Under the bodhitree

Happy New Year!!

2011-12-29T13:49:00.001-08:00

2011-12-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

In a world of my own...

2011-12-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ever experienced a time when you block out everything around you and you feel so completely peaceful in your own world? this is me, in my 'meditative state' everytime I wait for the train.

Reflection

2011-12-07T14:28:00.001-08:00

This is my contribution to the 'Art for Water' campaign. Check out more amazing artwork done for this project at their website.

Wallflower

2011-12-05T00:18:00.001-08:00

Flamboyance

2011-11-30T20:15:00.001-08:00

2011-11-28T06:33:00.001-08:00

sigh! I miss those really long baths where I could just soak it all up and dream....

Playing buh-bye with Dad!

2011-11-22T00:27:00.001-08:00

Incense dance

2011-11-20T21:56:00.001-08:00

Michael the carpenter

2011-11-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

This character is based on my memory from school. Michael was a hunched old man with a wide smile and a kind heart; he was our school's carpenter, anything that needed mending he fixed. We once found a bird that fell off its nest; I remember taking it to him and asking him to build a birdhouse for it.

Halloween

2011-10-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

A pumpkin owl saying happy Hallo(hollow)ween folks!

Happy Deepavali

2011-10-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight the stars shine below... I wish you peace and happiness!

Slow down, you move too fast!

2011-10-22T09:24:00.001-07:00

Cousins

2011-10-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how quickly they bond:)

Indian summer

2011-10-18T22:31:00.001-07:00

2011-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

oh hello!

Adora

2011-10-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

This one's for a little girl named Adora...

Moonshadows

2011-10-04T11:38:00.001-07:00

2011-09-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

My baby was very sick this week... thank goodness for my mom and V, I would've been so scared and helpless without them!

The beginning of Fall

2011-09-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

We were on our evening walk, when there was this glorious moment of sunshine and tiny white flowers fell upon us - reminding me just how much I'm blessed!

2011-09-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

I wish that the Summer would last....

Little talker!

2011-09-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

These days she wakes up early in the morning and all she wants to do is talk! :P

2011-09-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you..."

far far away...

2011-09-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

2011-09-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

2011-09-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

2011-09-09T00:09:00.001-07:00

2011-09-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

Sketch of the day

2011-09-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

You make it all better...

2011-08-29T00:46:00.000-07:00

A quick one for Illustration Friday. The head often disguises the heart, look and listen deeper...

2011-08-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

2011-08-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

"how would you like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar..."

2011-08-23T00:14:00.001-07:00

wheee!!

peekaboo

2011-08-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

2011-08-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

some old ones from my sketchbook

2011-08-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

I came across this quote by Christine Mason Miller and I can't wait to read her book, she's an amazing artist too! it's just what I need to keep reminding myself of. I also figured that I have to quit waiting to post my next "masterpiece" on my blog.... it's time for more experimentation!

I'm planning on working on daily sketches (inspired by none other than the wonderful artist and human being Pascal Campion) I am sooo excited!

Illustration Friday: Journey

2011-04-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

A journey with a friend is always happy!

Here comes the sun...

2010-10-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here comes the sun, doo da doo doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright

Little darling
It's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright

It's been a busy month and a half with the arrival of our little one... after what feels like countless sleepless nights, crazy busy days filled with feeding and burping baby, dealing with poops/ spit ups etc etc... I have to say I salute Moms everywhere! and speaking of Moms, I'm so thankful my Mom is here to help us! I don't know what I would've done without her... thanks Ma!

Illustration Friday: Proverb

2010-09-16T23:54:00.001-07:00

This is more of a quote than a proverb..... "To make something special you just have to believe it is special..." Master Oogway from Kungfu Panda.

2010-09-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Trees

2010-09-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

2010-09-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Some very awesome people put together this great "baby shower/ traditional Valaikaapu" function for me! I was very touched..... to all of you THANK YOU!

Nursery art

2010-09-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

My niece Oviya and I made these for baby :) and now we're just playing the waiting game... waiting for the little bundle of joy who's gonna arrive anytime now!

Spring show

2010-08-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

This Spring, some of my works were selected to be displayed at the annual Spring show art exhibition at AAU! The show was great with a LOT of talented artists displaying their works... Here's my contribution:

Raku elephant

2010-07-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Made this sculpture few years ago in Ceramics class. It's made of hand- rolled ceramic clay and then painted and glazed in a technique called "Raku"

2010-06-02T20:49:00.001-07:00

Realistic Pumpkin from Preetha Mahendran on Vimeo.

This was done in my Texture painting class; color,bump and spec maps were done in Photoshop and then incorporated with the 3d model in Maya. I'm just begining texture painting and there's soo much to explore in Maya. This was fun!

2010-05-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

and so dawns the end of another busy semester! These were done for my background painting class; they are variations of scenes from "Pocahontas", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Thumbelina" and " The lady and the Tramp" respectively. I think this class was a recap of color theory, layout and design. It helped me learn / think more about mixing colors , the behaviour of light/ shadows and the importance of color scripts in a film. It also got me reeally interested in getting back to landscape painting! I hope to get some quick studies done over the summer break.

