How Does One Get to Carnegie Hall

How does one get to Carnegie Hall? According to urban legend the answer is "practice, practice, practice". Of course, talent and ambition help too. Elephant Lochanadevi practicing her standing balance is my submission to this week's Illustration Friday theme "Talent".

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Art by Indira Govindan. If you are curious about this and art in the yoga art series, please visit my Etsy shop

Illustration Friday: Whisper

This week's topic at the Illustration Friday is WHISPER. This is my quick pencil sketch on the topic. Isn't whisper really this?

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Wings!

I suspect there are going to be many birds at the Illustration Friday this week since the topic is "Wings"!

I could not resist putting a bird on it either! In a separate post, I will show how I achieved the background effects.

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Double-Deckers!

Double Decker on north Quale, Isle of Man

I remember riding on them back in my college days in New Delhi. The DTC had so few on its fleet it was indeed a special treat if you were lucky enough to get to ride in one. After a few years, they were discontinued.

I spotted this double decker on North Quale, Douglas while taking a virtual tour of Isle of Man for this month's challenge at the Virtual Paintout. Could not resist the trip down the memory lane. I sketched it using pencil and brush pens. I did not get the glass reflections well but I like the bus!

This is also my submission for Illustration Friday's this week's theme Wheels.

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Happy Pongal!

Tomorrow (January 13) is the first day of Pongal, a three-day festival celebrated in Tamilnadu. Pongal, which  means "flow over", is a harvest festival, but celebrated by all Tamilians. The most popular icon of Pongal festival is a cooking pot with sugarcane shoots tied on the sides and brimming over with steaming milk and rice. The overflowing pot is a symbol of auspicious beginnings and is heralded with the banging of metallic plates and spoons (kind of drum roll). I remember doing it when I was little and it was fun. Growing up, Pongal was always fun mainly because of all the wonderful food my mother used to make for three days and no school either. Just eating and playing!

In the countryside it is a big event--the farmers paint and decorate their house, throw away old and unwanted things, buy new clothes, prepare feasts and have country fairs where they bring livestock all spruced up and painted. And everywhere, people celebrate it by making varieties of rice dishes--sweet rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice, yogurt rice--all accompanied by a medley of vegetables. 

Pongal celebrates the transit of Sun into the sign of Capricorn (Thai) and the beginning ofuttaranayana punyakala or the northern ascension of the Sun (its 6-month transit over the northern hemisphere). That is why, the month of Thai  is also celebrated as the season of hope and new beginnings. 

HAPPY PONGAL EVERYONE!

Thanks for visiting. Submitted to Illustration Friday's this week's theme "MYTH".

Artwork by Indira

New Year Resolution

One might ask whether young children can understand the concept of new year resolution. I think they can--they certainly grasp the idea of positive and negative actions, like "not fighting"or  "being friends", and they do have a sense of time like "now" or "later". As I look back at my daughter's childhood, by the time she was 4 or 5, she was quite capable of coming up with a new year resolution for herself, even something like the one above!

Submitted for Illustration Friday this week's challenge "NEW".

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Glowing with the Spirit

The theme for this week at the Illustration Friday is GLOW. This art above is my submission.

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Snow in Slovakia!

The location for this month's Virtual Paintout is Slovakia, a beautiful country with many historical sites dating to pre-medieval period. This week's topic at the Illustration Friday is "SNOW". I decided to combine the two themes and, created one piece of art. What you see above is a segment of the Town Hall Square in Bardejov, Slovekia, one of Unesco's World Heritage sites. It is a place with an interesing hsitory, but I don't know if it snows there. Well, here is to artistic liberty!

This watercolor  painting was done 5" by &7" 140lb coldpress watercolor paper.

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Zoom Illustrated!

This week topic at Illustration Friday is ZOOM. This is my take on it. Go over to IF for a wonderful eye candy on the topic.

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Illustration Friday: Tree

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic for this week, which is TREE. Trees are very much part of my yoga art series, especially in the meditation poses. If you want to see 1000+ interpretation of tree in art, jump over to IF site  and you will not be disappointed.

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Waiting for Sandy

Still haunted by the memories of last year's Hurricane Irene and the freak October nor'easter, 

New Jerseyans wait for Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter.

My submission for this week's Illustration Friday theme HAUNT. (Watercolor, pen and ink collage.)

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Every Drop Counts

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's this week's theme WATER. I have illustrated the concept of rainwater harvesting that is much used in the increasingly parched India.

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Illustration Friday: Mirror

My submission for this week's topic at Illustration Friday.

For more of my art check out my Etsy shop.

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Illustration Friday: Old-fashioned

This is my submission for Illustration Friday Challenge "Old-Fashioned". Writing in cursive using a fountain pen? Now, that's truly old-fashioned!