J Writes

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Indian Folk art- Ground paintings

In this blog we shall see a brief about folk arts that are drawn on the floor.

Kolam

Kolam is a tradition originated from Tamil Nadu. Kolam is also followed in various place of south india with different names like muggu.

Kolam is painting on the floor of every house’s entrance I order to welcome to goddess ‘Sri devi’ to their households as she brings good health and wealth into the family’s life.

Kolam is a geometrical drawing with dots and lines with no open line it. Because a open line Kolam is considered to bring bad omen to the house who they call `moodhevi’.

Till date people of South Indian households follow the tradition of putting Kolam infront of their houses after cleaning it everyday.

Rice flour is used in Kolam to feed little creature that created like ants and bugs.

Kalamezhuthu

The ritualistic practises of Kerala's Bhagavati, Naga, and Ayyappa temples incorporate the ancient art of kalamezhuthu.

During the 40-day Kalamezhuthu festivities celebrated at Bhagavathy Temples all around God's Own Land, this straightforward ideal can be seen at its pinnacle.

It a whole ritual that takes place during the process of drawing as a celebration with music and special songs written for it along with dance. These paintings are highly sacred that it could be painted only inside the floors of temple Gopura and not elsewhere.

Alpana

Alpana was birthed from the state of Bengal. It is a traditional art drawn by women of the households with mixing flour and water together into a paste and painting it twigs or bare fingers.

Using their imagination, the artists draw a range of patterns, which may consist of a mix of hollow and solid geometric shapes, floral designs, paisleys, symbolic representation of animals and other objects, etc.

During the celebration of Lakshmi Pooja it is important for them to draw pair of feet to welcome the goddess into their house especially to nourish their fields. Hence you will find the footstep pattern drawn all over the house, even the staircase is not spared.

The artist draws whatever she likes and considers it to be blessed by the gods. Example : their babies, farming tools, kitchen utensils, etc.

To learn more about the above folk arts, visit:

Kolam - Wikipedia

Kolam - Wikipedia

Kalamezhuthu: When art is integral to ritual

Kalamezhuthu is woven into the mores of Bhagavati, Naga and Ayyappa temples

Alpana - Alpana Designs, Indian Alpana Design, Alpana Patterns, Alpana Art

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Indian tribal folk art- wall paintings

Hello there! Art of the form of communication and journaling even before the invention of words or numbers. Art ages all the way to Neanderthal man, Indian folk arts speak about the way of living and explains of aspect of people’s lives and status.

In this blog, I’d like to share my senses of various tribal wall folk arts that I’ve gained the knowledge from the art researcher Mr.Soujit Das.

Pithora

Pithora origins from the state of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. A salient feature of the pithora painting is the featuring of seven horses dedicated to their god ‘Pithora baba’. The name Pithora means 'god of the tribe’.

The purpose of this painting is to offer god the important necessity of people’s life I.e, grains in order to get blessed with flourishing wealth. These painting can be found in the walls of the hall as it considered to be a sacred part of the house.

The process of painting is considered to be sacred as well because they work has a guide to the household as they are painted only during special occasions like wedding and birth giving.

According to a tribal myth, rain began to fall shortly after a devotee made a vow to appease Pithora deva long ago when our planet was experiencing a drought. Then he organised the painting of Pithora devas on his house's walls. Since then, the painting has been started once desires are granted or challenges are overcome.

To know more about Pithora art use the link below.

The Ritual Art Of Pithora Wall Paintings

The Pithora paintings are done by the Rathwa, Bhil, Nayak and Tadi tribes of Gujarat, parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The origin of

Madhubani

Madhubani belongs to the tribal community of Mithila. This is considered to be some of the most political art forms around Indian as the way of art describes their social status.

Like every other folk art Madhubani also uses the colour from nature painted with wooden twigs and fingers. As one can see, Madhubani is believed to be given birth along with Sita from the mythology. It is also believed that Mithila painters are commissioned to paint at weddings of people holding higher statuses during the wedding season like Sita’s father Kinda Janak did during her wedding.

Only the people of high class were allowed to use colour in their painting and people from outskirts and under privileged were only allowed to draw in black and whites.

Only in recent years we’ve started appreciating this particular art.

Gond

Gond art belongs to the Gond/Kond tribes of India. It means green mountains. Gond people were the believers of nature and they appreciated every single thing the nature had to offer the mankind.

