Numbers are funny.
If I asked you what 666 meant – you would tell me that it was the number of the beast:)
Now what does the following code mean?
NZAKK3UHE4JM
If you don’t know then you haven’t claimed your blog at Technorati 🙂
I’ve just done it!
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Plans of New Celebrity Caricatures go Awry – The Caricaturist has been whisked away to Atlantis!
I had plans.
I had my heart set on drawing Robin Williams, Will Smith, and even Paris Hilton. But last evening my mobile rang, my plans overheard my conversation with the being on the other end, and they tossed themselves into the bin!
The call was from Atlantis, the lost world. Imagine my surprise when I heard that aqua-cool voice on the phone tell me that I was invited to talk to a group of engineers at AquaPower Corporation. After I got over my shock, I asked them if they were sending a jet to fetch me – because I didn’t know if any of the regular flights stopped over at Atlantis.
They told me that they were sending a submarine, which will arrive in my bathtub at 8:00 AM tomorrow morning – and that I should be ready and waiting.
So…
my dear precious readers,
the caricatures will have to wait. I hope to be back in the beginning of March…
See you then:)
Love,
Shafali
Cool Caricaturist – Achille Superbi of Italy
It’s time to give the stage to another Cool Caricaturist:)
Achille Superbi is an Italian Graphic Designer and Caricaturist who was born on September 13, 1959. After receiving his diploma n 1977 he worked for advertising agencies until 1984, when he also began to draw for newspapers etc. (Source: Wikipedia here .)
I like his work for his fine brushwork and smooth presentation.
Visit Achille Superbi’s simple but interesting website here.
Click the following links to view some of his fascinating caricatures.
See Achille Superbi’s caricature of the Beatles on a t-shirt here.
Until I put together my drawing of Picasso and Dali…I wonder how I missed them:)
Caricature/Cartoon of A.R. Rahman, Indian Music Composer and Oscar Winner!
A.S. Dileep Kumar who for some personal reasons changed his religion to Islam and his name to Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian musician and music-composer, who won two Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire a movie directed by Danny Boyle.
Here’s my take on this legend.
The Halo of Music...or Controversies?
A Short Biography of Rahman:
A.R. Rahman was born on January 6th 1966, in an affluent Hindu Tamil family. His father composed music for Malayalam films. He lost his father at a very young age and it was somewhere around that time when he and his entire family decided to change their religion and convert to Islam. According to this article here AR Rahman’s mother (Kareema) was a Muslim and after his Hindu father’s death, the family reconverted to Islam and acquired Muslim names. The reason why he changed his religion is still shrouded in mystery, however, it’s said that he did it to save his sister’s life.
Rahman is married to Saira Banu (not the emaciated yesteryear beauty though!)
An Interesting Bollywood Coincidence, which will make more sense to Indians:
Here it goes.
Saira Banu (of vintage Bollywood variety) married Dilip Kumar, who changed his name from Muhammad Yusuf Khan to Dilip Kumar – she did have to struggle with Yusuf Khan’s polygamous nature though. However Yusuf Khan took up the name Dileep Kumar only as a screen name with a wider appeal, and saw he was never on the wrong side of the law by having more than one wife.
Saira Banu (wife of AR Rahman) married AR Rahman, who changed his name from Dileep kumar (don’t worry about the spelling) to AR Rahman.
Coincidences happen in a chaotic world…right?
A. R. Rahman’s Meteoric Rise:
Rahman’s rise in Bollywood began with his meeting with Mani Ratnam in an advertising awards function, after which he gave music for Roja in 1992 (Note that Rahman was paid 25K INR (about USD 1000 in those days) to compose music for Roja, this is in stark contrast to around Rs. 5 Crores equivalent of USD 1 Million for composing the Commonwealth Games 2010 Anthem) After Roja, he created music for many Tamil films, until he got the opportunity to compose the songs for Rangeela. After the success of Rangeela’s songs, Rahman continued to work for the Mumbai Film Industry to compose many hit songs. Among his noteworthy films are: Rangeela, Dil Se, Taal, Rang De Basanti, Bombay!
