Preeti Shenoy's blog.

This post is a kind of sequel to  this one (A pencil portrait and what goes into it).

This portrait of Keira Knightley, I finished just this morning.I took about 2 and half hours to complete it. It is again A3 size ( 42 x30 cms approximately). I have used Bristol board extra smooth paper. This time I also used a graphite stick as I wanted the dark of her hair, very dark.

To get the lights in her hair, I cut out a triangular piece from a good quality eraser, using a Craft knife. The pencils I used for this portrait were
1. 2H for the initial drawing outline
2.4B for darker shading
3. 6B Graphite stick
4. 5mm Staedler clutch pencil for finer hair

Apart from the above, I used the usual blending tools, namely chamois leather piece and tortillons.

If you are interested in pencil portraits (and from the excellent response I got from my last post, I know many of you are)  then here are a few tips which worked very well for me.

1.The basic drawing, before you begin shading has to be accurat…

Today is actually the 100th anniversary of the tradition of celebrating Fathers day which is observed in about 55 countries on the third Sunday in the month of June.It was started by Sonora Dudd on 19th June 1910, who felt strongly, after listening to a Church sermon about newly recognised Mothers day that fathers too need to be honoured and recognised. Her own father was a civil war veteran who  was left to raise a family of 6 children alone after his wife died, giving birth to the sixth child.

Today a lot of commercialisation has taken place with promotions in stores beginning weeks in advance, at least in the U.K. One would have to be blind to miss the offers, the gigantic banners, gifting suggestions, attractively arranged displays at shop windows and even mails landing in your inbox luring you to buy, buy and buy. If you have missed buying out, they even have 'late deals' where you can gift you can print out gift vouchers and give them to your father so he can buy what he…

Really sorry.
I had to remove this post as it is selected for publication elsewhere and making it available online would be unfair to my publishers.
Thanks for the interest!

When I was younger and  in school, there was always a 'best friend'. It was mandatory. Everybody had a 'best friend', a partner, an inseparable part of yourself, whom you shared secrets about the opposite sex with, whom you told your dreams to, whom you could not wait to meet the next day day, just because within a short span of  12-14  hours (the time between when you saw them last evening and when you would see them again the next morning at school) there would be so much that has happened that you would want to share. Every trivial little thing, every incident, every minor and major real and imagined mishap had to be narrated with detailed precision.
I don't know as adults if people have 'best friends' any more. Do you?
I certainly have 'very close friends' and 'good friends' and 'friends' and 'neighbours' and 'people living in neighbourhood' and now  in the Internet  era 'online friends'  too. (But I prefer …

Can you guess what this is?



  It is a birth certificate. :-)

Do you know whose?


It is Jap's. Did I hear you ask Jap who?

Well, meet Winnie and Jap. They live in my children's room.

Jap was created at Build a bear workshopwhere children can create their own bear. He shares a birthday with my son :-)  He even has a heart inside which both my children kissed before they put it in and created him.

Winnie has a large heart but he  does not have a birth certificate . Everyone knows A.A.Milnecreated him :-)

Yesterday after the children left for school, I found Jap and Winnie neatly tucked into a bed which my daughter had created using her old t-shirt, her toy crate and her favourite fleece blaket. I smiled and meant to ask her about it but  I forgot.
I remembered only three days later and they were still in bed, neatly tucked.

"Oh my God!  Look at this.Aren't you going to wake Jap and Winnie ? They have been sleeping for three days. What is this? Wake them up now. They have sle…

One of the pieces that Satish wrote will soon appear in Chicken soup for the Father's Soul. He has written another piece on similar lines and I am sharing that with you. Here is a Guest post  by Satish.
 On being a Dad


By Satish Shenoy
Why are you not in bed? Do you realise you have school early tomorrow morning? Why have you not studied today – you need to ensure you do well in life my darling! Don’t climb that tree. You may fall and get hurt. Why is this mess in your room? Look at the crumbs on the sofa and your clothes thrown here. Why did you crawl in the bed between Mum and me last night?
Sounds familiar right? Typical father things, one would say. Mothers go through a lot for the 9 months prior to the birth of the child. They do afterwards too, but a fact often overlooked is that for a father too, the birth of a child is a complete change in life, forever. It is an extremely onerous responsibility which includes ensuring that the children are spoilt rotten and have every…

It is summer in U.K. You can usually tell by the length of the skirts women wear. It would be hard to tell by the temperature though because it is still 13 degrees centigrade :-) Friday is supposed to be a warm day. It is expected to touch 19. :D

When I lived in Pondicherry (God, how I loved that town!) summers used to touch a  scorching 48 degree centigrade (for those in the U.S that is a 118 F). So when  I moved to U.K and I heard people complaining about how hot it was, I smiled. "You should go to India," I thought I my mind, but did not say it aloud.

Now  having spent more than a year, I seem to have got used to it. The other day, I too found the weather slightly warm! :D  What I truly love about this time of the year is that it is bright for so long. Even at 9.30.P.M here, it is still so bright and the sun has not set. (The brightness  outside at 9.30.P.M would be similar to the brightness in India at 5.30.P.M)



We have a nice seating in our garden.(see picture above)






We…

The English Dictionary defines a sanctuary as a sacred or Holy place. I think everybody needs a personal sanctuary of their own. A positive happy place, where you can take refuge, when you get a few knocks from life. And trust me, sooner or later we all do. If you haven't I'd just say that either you haven't lived long enough or you haven't lived at all.
I am fortunate enought to have my own private room which I call 'my studio'. It is equipped with a nice comfortable double bed, my desk, a cozy bean bag, a chest of drawers that houses all my Art supplies, a wardrobe/cupboard which has my favourite art books and also my paintings which I store.(as I have painted at least a 100 pictures and I cannot possibly hang up all of them) The picture you see above is a picture clicked on a rainy day when I was sitting at my desk. (It is an antique desk the top of which can be folded. I absolutely love this piece of furniture). I like to sit at my desk and lose myself com…

This is a portrait in pencil and graphite which I completed  last night. It took me 4 hours and 45 minutes to complete! It is an A3 size which means it is about  30 cms x 42 cms approximately. This is a portrait of a good  friend  Prashant who blogshereand regular readers will also remember that he was also chosen the chief blogger of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

I started making this last night around 10.00 p.m and just could not stop till I finished it. When I put it up on facebook this morning, delighted compliments began pouring in and one personmentioned it was a nice 'sketch'.  The artist in me, could not tolerate a portrait being referred to as a mere sketch and I quickly corrected him. He said he was glad he did as he was a complete layman when it came to art and that he was happy he learnt something new.

That set me thinking. Most people would not know how many tools go into making a pencil portrait. I thought I'd click a photo of the stuff that I use and tell yo…

There used to be a cat which used to regularly visit me in India. Everyone thought she was my pet. She even gave birth to kittens once in my patio and once in my son's wardrobe! But she was just a stray who had adopted me  and let me think that I had kind of adopted her :-) There are many adventures which have happened with this cat which i will save for another post.

Here in the UK too, one cat visits me regularly. It is a pet cat as there are no strays in UK and it is fat and well fed. Reminds me of Garfield(and I love Garfield, btw) and that is what I have named this cat.


Here is a picture story of one of Garfield's visits  :-)



Hey you--Do not click my picture please!




 I told you No photos. I don't like photos. Put that camera down and pet me right now!



 Hmppph. You can kiss my ___________  ! 





You are not listening to me, you crazy woman with the camera. I asked you to pet me, not click my picture.



 If you do not listen to me I shall go away. 



Okay--I am giving you a last chan…