The colours used in these paintings are highly vibrant and contrasting as a visual element. They used all organic colours sourced from the nature like plant leaves, sap, charcoal and cow dung.

Gond art also depicted people’s dream and their living. In Gond, we can see trees everywhere especially Mahua- tree of life which they also worshiped

The evident of piece of art Gond offered was the amount of fantasy characters they portrayed in their paintings like animals and beasts

To learn more about Gond art:

Gond Art Residing in the Heart of India

The word ‘Gond’ comes from the Dravidian expression ‘Kond’ which means ‘green mountain’. Gond painting is a famous folk art of the Gond trib

I would like to conclude this blog with these brief introduction of wall paintings from Indian tribal regions. Thank you for reading my blog.

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Architecture photography - Cathedrals

Architecture photography is a genre in photography that captures the buildings displaying vectors in an aesthetic way as well as including the details.

Here is a series of 2 churches I’ve documented. Following with the parametric of the construction trying to find the best perspective to showcase the minute details of the construction.

Chengalpattu cathedral

Three point perspective of the whole building is taken using 35mm in order to get a picture of the whole structure. Make sure to cover the dome of the building.

Establishing the interiors. I’ve taken this picture from the First floor to get a centric view of the interior. Since this is a contemporary roman architectural style, all the parameters of the building is symmetric.

Once you’ve given the outlooks of the overall construction, move to the other details trying different angles.

Make sure the shapes don’t get distorted in your angles like the circle above, make sure the angle is correct to register the shapes and details.

St.Thomas Cathedral

This cathedral was built in the 16th century by a Portugal sailor and was rebuilt by the British later in the 19th century. This church was built over the tomb of St.Thomas who was 1 of the 12 apostles of Jesus, which makes it so unique as only 3 churches in the world were built over a tomb.

Speaking of my personal attraction about this Shrine, The Architecture, the style we see today was British designed ‘neo-gothic’ in 19th century.

As usual make a centre one point perspective picture. To show the vibrant setting , this church is a work of art. St.Thomas church is located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The stained glasses in the angelic windows were fixed in decades ago which provides a great ambience. The calm and comforting interior has an aura of peace to it, inviting all those who seek peace and tranquility.

Do not forget to document the tiny details that adds more aesthetic aspects to the pictures.

These both locations in Tamil Nadu are surprisingly present within 1 hour from each other. Whereas the first one is about a year old but the second one is over a century old.

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I hope this added a little dimension to your perspectives.

Do not repost without permission

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Painting with light

There are many things we can do in photography with the help of lights. Light is the key element to any photograph, not just the photograph even for us to see as we all know that whatever we are seeing around is the reflection of light on the object to our eyes.

Early times of exploring long exposure photography, I learnt 3 major creative photo making which are

Light painting

Light panning &

Light trails

There are many more creative methods in photography such as astrophotography, indoor long exposure just in terms of long exposure photography.

Long exposure is nothing but exposing your photograph to light for a longer duration.

Among all the above methods let’s see about the process and practice to achieve quality pictures in the module of ' Light painting’

Light painting

Drawing/painting with any light source to create a art/graffiti is light painting .

In this picture , the light source used is a sparkler (cracker) which is mostly seen during the festival of Diwali. Here the frame was set without disturbing the device (camera) for 13sec/ss , ISO100 and f/9 as the person who’s handling the sparkler makes a full rotation. Only the brightest parts have been registered in the photograph.

Painting with non-human subject

Chair with wings- Light was moved to create an illusion of wings behind it .

ISO100

f/14

6s

Nikon d3100 + 18mm

Light source - mobile phone flash

Tornado Apple - the torch light of the phone is spun around the Apple to make it look like a spiral

ISO100

f/14

3s shutter speed

Light source - mobile phone torch

Paint your picture

Try experimenting with multiple actions with the light source ( I’ve used mobile phone flash in the above images) and correct the exposure triangle accordingly to your outcomes.

For the all 3 pictures above :

ISO100

f/5-f/8

5-9seconds

Nikon d3100 + 18-35mm lens

Dreamy wings

Painting with light with human as a subject is tricky yet mirrors a satisfying output. When you want the human subject to be visible like the picture above place the light couple seconds on the person and the proceed to draw the desired shape.

ISO100

f/10

10s ( 3s on the person’s face and 7s for drawing the wings)

One plus 7pro

Spinning lights and the still man

Person in the middle is still with 3seconds of light exposed onto his face with the help of 2 phone flash lights and 10 seconds of spinning around freely with both flashes waved in air.

