Celebrations, Family, Handlettering, Illustration, Inspiration, Seasons, Tutorials

Happy Mother’s Day

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Here’s a word art tutorial to celebrate moms everywhere.

I have made a complete materials list (with some affiliate links) for you.

Materials:

·       Castell® 9000 Graphite Pencil Design Set – Tin of 12

·       Goldfaber Aqua Watercolor Pencils – Tin of 48

·       Kneadable Art Eraser

·       Deluxe Water Brush

Start with a light pencil sketch of how you want the words on watercolor paper.

Color around the letters with Watercolor Pencils.

Blend the colors with a deluxe water brush.

Add details to the drawing with Watercolor Pencils.

Add a scalloped frame to the drawing as shown.

I hope you enjoyed today’s tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it. Stay well and stay creative and Happy Mother’s Day!

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Family, Inspiration, Mixed Media Ventures, Online Workshops, Seasons, Uncategorized, Video tutorial

21 Secrets Just Add Water Workshop: Oil & water

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Summer vacation has officially started here. There will soon be mad rush with summer camps some of which are already under way but today I’m playing and watching FIFA.

If you too are looking to boost your summer creativity, check out the self-paced 21 Secrets workshops. You’ll have fun with the short doable video workshops! As soon as you register, you’ll get a welcome email with access to the first class.

Here’s my take on the first class by Connie Solera out now.

It’s me and my kids, two of whom are taller than me now, but I still feel like I’m arching over to protect them 🙂

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Celebrations, Family, Inspiration, Mixed Media Ventures, Video tutorial

Happy Mother’s Day to YOU!

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Hi everyone! My post today is dedicated to moms everywhere. Here’s a mixed media project I created recently for a Facebook Live when I went to San Francisco to film classes with Creativebug. You can watch the episode here.

 Video

I hope you enjoy. And if you are inspired to create a similar project, here are the basic supplies I used –

  • 9 x12 inches canvas panel

  • Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft – 

  1. Gelatos (IRIDESCENTS)

  2. Mixed Media stencils (Faith)

  3. Whipped Spackle

  4. Gel Medium

  5. Texture Gems (Gold)

  6. Stamper’s Big Brush pens

  7. Palette knife

  8. Paint brush

  9. Water cup

  •  Other – Stamps, flowers, laser cut wood, doily

And never forget: You are THE BEST!

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Family, Illustration, Mou's Sketchbook, Travel, Vacations

Vacation Memories Preserved in Watercolors

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The 2017-18 winter is still dragging its feet here in Jersey. It snowed again this morning. It’s still bitter cold and the wind still bites. We lost count of the number of snow days we had this season. The school year got extended and spring break was cancelled. But we had already made plans and decided to have our spring break trip anyways. So, on the 23rd of March, we packed up and flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Our home for the week was a penthouse apartment in the Aquatika BNB in Loíza. We had arrived in the wee hours of the 24th and had fallen asleep. We woke up hungry and drove out to get food. As we drove, the El Yunque rain forest in the distance played hide-and-seek with the clouds.

When we reached El Yunque, we tried asking the Ranger. He explained in fluent Spanish with a hearty smile and gave us a map. As none of us speak much Spanish, we relied on the road signs. La Coca Falls was our first stop.

For the next few days, whichever way we went, we crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande de Loíza at least once.

On one of the days, while we were filling gas in Loíza, I noticed a guy with a can of beer, leaning on the gas pump, smoking nonchalantly, apparently indifferent to the fire hazard. I wondered if I should caption that scene, ‘Huh, I laugh at the face of danger!’ I guess when one survives a natural disaster like Hurricane Maria, one gains a more fearless perspective on life.

From the time I loaded bags in our rental Kia, I was impressed with the little fort image on the license plate and had googled it. That led us to the Castillo San Cristobal in Old San Juan. This was my favorite gem from this trip. Boy, I could have spent my entire vacation sitting there drawing the fort from various angles. I LOVED the watch towers. They were incredibly beautiful to me!

As we walked through one of the dimly lit tunnels in the fort, with Nini ahead of me, I paid attention to the ground to keep from tripping and then looked up and saw this – light at the end of the tunnel and she was stepping into the light. That moment will remain etched in my mind forever.

