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| Based on a Painting by Uttam - a Telugu Artist and Illustrator - 1989 Poster colors on Paper (6" x 8")   |
Back to 1989...
I did this Painting in my Engineering college-days when I was exploring watercolor painting without knowing any basics of it. This was a mere copy of a painting by a wonderful Telugu Artist Uttam who was an illustrator in "Andhra Bhoomi" Telugu weekly magazine back then. If I have to say the name of my Guru in Painting, I say it was Uttam. I was his Ekalavya student.
It was a couple of years of my own exploration already by then, but I would still say that I did not know any basics even then. All I knew was, "I want to do Painting" kind of zeal in me. That made me figure out my own way of interestingly dealing with colors and paper that never co-operated.
Colors
Believe me, I did not know anything about color chart. With just a set of 4 colors (excluding black and white), and not 3 primary colors, I was able to get any color I wanted by mixing those 4 colors in different proportions. I had no clue how I was getting that done, something in my mind was automatically driving me, never failed to get an exact color or a shade of color I wanted to get to.
The colors I was using were not true watercolors that are supposed to be transparent . They were Camel (the popular Indian art brand at that time) poster colors. All I knew about those colors was they can be mixed with water and that made me think they were just watercolors. Due to the nature of highly opaque (non transparent), once the color goes on paper it covers the paper like a thick quote of paint applied. So I was struggling a lot to get the right natural blending of colors on the paper. Also, I was using white color a lot. Without mixing at least some amount of white color, my brush wouldn't touch the paper. I was doing all wrong things with colors but the results were quite amazing, not because of any magic, but just because of more efforts and extended labor put into each painting to get the best possible results that I could.
Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...
Paper
I did not even know that watercolor painting needed a special kind of paper. All that I tried was just a thick paper that was typically used for wedding cards. One of my favorites at that time was called "Ivory board" (not even sure of that was any official name for that paper, but I got this name from the owner of Chelva Pilla bookshop in Kavali who first told me the name). So, it was just a thick paper with regular smooth surface like the paper used for regular books that was unsuitable for painting.
Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...
Brushes
I just had very few small brushes (by the number printed on the brush like 0,1,2 and so on) that I bought in Kavali and I was using those for many years. I had few brushes of size 0, 1 and 2. They were that tiny, not a good quality, and wouldn't even hold enough color or water.
Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...
Techniques
I knew absolutely no techniques back then in Painting. The only technique I figured out after awhile was- watercolor painting needs to go from light to dark. Once a dark color is put on that kind of paper, it is just impossible to change it by any means. I learned this fact very hard-way by spoiling many paintings that I started. In fact, I tried many times to cover a dark color with white and then started painting over it, I failed during that process every single time, anyway :)
Still, I wanted to paint and I never gave up...
To be continued tomorrow when I post another painting of that time...
