Thursday 11 June 2015

BIRDS  OF  PARADISE


A good friend bought a set of 7 birds from one of the home decor stores. She wanted to get them painted in some bright colours to give it a "BIRDS OF PARADISE" look. This is how they looked initially


Her adorable little daughter wanted to paint some herself and so she went ahead and painted 4 birds and I was commissioned to paint the remaining 3.
 
When she approached me, she only had one condition that it should look very bright and colourful and gave me all the liberty to do it my way. 

After a lot of thinking, I used 5 colours namely red, yellow, blue, green, orange. Since I love working with acrylic paints because of it nature being firstly a quick dry medium and secondly having a beautiful glossy finish, I have purely used acrylic paints here. For the intricate patterns, I have used fine liners and permanent markers. Traditional motifs have been used here, some influenced by the traditional Madhubani Art. This was the final outcome:




Since the entire piece had a lot of colour, I chose to keep the sides black with white floral motifs on it. A closer look at the base :
  

So bringing you BIRDS OF PARADISE with a traditional twist....



Wot do u think about it??Looking forward to hear from you....

See you soon with another form of artwork........

 








Monday 23 March 2015

Working with Terracotta

                            
                                                                        Chapter 1

Miniature Figurines    
                              
Jam, Sauces and Pickles everywhere....

Everytime a jam bottle got over, I used to wonder what it could be used for rather than the usual way to store masalas (Indian Spices), which I have used myself and  I am sure most of our mothers and grandmothers would be doing the same when a glass bottle got empty, as it is scientifically proven that cheaper plastics react with the masalas and hence is not considered a safe way to store the spices. Again got everything cleaned up, dried and stored away.

Like most of the mothers my day too starts with making breakfast for the family, packing the lunch boxes, getting the kids ready for school, breakfast time with my husband and once he goes to office, starts “ MY CRAFTY TIME” which goes on for couple of hours until the kids are back from school.
It was during one of those CRAFTY mornings that I stumbled upon a terracotta pack that was purchased earlier. On one of my usual crafty hunts, I came across a pack of air drying terracotta in one of the leading chain of supermarkets. I had picked it up thinking I might have some use with it on a later occasion.Wanted to try out sculpting at least once. So I started out making the face first. As it started to take form, I realised that I requires quite a lot of patience and every process should be done as fast as possible, as the clay was an air drying one and once it started drying it had a tendency to become hard and would just chip off. So I tried to keep it moist enough spraying water every now and then to prevent hardening and I was pretty happy with the outcome of each feature. Once the face was over I realised that it had come out to be a miniature face and that I couldn’t make it stand upright and that it needed a base. That was when I was reminded of the tiny bottles that were cleaned and stored away . What could be better than a glass bottle with a miniature figurine on the top.  So I started working on the lid of the bottle. Smoothened the base out on the bottle lid with some more clay and yaaaay there my figurine stood upright. But when i closed the bottle it looked quite empty.
On one of the earlier craft purchases, I had bought some shells and beads and also some colourful stones and hence I tried stuffing my bottle with it. After stuffing the bottle, i have sealed the bottle with the clay and once it was dry I painted the figurine with acrylic paints. After drying use little arty glue and stick the satin ribbon/ lace around and tie a neat bow and the end result :

SEE IT FOR YOURSELF!


Sorry for not having the working stills as I forgot to take pictures of each process. But I am sure by reading the process all of you will be able to do this miniature figurine on your own.

Come along and lets try creating a MINIATURE FIGURINE.

Things you will need :
Air drying terracotta
Old Jam/ Sauce bottle washed and dried thoroughly
Beads/ Shells/ Stones for stuffing
Acrylic paints
Satin Ribbon for the bow

Method:
Take a lemon sized ball from the terracotta pack and keep the remaining pack sealed in an air tight container to prevent drying out. Knead the clay well . Pinch out three small balls approx.0.5 cms. This will be used for making the eyes and lips. Slowly start forming a face by slightly rolling the ball to form a slightly oblong shape, flattening it. Now pinch out another 1 cm clay out and start rolling to form strands of hair. Stick the strands on the head using water. Add some curls to the tip for the female figurines. Once the hair is done , let us proceed to the eyes. Flatten the small balls out and press a toothpick horizontally in the middle to show the eye lids. Now stick the eyes in place. For the eyebrows roll out two tiny balls and roll out long. Stick above the eyes. For the nose pinch out a tiny ball of clay and roll it to form a line thick on one end and thinning it to  the other end. Now stick the nose, thinner side up and thick down( this would be the nostrils) between the eyes. Make two pin-head holes using the toothpick for the nostrils. Take the remaining tiny ball for the lips. Roll such that it is a bit elongated and press it down. Pinch on both sides to give the shape of the lips. Press the toothpick horizontally between the lip to form the upper and the lower lip. Now press gently with the toothpick on the middle upperside of the lip to give it the shape of the upper lip. Pick it up gently from the work surface with a flat knife and stick under the nose. Now the face is done. Press it firmly on the bottle lid using some crafters glue and water. Now roll out a thick piece and place under the face. Merge it with the bottom of the face and the base of the bottle lid to form the neck of the figure. Smoothen it out to give a smoother look. U could add collar to the dress/ shirt at this point. Allow the figurine to dry for 24 hrs. Now fill the bottle to the brim with Beads/ Stones/Shells. Close the lid tightly on the bottle. Roll out a thick piece of clay and seal the bottle lid. Make sure you smoothen out the clay so that it looks like an extension to the dress of  the figurine. Allow to dry completely. After drying paint the features using acrylic colours. Tie a bow around to finish the look.

SOME OF MY WORKS



Here I have used an empty olives pickle bottle for the man and a Nescafe bottle for the lady. Blue pebbles are used to depict the man’s shirt. String from my son’s old water bottle is used to show the belt and brown and clear pebbles to show his pants. The lady is wearing a red and white polka dress.


Husband’s perfume bottle for the man and a jam bottle for the lady!


                                                         An Indian Couple!



Singer


School Kids


70's is back!!
                                                                   
                                               
                                                                      Tribal Boy

                     
                                                                  ABSTRACTS:



                                                        Masai Mother and Child




Let me know what you think about my work. Stay tuned for more of my art works.

Saturday 21 March 2015

About Myself





Hello All!



Introducing myself, I am Manjula, a Contemporary Indian with interest in modern art with a fusion of traditional Indian art forms, a homemaker and a mother to two, also passionate about recycling old unwanted things and making something useful out of it. 
When I am not painting, find me crafting/Journaling/Upcycling/Recycling/Refurbishing/Redecorating. 

RusticTrails@ Home Studio_by_Manjula is my journey into the world of art beyond canvas, sharing with all you wonderful people the little things that I learned along the way. Hope you like it.

Looking forward to hear from all of you!