Vibrant bougainvillea and hosta overflowed the colorful doors, fences and walls of the houses in Loíza and other towns we visited. Cats and dogs lazed under their flowery shades, only lifting an ear as an unknown car drove by.

After we got back each day, we finished dinner and cleanup and spent the remaining waking hours, each doing our own thing. I painted scenes from the day sometimes till 4 in the morning and then slumped into a slumber.

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Behind the scenes, Family, Illustration, Life, Mou's Sketchbook

Where there’s a will…

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Toward the end of 2017, I got an email from Jamie Ridler and Meghan Genge. They had a wonderful plan. They were reaching out to artists to send encouragement to fellow artists who sometimes lose their way (don’t we all?). These notes of encouragement were to be send as emails at no cost to anyone who signed up. It was called Love Letters from Trail Makers and I was invited to create a Love Letter.

Jamie and I came to know each other after my first Creativebug Facebook Live class and she interviewed me for her podcast Creative Living with Jamie. When this invitation came, I didn’t know what to say in words. I wondered what would I tell myself when I get stuck. So I created a visual message: Trust your imagination! When I started creating this blog post about my location sketching, I began to think that maybe my story could make sense to someone and encourage her or him to hang in there, creatively speaking. Mine is an everyday kinda story of a girl who grew up in a traditional Indian family, fulfilling her parents’ expectations and then her husband’s and all along remained attached to a simple hobby of drawing which no one took seriously. Read on and maybe you’ll resonate.

There was a time when I was about 8 or 9 and I drew everything in sight in my homemade sketchbooks. No blank piece of paper was safe if I could get my hands on a pencil, pen or any mark making device! I was not shy and I had no care about what other people thought of my drawings. People carried cameras and I carried my sketchbooks. I sat and I drew. Hours would pass by and I would keep filling the pages of my drawing books.

Then there was the time when I was 13 or 14 and I was shy to sit and draw in public. I restricted myself to drawing what I could see through the windows and balcony of our flat in the city. That shyness evaporated when I visited my grandma in the country and the change of scene was invigorating. My aunt would complain to my mom that I brought with me so few clothes. There was no space in the suitcase after I filled it with all the drawing paper I could fit.

As time went on, life got busier and busier. In my 20s, it was no longer possible to set time aside for reading, sketching and the like. It was not possible to keep drawing without making all the new people in my life – my husband, in-laws, new friends through my husband feel downright ignored. And then bags had to be packed with diapers, several changes of baby clothing, food and more. There was no more space for sketchbooks. Life had expanded in fascinating ways and even though there was no time to sketch, the amazing experiences were marinating inside while waiting to find the thread back to the surface.

Before long, the babies grew up to be children and there were many commutes to places for them to learn to swim, dance, do martial arts, make things in STEM club and there was waiting. It was BEAUTIFUL – pockets of time that were solely mine on most days and right there was the other end of that lost thread. As I packed for the kids, I packed a bag for myself as well with just the basics – a journal, a pen and a water bottle.

As travel became a requirement for my work, I took a sketchbook along and I drew at the airport, on the plane, in the taxi, on the go. I narrowed my essentials down to a no-objection-from-anyone-content-and-size and I resumed sketching on location, aware and unaware of my surroundings at the same time.

I take my time to draw. I don’t always finish on location. I take pictures with my phone for reference if I have to. But I carry on. When I can, I listen to audio books while I sketch. I try to find ways to do all the things that I can’t not do without neglecting everything I must do.

And I don’t judge myself. Or compare with others. They are where they are and I am where I am. That is that.

Some drawings turn out okay, many don’t. I am happy for doing it. And that in itself feels like a gift – the gift of creative expression.

Here are some sketches I did on location.

If you resonate with my story or feel that it inspired you in any way, leave me a comment.

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Family, Illustration, Inspiration, Life, Mou's Sketchbook, Travel

NYC Sketching

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Of all the cities I have ever walked the streets of, New York is special. This Memorial Day weekend, Nini and I took the train from Dover to go to the Big Apple. With cameras in our hands we stepped out of the Penn Station and walked all the way to The Ink Pad, a stamp store on 7th Avenue.

