My First Stall

So last weekend I put up my very first stall at Kitsch Mandi in Bangalore. I'd been mulling over the thought for a while and had also done a small 'live-painting' stint at the previous event (which was the major deciding factor) so I thought I'd better do this.

A few weeks of planning and lots of visits to the printer ensued. There were moments of panic (where I thought no one would buy my products) and moments of extreme joy (when I had the printed stuff in my hands) ! Slowly the D-day arrived and I had these butterflies in my tummy the night before, wondering what exactly would happen. Also, the weather was a terror. After 3 days of sunshine, I wake up on the morning of the event to see dark clouds looming overhead. I just kept hoping and praying that it wouldn't rain. Thankfully someone up there was listening.

The event was quite a success. After a lot of apprehension, the first customer came along and then another and another. Business was slightly slow but quite steady. It was great to see people appreciate my work and at the end of the day I was quite tired but very happy :)

This is a link to view all the images from the event: Sunny Skies Starry Eyes

Here are some of the products that were on sale and if you happen to want to buy any, just leave a message.

A6 Diaries with blank, ruled or colourful neon pages to choose from

Bookmarks

Fridge magnets 

Inktober 2015

Long time no see. 

Been so busy posting on all other social media that I've neglected this blog for far too long. 

Time for a new post. 

I have joined Inktober 2015, which means that I've committed to an ink drawing, every day for the month of October. This is gonna be so much fun. Here are the first three drawings :) 

This image is something that takes me back to the Doars - the dense, lofty trees making the drive up to Darjeeling so beautiful!

 Another travel drawing, this one from Sikkim, somewhere in the Lachung village

I remember the first time I saw these huge vertical prayer flags, on the way to Kalimpong, towering above our car. The fluttering silhouettes against the afternoon sun were just magnificent.

I need to stock up on some black ink now :)

Postcards for sale

I got a fresh batch of my truck-art postcards printed with the 'Sunny Skies Starry Eyes' branding :) 

They are all ready to be shipped so drop me a message if you would like to buy one!

Here is a closer look at all the available prints so that you can choose easily :)

Sunny Skies and Starry Eyes

After much contemplation and brain storming, I finally have my very own FB page, which showcases my daily drawings and art. I am quite thrilled about it, as this has been in the pipeline for at least two months now. Go take a look and any feedback is appreciated :) 

SUNNY SKIES AND STARRY EYES

Vector Letters

So I stumbled upon @36daysoftype on Instagram and I knew I had to be a part of it. 

Vector illustration scares me, a little less now but it still does and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give it a try. I started with U and was quite pleased with myself, so this has now become a daily routine. I've realized that it is quite challenging but also great fun !

Here are my illustrated letters:

U is for Us

V is for Voracious reading in the park

W is for Walking your dogs

X is for x-hausted after a long day of work

Can't wait to do more of this !

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a really cool initiative by The Great Discontent and a San Francisco based artist, designer, and writer, Elle Luna. It’s a celebration of process that encourages everyone to participate in 100 days of making. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal. Read more about the project and participate HERE.

I came across this great project on my latest addiction - Instagram :) and instantly decided to be a part of it. I had a bunch of topics that I wanted to choose for the project but then a friend helped me decide on the perfect one - 100 days of painting doors. Since I was going to be travelling for some part of the project, it was suitable, as each city has such a wonderful collection of doors to offer. 

It is now week two of the project and I am so inspired and motivated each day to complete my door painting. It is a wonderful feeling. I started off with painting them by hand, tried a few vector doors for a bit and now am back to hand-painting. 

You can view the entire project here - #100daysofpaintingdoors 

Here are some of favorites till date:

Can't wait to see the entire collection after a 100 days ! 

Pretty Rooms

I did a series of illustrations of rooms recently and I'm sure there will be more because this is so much fun. Getting to design a little space, do it up all by yourself - multiple times, is really therapeutic :) Deciding which lamp goes where, what plants to include etc is a fun process !

I've used watercolor and a bit of acrylics and also my trusty Pigma black multi-liner :)

Time flies

It's been a long hiatus from blogging and I'm back. It has been a crazy few months and 2015 has begun with a lot of promise and happy feelings. I hope it stays this way :)

I recently got selected for a fellowship, a first for me, and I'm really thrilled to be a part of this. I am off to a village in Karnataka to study and help preserve their culture and heritage. 

More about that soon ! 

2015 also began with a lot of travelling all around Bengal and a little bit of Sikkim. 

Here are some illustrations from our travels:

These illustrations were also part of the #6framestorychallenge by Pratham books. 

Here is what Pratham had to say about my story.

Coldplay love - contd.

And here are some more Coldplay illustrations I made recently. My new fav song, from their album Ghost Stories, is Always in my Head. Simply love it.

Commissioned Illustration

A long lost friend got in touch with me on FB a few weeks ago. She had seen my illustrations somewhere and was wondering if I could make her a blog header. The blog is about her tryst with baking and I was quite excited to work on this, after all it involved my favorite city - Paris.

I got started right away, doodling and sketching out different options for the illustration. She liked one direction and we spoke about details to include etc. It turned out really well :)

These were the first few rough sketches:

We decided to go with option 2 and then I reworked the illustration once more.

Once she gave me the go ahead on this, I digitized it and here is what the final illustration looks like.

You can have a look at the illustration on her blog - My Tryst with Baking ! 

This was one of the most fun assignments I've done in a long time. I look forward to doing more :)

Doodles from June

Doodles and illustrations made in the month of June. Some, on the trip to J&K and Leh, others in B'lore.

And the winners are

I am so thrilled that they won the world cup. It was such a tight match, nail-biting till the very end. Yay!

Germany are the champions of the FIFA World Cup 2014 ! Cheers !

*does a victory dance*

May: the month that was

The entire month of May was spent waiting for our big Leh trip in June. Counting days, planning, dreaming and waiting.

Books: zero :(

Movies:
Strangely I hardly saw many movies in May. Here are the ones I did watch.
Million Dollar Arm - Fun movie, really good acting by some of the Indian actors. Feel good movie. (3.5/5)
Shaadi ke Side Effects - My god. This movie was a complete torture. I wonder what the director and script writer were thinking. Such stereotypes and lame jokes. Time completely wasted !

Travel: 
Being summer, we did not travel much. We went to Bombay for a friend's wedding and from there I took off for two weeks to Jaipur, to visit the sister. In Jaipur too, I mostly stayed indoors. There were a lot of dust storms and thunder storms during my stay. Here is a typical summer sunset:

Bangalore also had some beautiful sunsets that I got to witness from the Hosur Road flyover. Brilliant sights.

Highlights:
The kittens are growing fast and healthy :) It's wonderful to watch them scampering around the place.

I got to do a really interesting freelance project, which involved illustrating for a book of poems. It was great fun, even though the deadline was really tight. Here are some samples that weren't used. Hopefully the book will be out soon and then I can showcase the final images.

Thankfully the summer is officially over and we are back to great weather in Bangalore. Yippie.