Khajuraho in pictures.

Khajuraho - unique architecture in India. It was a post in SkineArt with the drawing by Rene Fijten of this  interesting architecture from 1000 years ago, It is a huge complex of 25 temples, built around the year 1000 and hidden in the jungle for centuries. In this rainy evening I am drinking tea with honey and lemon and can't stop admiring human genius, building such a jewel.

Liza.

Liza - the beauty of the family.

Went to fight a ticket.

Won, parking ticket was dismissed. Hooray! Scribbled on the train in  this hairy sketchbook.

Green house.

Ink bleed interesting way on this hairy paper, giving it a little vintage look. Past this cute house yesterday on the way from Garfield place in Brooklyn.

Chuckie my cat.

Chuckie was named by my daughter when she was 7 after the Chuckie from "Rugrats", red haired  funny character from cartoon.  He was my first cat, before I thought that I am a dog person. He used to ride in my daughter's doll baby carriage, sometimes wearing   white hat with the frills, sometimes deliberately jump into the stroller and roll till it stops, hitting the wall. Now he is a patriarch of the family and often get tossed around by Fellini, younger generation.  :-) Ink in watercolor Moleskine A4.

September 27.

Sketching a little bit with pencil Shorty. I sharpened it straight across in an angle, I feel lead is too dry, too hard. Where to get softer? May be Ebay, Koh-I-Noor? I drew on Moleskine plain paper. People mostly so sad.

Inna in ink.

This is the last page of my Moleskine large.  Very sad.  Really liked it Watercolor paper. My A4 is too big, seems require more work and responsibility. It started with "Chinese bakery" on October 30, 09. Anyway I used ink (mixed myself) and played a little with Axe-cut strokes in the hair, holding brush angular, Pentel water brush is the best.

Plumage + Tango Limited Edition Giclee

Plumage + Tango Limited Edition Giclee

by super talented James Jean, I love his work.

Small sketches through the day.

Couple of minutes per sketch with ink and pencil, tried this Axe-cut strokes with outline brushpen on the guy in sunglasses.

Today on Brighton 14 after haircut. 2 inks on the top of my Window mural plan.

Axe-cut brushstrokes in Chinese painting.

Tutorial on Axe-cut brushstrokes
Very interesting. Now I want to get same water brush, it seems to work differently.
Here is a Link to it.

Amazing Lynne Chapman.

Lynne Chapman.
Interview on illustration by Lynne Chapman, how the process of creating a book for children going, advice and sharing her thoughts. Just wonderful to see how Master thinks.

Red house on Kingshighway, Brooklyn.

Another corner of Kingshighway. I used ink, couple of colors, this time took Pentel pen brush with brown ink, I got in Zelda's art store. For green used my daughter's old  almost dried highlighter.

Scribbler. Just found this program online.

and drew. Would be interesting to do real pen drawing in this style, feels so therapeutic.

One day mural.

I painted this window mural in one day. Size 7.25 feet by 5 feet. Hardest part was to figure out proportions of the window sections, so it would relate to real window on the other wall. Also wall was not prepared, so I had to sand and put 2 coats of primer (second with poly). I was offered to do it the night before. I don't like to say No to challenge. I did it alone.

I didn't think it was possible. Now I have a headache and can't sleep. But for supper we bought nice chicken Kotletki in "Taste of Russia" store on Brighton. :-)

Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

Sometimes I go here for food shopping, coffee and nuts in Turkish store, meat in meat market, Japanese food in Uni, fruits in Korean fruit stores. I don't like shopping, only for art materials. I used 2 inks in Moleskine sketch, paper doesn't take it easy, it looks a little fuzzy, but still fun.

Lukas.

My biggest watercolor set. Pretty cool one, 48 colors. When it comes to attached palettes (only), I am a neat freak, painful to dirty it, so I am more comfortable to use plastic plates or separate plastic palettes.

Tribute to Inna's cooking.

In the process of cooking Vegetable Parmesan. I used  ink  only here, I just love the process, used couple of  Faber-Castell artists pens, with brush nibs, to add a bit of color. In WC Moleskine Folio, I believe,  it calls. One day I will buy bunch of different color inks and experiment wilder and bigger.

Chebureki.

