vacation days, 30 years ago were filled with nothing but Art. At that age in life, I didn't have any sources around me for learning drawing or doing painting. But, I just used to draw and I just used to try hard to get into painting. I didn't even have any good Art material with me. All I had was just regular fountain pen ink (Camel or Bril, Indian brands), a couple of tiny cheap quality watercolor brushes, regular but not a good quality white paper and access to some newspapers and weekly magazines like Andhra Bhoomi.

Just the desire to Draw and Paint was strong enough which made me try numerous drawings with Pencil and Ink. Taking a step further, I think, I discovered my own way of painting in black & white with just ink and water. This one is one of such drawing-paintings done with ink and water on paper. As always, the moments and time I spent alone at our home with my Art are still fresh in my memories. When I look back now, all those good-old drawings make me feel happy. My efforts didn't go waste. They still make me happy even after 30 years.

Have a strong desire to do anything, and keep doing. A job well-done always gives pleasure!

Happy Painting!

Details

Mediums: Bril Ink with brush on Paper
Title: Coastal Andhra, India
Category: Landscapes
Dated: July 5, 1986
Place: Kavali, AP, India
Inspiration: A picture published in Andhra Bhoomi Sunday Special Edition Newspaper

Size: 11" x 16" (28 cm x 40 cm)

Time to time...

Morning Coffee

Time to time, test your skill and keep sharpening it. BallpointPen used to be the sharpest of all my Art skills. Time-to-time, I keep testing it to see if it still remains sharp...

Keep drawing and never give it up for any-reason or no-reason ;)

Details

Mediums: Ballpoint Pen
Title: Morning Coffee
Category: Portraits
Inspiration: Random pictures

Size: 8 1/2" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm)

The cow I made for Radha and Krishna...

The Cow for Radha and Krishna

I was recently approached by one of my Art friends asking me to make a cow for a Radha and Krishna statue. She was planning to setup Brindavanam at the venue of one of my friend's daughter's Rangapravesam in Kuchipudi dance.

I never attempted anything like this before, but when asked, said ok. Then I took measurements of the statue to plan the size of the cow. I simply tried it on a Foam Board (20" x 30") and used Water Colors. When it was placed behind Radha and Krishna statue in Brindavanam,  it just looked perfect.

Here is the happy cow with Radha and Krishna:

Radha and Krishna with the Cow

At the end of the event, I gave it away to a friend of mine who likes my Artworks, for her Bommalakoluvu.

Simply put your heart in anything you do in life, the outcome will just be amazing and you will have  at most satisfaction with your efforts ;)

My Art Teacher who taught me how to draw...

With the beautiful Painting of Goddess Saraswathi by
my Art Teacher done on a wall in my school. 

Though my Dad and my uncle Jaladanki Sudhakar were two persons whose Art works I observed very closely in my childhood before I left home at the age of 9 years to Gurukula Vidyalayam, there was another person whose Art works I observed even more closer, admired more and in fact learned Art from him as one of his students. My Art Teacher from my high-school, A.P. Residential School, Kodigenahalli, Sri. M. Venkateswara Rao was my first-and-the-only Art Teacher in my life.

We used to have just one 45-minute "Art Period" every week in our school from 5th to 9th grade. Those five years, I was probably one of the two or three students in my class of 36 students who used to look forward for that one Art period, week after week.

The special Art notebook that we used to carry to our Art period which was at least two times the size of a regular subject notebook with just about 20 pages or so to fill-in with Art for the full school-year. I saved some of my Art works I did in my school days, but couldn't save any of pages from my Art subject notebook as at the end of the school-year, we had to return all our notebooks to the school.

Many of our school Art periods are still very fresh in my memory including the very small room next to our 5th class dormitory which used to be our Art teacher's room initially. The outer-side wall of that room had three beautiful Paintings with wonderful messages, 1) Goddess Saraswathi Devi with the slokam "yakundendu thusharahaara dhavalaayaa subhra vsthraamitha..." 2) Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, India with some of his finest words, and 3) Rabindranath Tagore with his poem, "Where the mind is without fear...". All those beautiful paintings were done by our Art Teacher. Even after 30+ years those paintings are still there on the wall.