2010-05-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

More children's book illustrations that i didn't get to post earlier..... The story is about a little girl and her adventures in a cardboard town. It's an old Russian tale by Leonid Yakhnin; I loved this book as a kid!

The Steadfast tin soldier

2009-10-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

In our Children's book illustration class, we had to pick a fairy tale to illustrate and I chose "The Steadfast Tin soldier" by Hans Christian Anderson. Here's a spread that I illustrated for the story. This is the scene where the snuffbox-smoke-monster thing (in the original story it's a goblin or jack-in-the box, but i changed it to a smoke-monster 'coz he lives in a snuffbox afterall) threatens the tin soldier to "keep his eyes off the ballerina..." In the story the tin soldier falls in love with the ballerina thinking that she has only one leg just like him; but then he finds out that she's actually got two legs.... and he's afraid to approach her and confess his love to her...... aww! It's a sad story but it had interesting visuals, so I decided to do it.

The other thumbnail that you see in the first picture is for a single page illustration. I'm still working on it and will post the finished picture soon!

2009-10-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Wheee.... my first experience in children's book publishing! well..., it's not a book book, but these are some illustrations I did for a six page story in Kahani magazine written by Uma Krishnaswami The story is titled "Deepa: Lights against the darkness" and is a Diwali story... If you like what you see, go grab a copy now!

2009-10-09T00:20:00.001-07:00

When it rains, it pours out here... :) here's another post for today. I did this a while ago in Painter. Was inspired by Archana Srinivas' awesome blog and her pictures of pickle jars made me think of my grandma's Narthanga oorgai.. yumm!

2009-10-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

Back to traditional painting after a very long time! I'm still a little rusty, but am enjoying getting back to painting large scale! This is for the Grimm's fairy tale "Jorinda and Joringel" for my children's book illustration class. I am super excited about this class.. My next story is "The Steadfast Tin soldier" ... will post more work soon.

2009-10-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

The past two months have been very busy with the start of school, moving to a new apartment and freelance projects and what not..... I'm glad things are settling back to routine and I really hope to post more often!

Today, after school I walked back to our apartment on this beautiful trail..... It made me realize how fortunate we are to be living in such a beautiful place. Most of the time I'm like a little kid discovering flowers and trees for the first time... everything around here has so much character! The other day, my instructor was talking about trees, and his passion for them... I feel the same way too; I think that the trees are so expressive... like they are all saying something with their wonderful gestures. Anyway, I clicked a few photos on my way home on the trail... it's been a beautiful peaceful evening *sigh* :)

2009-07-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Summer's here and things are starting to look brighter for me :) I recently got a part-time job as an art teacher and am loving it! Although I still have a lot to learn and pick up about the job, I have great co-workers and students, so I'm happy learning/teaching as I go!
aand... I passed my Midpoint!!! The teachers gave me good reviews on my work, so I'm reeally very happy! Here's some work that I presented.... Thank goodness for the pre-production class with Chris Armstrong, and all my friends who helped me with feedback, it really helped me get a lot of work done... so, thanks all!

2009-06-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

"Can I sail through the changing ocean tides,
Can I handle the seasons of my life..."
- Fleetwood Mac

I did this for painting practise from a Turner painting... I love his use of color! For the original click here . This is just part of the painting.... and incidently I was listening to Fleetwood mac, so... there you go!

Icons for a new iphone app

2009-06-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Concept sketches...

Completed icons...

This was my contribution to the amazing new iphone app developed by my cousin brother. Check out his company's website www.shorepointsys.com and http://www.shorepointsys.com/howworks.html for screenshots. This is a classifieds app, which is similar to craigslist; and it has other cool features like a feature that lets you clip and save ads. I designed the icons for each of the categories. I really enjoyed this project! :)
For those of you that have iphones/ ipod touch please download the app (it's free!) and rate it... thanks!

a sneak peek..

2009-06-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

something I'm working on for my thesis project ....

2009-06-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

I took a webdesign course at West Valley community college last semester, it was great. I liked their online class system. This was my attempt to design a website for myself.. It was my final project... I didn't do too bad given my time constraints and all, but I could've done better.

2009-05-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Visual Development paintings for the story "Charlie and the Chocolate factory" by Roald Dal. This is the scene where Violette turns into a giant blueberry and the oompa loompas are trying to hold her down.

.... and this one's my idea of the "Chocolate room" with the chocolate waterfall that churns and mixes all the yummy chocolate! I had a good semester with great teachers for both my classes, I learned a lot... so I'm happy :)

Hope

2009-01-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

Starting off the new year with lots of hope.......

Garden of whimsy

2008-12-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

Another digital painting.... inspired by Chris Van Allsburg's "The Garden of Abdul Gasazi".

2008-12-27T12:12:00.001-08:00

Character Design

2008-12-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

lil' scarecrow that doesn't like to scare crows!

2008-09-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is an initial value study.

Time to add some color to this blog!

2008-07-20T14:56:00.001-07:00

Here's a fashion illustration I'm working on for a saree boutique in San Jose.

Workshops

2008-04-03T13:10:00.001-07:00

Head drawings

2008-04-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Drawing from Imagination

2008-03-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

These were done for the Drawing from Imagination class