Chebureki is a traditional food in Uzbekistan, sort of huge deep fried ravioli, stuffed with meat, or potato, or vegetables with cheese or mushrooms. Not far from me is a restaurant, where every Wednesday most of it cost a dollar, less then  half a price. When I was an art student,  near my college, in the heart of Moscow, on Sretenka street was a small cafe, where we often went for lunch break to eat burning hot chebureki.  So I  drew it on my favorite checkerboard plate (MacKenzie-Childs wannabe) with markers and Uni-ball Onyx.

Drawing with Namiki Falcon.

I drew in pencil, than with Falcon. I  love this pen, just to screw and unscrew the cap fills me with joy.

Sketches in squares #2.

Dragging pencil and squares Molley.

Not a happy day. Rain, etc.

Under the train, traffic.

I missed using Lamy Safari with ink, responding to water brush. I add Faber-Castell colored pencils for the sky.

Overpass.

Overpass above Belt Parkway, seems like weird and magic place, like you are flying above noisy city, where nothing matters, only green, dark, leafy solitude. I was thinking to do it in color. But end up using watersoluble graphite. I feel guilty not to put to use my drawing material, I am obsessed so much with, all my pens and paints, like Gobseck with money.

Song.

Illustration to a song, I got somewhere on internet and liked to listen while driving. I got this image in my head, behind a girl is her sorrow, kinda motherly sorrow. Today I found this song on Youtube and read that the woman who sings it made words and music herself. Again I am standing alone, again I am smoking, mama...

Filet Mignon.

Visiting my friends. I used Winsor and Newton small watercolor only. Was a little too weird not to have regular red, here is Alizarin crimson, but I mixed it a little with yellow and it gave me red. Before I  was thinking to get separately red, white, payne gray, ochre, umber and siena, to complete my earthy favorites, but I did this in what was included in this set, and even used little attached palette instead of separate one. I think it is enough. At first I put in the tin red from russian "White Nights", but compare to Winsor and Newton paints it felt like painting with shoe cream, so I took it out. Meat was delicious, so I wanted to pay tribute to this spontaneous party and our drawing session afterwards.

Soda, pretty cool.

Soda
I knew a lot about it from my grandmother, who was a pharmacist.  But still cool. Should I try it with paint? May be it will give me interesting bubbles?

Train sketches.

F train seats are really uncomfortable, you just facing the whole row of people, no privacy at all. So I sketched in little squared Moleskine really fast, so people won't get mad, that I  looked at them. Pencil Shorty.

Passing by.

Really pretty place, some kind of a park with boats and trees along the Belt, I looked at many times. On the way to White Planes, struggling in traffic, it was a moment of happiness. Sepia ink and Faber-Castell colored pencils in my red Moleskine.

Street food.

Corner with street food cart under the train.  Little parking receipt.

Under the train.

View from the car window. Corner of Coney Island Ave and Brighton in Brooklyn.  I really miss drawing with Sepia, but pencil is better for quick studies and more discrete. Used Fabriano watercolor book.

Another one.

I combined pages from my Moleskine and tried to do gradient overlay in PS, as wonderful artist Ester told me (she posted the whole tutorial in may on her site, thank you so much again, Ester), but , of course, being a newbie in PS, I messed around without big success. So here more quick drawings, where I tried to catch proportion and character.

Sketching people.

The day I will consider bad if it wont be for sketching people on my way. I had a very few minutes per sketch, because people changed their spots, got called and I didn't want them  to notice my stare. I used Shorty pencil in my  Moleskine calendar.

Put together.

Just experimented in order to compact some sketches and my other experiment was not that successful, especially gradient color, so I just glued this 2 together and sadly have to go to bed at 3 in the morning.

Doc's office.

Sketching people with Shorty is real fun, I don't mind waiting, I, actually, like long lines as long as nobody touches my right elbow.

Waiting room.

Sketched with Shorty pencil, no eraser involved,  I like that one lead has such a variety of darkness.

Orange lead.

Grill place in Brooklyn. I used orange and graphite leads in Shorty pencil in Moleskine plain book. I wish Worther will have browns and sepia colors leads, like  Koh-i-noor for their 5'6 leads. And, may be, dirty blueish-umber for second plan. I checked, Shorty only comes with plain bright colors. But anyway it was a pleasure to deal with Shorty.

Just pencil.

Experimenting with "Shorty" without sharpening lead, drawing with sides, while listening to House music.  Few dots of red. Tents.

Exercise with Shorty.

Plan was not to sharpen thick lead, use sides more than point, less details as possible, use text on the left. I should simplify more, even towards abstract, and, may be,  bigger page.