UGC sponsored Space for Rough Work :)

Every Year, it is a ritual for me to apply and write the UGC Net exam. Now that the UGC Net Exam Paper III is multiple choice questions, the long and mandatory two hours one should remain in an exam hall seems pointless, don't you think? When boredom hits in exam halls, I usually doodle :) In this case, UGC has kindly provided enough "space for rough work" :D 

 Here's too many people cramped into a tiny space, resembling the tiny exam hall in Govt ITI Kalamassery, Cochin where I wrote it this time. Seriously, I have seen way too many schools that come under the purview of Cochin University and still no net! I really hope and want this will be my last NET Exam doodle. Fingers crossed!

And the quick flower doodle where there was space for Rough Work :)

Night Night folks!

Flower Power Doodle Wall :)

We have this tiny shelf space in our drawing room and one fine day we thought we could give it a doodle flower power facelift. So we got into action. It took me a little over two weeks, the painting grew little by little during the boy's playtime. I call it power painting since the boy wanted to closely observe it too. At least one third of the painting was done while carrying an 18 months old boy. :)

Thus endless amounts of patience, fun and shoulder pain later, we now have it finished! Tada!

Us in action.

Now will you go play?

What did I tell you about patience? And concentration? Did I mention concentration? This was one perfect concentration workout.

And thus we reached the last day!

About inches left to paint....

A little higher!

I love the next two photographs! Did I mention the other growing wall art we have, thanks to our little toddler?

The kid observes me, he copies my style :) He even has sponged off my postures and mannerisms while painting... So much love for the little one.

Are we there yet? 

While I was finishing the biggest ever picture I have made so far, The photographer father and the assistant son were goofing around taking pictures of eyes widened in wonder :)

Just a teensy inch more...

And then, the moment! We are all done!

Now picture time!

Aren't you a teeny weeny bit crazy, amma?

I am most certainly sure that you are! :)

But I love you so, you give me piggy back rides!

Well, I used to scornfully look at people who put voice to their kid's pics and look at me now! Well, people change!

The colourful toys pop out brightly next to the black and white doodle...

So happy to be able to finish it!

Love love love!

All settled!

Twin Babies :)

Inspiration comes in many ways, today it came in the form of two wee little kids :) 

It was the happiest thing today to see the twin babies Dhwani and Thanmay  Congrats Proud parents, Smitha Vallathol and Shrihari Achayath  I took my liberties to make a sketch for the little ones. I hope you guys don't mind!

My messy work desk!

Closeup of the wee little ones.

Another view.

All my best for the little ones and the parents, for now the game begins. Double fun, double love, double diapers, double hunger pangs and double tantrums! You don't know what you have signed up for yet :)

This picture was also incidentally my first goof up on this blog. It so happened when the father responded saying that Tanmay is a boy. Now that is a terrible mistake from my part, and i did a cover up too. 

Presenting tanmay in a top hat. 

Much love, 

From the sketch book: Exploring pattern

Once again, a quickie from my sketchbook.

I was flexing my pattern muscles. The sketchbook is my favorite place where I love to relax. This leaf doodle was done using sketch pens.

So much fun!

I might want to try this out in a bigger platform soon. :)

Doodling on a sketchbook is one excellent way to explore different patterns, try out different colour combinations and the best part is, you feel good after finishing a pretty page.

I currently keep three sketchbooks, one is a small sized one on which is one was sketched. We have another living room sketchbook were I sketch, and the boy sketches too :) There is also a big sketchbook which I haven't started sharing with the boy...

 This sketchbook was a gift from my cousin. It has beautiful handmade paper as pages and gives an amazing effect with sketch pens...

A lot of my previous doodling happened on exam question papers, class note books, the note pads I had in my previous corporate offices and so on. I lost some of them somewhere and I feel bad. I will be documenting my sketchbooks and journals too in this space from now on.

Watch this space for more doodles and sketches :)

Easter Eggs 2014

Easter might celebrate Christ's resurrection or celebrate the godess Ishtaar. Whatever the reason might be, decorated easter eggs are sure a fun craft idea. Check out the eggs we made today :)

One for the father, one for the mother and one for the little boy....

Chevron egg 

I can never have enough chevron in my life. It is a simple to sketch, yet stunning pattern.

Poetry Egg 

When it comes to picking one favorite poet among many, I always always go for e e cummings. Read the full poem "and this day it was spring" here.

Flower doodle egg 

 All of them sitting pretty in a nest full of seashells. The seashells were collected from a beach in Pondicherry. When you want memories and mementos of a place for free, collect something from the nature.

I hope everyone likes my easter eggs. These were hard boiled and then given a light wash using water colours. Once the water colours dried, I used a black sketch pen to do all the drawings.

The best part about making easter eggs is the texture of a hard boiled egg. It feels like fine quality drawing paper  when you put a sketch pen to it.

Pretty pretty!

Happy Easter everyone. :)

anybody can doodle

Dan was a wee little fellow when I saw this story about an artist collaborating with her four year old kid to create wonders. Check it out here. I wanted to try collaborating with the boy, but I couldn't wait till he becomes four. So I decided to try at 18 months. I handed over the adult tempera colours. It was unfamiliar territory for him. He was used to crayons and sketch pens, pencils and regular pens. This was new.

He was hesitant to put his fingers into the tiny tubs of paint. I made him dip his fingers. He freaked out in the beginning when he saw paint on his fingertips. Then I showed him how to dip fingers in paint and use it for finger painting. He made some strokes.

I had to hand him his sketch pens after a few minutes of finger painting.

The finished toddler art.

And then the mother gave the toddler art piece a wash with water colours. Finally the mother doodled all over it and folded it and made it into a greeting card for the father.

Here is the final product.

Since the kakka aka crow is his favorite word (he sometimes wakes up uttering the word kakka), I decided to put that down in the card along with a little crow on a tree branch. 

Fishes from the mother.

And butterflies from the son.

The crow.

Doodle triangles.

Us, the Doodlers.

This signature will be used for future collaborations from the mother and son. :)

That's all folks.

NB: The father of the boy liked the greeting card. :)