ISO100

f/11

13s

Nikon d3100 + 55mm

These are some of the pictures I thought would be best to explain the process.

Some points to remember when trying:

Choose a dark background/ circumstance.

Opt for the lowest ISO and closest aperture.

Time your picture before starting the shutter.

Use a tripod for device or place it somewhere still.

You can experiment the professional mode in your phone even before trying in camera, results are always based on how the process is.

Feel free to experiment. Use different kinds of light sources and Exposure settings, there are no rules or regulations to experiment your art here. I hope these have an outline on Light painting.

All the pictures are owned by the artist (me) DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION

If you want to learn more about it here are some good blogs on it

Light Painting - Learn - Inspire - Expose

Photocrowd Home | Photocrowd photo competitions & community site

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Let’s take a walk inside Local railway station.

Jennal seat-u. Frame inside a frame, a look into people’s emotions. The bright orange train with contrasting blue on it and 4 different men with each gesture says a lot about their daily lives. Worried, focused, serious and happy men taking the same way to their destination.

Chinna siripu ^^ To the little girl who smiled to me (in frame), Thank you.

Here is a little passenger who’s travelling without knowing the purpose to reach their destination at the moment.

Kutti thookam 💤 Man napping after a long day. He has tried his best to attain the most comfortable position he could sleep in before his ride arrives.

Konjam Anbu <3 isn’t it already nice enough to see old couple together having their little tea break in the middle of travelling?

Nanbar kadhai. Old pals, by the sunset in the platform exchanging their words and having their sweet time.

Theera-vula. The night aesthetics of a railway station is impeccably good to describe. Cold tones with a hint of bright colours of boards makes it more aesthetic.

For the Iravu (in the station) the low lighting and moving crowd makes you feel less lonely in this universe. It’s wonderful how everyone one in here will be somewhere else in a while and have different life style yet they all travel with you.

These are the pictures from Katpadi Junction taken by myself, thank you for reading all the way through along my journey in the station.

All the pictures belong to the owner of this blog(me)

Do not use it without permission

Katpadi Junction - Google Search

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Colourful streets under the rain

A series of Street photographs taken whilst middle of the rains in Vellore. The rain adds more drama and emotions to the picture, making it more vibrant and adding extra elements of the falling water drops.

The tones of the image are naturally enhanced by the wetness from monsoon rains, making it more deep in colours.

Innocent smile

Impromptu picture of a toddler smiling at her father as she hold umbrella, this image makes me smile at instance.

Being occupied

Even when it thunders and the storm hits, little miss is fully attentive in her business helping her grandma sell the diyas. Tiny mind wanders and gets curious organising the clay shaped into Diya and her little sister takes a moment to smile into the camera.

Daily encounters

Man carrying on his responses running chores despite the heavy rains.

Dark aesthetics

Lighting plays the important role in photography, rainy days can be a challenge to get a good picture because of such reason but rain just makes the visuals much better by all the colours reflecting onto other surfaces.

Empty roads

Always busy railway bridge being pretty much deserted during the rain in the mid of the way.

That’s all for this little rainy day photo journal of mine for now. As I said monsoon adds more drama to everything around, take a moment to appreciate everything around. ^^

All the picture and writings are subjected to copy-writes.

DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION

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Handmade Poster crafting

Banners, Billboard, signboard, postcard, infographic poster, etc., A poster can be grouped into many kind. In this blog, it is all about how to do posters especially in an old school art style.

Following will be some of the posters and postcard that I’ve designed and painted (with the medium of tools employed).

Movie posters

Dune (2021)

This is a scene from the movie dune that I got inspired and added few more important elements like sand dunes with the the god worm with a warrior on top looking at the Blue eyes of Arrakis. The colours were inspired from the movie itself, keeping it minimal and simple here with the soft pastels of Blue and Beige with deep notes of Black.

Combination of Poster colours and Gouache has been used to attain perfect shade.

Joker

Since Joker is one of my most favourite DC movies, I decided to make a poster on it. This is the location where Arthur comes in terms with his harsh reality and lapses out. The silhouette of Joker with Arthur Fleck inside in the streets of New York is what you’re seeing.

Crayons and poster colour paint has been used.

Shining

Shining by Stanley Kubrick is one of the most iconic films that didn’t fail to amuse many audience. This minimalist painting using simple tones was an insipid action from the actual scene itself. The text on the wall that says ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ was edited out on photoshop for more smooth output.