His Album “Vande Mataram“, which he released on August 15, 1997 (the fiftieth anniversary of India’s independence,) sold more than a Million copies in India.
Find an extremely detailed biography of Rehman here.
Rahman’s Jai Ho wins him the Oscars:
In 2009, Rahman wrote the score for “Jai Ho“, which helped him win the first two Oscars for India. He got the Oscars for Danny Boyle directed movie “Slumdog Millionnaire”. (Unfortunately, the only movie about India that became internationally famous is an extremely biased movie, which completely ignores the positives of India to accentuate and glorify its poverty.) The two Academy Awards that he won were for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song.
Visit Rahman’s official website here.
Rahman in News Again:
The newest news on the international scene is that AR Rehman has bagged 2 Oscar nominations for Danny Boyle’s 127 hours. What’s noteworthy is the ease with which Rahman has been able to establish a long-term relationship with Danny Boyle – I’d have loved to see him work with other Hollywood Directors too…but Rahman is a steady goat, isn’t he? I hope he gets the Oscars this year, because after the CWG Anthem fiasco, which gave us a soggy song (read about it here) touted to be better than Shakira’s waka-waka, I’d love to get a confirmation that the awards were for the musical score and not for a fantastic rendering of India’s poverty. Go Rahman Go! Get those awards and win back my trust…if you’d care to.
Want to know if I am an ARR fan?
I love some of his work – if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have drawn his caricature here:) But I saw him on the CWG stage – and I don’t think that if his…what was the CWG Anthem again?…well that anthem needed the crutches of Jai ho, especially when after the whole corruption scandal we were waiting for him to spin gold or silver at least…so – my current status is “NOT FAN!”
I believe there are things that are bigger than money, fame, and even Oscars. A sense of pride in being what you are and carrying it through with your head held high. I’d never work for a Slumdog Millionnaire nor would I ever charge Rs. 5 Crores for composing an anthem for my country. (Remember that it was the first time in its history that India was hosting a sports event at International scale!) But I guess I am being the milkmaid, if you know what I mean:)
The Final Chapter of the Book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” has been Written!
Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.
Hello Readers and Visitors,
I’ve posted the final chapter of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. This chapter is titled, “The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature,” and it’s about increasing the “stickiness” of your caricature by adding a visual story to it.
With this chapter, the book ends on Knol. As I mentioned earlier, I would love to get it published through the print route and I’ve been trying to figure out how. I’ve been weighing the option of self-publishing but I am not sure if I should go for it…especially as there’ve been a couple of inquiries from some cybernetic well-wishers. I’m going to swim along with the current and so if you want to send any inquiries/information, or even good wishes my way – you are welcome!
I have plans of including a lot of other stuff in the printed/formally published version, but I believe that if you want to truly develop the ability to caricature, the online version of it should be sufficient to put you on the fast track.
Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘
It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.
The Evolution of a Caricaturist
- Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
- Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
- Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
- Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
- Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
- Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
- Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
- Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
- Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
- Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears
- Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose
- Chapter 12 – The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature!
With this chapter, one of my projects come to an end. I had hoped to complete it last year, but with food-on-the-table work occupying about 90% of my waking moments, I just didn’t find the time. I hope that the regular readers of this book will forgive this lapse and enjoy the final chapter 🙂
A Request:
If you’ve read this book, I’d like to ask you what you’d like to see included in its printed version. Please send me an email at my email id, which is DrawToSmile[at]gmail[dot]com.
And a Note of Thanks too 🙂
The book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” was visited more than 30,000 times in 2010. Some readers left comments, some sent me emails, and a few sent me the caricatures that they had drawn using the methods that were discussed in the book.
I would like to thank you all – for your visits, your comments, your emails, and your drawings. You were there watching me. Whenever I felt tired and wanted to give up, you did something to inspire me. You don’t remember it – but you were there, telling me that if I wrote another chapter it’ll help you DRAW TO SMILE 🙂
So…
A BIG THANK YOU!
Experimenting with Plinky Prompts…
Hi Readers of the Experimenting Kind,
This morning I woke up a different person. I went into the kitchen, made myself a cup of tea, and went into the little place I call my office at home. Groggy-eyed, I switched on the computer, and logged into my blog. One thing led to another, and somewhere I saw a link (plinky.com) and clicked it.
