My next few few paintings will be about the religious fable of Shiva Parvathi. The great Indian Poet Kalidasa has narrated it in his unfinished epic poem called ‘Kumarasambhava’ or ‘The birth of the war god’ with exquisite detail. Sri aurobindo has translated one of seven or eight cantos available in Sanskrit into English. Here’s a link of it if you are interested.
http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/08/0026_e.htm
I’ve been learning to draw human figures lately and this sketch is my final effort for Parvathi. (the lines are all straight, the photo is not completely horizontal)
The sketch of the setting, I had done a while back:
I transferred the two drawings onto a half sheet of Arches 300gsm HP but can’t post it as the lines are too faint. It transferred well and I didn’t have to redraw the lines as the paper was so smooth.
The main reference photo is the stream here contributed by Olga to the RIL of wetcanvas.com. The view of the Himalayas in the bg is also from the RIL. I made up the rest with details from old travel photos etc.
I also wanted to share this with you. My aunt came here for a family function and she gave me this sandalwood piece and some paste made out of it with water. Because the paste is fresh, it just smells so delightful… earthy and woody along with that unique sandal scent, nothing like what you get in the market. They found the tree in their backyard and got it cut down by officials because it is illegal to own sandalwood trees… but they got to keep some chunks.
Watercolor Journal 