Lolita Parekh

Hey everyone, 

I just wanted to apologise for not being around much lately. A month ago I got admitted to hospital; and although doctors don't say anything about my condition being stress related or because "I take on too much", I have had to slow down a lot. 

At present, I am slowly getting back into drawing/sketching. A Full month without drawing, and now I am pretty much scared of having my pencil touch the paper. The fear is stupid, I know, but I am still feeling pretty unsettled by it. 

So because of this, I have been chatting to a couple of dear friends who know me very well, and I have been told that "it's okay" but that "I should get back to it and see". So I have been trying to find a new approach, a different style that would fit me. 

I don't want to go too far out of what I enjoy and like, so I made a list of fantasy characters that I plan to make. We will see what comes up.

Wish me luck,

Hey everyone, 

It has been a couple of weeks now that I have been working again, progressively, with watercolors. And I figured something out: I used to use watercolors wrong. How can that be? I mean, paint is paint and can be used the same everywhere, right? 

Well, no. For one, there are different kinds of watercolors. I mean, just go to the art store, and go to the aisle for watercolors, and you will see that they have different types, even different names, that are different types of watercolors with fancy names... sometimes. 

Well, for one, to use watercolors well, you need... water. Haha, right. The trick is, you apply some water on the surface you are planning to paint, in the color you choose, then you add water to your palette where the color is. Then you apply your brush to the palette then the part you wanna paint. 

Now if you want just one color and you need that part to be just that color, the con here is that you will need to wait for the water to dry. 

But when applying the water before, "magic" happens when the brush (with paint) touches the wet paper. 

So I think that If I want to make an illustration: for a children's book, or a marvel comics style. This may be the paint to use. 

Obviously I haven't figured it all out, but I am happy with my progress. 

To see my latest work with watercolors go to "animals" page, and see "Lion King". Or the "Portrait of a rider and her horse" on the "portrait" page. 

Any writers among us? 

Any artists among us?

Truth is, if you are an artist, you may be a writer too; if you are a writer, you may be an artist too. 

You must think: "what is she talking about?"

Well, fellow artists, we create a scene not with words, but with drawings and paint and ink and a good bit of imagination too. 

Fellow writers, We create a scene with words and ink, sweat and blood (nearly), and a good bit of imagination too!

In "The Art of Fiction", Henry James wrote: "The analogy between the art of the painter and the art of the novelist is, so far as I am able to see, complete. Their inspiration is the same, their process (allowing for the different quality of vehicle) is the same. They may learn from each other, they may explain and sustain from each other". 

#foodforthought 

 Dear Diary:

Are we missing something? As an artist, should I write about the scenes I create? Should I write stories that go with each painting? 

It is an idea worth looking into. 

Great stuff!! 

Finally managed to get my lightbox, A3 size. Looks really slick, if you ask me ;)

For those of you who do not know: a lightbox is (nowdays) a pad that gives light (duh), where you can (kinda) control the density and basically do your art projects on. Let's say you want to work on that sketch that looks really messy, and its beyond repair with your eraser... well, you can use the lightbox and a new paper, to "copy and paste" if you like. 

It is particularly useful in illustrations, where you can add details fairly easily and get a ton of work done basically. 

Let's see how much work I can get done with it ;) 

PS: my kiddies found it fascinating... so I've had to hide it so that they won't play with it... 

Lolita, xxx

Hey everyone, 

I was unwell over the weekend so I couldn't share what I have been up to. 

As some of you may know, I have done some work on the masquerade subject. If you check the "Who am I?" page, you can see what I have been doing. 

My second piece is on the subject of love. 

Research: I initially wanted to put some music sheets on the love artwork, same as I did on the "Harlequin" one. turns out that with research, I decided to not put any lyrics or music reference. This coming piece has enough reference I believe, and adding more would have ruined it in my opinion. 

-Cupid: we have all heard of Cupid or Eros, who goes around with a  magic bow and arrows that will make people fall in love. He is often seen as a cherub (a toddler/ small child with wings) in older paintings. Recently, I have not seen anything on Cupid that looks new. I read somewhere that Cupid is supposed to be blind. So I got the idea from that last read, to do something that would wink at this idea basically. 

-Love hearts: I painted several hearts, all over the canvas, because that would be an easy way to recognize the subject matter that way. 

-Color red: My other piece concentrated on red background, with vivid colors inside the mask. For this piece, the red looks a bit washed down in places, going to a pink and white side. Love is not always easy, not always hearts and roses. It is also hardships, commitments, and fails and passes. 

-Reference to Venetian masquerade: I researched quiet a bit on different mask styles, different colors, different shapes. The full mask was more appropriate here, because when you love, it is with everything you have. 

Colors: Black and gold on the mask made it come out a lot more. I found it boring in white at first; decided to make it black, but i wasn't fully happy with it. So After some more research, I added gold and ta-da!!!! Perfection.

Mixed Media: I used several materials for this piece: gold color beads (kind of amber), a net I painted red and washed down a bit, black sparkles. That last bit really worked wonders in the way it looks now. 

Overall I am really happy with it, although it took me some time to get it right. I am glad that I keep pushing myself until I like the product. I feel like otherwise, there would be not satisfaction into my work. 

If I was to do things differently, I guess I would do some sketches first instead, and manage my time in a different way. Because this work is not time sensitive I kind of go with the flow and see where it gets me. Compared to my time sensitive pieces , where I need to get it done by a certain time and in a certain way, it feels like a lot of the decision making is out of my control, which can be good in a way. 

Anyway, kids are in bed with the music from my phone on. So I will post pictures of the painting tomorrow I think. 

Happy Valentine's day Everyone.

Keep the Love! Peace.