Kahani

I've put a lot of time into my personal animation work these days, so not much in the way of new paintings. I did however do 4 illustrations for the Fall 2006 issue of Kahani. It is a quarterly short story magazine for children.

If you'd like to see the work of other talented artists as well as the rest of my illustrations, you can order this issue. Visit the site for details about the current issue as well as contributer bios.

It was a lot of fun to work on, and nice to see the results in print.

Wednesday Life Drawing

Here are a few sketches from today's life drawing session.

Mozart Concertos

Thanks to my friends Dan and Andrea for inviting me to enjoy the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's performance of several Mozart Concertos last night! Here's a watercolor of a portion of the orchestra.

Black and White

Black and White

The Platform at the Gig

Went to a show at the Gig in a series called the Platform. Here are two of the musicians who performed that night; Scott Tang and Kiyoshi Graves.

The Throws at the Hotel Cafe

Saw the Throws perform at the Hotel Cafe last night. What a cool band, and a great venue to see them. Here are a few sketches made with the support of a fun group of friends.

PTV and Puppets 2

A few more puppets from the book and various musicians and actors from some more PTV shows. These are the last two pages to finish out the artwork from my vacation in Ohio from last week. The ink drawings helped me a great deal with these pages. These are all straight watercolors without laying down any kind of line. Thinking out the shapes, and modelling the forms with color is challenging and fun. I painted the details with a fine brush. It takes longer than inking, but if I have time, I think it adds a lot.

Ptv and Puppets

More faces from PTV programs and some puppets from a book on the Paul McPharlin Puppetry Collection I picked up at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

LAX Faces

Here are some sketches of faces I saw at the terminal in LAX while waiting for my flight to Ohio last week.

Wednesday Figure Experimentation More Lines

Here are today's 3 and 5 minute figure drawing experiments. I loosened the ink line and used a lot more of it this time around. As usual, I like the later ones more than the earlier ones from the session so they are up on top.

Manisha and Asha

I went to see Manisha Shahane and Ashwini Srikantiah perform with their bands at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. Manisha has a great deal of variety in her set. For one song, she brought her friend's kids on stage to make train sounds when she pointed to them during the song. Asha was a lot of fun with her band (including Sandeep, playing guitar and later eating crepes in the green shirt) too!Here are a bunch of watercolor sketches from their performances and of the people around me. There's also a sketch of Aki and an unfinished one of Big D manning the camera. That one's unfinished because I drew the camera too small...in ink! I think the watercolor of Manisha, Beret and Asha is my favorite. It was the loosest of these sketches. Still can't capture a likeness in any kind of detail..especially very quickly...got to work on that.

Wednesday Figure Experimentation

Here are some figure drawings from today. I'm continuing to play with line and color. It's a lot of fun to see where I can take this! It's this kind of experimentation in short poses that really helps me try out different ideas. I feel like the first two(among the last I painted, are some of the most successful).

Quake Remembered

One year later, reconstruction and rehabilitation continues. Many are still without homes. Below is a poem my father wrote last year expressing his thoughts about the earthquake. A lot of people from around the world have sent money as well as personally going there to help. Many are still there helping. I didn't go back myself, but I feel fortunate that I am in a position to continue to help financially. Thanks to all those who have not forgotten.

Pakistan MeiN Zalzala

BastiuN ki bastiaaN veeraan ho kay reh gaeeN

Chand lamhoN meiN qayaamat ka samaaN yooN chhaa gia

Her taraf bikhrey yooN beybas bay-karaaN insaan haiN
Aaur hazarooN apney hee ghar meiN dafan khamoshe haiN

Un-ginat masoom bachay khoon meiN luthray hooway
Un-ginat insaaN apahaj jism meiN jhakray hooway

Bhook aur pias kee shiddat saiy murjha-ey hooway
Rooh kaiy dard-o-azzeat saye yooN kumlaey hooway

Baye- saro- samaaN kharey haiN zindagee kay mor par
Mun-tazir haiN baye- basee maiN rah-matey aghyar kay

Aap kay jaz-ba-ey deeN jaz-ba-ey eesar sey
Kuchh madawa ho sakay ga zulmatey adwaar ka

Ejaz.

Grand Ave. Festival and Eagle Rock Musical Festival

Checked out a lot of music today. I wanted to continue the ink and watercolor thing, but my pen just wasn't flowing..so I just switched to watercolor only or I never would have got anything done today. Got to find a proper fountain pen...not the ones with cartridges!

I started at the Grand Ave. Festival. The first two are of MC Rai (who I've raved about before) and his band. The third one is of Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra (you can see some of the mcs, dancers and orchestra members). I didn't get any sketches of Kinky, but they were amazing! I couldn't stop moving long enough to paint! After that, I went to the Eagle Rock Music Fesival and saw two fun bands. The fourth picture is of a band called Restaurant and the last is called the Element Band.

Wednesday 3's and 5's Ink and Watercolor

Here are some watercolor figures. I drew them with ink and then quickly added some watercolor on top. The first one is one of the last ones I painted during today's session. On it, I had started laying down some lines and then stopped. It looked like enough so I finished it with watercolors. This is where I want to go.

Watercolor and Ink Faces

Here are tonight's watercolor and ink faces. I took two faces and drew them twice. First straight in ink, then painted on top with watercolors. The lower right hand one (last one I did) is the one I find most effective.

Grandfather

Here's a quick pencil sketch, with ink and then a watercolor and ink sketch based off it. It's pretty humbling to start getting somewhere with one way of working, then start on something else and have to go through that whole process again. It's going to take some work to get this going! I need to get this line as loose as the quick watercolors and yet retain facial features etc.

Malang

Here are some sketches based off a single photo. I've been working on watercolor figures, painted from life for a bit now. Now I want to roll this back into what I did before and move ahead. This is more line than what I want, but it'll take a bit to get there. The top two were drawn directly with ink then painted. The bottom two were painted with watercolor and then line was added. I'm also experimenting with the way I caricature the face and body. The second one on the top is my favorite.

Wednesday Figure Drawing

The model came a bit late, so I started with a sketch of the benches, then two volunteer "models" (fellow artists), and then all the rest are of the model. I actually find that I like these sketches more a few hours after making them rather than right away. I think it's time to pick up some more art supplies..see where I can take this!

Sketchcrawl Pasadena

Alina organized a sketchcrawl in Pasadena today. I got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a while, as well as some great friends from work and I met many dly new artists. Here are some watercolors. The first is of the Pasadena City Hall Building, and the others are of people hanging out in an outdoor mall courtyard.