Portrait of a Lady

Another in an ongoing series of portraits inspired by Indian film posters. By painting a double image that shows the sitter as a young woman and as she looks now I wanted to hint at a narrative that spans a lifetime and transforms a face.

Below are a few details of the painting.

The continuing search for a style....

I like the idea of colouring a drawing very loosely and then paring it down to a crisp silhouette .

Illustration of a dress by Jean Paul Gaultier.

Airy Fairies

After all those heavy weight elephants some delicate ballerinas. These dancers are from all the famous ballets: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella and ofcourse The Slleping Beauty.

An assortment of vignettes taken from my book, The Usbourne Ballet Treasury.

The White King...

...or a portrait of a young chess enthusiast.

I like the idea of dressing people up in costumes that lift them out of their everyday personas, or as in this case, celebrates one of their hobbies. I particularly enjoyed painting the crown with all it's jewels ( and adding glitter for that extra sparkle )!

The paintings of Gustav Klimt are an influence on this piece. I love the way in his portraits he contrasts realistic faces with highly stylized, decorative backgrounds

Standing guard

And this is where the previous two elephants ended up. Standing guard on either side of the entrance of the BlackRock office, opposite Monuement tube station.

I really like the way the two of them shine out like little gems against the imposing architecture.

Around the World

The second design for BlackRock is made up of monuements from the cities around the world where they have their offices. As some buildings, like the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye look better lit up, we decided to make one half of the elephant Night and the other side Day.

Mayur Gajendra.

This is the first of two elephants I painted for a sponsor, BlackRock Investments, as part of the Elephant Parade. Both designs were created in collaboration with the company.

Here the elephant is combined with that other wildlife emblem of India - the peacock - and this is reflected in the name too. "Mayur" means peacock in Sanskrit, while "Gajendra" is the King of the Elephants according to Hindu folklore.

Rather than creating a symmetrical design I thought it would be more interesting to have a different focus of interest on each side. So the fan of feathers sprouts from one ear while on the other side an eye becomes part of a feather.

Heavenly Jewel - out of the studio....

....varnished and mounted on his plinth in Leicester Square Gardens for the next two months! Part of the Elephant Parade 2010.

A post pachyderm glass of beer...

Time for a nice relaxing glass of beer after all that painting.

The glass shape is specifically meant for white beer which is a Bavarian speciality. While it may not contain the correct drink, the patterns on it and the matching beer mat are appropriate for the purpose in that all the motifs and colours are taken from the Bavarian coat of arms.

Heavenly Jewel - Finale

The final stages to completion!

Heavenly Jewel - the other side continued

Once agian, the slow build up of layers before the fun of the details.

Heavenly Jewel - starting the other side

As I was designing I realised that there was no reason for both sides to be exactly the same. On the contrary it would be more interesting for the viewer - as they moved around the sculpture - to see the colours and patterns change. Hence on this side the elephant is now turquoise and the blanket on his back is dark blue.

Heavenly Jewel - half way through

Having completed all the basic ground work I can now put in all the details - flowers, jewels and the flying figure of the apsara. So that's one side over....

Heavenly Jewel - continued

The labourious job of building up the layers of paint to the right intensity continues. It's only in the final shots that you can see that I've finally reached the fun part of putting in the decorative details!

Heavenly Jewel - Early days

This is my design for Elephant Parade London 2010 - an event that will see 250 decorated, fibre glass elephants spread out over the capital to raise awarness of the plight of the Asian elephant. After two months out under the London sun they will be auctioned off to raise funds for elephant conservation in India.

More details can be found at www.elephantfamily.org - the charity that is organising this event and www.elephantparadelondon.org - about the event itself.

In these next few posts I want to show how my design developed from the blank statue through to the finished artwork. I started off by painting the outlines of the major details and then filling the shapes in bit by bit. Due to the nature of the surface and the acrylic paints it took several layers to build the correct intensity of colour.