Let me tell you what this plinky thingy is. It’s a service that seems to be an amalgamation of blogging and tweeting (you can “post” your answers and “follow” others who post there,) and wordpress has been promoting it a lot. The service presents a question (a prompt), which you can answer; thus, it helps you get past the writer’s block. After you’ve posted your answer, you can also route it to you blog (I haven’t figured it out yet, so don’t ask me how it is done,) and other Plinkoos can comment on your answer or favorite it!
Honestly, I haven’t explored it enough – but if you are a Plinkoo, do shine some light on how I can use it 🙂
If you want to check it out (and read my answer to their question, “What can’t you Throw Away?”) click http://www.plinky.com/people/Shafali/answers
Check out and see if you want to go Plinking 🙂
Caricature/Cartoon – Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers – National Football League of America
I wouldn’t have known about Troy Polamalu, the Steelers, or even the NFL…had it not been for Tim Berners Lee, Matt Mullenweg, and Nancy Johanson, so I begin this post by thanking them.
But I learned about him, I looked at his images and his videos and I was smitten…by his hair!
Troy Polamalu of Pittsburgh Steelers, and his Magnificent Hair!
Especially for the fans of Troy Polamalu:
Download Troy Polamalu’s Printable High-Resolution Caricature (PDF)
Troy Polamalu’s Shortest Biography on the Web (and I mean it.)
Troy Polamalu who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers in different defensive roles, was born on April 19, 1981. He began playing for the Steelers in 2003. He first played in the Superbowl of 2006, which the Steelers won with 21-10 defeating the Seattle Seahawks. In 2007, the Steelers gave him a never-before-seen-in-the-history-of-Steelers contract, which totals around USD 50 Million.
Polamalu’s Change of Name:
He changed his surname to Polamalu, his mom’s maiden name. He was earlier called, Troy Aumua!
Polamalu’s Jersey Number 43 (yes, I mean it.)
His Jersey #43 moved from being the 15th highest selling jersey among all NFL jerseys in 2008, to the highest selling jersey in 2010 (according to the NFL.com shop.)
Polamalu’s Personal Life:
Troy Polamalu is married to Theodora, has two sons, is an Orthodox Christian, and a soft-spoken person.
Polamalu’s Hair (Ahem!):
Well…
Here’s the math.
Let’s say, I took time “t” to draw his caricature.
I spent 0.9t (90% for the right-brained a.k.a. mathematically challenged) time drawing his hair!
So his Hair IS important, and this is probably why P&G has paid a Million Dollars to get his hair insured. (Reason: He endorses the Head & Shoulders Shampoo) . The Steeler #43 gets a haircut about once a decade, and grapevine has it that if anyone thinks ill of his hair, he ends up staying late at work on the Superbowl night – so Beware!
Question: Do you think Clay Matthews‘ hair can compete with Polamalu’s?
Another interesting byte about Troy & Clay is that they both played college football at University of Southern California!
Read more about Troy Polamalu at the Wikipedia Page
Data Hounds, find data at:
Interesting Byte:
As all celebrities have their sets of alternate amorous realities, I tried searching for Polamalu’s by googling for “Polamalu Love Affair” – Guess what popped up?
HAIR!
And…quoting Polamalu:
“We’re a road team. We’re the Pittsburgh Steelers. We have fans everywhere.”
About Superbowl 2011…
And now about the Superbowl XLV (45 for the non-Romans), in which the Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin in the Cowboy Stadium at Arlington, Texas!
The Superbowl tickets went for..
$2842 to $23730 each!!!
…………)))))
…….))))
….))
..)
.
(Sorry! Had to pause to pull my eyeballs back into their sockets!)
Guess they are ALL sold out now (Imagine that!)
So…
Wherever you watch the Superbowl 2011…
in your homes or in a sports bar…
Go Wave your Terrible Towels…
Fly the Steelers Flags…
Paint yourselves Gold and Black…
May the Steelers win the Superbowl 2011!
Shafali's Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons 