Castles in the Air

My restlessness was finally soothed the other day, when I heard the first strums of a guitar. The weather was beautiful and this was just what I needed. Im a big sucker for live music, and I ended up sitting at the cafe for hours listening to this guy with a beautiful voice sing some lovely tunes. Alongwith some nice coffee and a borrowed pen + little napkin to sketch on, I was the happiest Ive been in a long while! UB city is beautiful, as twilight set, lanterns came on, everything glowed, the music continued to flow- it was magical and Ive been floating on the calm that set in since then!

I got around to having a quick chat with the magician, found out he has a facebook page - facebook.com/Chandran Acoustic. So you can look him up and find out when and where hes playing next!
Have a good week and weekend :) Much love.

Beautiful Green

This would be a random doodle I did while sitting on the balcony - which has a huge chickoo tree falling into it with squirrels running all over with their beautiful eyes fixed on me watching to see if I would move. 

Its beautiful weather these days in Bangalore. And where i live now, right outside the balcony the mood seems so different below this huge tree, like something special happens there. And a weaver birds nest hangs from it too. quite magical. Im in the mood to be surrounded by some wild greenery. 

Maybe its time to plan a holiday. 

gosh, I really miss living in Pondi. 

I finally managed to print my business cards! This is something I probably should have done ages ago, but now I have them ! And so excited to start giving them away ! The front is a mango yellow and the back, you may recognize the self portrait and fish Id done a while ago :) It looks quite mad, but i love my cards! Stop and say hello and Ill be sure to give you one!

The Fish at the End of the Rainbow

I dream of flying into a space that is empty of thoughts, the only emotion i would feel is 

complete pure happiness at the freedom of it all. 

I miss those days when I lived in my little room (whilst still studying) when I would climb to the terrace and watch the skies and the tops of houses and life go by below.

Bubbles of Promise

There is much that one can learn from watching the sea.

Good things come and go, and life has to go on.

Sometimes, the dream you have been working on and dreaming of for so long, that tickles the tips

of your toes with its tantalising bubbles of promise, may just come in with the next wave. 

It brings you peace, it exudes calm, it teaches you patience.

I miss the sea. My mind feels so clogged with dreams and hopes and thoughts and other people that I can barely see whats ahead of me. thinking of the sea helps. a trip home is due. 

The Yellow Wood

Another workshop at the Valley School, I decided to go this time round because Ive always been curious about chinese painting (more so japanese painting, but I figure theyre similar). It wasnt the most incredible experience, but I really enjoyed trying something new and playing with the lovely inks and papers! 

Here are some pictures from the day!

charcoal sketch of a little bamboo plant

hold your chinese brush upright and make beautiful effortless strokes!

my random and unfortunately rather impatient attempts

tada! I was actually proud to see some tonal variations, sitting up straight with that brush was SO

hard for me! but I think id love to explore this medium. Its very poetic, and each stroke is so beautiful.

and I love love rice paper. I just wanted to swish ink around and watch it sink into the paper.

On a different note, Im reading this fantastic book, its called rich dad, poor dad- and I find that its come into my hands just when I really felt I needed something like it. Theres so much that nobody ever tells you when it comes to financial education, this book talks about making money without selling your soul. Its always been so important to me that I never work for money, but for the love of what I do. In the book, he quotes a Robert Frost poem - one that I havent read in a long time, and as things sometimes do, it suddenly makes such sense to me. Taking the untrodden path is incredibly hard - but I think you will find yourself wealthy at the end of the journey. even if not in riches, in living some incredible experiences.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Stronger Pull

Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love  Rumi

The new Hidesign diary holds illustrations that speak of passion, spirit and sensuousness. of an emotional high, and I use the forces of nature to bring it to life. In each illustration (there are going to be 10) is the moon in a different part of its cycle for each month and all energy is drawn from this one, glowing source. I love the energy in this series and I think this diary is going to be quite beautiful when it all finally comes together! I hope you get to keep one with you when the new year begins!

Happiness!

The mother of the same little girl for whose nursery I created the illustrations some weeks ago, wanted to say ''thank you'' to all the lovely people who sent presents and love their way. We created a bookmark that showed an overjoyed annika flying amidst presents and stars with a huge smile on her little face! The back was a starry thank you with the trademark tree of stars and some space for her to write in a little message! 

I even created an envelope with a little stamp that I illustrated :) 

 when placed inside a book, annikas happiness pops up :)

and im happy to be creating bookmarks and stamps and envelopes and managing to bring joy to someone at the same time! Its a good life :) 

The Flow of Life

Cover illustration for a book filled with fun party ideas for Scholastic-

Will be out in stores soon!

I cant believe there was a time when I used to worry about whether I would have enough work to keep me busy for the next month, these days Im frantically trying to hone my time management skills so I can continue doing the kind of work I love to do and work on some incredibly interesting projects. It makes my heart sing- all these lovely things that pop up out of nowhere! 

Weve moved to bangalore for a few months temporarily, and my newest obsession is with sitting in coffee shops and day dreaming with a sketchbook in hand and generally enjoying the fabulous weather that the city is blessed with! Im completely torn between the city and weather and everything else it has to offer and my gorgeous house in chennai, so decided to just sit back and enjoy things as they happen. The only way to make the most of life I suppose :)