Every now and then I need to paint a teapot. (I drink a lot of tea!). Here is a quick sketchy painting. The shapes and the tonal values were from observation of a little round teapot. The colour palette was from my imagination and not what I saw in real life. A mixture of the seen and the invented to make a colourful vibrant image using inky water soluble pencils in my sketchbook.
Digital variations made on the iPad pasting in and transforming photographs of some of my artworks on paper.
A few drawings to keep my eye and hand in:
Coloured pencil, pastel, charcoal, pencil, watercolour
Back on the iPad here are some experiments playing with the Procreate App
My starting point was a photograph of a moody and decorative collage made on a dark winter's day out of cut and torn fragments from another piece along with crystalline watercolour to bring out the forms. Multiplying, transforming and layering the image I made variations on my iPad. The original collage is the first image followed by three of my favourites from the sequence.
Next in the series of small circular paintings of the five wisdom dakinis. Ratnadakini is accompanied by Ratnasambhava's horses (they support his lotus throne) and dragons. For me dragons are wisdom beings akin to Nagas and also symbolise the freeing of the subtle energies of the body.
More ideas for ways to make an image of the Magic City of the White Lotus Sutra.
My current exploration across all themes is the interplay between spontaneity and planning. Improvisation versus structure. Making a surface combining different kinds of wet and dry media on paper.
In today's doodle I play with light and dark using tinted charcoal and gold pen, thinking about pyramids, the sun and moon and a stairway to heaven.
And this is an earlier mixed media sketch (pastels, water, marker pen) - there surely are gardens and music in the magic city. .
A few studies from my sketchbook using oil pastels and watercolour aiming to express a sense of the element of Air symbolised by a green crescent bowl. The pastel sketch of the stupa is here to give the image context of the green crescent of air.
A theme I return to from time to time - here are two sketches.
Going for a combination of stillness and dynamism.
