Friday Feature: ARCHSEHGAL

Masala Mango Mantra: Friday Feature: ARCHSEHGAL: "Hello everyone and it is with great delight I welcome Archana Sehgal of Archsehgal - beautiful studio for greeting cards and wall art. A..."

Team member feature: archsehgal

Etsy shop: http://archsehgal.etsy.com
Blog: http://archanadraws.blogspot.com

I love drawing and making things out of my drawings.  I typically do a lot of post-processing in Photoshop to take my creation a step further.  I find it fascinating how technology can transform and enhance art.  While most everything I create turns into a stationery item in my Etsy shop, some pieces are standalone prints.

Today I'll walk through the process I went through to create these butterfly blank/note cards:

 

I'd been wanting to do something involving butterflies for a while but found the task of drawing a butterfly daunting, because I was afraid it wouldn't turn out the way I'd want it to.   I started off with this pencil drawing:

 

I decided not to bother drawing the other halves because I knew I'd never get them exactly right.  I scanned in this image and opened it up in Photoshop.  I duplicated the wings and flipped them to match up, darkened the blacks, and took out the middle whites.

 

At this point I had several decisions to make: what colours would I use?  How would I fill in the spaces?  I came up with a couple of versions:

and

Once I'd come up with these 2 versions, I decided on the multi-coloured version and took it one step further: overlaid wings to create flying effect, and more colour variations.

 

The final step was to come up with a layout for a card:

 

These are available for sale at my Etsy shop, and can be customized with a message, or can be recreated in an entirely new layout for a different type of card.  Thanks for stopping by!

Indian Wedding Treasury

Creative with clay: Pottery by Charan Sachar: Quit my Day Job

I had featured Creative with Clay as the Featured Artist on my blog. Charan Sachar of Creative with Clay was featured on Etsy Blog as well.

Cheers to his beautiful work and creations!

Creative with clay: Pottery by Charan Sachar: Quit my Day Job: "I am glad to annouce that I finally quit my day job and I am now a full time potter. It is going to be interesting to see what unfolds. Et..."

Yoga and children

Masala Mango Mantra: Yoga and children: "My tryst with Yoga goes back to my school days. I studied at Sophia High School l, Bangalore , India and I vividly remember the Grade 6 days..."

Yantra or Kolam for Mars (Kuja)

Navagraha kolams are yantras (tantric drawings) drawn to propitiate the planets and to invoke their blessings. These yantras for the the planets are said to originate from Soundarya Lahiri, a poem composed in praise of Devi by Sankara. Though yantra is typically etched on a copper plate, kolam is drawn in front of the home shrine using rice flour or can be drawn on paper also.

The image above is the kolam for Mars. The line drawing is the kolam; I have added color and embellishments. Here are some significant astrological details regarding Mars:

Name in Sanskrit: Kuja or Angaaraka

Signs: Mesha (Aries) and Vrischika (Scorpio)

Day of the week: Mangalavara (Tuesday)

Direction: South

Season: Grishma (summer)

Nature: malefic, tamasic

Kaalapurusha rulership: Essence

Gender: Masculine

Son of: Earth (bhumikumara)

Karaka (significator): 3rd and 6th houses

Exalted: Capricorn 28 deg; moola trikona (root trine): Aries 0 deg-12 deg

Directional strength: 10th house

Natural friends: Jupiter, Moon and the Sun

Represents: siblings (younger), place of fire, land

Represents (physical): marrow, bones

Lordship of nakshatras (lunar mansions): Mrigasira, Chitra, Dhanishta

Dasa length: 7 years

Favorable in houses: 3,6,10, 11

Aspects: 4th, 7th and 8th house from itself

Yogas: Chandramangala (Mo-Mars conjunction), Ruchaka (formed when Mars, exalted or in its own house, is located in a kendra from the ascendant

Navagraha Kirtana: Angaarakamashryamyaham

Temples: Pullirukku Velur or Vaideeswaran Koyil near Mayiladuturai is an ancient Shiva temple bearing a shrine to Angaarakan and is referred to as the Angaarakastalam.

Mantra to chant: Om Angaarakaayai Namah

Yantra (kolam) for Moon

Navagraha kolams are yantras (tantric drawings) drawn to propitiate the planets and to invoke their blessings. These yantras for the the planets are said to originate from Soundarya Lahiri, a poem composed in praise of Devi by Sankara. Though yantra is typically etched on a copper plate, kolam is drawn in front of the home shrine using rice flour or can be drawn on paper also.

The image above is the kolam for the Moon. The line drawing is the kolam; I have added color and embellishments. Here are some significant astrological details regarding the Moon, one of the the most important of nine grahas (planets):

Name in Sanskrit: Chandra

Sign: Kataka (Cancer)
Day of the week: Somavar (Monday)

Direction: north-west

Season: Varsha (Rain)

Nature: Benefic, Satvic

Kaalapurusha rulership: Mind

Gender: Feminine

Father of: Budha (Mercury)

Karaka (significator): 4th house

Exalted: Taurus 3 deg; moola trikona (root trine): Taurus 4 deg -20 deg

Directional strength: 4th house

Natural friends: Jupiter, Mars and the Sun

Represents: Mother, queen, watery places, marine creatures, muhurta, pilgrimage

Represents (physical): mind, blood, left eye 

Lordship of nakshatras (lunar mansions): Rohini, Hasta, Shravana

Dasa length: 10 years

Favorable in houses: 1, 4, 7, 10, 5, 9

Aspects: the 7th house from itself

Yogas: Gajakesari (Mo-Ju conjunction), Chandramangala (Mo-Mars conjunction)

Navagraha Kirtana: Chandram bhaja manasa

Temples: Kailasanathar temple, Tingaloor, Tamilnadu
Mantra to recite: Om chandraya namah

Posted by Indira of Dharmakarmaarts whose blog can be found here.