Also, the new and big Auditorium never fades out in my memory, in which my Art Teacher had his room at one corner with a small wall-window, in my later years at our school. He used to have a small watercolor painting of Saraswathi in a simple frame on his table. Whenever I used to go there, my eyes and heart just used to stare at that beautiful painting. That small painting got a photo-print in my memory. When I try to recollect it from my memory, it often comes out as the most beautiful painting I have ever seen and admired since my school days. I am still trying to extract it out from my memory so that I can try to reproduce it, as close to it as I can, in coming years to pay my respects to my Teacher.

One of the best things happened in my life recently was our first-ever school reunion in Dallas, US. I met many of our schoolmates, seniors, juniors and one of our teachers there. One of my seniors brought his school autograph book and showed the autograph from our Art Teacher. His Autograph was nothing but a very beautiful sketch in that book of small size: 3"x4". I was so happy to see the sketch and immediately took a picture of it- a quick sketch as his autograph on one page and his hand-writing on the other page. I am so glad that I took pictures of those two pages.

God plans few things for us upon hearing our prayers and delivers those to us at appropriate times in life. I believe, the God certainly delivered those two pages to me on that occasion.

Here are the two pages:

My Art Teacher's quick sketch from
one of my senior's autograph book

My Art Teacher's hand-writing

I was also so happy to call my Teacher's son after our school reunion event, who was also a student of our school and was a junior to me. With so much of joy which is hard to express in words, I did talk with my Teacher, 3 decades after graduating from the school. I shared my Art Blog with my Teacher. Later, his son shared with me, what my Teacher said after looking at some of my paintings..."Giri drew better than me". I do not consider that I drew better than my Teacher in anyway, but take it as- the best blessings that my Art ever received. Also, that is the best compliment a student can get from his Teacher.

A couple my Teacher's paintings I collected from his Son:

One of my Art Teacher's Paintings

An Oil Painting by my Art Teacher
on a wall at his home

Some of my Teacher's Art works from memories of my school days:

• Paintings on walls of several buildings around the school campus
• Many good quotations in Telugu and English that were painted on the back walls many of our  classrooms.
• The sketches that he used to prepare with help of few selected students for Science Fair Projects.
• The stencil of our school name he made and used to print on our t-shirts for our Grigs: district-level Games & Sports we used to participate representing our school.
• Sculpture on Soaps. Especially, the Taj Mahal on Pears soap, the only transparent bath soap available those days, placed in a see through box made out of audio cassette plastic box with an  added small light behind it. A marvelous piece of Art. (I attempted this feat of sculpture on soaps at least three times so far, and I wish I could do more of it.)
• Our class-room black boards with white letters painted on the top left corner.

Art always touches hearts and lives longer. I hope to see and collect some more of my Art Teacher's works in future.

With great respects, I say- "Thank you Sir, for teaching me Art" and I also thank God for all these great memories of Art.

Indian Woman in Sari...

Indian Woman in Sari

Indian woman- yet another theme that I chose this year for my series of Paintings. For hundreds of generations, Indian women did not come out of their homes. But, this generation of Indian women changed it altogether. They are equally educated as men and proved that they are capable, stronger and even complete human-beings by all means.

For centuries, nothing could influence Indian women to change their traditional dress style which is- Sari. In recent years, the world has changed faster than ever, so as India. Indian women now are seen in western outfits and are much more free to wear what they like. But still...on any given day, an Indian woman would like to see herself a complete woman, only in the traditional and beautiful Sari.

In this new series of my Paintings, I am going to paint this traditional, yet elegant and gorgeous dress style of Indian women: Sari.

Happy Painting!

While progressing:

Details

Mediums: Watercolors
Title: Indian woman in Sari
Category: Portraits
Reference: Telugu actress Anushka's picture

Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Toolkit
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press,

Paints: Winsor & Newton Cadmium Lemon, Hooker's Green, Neutral Tint, Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue, HWC Lavender, Daniel Smith Quinacridone Purple, Quinacridone Sienna

Brushes: Winsor & Newton Sable 6, Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and RAPHEL Pure Squirrel Mop Brush (N0. 8)

Indian Woman Hair Style...

Indian Woman - Hair Style

Looking at some of my Paintings, one of my Artist-friends made a comment- "Giri, you always show Indian woman looking so happy & beautiful in your Paintings". One of the new themes that I thought I would do a series of Paintings this year was - Indian Woman.

I love painting Portraits and especially the hair. It's bit hard doing hair in watercolor paintings. This is my second painting of this kind. My first one can be seen here.