Poster colour paint has been used.

Magazine cover

This is a totally fictional magazine cover that was inspired on a photograph of an Asian model, the thought of what it’d have looked if a Black woman dressed in a contrasting glittery dress led me to this cover inspiration. Dark pastels has been employed here to complement the amount of gold and skin tone of the model.

Gouache paint medium is used for smooth texture.

Another fictional magazine cover. A simple line art based cover of a figurine inspired by the Halloween season.

Black and red stick pen has been used.

Infographic/awareness poster(cards)

Inspiration : Dubai expo 2022

This was a pan world event that was Happening in UAE which led the attention of world market. I made a boho (bohemian) style infographic poster since I felt that style is a common practice. The dominant brown is to indicate that Dubai is more of desert. Adding Formal and calligraphical fonts add more dimension to the text.

Poster colour paint has been used.

Just when BLM was going on and Covid-19’s birth triggered Asian hate I wanted to do a bright awareness poster and this is the result .

Poster colour paint is used

A postcard that gives an awareness on Smoking causes cancer.

You might feel that your art isn’t good enough but keep trying and it’ll all be worth it. Try every style so that you can figure what style suits you. If not, create your own style ;) it’s never too late.

Poster colours and graphite for Greys is used.

I hope these little story from artist helped you get an idea on how ideas are born ^^

Thank you for reading my blog.

Do not copy or use any of these artworks without permission of the owner (me)

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Fine evening in ‘Blue Dine’

Blue Dine is a fine dining restaurant located in Vellore (Viruthampet), Tamil Nadu which is remarkable for its multi-cuisine which specially includes sea food in them. This review is based on the food that I had and my personal experience in there.

Firstly, they had a great ambience with a freezer section to display their freshly hunt fishes. Blue colour has been carried out to give ocean feeling as it apts to its name ‘Blue dine’.

Served by well experienced and equipped waiters who give perfect suggestions and answers for their quest. A lemonade is served as complimentary as soon as you get seated.

Peri peri fries

A valid amount of serving, with great seasoning of peri peri masala.

Fish and Chips

Marinated and deep fried salmon fish served with classic French fries and coleslaw as side. The fish tasted tender, juice and flavourful, as you bite into the fish fingers they melt in your mouth. The bread coating on the top makes it super crunchy and nice to your taste buds.

Penne Alfredo veg

Al-dente penne pasta coated in the white sauce with hints of cheese with other textures and flavours like olives and oregano. Serving was mediocre. Taste was good.

Arrabiata prawn pasta

Penne pasta cooked until Al-Dente marinated in the marinara sauce, here the prawn added to classic pasta dish makes it stand out. There wasn’t much of prawns present yet the flavour was just enough.

These are some of the dishes I had while I visited Blue dine. Now let’s get on to perks and cons on visiting this place and let me mention the price rates (as of October 2022)

Why should you visit Blue Dine?

Great ambience. Freshly home made food. Great service provided.

Why not to visit blue dine?

For a place like Vellore, the price ranges were too high.

Prices of all the food I had:

Round off value pre GST

French Fries - ₹130

Peri peri French fries - ₹145

Fish and chips - ₹400

Penne Alfredo Veg - ₹330

Arriabiata Prawn pasta - ₹400

I hope this review was helpful :)

Note: These are my personal opinions and reviews, it is not intended to target on any individual or a group or an organisation.

For location and more details , refer :

bluedine-seafood-restaurant - Google Search

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Art of lines

Line art

A simple yet intriguing style of art that looks confusing yet interesting. I myself follow the style of line art. It feels way too difficult just as a spectator but once you understand how it’s done it is pleasing to do such art.

One small canvas can take you many hours to complete because every design you implement here is through simple lines being manipulated the way you want it to go.

Let’s go through some simple methods and practices to try and achieve line art from my own canvases.

Lines that doesn’t touch each other

The above art creates an illusion of waves, as you can see the simple curvy lines next to one other arranged in different distance to manipulate our minds. This might be a small one but it takes hours to achieve with peer concentration.

Crest and trough

The one that takes time, with an idea of how you are going to do it and little more patience you can do this. Lines out show the kind of state a person is in. smooth, rough, inclining, wavy and more you can name. This ain’t so easy but still it’s so-able.

Elegant piece

One of the easiest to try as a beginner. With basic shapes being filled with different angles of line it makes a great visual art. Here it is just pieces of circles being filled with lines of different patterns.

