A Well Spent Afternoon

/ February 19, 2017

Hi again everyone!

Yesterday had been a very busy day for me….

I kicked back, relaxed, read some, wrote some and basically had a very creative day. So you see, I was very busy indeed. Days like yesterday are a rarity, and I was determined to enjoy this one. I’m glad I did 😀

Somewhere in the day I found my set of aquarelle pencils and I was like, ‘It’s been a while since I used you guys’ (I talk a lot to myself and to inanimate things).

So, I sat down to draw/paint along with my daughter because every time she sees me paint, she wants to paint too. So both of us had our drawing boards out, our own sets of paints and brushes and we spent the next 2 hours dabbling in color. It was a great afternoon, well spent and fruitful.

And this was the outcome –

girl-1

The Thinking Girl

 

I like to call her the Thinking Girl. Why? Because she looks like someone’s who’s lost in her thoughts and is preoccupied with life’s great mysteries – What should I do with my life? What about my job? Is this college right for me? Is that guy really interested in me? Why do I get such stares from people? Are my clothes not right? Why do I have to marry when I’m still so young? Why is life so complicated?

I picture her with a lot of winged question marks floating around her.

Coming back to Aquarelles, even though I love colors and would love to paint more, I’m scared of making mistakes with them and then just giving up on art altogether. I persist solely for my love of art. Watercolors, though a beautiful medium, are infamous for being unpredictable. I admire people who work with them. The patience, the skill, the knowledge of the medium… wow! I can’t even imagine all that.

That’s why Aquarelle pencils offer me the best of both the worlds (almost) because –

A. I’m a better sketcher.

B. They offer more control in terms of blending.

C. You can add water later to give a soft, watercolor effect to your work (almost).

I’m happy with the way this turned out. What do you guys think? Have I improved?

 

Have a colorful and relaxed Sunday folks!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

©Pradita Kapahi, 2017.

Image Credits: Pradita Kapahi

 

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82 thoughts on “A Well Spent Afternoon”

  2. Beautiful picture, Pradita! I feel like I can relate to the thinking girl. Loads of winged question marks floating about! 😁 Creating art does require a lot of thinking and patience! And when it comes to painting, almost always, I get intimidated and settle for writing instead. Glass painting is the only exception!

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  3. Beautiful drawing! More than music I always prefer just drawing something and relaxing my mind….For so.e reason when I draw I feel like as if for a moment I’m a child again…..I get lost in my own words of art….
    What about your daughter? Did she draw something too?
    Have a wonderful day!

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    • Thanks. Yes, Colors have always made me feel that way too. I फेल right at home among cartoons and animations. It’s a beautiful feeling – to create something, isn’t it? As for my daughter she doesn’t yet make anything… Not even squiggles or doodles. Just paint blobs. Not much to show. So I’m waiting for the time when she’ll start making her first stick figures and garbled alphabet. I’ll be sure to post those in the future 😀

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  7. Yes pradita I like this more than your bunny and pink birdie.May be because you had a story behind it or may be because it looks cool. and yes painting is another beautiful form of art much like poetry. For a moment you’ve a blank paper in hand and the next moment you’ve a beautiful creation. You’re good at both dear.

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  15. Her eyes, they are what prove that the moniker you gave her is right. Well-done and keep doing artwork. The technicalities that you mentioned, I’ve never even touched them. Reason? I can’t draw for the life of me. 😝

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    • Thanks a lot.. Though you know what? Someone rated it ‘poor’ and I was really dejected. I felt like giving up on art posts altogether. But then the next hour itself someone gave it a higher rating. Bottom line is, I won’t give an eff about what others think of the art. I’m gonna paint grunt, grunt… As for the technicalities and your not being able to draw, none of us know everything. I can’t disect movies like you do…. Kudos!

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      • Ha ha ha. Well, this artwork of yours isn’t perfect, even I can see that. But that’s beyond the point, isn’t it? The important thing is improving and growing every single time we commit to our passions. And if you keep doing that, one day you will be ‘good’ in that guy’s eyes too. And that level would only come about because you passed this level. So yes, you have a right to not give an eff.
        As for movies, well, the less said the better. Thank you for the appreciation though. 😁

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            • That’s true that we have to keep aiming for better. But I’ve noted some critics do a very sad job of it, and most of them have stopped being honest due to obvious reasons. It gets irritating after some time to see that they have to glorify even bullcrap because the junta will not but it. So you’re better than them 😊

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              • Well, most of the reviews featured on the newspapers these days are crap, I’ll say that too. I don’t have delusions of grandeur but when you glorify even movies that suck, what about your own credibility? So, well, I don’t care whether people agree with my opinion of a film or not, but I have to be honest with my review.
                BTW, more than half of the unread posts in my reader were from your blog. Go figure!

