Spirit of the Season

I enjoyed making this painting and am delighted to place it under the title - Spirit as my Friday Illustration submission.... which was a star this season for I used this original for one of my new line of Greeting Cards.

I also made this Elf Illustration in 3D space on a blank canvas known as an 8" tall vinyl for any artist to make any character as he or she pleases. I made an elf this time and I must say he certainly added to the Spirits I worked with this season!

I had represented both of them in the recent artisan festival I took part in Dubai @ Arte

Thank you for stopping by!

A tribute to a favorite portrait subject!

KATO!!! was lost in LA a few months ago.

On July 4th I made this portrait of "KATO".

But today we remember him fondly while he remains Missing

Kato Rosen was a registered Feline in California who disappeared from his LA home barely a couple of months ago with still hopes that he will find his master.

Thank you for stopping by while I remember this lovely pet who I too had grown fond of with stories of his pranks.

An Arabic Culture Dubai Art Show commemorating 9/11 for the message of peace - Opening night & coverage

This 11th September was opening night for an Art Show in the Ahmediya Art Gallery where more than a handful of Dubai artists united to display their works of art.

Do take a look at the pictures taken on location: 

And here we artists stand with a symbolic gesture to pledge the evenings message, "Against the Tides, United for Peace".

Thanks to Zareen Knan and her dedicated team of lovely art facilitators!

                           Against...

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

              the... 

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

                                         Tides...

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

                                                      United...

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

                                                                     in...

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

                                                                                         Peace.

source: http://www.facebook.com/AgainstTheTidesArtists

Uh oh! I almost missed posting these pictures below.... Introducing my artist friend with her new passionately created lovely pieces of art with air-dried clay on coffee-base (truly eco)....and a couple of mine in oils and charcoal.

An exciting post featuring Manisha's lovely art....IS COMING SOON...stay tuned for that!

I am so glad to be part of such an ethnic art exhibition organized by the group "Against the Tide" supporting several good causes in a single show which makes me want to donate part of the proceeds of the outcome of my participation to a peaceful cause in the region.

What I want to take away from this show: 

• Is the opportunity to connect with my fellow local artists, art lovers and facilitators. 
• Observing that every artist is a winner as each one of them has their persona impressed upon their masterpiece. Hence contesting each has no room among passionate fine art. 

However the show will pronounce a winner on the last day based upon vote-counts from visitors to the event. 

What I would love to see 

• A winner chosen from a random vote from the general public unknown to the artist except for his or her art, who at the instant of the visit finds a connection to an art-piece/pieces and decides to vote for one which truly has intrigued them. 

Do you agree with me when I say that it is a personal preference which could never be induced. My take anyway is that it is difficult a choice to make among so many beautiful works on display.

• The grand prize (of a solo show sponsored at Ahmediya) to go to such a deserving artist!

The show is running @ the Ahmedia Art Gallery till the 14th September 11am - 8 pm.

I hope to speak to you but only via my paintings at the show as am at work this weekend. Although, I am very glad I could steal some moments to key in this post.

Take care! and Thanks tonnes for having a read!!

An Arabic perspective Art Show in Dubai - Open Invitation!

Welcome to this special group art show in the heart of Old Dubai just a stone's throw away from the 100 year old Ahmediya School at the Ahmediya Heritage Guest House, now a full-fledged art gallery.

I am pleased to be part of the 16 Dubai-based artists who will be participating in an Art Exhibition via Against the Tides 2013, themed "Celebrating the Arabic Culture & Heritage starting this 9/11.

If you are in this part of the world, at this part of town, all set to enjoy a day at the centre of Dubai's heritage localities, do head to the Al Ras area in Deira to experience that diverse flavor of artists' works....just past the Spice Souk, before the Gold Souk where the huzzle and buzzle of Dubai City maybe felt the most.

Have a great week ahead!

Illustration Friday - Theme Hidden

Hello there and thanks for stopping by again!

