About

March 2013

 

Shafali the Caricaturist -Here’s all about her, in a nutshell.

I am an artist who loves to caricature and cartoon. I have been drawing since my childhood.  I live to draw and write to earn my living.

My morality is rooted in Objectivism and I gravitate towards people who have similar values. I also believe that personal values cannot be discussed, they can only be accepted or rejected.  I am a black & white person who realizes that everything including black and white are shades of gray and I accept that if we didn’t have these million different shades, the world would be a dull place to live in.

This blog is where I like to share what I do and what I know. While some of my caricatures can be found in my Caricature Gallery here, my art primarily comprises:

1. Detailed Black and White Caricatures (Pencil on Paper, and also Pen and Ink Drawings.)
2. Detailed Color Caricatures -Digital as well as on Canvas (for special commissions.)
3. Cartoons (digital as well as hand-drawn)
4. Pen and Ink portraits (people and pets)

I have also written a book “Evolution of a Caricaturist” (It was published as a collection of Knols but then Google decided to pull the plug on the Knol platform, and I had no option but to remove it from there. I still hear from people who want to read it and practice the fine art of Caricaturing – and so, I am thinking of bringing it back, although on a different platform.) I am currently writing another book called “Evolution of a Cartoonist“, and I publish its excerpts every once in a while on this blog.

Here are two interesting links for you:

1. Caricature Gallery (for more than 50 caricatures)
2. The Evolution of a Caricaturist – A Book on How to Draw Caricatures (Topic Outline only – I expect to republish the entire book soon.)

If you like my drawings and they bring a smile to your face, please add your comment or drop me a line at DrawToSmile |at| gmail |dot| com.
If you’d like to commission me for creating caricatures/illustrations for your magazine or book, please send me an email with your requirements at DrawToSmile |at| gmail |dot| com.

I guess I am summed up Oh, yes…

a few other things to embellish my rather bland profile for you…

• I am ambidextrous, so when you imagine me drawing you can visualize me working with both hands…simultaneously (yes.) So when I do absolutely symmetrical drawings, I can really do the two halves together. Pity – caricatures thrive on asymmetry and so there are no drawings that this caricaturist can do at double the speed
• I can also write in reverse, regardless of the script that I use for writing, with about the same speed. Before you ask me, whether I acquired this weird and completely useless ability through many gruelling years of practice, I must mention that I possess a great deal of common sense too, and so I never wasted my time perfecting it.

That was the crazy angle, and it proves that I am indeed an artist.

Q. E. D.

 

A Tiny Clarification

I’d like to humbly submit that I am Ms. Shafali Anand and not Mr. Shaf Ali.

This clarification is important because every once in a while I receive an email, or see a comment that’s given on the assumption that I am a male. While I understand the two stereotypes (not many women are caricaturists, and Ali is most definitely a Muslim Male Surname,) that lead some to assume that I am a strong and handsome Muslim man  I would like to explain that ”Shafali” is a name given to Hindu girls and the name has a deep-rooted feminine meaning in the Hindu Mythology.

Shafali (more commonly spelled as “Shefali”) is the name of a flower that’s offered to Lord Shiva (and hence, the name: Shiv+aali(friend) or Shivali, which now has many different spellings primarily because of our multi-lingual society. Here’s a picture of the flower

So now I hope that this name will conjure a picture of a sweet albeit cheeky woman wielding a brush loaded with fun and humor, instead of a tall, dark, and handsome man you’d like to address as “bro” or “dude”!

Thanks for visiting,

Shafali