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                • Keep doing an honest job then and don’t fall for honeytraps like being enslaved to the junta’s likes. We NEED an honest opinion on movies in India because bollywood is growing at a snails pace. Our audience is not going to mature if we keep feeding them crap and telling them it’s good.

                  As for the unread posts… I didn’t get you honestly.

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                  • Well, to be honest, I don’t have high hopes for Indian cinema. After the 70s, this is the most enlightened phase of our film industry. And even in this bright phase, all we are seeing is star power and clichéd, ripped-off songs and scripts. God help Bollywood, and God help India! 😝
                    If I can make even an iota of a difference to the opinion side of films, my job would be done. Let’s see where this journey leads to.
                    The unread posts, well, more than half of the unread posts in my app’s reader were from your blog. That’s what I meant. I hadn’t read any starting from the latest part of the novella.

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                    • Yes… We are making some decent films but fir godsskae,grow up India. Why do you still want love, romance and dumb action movies with favourite actors? There’s much more to film making than a song and a dance. But I guess we’re barking up the wrong tree.

                      As for the reader conundrum, oh!Yeah well have been busy with these guest posts. Haven’t had the time to write anynore of the novella. 🙁 Anyhoo thanks for all the comments 😊

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                    • Yes… Hoping to just wrap up the story now, though Lord knows, this one is going to keep me occupied for sometime. I’m itching to write something else now, but I’ve no time for it 😑 Anyway, thanks for all the encouragement and engaging conversation 😀

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                    • I did that, leaving my series in a lurch because I was disappointed with the abysmal response. I was like, when no one is reading, whom am I writing this for? And so, Love Happened One Day is still incomplete.
                      You better not make the same mistake. Good to know you have resolved not to.

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                    • I didn’t know you wrote a series? Will check it out for sure. Yes, I’m not gonna leave them in the middle of a story, in spite of the lukewarm response I’m getting. But oh god, I swear, I’m never doing series again!

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                    • Lukewarm, eh? You don’t know lukewarm, lady! As far as I think, your series has received a great response. You can at least classify it as decent, if not great. And oh, this is a stepping stone to writing and publishing that book. That is going to be even harder. So, don’t give up. Finish this and get started with a new one. Maybe even a few shorts stories before you plunge into a novella again. BTW, what’s its word count till now?
                      And oh, I did write a series. 12 episodes.

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                    • Great response, hmm? Wait till the series reaches it’s end. I’m sure I’ll be left with only 1/4th of the readers by then. I had already noticed that I lost half of the readership when people discovered that the story was veering into a dark place. That gave me a me enough insight into what readers want. And as for writing books, yes that’s a different ballgame. I don’t even know how I’m going to accomplish it, let alone when. And yes, once this finishes I’ll just stick to short stories and poetry and the odd funny post. Nothing else. Everything else will be converted into books, if I can help it. As for the word count, I have no idea. But I fear this won’t be a novella by the time i finish with it, unless I do some creative editing at the expense of the story. Let’s see. As for your series, I’ll surely check it out and leave a response 😊

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                    • Well, now you know. Romance and YA are hit genres with the blog audience. Maybe people didn’t pay heed to the ‘Not’ in the title of the series. 😝
                      I can’t say what you need to do but yes, the thing is, you have the basics of writing a book in place. So even if you don’t want to put up the series/long stories here on the blog, I’d strongly advise you to keep writing. Keep accessing those corners of your mind that urge you to do long-form writing. You don’t stand to lose anything by doing that.
                      Well, I think there’s still some way for you to go regards the word count. Officially, anything in the range 7500-40000 is a novella. You aren’t gonna breach that, are you? 😂

                      And yes, I’d await your analysis of my series.

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                    • I know… I know what people thought when I started this..oh its a love story, alright, just not maybe the typical kind. Whatever that means. Yes, I’m going to keep at the long form writing thing, because to be honest, I’m not a flash fiction types. I cannot adhere to word limit and my editors have told me that a lot of times that I go into too many specifics. Thanks for believing that i have what it takes to write a book. And that applies equally to you too, though you’ve been smarter than me to keep them off the blog, which is what I’ll do after thus series ends. As for the word count, only time will tell now. And finally, your series shall be the first thing I read after I’m done writing the next part of my series. Ciao!

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