Here is my submission for this weeks theme @ Illustration Friday - "Hidden".
I was wanting to participate this Friday by drawing specially for the theme when an almost perfect topic was declared which has a metaphorical reference to this charcoal and watercolor pencil piece.

This piece will be in an art show called "Against the Tide 2013" in Dubai on the 11th - 14th @ The Ahmadiya Heritage Guest House.  She is part of a series where I portray women from various regions in the world. I call this lady the "Damsel-Arabia".

I am so thankful for Illustration Friday that I have a good reason to make a few posts on my blog at least sporadically so I don't get all lost in my real-life work activities.

See you the next time when I plan to make a few posts showcasing some amazing independent talents here in Dubai.

It would be interviews with some award-winning versatile commercial artists in Dubai. These freelancers are examples of warriors in this battle of true talentship (just made it up :o)) with a weird world in a typical post-recession environment where it is good against evil business practices and an answer to people who think talents are available at their own disposal. For they who think they could have works of art exchanged as cheap stakes. These talented individuals demonstrate how they defy this phenomenon.

Talents have so many options and so many perspectives to make it a success even if the market turns against them.

And so my experiences the past 2 weeks makes me realize that such posts are the need-of-the-hour for a passionate artist surviving on his/her own to take away from.

So please come back for a useful read.
Happy crusading in your passions and keep the high spirits going, no matter what!

Illustration Friday Jungle theme submission

The Jungle theme of Illustration Friday was an interesting theme and looked forward to it.

So here I am making a submission of some quick sketches I made of Indian Jungle animals from a live backdrop....a good reason to enjoy the nostalgia too....back in the days when I did frequent outdoor sketches and animals-in-motion studies as a growing animator.

At this point I'd like to add a very interesting incident that happened while sketching the elephant rushing-off shown on this piece.

It was a warm summers afternoon back in the early 90s when I set out with a pal to capture jungle friends from a local zoo. When I sat down comfortably under an Indian banyan tree gearing up to sketch this beautiful elephant by its caretaker....perhaps 500 meters away. 

No sooner did I look away for a 30 seconds...and look back, I was startled and almost fell off the platform when I spotted a zoomed-in view of Mr. elephants foot....within inches away from where I sat....he stood right in front staring down at me.

I did not see my friend next to me then for she had made a split second decision to run as far away as quickly as possible in fear :o))). This animated experience sticks with me whenever I pull out this image and am very pleased to make this mention, at this time.

A cartooned-up version of the hilarious scene of that day is somewhere in my archives and will have it up here in a while when I get back to my physical work days. 

Am back at work again and am glad to find you the sketch of the humorous scene here, I promised you I'd upload about a fortnight ago: (Upload date 20 Aug 2013)

It has been Eid in Dubai and I just took a part-holiday this festive-summer holidays in Dubai.

Had the best time enjoying the rains in the peninsula.

Take care!

My Lightpen lightens up my day as I do a very complicated Vector pattern

Today's a big day for me...Am on a deadline to recreate an original sketch I made for a website. Thanks to this favorite client of mine, working for him on this gives birth to a new chapter in my fine art works. Do check back on an extended update on this soon.

Meanwhile I am quickly making this post while I hurry through creating this pattern made up of millions of inanimate shapes on Adobe Illustrator, simply to shout-out to anyone out there working their days out with shapes inside of Adobe without a tablet.....It is your best treasured investment.

The lightpen is helping me make a crazy-complicated pattern digitally in half the time I have taken to create the whole layout.

source: pcmag.com

Considering I took considerable time to sketch it out on paper.... am so excited that I may take just half the time I had imagined it would take with my light pen to draw it out into the computer....in vector format all hires.

It's for an upcoming Website so it is too early to reveal any of the design. Will post an update once this amazing interactive site gets launched. I promise it is going to be a different kind of visual treat....Courtesy of my techy client....who constantly helps complement my designs with his brilliant technological magic to take the design to a whole new realm.

Be right back on this soon.