These two works are done in Black paper with reverse Water Color technique. working with darker papers can be really fun and it can reduce lot of work with better result compared to lighter Colored papers. This is from Marina Beach and my memories with the Beach.

It is an interesting composition at the Marina Beach, the second longest Beach in the world has lot of hawkers and vendors to offer particularly at weekends this place will get manifested into a stage for lot of other activities apart from just spending time watching Sea on the hot sand. The stretch of Marina makes people walk the fresh Sea breeze all along the way. This work reminds me of the good old days of hanging around with friends near Gandhi Salai (statue) at weekends.

The two works are smaller in size and are thick to withstand the flowing colors. The colors are more bright put against dark background. I have managed to achieve pastel like effect in few areas of the work by diluting the Water Color.

I was working with shadows prior to this.These are the two Works with which I started this series of works.

I began with Pen drawings and worked with a few different pens at the initial stages and tried with pencil but pen will reveal more precise outline and encouraged me to continue with it. 


I worked with reverse water color process with these earlier works. This is more time consuming and at the same time is more absurd in terms of identifying the elements within the composition but provides enough opportunities for water color to show their character through textures. Different color pigments from different makes can cause varied results which can be experienced while working.

Even though these two works are smaller in size they managed to consume lot of time. The use of architectural elements are considerably less in these compositions which actually donates more emphasis on space and colors than the subject. 

This second one in particular offered more translucency and wash like effect along with the depth of field in certain areas. working with single or two colored compositions can be really fun and leads to good sense of light where as multicolored ones can give a hard time compensating all at once. 

Here are a few of the new works I have done. These are images from the library of my computer. I have used some of these random images captured

from my camera and laser printed them on paper. Most of the Printing is done with the wax base pigments, a thin layer of water color or ink can do the job for you. The images can also be manipulated using software like PS to get different results. Best part of this technique is the fact that you need not necessarily paint the background of the image when a photograph can serve as background.  I have chosen Black and White Image just to rule out additional color management apart from the tonal gradation alone.

Couple of Drawings  have stretched out of the Photographs.This can make way for some white or air within the picture. I have drawn with the help of a marker pen on the photograph and filled a few areas with ink. I have not diluted the ink as this particular paper doesn't resist the flowing ink, where as, if the strength of the paper permits, different tonal values from the ink can be achieved. 

The basic idea behind this experiment is to achieve space with light and shade from  minimal effort. The photograph can also act as texture to the image where as the drawings

start floating on top of them with a kind of flat yet two, sometimes three dimensional effect can be achieved. There are certain areas which are covered with ink to create a mask or an upper layer and can reveal the photograph beneath in bits and pieces to generate interest in the subject.

Still there are more possibilities with color images and more PS images along with hand drawings and coloring. stenciling can also help getting a

better result but with bigger areas. The composition should flow across the space in all possible directions to create more illusion.

This particular illusion that I have Mentioned is a huge possibility in a large canvas.