Anuradhapura art trip

DAY 1 we left colombo train station early in the morning at about 5:50am and we arrived in Anuradhapura a historical region in Sri lanka at about 10 am. That was a 5 hour long train ride which is an less that a bus trip to Anuradhapura. Even though the train ride wa bumpy and uncomfortable I would not have gone ona train in Srilanka otherwise. Our day began with a trip to a mueseum.. that did not go well because they would not let us in so instead we went to visit the temple called IssuruMulaniya. There I took pictures around the temple and out of the temple area and managed to produce pretty decent pictures in which i would have to edit once I get home. While at the temple I also sketched a picture of the front part of the temple itself. Today I produced some photographs and 2 sketches. my goal for this trip is to create 10 piecec of work. 4 photographs, 4 sketches, 1 painting,1 soft pastel. so tommorow I will try to sketch two more sketches so I would have completed my sketch goal and I will also take more pictures so by the end of the trip I will choose the four best onces. The reason I want to finish of the sketches is because I want to work on a painting the following day. This trip was all I expected- Sketching/photography and creating artwork. DAY 2 Today we went to a stone bridge at first there I took more photographs and experimented with different compositions and angles. Then we went to the Lova sabhawa temple area and we got a demonstration on how to use acrylic paint/charcoal. I tooka seat by a tree and then I started to sketch out a tree infront of me with my charcoal and then later i started to paint. Ifound it really reaxing and soothing to the mind. as for my artwork itself I could have done thin strokes as the grass. ocerall I still think my skills with acrylics could be improved but even so I found that I quite liked painting scenary. I find it easier to sketch the final piece out before painting the whole scenary I guess I could try paining a scene as a whole next time I try to paint a scenary. DAY 3 Today we went to mihintale which is a sacred and historical area of Anuradhapura. It took us about 30 minuits to get there. The first locaion we went to was really scenic and it was really inspirational. I think it provided more inspiration than all the other locations because it had a more variety of things to draw. It was not just trees, this location had a lake,mountain and different view points and angles to sketch from. I found that working outside was really peaceful but at the sametime it was frsutrating because the lighting kept changing and it was hard to pinpoint what tone/shade I should use in that particular area. After eating lunch we went to the main Mihintale area. One thing I learned from this trip was that that was the place where Buddism was first introduces to Srilanka and that was pretty interesting because I li

- Sketching at the temple ruins ke to know more and more about my host county and their culture. DAY 4 TOday we took 2 hours to reach the plce that has the largest Budda statue in Srilanka, like the previous days we sketched. I got to experiment with soft pastel and I quite liked how my finished piece turned out. Working in a quiet area like a temple was really soothing because everything was silent and everyone was working quietly. Once positie thing about this trip was that it was a trip dedicated to art. I think that I have developed my art skills to an extent because normally I would not have gotton out with a sketchbook and start sketching any onject infront of me but I think that this experience has actually helped me grow as an artist. This concludes my week without walls.

- Painting inside the temple grounds

Practicing for Archery Competition

My Archery coach has informed me that there is going to be a competition coming up really soon. The distance to shoot in the competition is 30ft and I can already accuratley shoot the arrow froma good 20ft. Starting from next week I am going to start practice shooting from 30ft. This shows perseverence because I am really commited to this sport and I intend to take it very seriously. What I need to work on is consistency. I always manage to hit the target but i need to focus on hitting the all the arrows at the same spot this shows my awareness of my streanths and areas of improvement and this will also help me develop a new skillI . Another aspect i need to improve is to strenthen my arm muscles by doing a few arm excesises everyday because Archery involves streanth. I have Archery only on Saturdays but I decided to practice by setting up m archery eqipment in my aunt's field and practice there every Monday,Tuesday and Friday as those are the only days of the week where I have even a little amount of time to spare for Archery alone because on the rest of the days I have to study, practice violin,go running and of course have some social time and alone time to myself.