Portrait session at Leaping Windows(March 1st 2015)

Rainy day in Mumbai! As the temperatures were rising in Mumbai, a surprising downpour brought a nice and quick relief. But this meant that we had to cancel our plans of going to Kanheri caves, which is an outdoor location. Mukti(A fellow sketchwalker) suggested that we meet up at Leaping windows at Versova. Since it is our all time favourite place for sketching, we decided to meet up for a portrait session.

Having never had done portraits of people who are not my family members(Yup.), I was a little nervous about screwing this up, but people were so lovely and gave me such wonderful tips! This is the day I learnt about line weight from Alen(Another sketchwalker)

Alen, Leaping Windows

Nidhi, Leaping windows

We finished the day with nice glass of sangria and pizzas. Day well spent!
Here are more sketches from the sketch walkers.

Kanheri caves

Amidst the forest of Sanjay Gandhi National park are these beautiful rock cut caves. You can find out more about the caves in this link.
Although reaching this place from Powai was not at all pleasant in this heat, but after the ride through the forest, the tranquility inside the caves and the view from the top of the cave, I must say it was worth it.

The First portrait is of the gigantic entrance to the main cave. It is impossible to imagine the size of this structure hence I have given an approximate human scale in the sketch to give an idea of the size of the entrance.

Entrance to the cave

The second sketch is of the main cave. I wish I knew more about what this structure was, I found out few peculiar things. The top half of the wall had small holes in them, which were not equidistant. Kishan (a friend) said, they are holes for keeping the wooden skeletons on which workers sat to carve the ceilings. Fascinating!Another thing I found strange was that, not all pillars were ornamental and symmetric, which I found to be quite odd. Not too happy with how this sketch has come out perspective and shading wise but as they say, every experience is a learning experience.

Inside one of the caves

If you visit the place,
1. Do climb up to the top, for the beautiful 360 degree view of Mumbai.
2. Do not bring any food along. The place is full of notorious Monkeys waiting for an opportunity to attack for food.
3. Do notice the 2 gigantic statues of Buddha on the entrance to the main cave.

Here are more photographs from the sketch walk.