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Traditionally, Sudip has spent nearly 4 decades creating watercolours made up of transparent pigments built up in gentle washes over light paper. We could think of Constable's pictures of the English countryside which were both vigorous and experimental. In his watercolours we see a play between transparent and opaque. Sudip also experiments with different brushes, using a coarse-haired brush, to produce thick, shadowy details or a thin haired brush for lithe lines.
He also uses the end of the handle of his brush to score and abrade the paper, removing paint and bringing fine touches of light to dark areas, as can be seen on the Mumbai architectural studies of the Tower in the Kala Ghoda area. In other sketches, like the boats at the beach Sudip draws over light blue washes of colour with grey pencil lines and plain water washes to create mood and shadow in the sky.
In the view of Gateway of India with a stormy sky, he uses the side of a graphite stick to produce the effect of drizzle and the hues of boats and buses at Chowpatty. He is adept always when he creates his studies at exploiting the technique of a low horizon line, so you can feel the long distance between the road and the bank of a river or a sea front. The paint is thinly applied with a variety of brushes, textures and tones. He revels in creating quick energetic pictures, that he perfectly captures as he feels the warmth of both sides of his studies be it street scenes or landscapes wanting to frame the field as the clouds open up and bathe the view either in the mood of the sunset or in the haze of the clouds gathering.
Balance of colour and contour become all important as he plays between light and veiled heavily worked all over the page scenes, sometimes so forcefully that it makes an impression on the watercolour paper. The craggy stones of his facades, the mossy roofs feel visceral; his Mumbai buildings feel both ancient, as well as alive and growing