If you feel like this is tough, don’t worry, I got you. Practice the following canvas.

Got it ? Much easier ;)

Spiral lines

Just the simples in the form of circle, different style. Don’t try to perfect it; just go with the flow that your hand takes you to.

Line patterns

Firstly draw horizontal and vertical wavy lines that intersect each other and fill it with desired line pattern.

Line art feels therapeutic and stress relieving. I associate them to wind and blood veins sometimes, whichever helps me that time.

Hope these little tips were useful to you ^^

To know more about line art ( wider than my style)

https://www.envato.com/blog/line-art-design-trend/

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Everything I had in Fortune Deli

Fortune Deli is a petite Café/restaurant located in the mid of Vellore city. It is a part of a star hotel 'Fortune park' which belongs to ITC group of companies. Deli has a limited menu of their in-house chef’s choice.

Here is an account of everything I had in this particular restaurant with their price. (Everything I had are vegetarian so I have no idea about Non veg in there)

Let’s start with the appetiser.

Chilli cheese fries

It was classic frozen French fries garnished with chilli flakes and grated cheese, it sounds just as how I’ve described. It wasn’t anything special or unique, if you want French fries with mild variation you can go for this or else I wouldn’t recommend (without gst ₹100)

Cheesy nachos and Pommes poutine

The cheesy nachos were really good, flavoured nachos with tomato and onion salsa with spice packed baked with cheese was great flavourful treat.

The poutine was disappointing, Poutine is a dish that has to be served with potato fries with loads of gravy on it with fresh cheese garnish where this was barely coated with gravy and didn’t have much to do with the taste. I’d not recommend trying this here.

When I ordered pommes gratin I got served with the same poutine, when asked about it they refused to agree that they both are the same.

Veg platter

A serving of variety of fries such as cheesy potato shots, potato wedges, tandoori and spring rolls with 3 different condiments to go with the mains. Fried food is always good.

Paneer satay

Cottage cheese skewers grilled with spices coated and served with peanut butter as side. It tasted good, would recommend.

Veg biriyani thali combo

Vegetable biriyani served with onion raitha, paneer butter masala and Gulaab jamun for desert. The spices were perfect and each element complimented the other. Budget friendly, good quantity food.

Chinese combo

Veg fried rice served with mushroom manchurian, sweet and sour chilli sauce, spring rolls and rasgulla for desert. Mild flavours and great portion size.

Cold coffee

Classic cold coffee, mediocre portion size but tasted good.

Now for the prices of all the dishes listed above (without gst):

Chilli cheese fries - ₹100

Pommes poutine/gratin - ₹100

Paneer satay - ₹140

Veg platter - ₹180

Veg biriyani combo - ₹145

Chinese veg combo - ₹120

Cold coffee - ₹130

Why should you go to Fortune deli?

They have a good ambience in there, warm welcoming waiters. Good portion of food within budget. Limited menu.

Reasons to not go :

If you want any food out of the top list, the portion is small and the price is high especially for chaat. Food takes about 40mins to be served from the time you order. Not much variations of food.

For Location and much info:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/FwaBTspepGRkFBQm7

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Streets of Vellore

Street photography helps me capture the view I see around, without fabrication, without making any changes to the the city/town I get to see everyday. In this case, as a resident of vellore there are enormous things we get to see which we don’t appreciate much.

One such place where it is too serene to capture is the local markets (uzhavar sandhai or farmers market) located in multiple places inside Vellore.

Let me take you on the journey and a little glimpse of what It feels like to walk inside the market and encounter some impeccable locals, friendly, warm hearted, who doesn’t treat you like a stranger. This helps me appreciate tiny details I come across everyday.

The warm, colourful streets that are chaotic, filled with humans and the scent of many flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables sets a core memory.

Tiny shop owners, the local vendors never lack the energy to give you a heartfelt smile.

The positive energy given by them when I lift my camera towards them encourages me to capture more smile.

This market is a landmark with a clock tower in the entrance that was built when British was still holding authority over Indian land. When visited during an holiday these streets are empty yet filled with some people here and there carrying on their works. You are seeing a man reading newspaper in the Sunday afternoon where the usually crowded roads are pretty empty.

This market is filled with variety of shops such as flower market, fruits and vegetable shops, grocery store, garment shops. Every one of these shops are run by local small business owners, learning to appreciate local goods and vendors such be inevitable whereas the modern world runs towards the imported goods and designer stuffs.