Melody

I hope all of you had a great Christmas..as I send out my heartiest wishes for the coming new year to all my blogger friends,I couldn't resist adding a bit of color to it! I did it some days ago--not planned, I just let the colors flow on the paper.I could see many imperfections in this and wasn't sure I wanted to post this but it always gives me a warm feeling when I share an artwork with you and on this new year , I certainly want to feel all warm and fuzzy!
Lets usher in this new year with the sweetest thoughts, lots of love and happiness for all.

In Black & White

I started this sketch because I wanted to draw someone beautiful...but soon realized my mistake of not choosing the 'right' subject! ( She is Alicia Silverstone, but I did not work on the likeness factor very much, here-- so you may not recognise her!) The problem was that her face did not have any shades..no gradients to work upon - so it got a little boring and I decided to speed up things and get over with it!
I hate leaving something unfinished, so I did complete this sketch, but honestly, not much time was spent on this one. About 2 hours.I think I need to find better paper...this cartridge paper shows through so much that dark tones are spoiled. I can't achieve the desired smoothness...
Any suggestions?

DSDF swaping portraits challenge

Here is the portrait that I submitted to DSDF challenge this year.I don't know the name of this elegant lady, but she is a fellow artist and blogger, and she will paint my portrait in turn; which you can see at Karin's blog Different Strokes from Different Folks.

There are many, many of them to come! Have a nice Day!

Lily for the weekend

I won't be painting much in next 2-3 days so this lily will be with you till I come back!
Happy weekend...
watercolor on paper

Finished version

Spent another two hours on this one as I was not satisfied with the first take. Background needed darker finish and face also needed some tweaking...I feel its better now.What's your take?