Let the Speed Paintings Begin!

A speed painting done in 75 odd mins.In addition to carefully made studies I've decided to do quick paintings like these from reference on a daily basis.Really seem to be helping colour understanding.
Read more about my daily ongoing battles with digital painting gesture drawings and what not at www.hardcoregraphite.blogspot.com

Investment in Inspiration

An Investment in Inspiration.That's what this post is.Its a collection of some of the most motivational stuff you'd come across the internet,for an artist.

Ira Glass

Through Hazy Eyes

A little sneak peak into an ongoing project.

Study #1

Found this wonderful snap in my old photography inspiration folder and decided to paint it as a study in drapery and lighting. What started out as a speed painting soon just spiraled into an immersive exercise of realistic rendering.Took a bit more than 2 hours (which would make it a sin to call this a speed painting). But I did call it quits before I spent another two more hours on it just blending the values.I like it when the strokes can be seen. And I think I might have just found my favourite custom brush .A tad bit of colour adjustment to enhance the mood.Painted entirely in greyscale.

Check out the photographer of the original pic.She is simply incredible.
Gonna paint digitally on a daily basis from now on.All digital work from hence forth will be numbered (hence the study#1` title).Follow them on my daily slog-blog http://hardcoregraphite.blogspot.in/

Fortitude

My daily 'slog-blog' is being updated on quite a regular basis these days so do check it out.While 'The Mind-fill' is mainly stuff that fills my mind,'Hardcore Graphite' is more of the blood,sweat and tears side of my daily existence.It documents a lot of the behind the scenes activity (stuff that nobody really cares about,yet matters to me),the hardwork and the daily dose of failures.When the mindfill is my celebration,hardcore graphite is my perseverence.

Take a peak.You might just like.



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"Falling down is how we grow. Staying down is how we die."
--Brian Vaszily

A Couple of Smiles

This is about a painting I did which had an interesting story behind it.(We'll at least I found it interesting and worth sharing).

Walking Ahead

Here is a walk cycle I spent ages making.I am not fond of it in the least,but it sure taught me how not to do one.I can do much better than this.Posted it cos this is one of the first finished walk cycles I've made since this.Which was 2 years ago.Ashamed to admit it.


Narona's Walk Cycle from Alok N R on Vimeo.

Now am gonna swallow that fact and move on.Two years down,I wanna be proud that I decided to do something about my stagnation by making this and posting it here.

Finger Painting in 40 mins !

A face study done on tinted sheet using poster paint.Used a photograph for reference and since there wasn't any brushes around I used my fingers to paint.The poster paint itself was borrowed from a friend and the three colours (red,purple and black) were all that he had anyway.

College Blues

The Quiet

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The Puss in Peril

The other day I was walking by the third floor corridor toward the only working water  cooler in the building when I heard a really high pitched agonizingly painful MEOW !! Now there was only one creature I knew who could make a cat cry that bad (one which would make even the other cats go like,"Woah,dude!You've sound like horse  taking a dump with a mammoth  furball up his a-hole!"),and that was that nameless fat white cat that roamed about our insti all day,eating from dumpsters and knocking over paint bottles in the stationary store.Goes without saying,I didnt  have much regard for him,though I did find painting his white butt black with poster paint a rather amusing pass time activity.

So I heard the cries and,well, I was curious as to where the meowing was coming from cos he was nowhere around.And after a few good minutes of looking around I gave up on him and left for  the cooler.But spooky as it may sound the same thing happened the following day and the next.I was beginning to wonder if the cat was getting some kick out of this whole invisibility trick.I even joked to my friend that the bastard was dead and was haunting the third floor.And so I told myself.

Untill this morning.

Lost in the Abyss

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Monday Mornings

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Infinitesimal

'Infinity' - A Film written and directed by Akhil Khandeparkar in which I got to enact a character.Had a great time on this film.


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Possible SPOILER ALERT so READ AFTER WATCHING the clip:

Working on this film was great fun. I knew Akhil had been wanting to make a film based on a dialogue centric script that delved into the darker corners of the human psyche for quite some time. So it came as no great surprise when he showed me the initial drafts of Infinity,(which itself had derived from something else far more deranged).And then one day he comes to me and says "Hey Alok, you've got a small role in the film".