After a brief stop for lunch, we walked to China Town. It was not a short walk. But after being cooped up indoors from the cold and rain for months, the cool breeze and the warm sun was such a welcome respite! We walked, we watched people, we had bubble tea, coffee and ice cream. We walked across Canal Street into the busy alleys of China Town where Sunday is market day. There were fresh fishes and seafood, fruits of all kinds, steaming rotisserie chicken, handicrafts and souvenirs and incredible colors and textures all around. The Starbucks was housed in a pagoda like old building.

Just around the corner, we walked into Little Italy. Sidewalk cafes were brimming with people. Tourist groups walked past us in tight lines. We watched the graffiti while enjoying scoops of Lemon and Tangerine gelatos.We shopped till we had no cash left to spare.

We walked more – past landmarks, with our eyes set on catching the details beyond the landmarks – the occasional lion head knockers, the seasonal flowers cascading from a small window sill with white lace curtain blowing in the wind, the peeling green paint on wooden doors, the lights strung outside a Lebanese restaurant where the smell of the smoke was divine. We watched the pigeons whose feather gleamed like rainbow in the afternoon sun, all the dogs that crossed the streets with their people, the photographers who looked disappointed to see our big cameras while I stood in front of the Flat Iron building, the odd painted tiles here and there.

I took photos of buildings because they fascinate me the most as do their water tanks. I knew these photos would be the references for my future sketches. Speaking of which, here are the first two sketches from that day.

With 22,000 steps and about 10 miles on my i-watch, we ended the day with a train ride back home and took Tylenol before going to bed to soothe the aching feet.

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Family, Inspiration, Mou's Sketchbook, Travel

Day trip to D.C.

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Washington D.C. is always a treat! At every turn is a monument or museum. Statues and gorgeous buildings at every angle of the camera. I can never get tired of this city.

This Sunday, Nini had a recital at Lincoln Memorial. So the rest of us tagged along.

After getting ready, Nini went on to join her company. I snuck away for a few minutes to take a long look at one of my most favorite Presidents. There’s always huge crowds around him and not easy to get a clean shot, especially because I’m so short!

But I found a spot to sit on a ledge that most people avoid for the fear of falling. In my peaceful spot, I sat and sketched the incredible view that stretched before my eyes. Only a few minutes, but blissful none the less.

I walked around some, taking photos around the bridge to Arlington Cemetery.

Once I caught up with the rest of the family, we couldn’t find parking ANYWHERE. So, we drove around and I took as many photos as I could. Blurry or not, I didn’t want to miss a single shot.

We picked Nini up and drove close to the Smithsonian. One of my main goals for this trip was to take Jia to the Natural History Museum, my favorite and her first!

Here are my girls in front of my favorite mammoth. I have photos of me before I was a mother and of all my kids at various ages and stages in front of this mammoth – yeah, it’s one of those family history photo spots for me!

Of course, we love all our primates!

And Jia connected with our long lost relative.

But Nini was tired. We had a LONG drive home. Jia was so excited that she ran from one to the other and we could barely keep up. So, we decided to call it a day. We got home around 11 pm. It was a fun impromptu kind of day!

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Family, Handlettering, Illustration, Inspiration, Life, Mou's Sketchbook, Travel, Vacations

Art on the go

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I always take a few art supplies with me when I travel. Just a sketchbook, a few color pencils, a black pen, some sort of watercolor paints and a brush or two. I look for little pockets of time to draw or color something. Nothing elaborate, just a quick sketch of what’s in front of me or something I saw, snippets from magazines or a photo I took because it’s not always possible to sit down on the spot to draw. And some brush lettering. Here are a couple of quick watercolors from the cruise.

On the second night of our cruise, we sat down to figure out what shore excursions we could go on. That task usually is not easy because we have different interests. None of the kids are old enough to go on any excursion by themselves. Jia is too young for most things. If I could help it, I would just pitch an umbrella and sit with my sketchbook but that is not doable at the moment. So, we divide and rule. Ashis takes one, I take the other two. He keeps the younger two, while I take the oldest shopping and so on. Plus, Nini is getting into photography and we go on photo walks together.

Everything in Nassau was heavenly! This was my second time to the Bahamas. Nini went snorkeling with Ashis. We all went on the glass bottom boat to the reef and saw colorful fishes. We took in sights all around us on this sunny day on the island surrounded by turquoise waters. I loved this lighthouse. We shopped for jewelry. When we came back to the boat, we took quick showers, had some snacks and I settled down to paint the lighthouse before the daylight died down.

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