Nandan Nair

“E5 Madness” was the first painting that I did with Ms. Sharon. It is also the first painting that I have made on a natural disaster. In this painting, I made the decisions on what and how to paint. In case you are wondering, E5 is the most destructive tornado level. The other levels are E4, E3, E2 and E1. This painting shows a tornado, but not just any tornado, an E-5 Tornado! As it runs mercilessly on the ground, it causes dirt to rise from the ground and spread in different directions.  It makes the ground and sky go from happy 🙂 to FURIOUS >>:-<< You could also say it is Mother Nature’s evil side!

Here is how I made this furious painting:
1. First of all I sketched the tornado and 3 lightning bolts around it.
2. Second, I painted the grass. I remembered that I needed to make it look dark and evil, so I added some black to the green to make it look evil.
3. Third, I painted the tornado. I made it dark and destructive to strike fear at the people who look at it, and at the same time provided the light and dark shading.
4. Finally, I painted the cloud, details, removed the lightning bolts and the most obvious part of every painting – painted my signature in yellow. I took the decision to take out the lightning bolts because I wanted to have the focus of the painting on the tornado and not on lightning.

I hope you enjoy this painting as much as I enjoyed making it. You can see the pictures on the Flickr and videos on YouTube.

This painting, among all my paintings, was my favorite one. The funny thing about this was the fact that even though it was about the biggest canvas in Michaels, I was bigger than it! I choose to do this painting because I thought the planets were cool. The Solar System objects that I choose were The Sun, The Moon, Earth and Mars. There are three reasons why I choose these. The first reason is because I wanted to do it in the order of planets (Even though I skipped Mercury and Venus). The second reason is because of the way I want to paint this, these planets worked the best. The third reason is because since each of those planets have different shades, it goes together and a makes a combination of colors that all work out together. Along the way, I learned how to make flames on The Sun look hotter and how to make the planets glow. These are the steps to how I made it:

1. I sketched the planets
2. I painted the sky green where it was light, and as it got darker, I added light blue, dark blue and black.
3. I painted the Moon with shades of white, black and gray, The Sun with shades of red, orange and yellow, Earth with shades of blue, green, white and brown and Mars with shades of red.
4. I added stars and constellations (I have also put the first letter in my father’s name, mother’s name, brother’s name and my name as a constellation!) and painting a small dot of white with the opposite side of the brush and added craters to The Moon.
5. I painted flames and solar flares to make it show the Sun’s heat and give the feel of the fire. Can you spot 1 more constellation in the painting? Tell me it’s name and where it is.
6. I improved the Earth by painting the sky and water more clearly, adding the glow to Mars, painting the sides and painting my signature

Special thanks to Google Earth for the aerial view of the earth. I hope you liked this painting as much as I enjoyed painting it.

Before the art show, I would like to thank the one who got me here, Ms. Sandra. Thank you for all the great moments you’ve given me. There are so many memories I’ve had, I’ve made a timeline of those memories:

March 2012 Art Show: This was the first art show I was in. I remember that in the cubbie room,most of our models, like my Man on the Moon, were there.

March 2013 Egyptian Art Show: This art show was phenomenal. We had a scavenger hunt and went through pyramids, and we hid our mummified selves in one room, turned off the lights, and used flashlights to find them like scientists looking for mummies!The best part was that the mayor of Quincy, Mr. Thomas P. Koch, visited us!

March 2014 Field Trip: We went to the park. I also remember that we roasted marshmallows!

February Vacation 2013 Field Trip: We went to KoKo Keys resort and swimming pool. I also remember we rode down a giant water slide!

February Vacation 2014 Field Trip: We went to Atlantis Swimming Pool and Workout Area. I also remember that I learned how to swim there!

• How can I forget the paintings we did in my art lessons with you?
• Lighthouse in the Grasslands (Jan 2013): This was the first painting that you helped me complete. I also remembered that you told me about the style of impressionism.
• My Self Portrait (Feb 2013): This time I looked at a of picture me in thermal mode and painted the canvas.
• Evening Glaciers (Mar 2013): This was the first time I used the palette knife.
• Forest (Apr 2013): This was the first time that I made painting with trees. The palette knife really made the shadings look superior.
• The Grand Tree (Jun 2013): This was one of the most challenging paintings that I have done. I also remember that for the the first time I painted on a big canvas (Bigger than me).
• Impressionistic Pear (Nov 2013): I missed you when you were not here while doing this painting. Thank you for coming back. I remember that this was the first time I painted a fruit.
• Forest – Impressionism (Jan 2014): This painting was my return to impressionism style. I remember that this painting was the first painting in which I made an animal and which is easy to see.
• Swans (Feb 2014): This painting was the second painting which I did on a very big canvas (It was bigger than the Grand Tree). I also remember that for the first time I mad things moving in the water.
• Solar System (Mar 2014): This was my latest painting and the one which I always wanted to do. It is my favorite one (For now).

Thank you for helping with the paintings and giving me the knowledge that I will never forget. These are some of the beautiful memories that you have given me. Thank you Ms. Sandra. I will miss you a lot! Please stay in touch with me.

“The Swans” is my second painting that I have done on a giant canvas. It is a 5 ft by 4 ft and it is also bigger than my Grand Tree. It is much bigger than I am. While working on this painting, I put everything that I recently learned all together – Values, Color Mixing, Complementary Colors, etc. For example, using Values, I created different shades of colors on the swan. I made a pink color by mixing red and white colors. Besides, I only used the following colors – White, Red, Orange, Black and Blue. As usual, I started with sketching. While painting the lake, I put shades of Pink, White, Red and Blue since it was morning. I made use of values to do the shading. Then I painted the Swans. To paint the swans, I used the simple rule for shading that my teacher taught me – any part of an object that faces inward or bends inward is dark and the part that sticks out is bright. From inward to outward, it had to become more bright. I worked on the shading, water ridges, filling up the blank spots on the canvas, putting color patters around the face of the swan, painting the sides, top and bottom, and finally – my signature big and blue. It very tiring, but it was worth the effort. You can watch a few videos on how I did this painting on YouTube at this link. The photos are available on Flickr.

Now, that “The Swans” is over, I finally get to start painting something that I always wanted to do – The Solar System! It will be ready soon…