The concept is based on the role of the elephant in Hindu mythology. In one form it is the mount of Indra, king of the gods, who rides on his back across the Heavens. This is represented by the clouds floating around the whole sculpture. The flying figures on the side are apsaras - celestial dancers who I have used to personify the elephant's graceful movements.

Lady Jane - Part Three

The tragic denoument of the song.

The fish, Lady Jane is caught by a fisherman who presents her to the Emperor. However, despite being struck by her beauty, the Emperor has her cooked and eats her up!

Lady Jane - Part Two

In order to find her lover, Lady Jane cuts off her feet, dives into the watery depths and in the process is transformed into a beautiful fish.

Another illustration for the song "Lady Jane" by Mika.

Lady Jane - Part One

Based on the song "Lady Jane" by Mika, from his "Songs of Sorrow".

This scene describes the plight of the melancholy Lady Jane who can walk on water. Unfortunately, her lover fails in his attempt to follow her and sinks into the dark depths......

I delibrately used bright colours to give a fairy tale quality to the image and to act as a contrast to the dark plot of the song/story.

A taste of things to come.....

I found these rather cute papier-mache elephants in an art shop and thought they would be fun to decorate. Elephants seem to have become a major theme in my recent work as you will see over the coming months!

Temperance

The second in my series of Tarot cards is Temperance. In my research I've come across various interpretations of the cards and as it's hard to accomodate all their subtleties I have just gone with the basic meaning. Anyway, it's the image that I am more interested in!

Usually represented by a woman pouring water from one cup to another - Temperance symbolizes moderation and the blending of opposites. I have represented this by the goddess Ganga with her pots of sacred water, at the moment she descends from the skies and unites Heaven and Earth.

Dancing Queen

Growing up in Mumbai, one of my earliest inspirations to become an artist were the hand painted movie posters that were displayed all over the city. Sadly they are now giving way to photography but, in my opinion, they were works of art in their right. The quality of painting in some of the posters was exceptional but more importantly, they captured the colourful fantasy and heightened melodrama of Bollywood films better than any photographs could.

For a long time now, I have wanted to emulate this style of painting and I think I have found a way of doing so within the format of portraiture. By following some of the techniques of poster art, like having soft focus backgrounds contrasted with sharper details and a generous scattering of decorative stars and flowers,I think I can make glamourous heroes and heroines of anyone!

This painting was done on canvas with acrylics and glitter, for an extra touch of glamour!

More flooring.

Following on from the previous image I came across another illustration where the floor, ignoring the rules of perspective, makes up a lot of the background pattern.

The Symmetry of Geometry

I thought it would be fun to contrast the rambling foliage of the previous post with the strict geometrical lines of Moorish mosaic patterns.

A Vision of Eden

With it begining to feel like Spring at last, here is an image celebrating the joys of Nature and of being surrounded by scented flowers and fruits.

This was originally a cover for a book about an idyllic childhood in a Middle-Eastern country (not sure if it's ever been published though ).

Floral Dress

Initially a pencil drawing, which I coloured and manipulated on Photoshop. I really like the layering/ out of focus effect which gives the image an almost cinematic quality.Also like the juxtaposition of the graphic background with a more realistic forground.

The Chinese Sky - Details

The four compass points are represented by a specific animals beginning with The Blue Dragon of the East,


The Black Tortoise of the North,


The Red Bird of the South and


The White Tiger of the West.

The Sun and Moon have their own animals too.
The Sun is associated with the colour red and has a black crow in it....


...while Moon is associated to the colour blue and has a white rabbit or hare within it.

The Chinese Sky

This wall chart is based on the Chinese view of astronomy. The four directions are associated with four animals, while the central, or polar region relates to the Emperor of Heaven and his court.

This was created for the International Dunhuang Project - based at the British Library - which promotes the study of The Silk Road and it's related cultures.

Femme noir

I enjoy looking at fashion and how it's illustrated. I want to move away from my usual style and find a new way of rendering the human figure and fabrics etc. Thought I'd start off by experimenting with drawing , for it's immediacy and colouring/sfx in Photoshop.

The Mathematics in Fairy Tales - 3

The final cover in this set of three and the most intricate too!