I also did sketch as part of doing a value study for this Painting. Here is the sketch.

Happy painting and Keep practicing!

Stage-1

Stage-2

Stage-3

Stage-4

Details

Mediums: Watercolors
Title: Indian woman hair style
Category: Portraits
Inspiration: Random pictures

Size: 16" x 20" (40 cm x 50 cm)

Toolkit
Surface: Artistico Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 140 lb Cold Press,

Paints: Winsor & Newton Cadmium Lemon, Hooker's Green, Neutral Tint, Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue, HWC Lavender, Yellow Ocher, Daniel Smith Quinacridone Purple, Quinacridone Sienna

Brushes: Winsor & Newton Sable 6, Da Vinci Kolinsky Round Size 1, 3 and RAPHEL Pure Squirrel Mop Brush (N0. 8)

An Art is not a lifeless piece of colors...

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

This Day That Age...

It was 28 years ago today I did this small Painting of Gateway Arch, St. Louis. At that time, I didn't even know where on the earth this Monument was. But, it was an amazing feeling when I went to St. Louis and spent a full-day on a weekend at the monument in the year 2003, almost 15 years after I did this Painting.

Today, when I look back 28 years from now, it takes me into my small but wonderful world of that student-life, filled completely with nothing but just Books, Friends and Love of Art.

"An Art is not a lifeless piece of colors. It has life and tells it's own story even to the Artist who created it. As the time goes by, the story it tells is filled with some of the finest moments of an Artist's Life."

This was done based on a photograph published in a local Telugu News Paper.

Details
Reference: Picture published in a Telugu News Paper
Mediums: Indian Ink and Poster Colors on Paper
Surface: Paper

Size: 8" x 6" (20 cm x 15 cm)

Time to clean up that mess...

messy Palette - watercolor

Artists' palettes usually look very messy. I myself often wonder how such messy surface can be the base for creating beautiful and wonderful paintings. Believe it or not, some Artists never clean their palettes ;)

I took a break from my watercolor painting to experience Painting in Oils last summer. Just opened my palette today to see what kind of mess I had left on it after my last watercolor painting. All of the color-slots have pretty dry paint left and the mixing areas and large wells for washes  all got dried-up. Before I clean this mess, I thought I'd rather take a snapshot of it, which when I look back reminds me, two years of wonderful journey into my dream of watercolor painting.

Now, it's time to clean up that mess and start a new journey from here again. Looking forward to fantastic experiences again after this break.

Creation is always a messy process, but the outcome of a creation is always wonderful.

Don't be afraid to get into messy things when you are trying to create anything that is wonderful and beautiful!

Happy Painting and get into it by all means of messy ways!

Value study...

"Value study" done before watercolor painting

Many Artists do a value study of the subject before they start Watercolor Painting. Value study is nothing but a quick sketch done to study the composition of shapes that make up the painting. The study of composition also includes finding the values, usually classified into three: 1) darks, 2) mediums and 3) lights.

Typically, value study is done with Pencil as pencil is close to Watercolors. Pen and ink is also good media to do a value study as darks and mediums can be easily shown. The sketch done to do value study is generally smaller in size than the actual painting. It basically helps studying the subject quickly. Once the study is done, it will be a good reference during the actual painting.

This sketch is done as a "value study" to my next painting. Darks are identified with dark black, mediums are shown with finer lines of black, and lights are nothing but the areas of paper not touched.

Happy Painting!
If you have a passion of Painting, keep painting.
Today is yesterday's tomorrow, to have no regrets of yesterday ;)

Details
Reference: Picture from internet
Mediums: Ink Pen on Paper

Size: 11" x 81/2" (28 cm x 21.5 cm)

Toolkit
Pens: Prismacolor Premier Brush Tip Marker (black), Staedtler 0.33mm ink pen
Surface: Heavyweight (80#) Sketching Paper

Practice is the only way...

Sketching - Eyes

Keep practicing to get better. Practice is the only way!
Happy sketching!

Here is an inline few seconds glimpse of my sketch while progressing (video credits: Bhuvan Pottepalem):

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/BQnZDxN4sow

Details
Title: Eyes
Inspiration: Desire to improve my skills
Reference: My college day paper collections
Mediums: Ink pen
Surface: Heavyweight (80#) Sketching Paper

Size: 11" x 81/2" (28 cm x 21.5 cm)