Harvesting Watermelon

I made this painting or I also shoud say drawing when I was in Malang city of East Java. If you see from the above artwork, the farmer was harvesting watermelon. Here in Indonesia we call it buah semangka. It tastes sweet and very good for our health. This pencil watercolour drawing shows that there were two big baskets which he had to fill with fruits. I used dark green to color the fruits; whereas yellow and dark brown to color the baskets. And there are even corn and rice fields at the background scenery. It seems that he was so blessed by God with abundant agricultural produce.

First I made the sketch of this painting using pencil, and then I colored it using Faber Castell watercolor pencils. It took around three days to finish the drawing or painting. Why it took so long to finish it? Well, I could not paint or draw all the time. I was an English teacher at that time. I considered drawing as a hobby. I still draw and paint but not very often. I hope that one day I have more time to make more new paintings with better techniques.

Update story about drawing of farmers 4 March 2012

In addition to creating paintings with watercolor pencils, I am now starting to explore the possibilities of using charcoal pencil for my artworks. I bought two charcoal pencils from Seni Warna artshop in LoTunduh area of Ubud town of Bali island yesterday. And I have just tried using it. I made a very simple sketch of a farmer plowing his rice field. I prefer charcoal to graphite pencil because it has a stronger dark color. I hope to make more drawings and sketches using this classic media.

Today, most farmers who live around Ubud use hand tractors that are powered by diesel engine to plow their rice field. However, farmers who live in remote villages still rely on cows and water buffalos to plow their fields because these animals do not need fuel oil to work. They only need grass. Ubud is a tourist town in the middle of Bali island. Although the main revenue of the region is primarily from tourism industry, agriculture is still the main economic sector that employs a lot of work force. Where ever we travel around Bali, we will see people working in the fields to produce rice which is the staple food of Asian. by Charles Roring

Nadia Siregar Master of Papuan Traditional Dance