- Note for blogging101 co-bloggers: This blog’s title is: “Shafali’s Caricatures, Cartoons, and Portraits,” and it’s tag-line is: “Draw to Smile.”
- Note for all other visitors, this is just another post from your quirky caricaturist.
This blog was born on December 11, 2009. I still remember that morning. It was so cold that if you stepped out of you house, you’d feel your marrow freezing in your bones, immobilizing you and then pushing you deep down into the abyss of hopelessness. Professionally, I was committed to a job that kept me comfortable and well-fed, but my need to draw had never left me. Art was that passionate and persistent lover, who would stalk me all the time and follow me everywhere. I’d have these little secret trysts with art, whenever I had a moment to spare. My notebooks were filled with doodles ready to tattle that the flame of my passion still burned bright for my one true love.
That morning, quite like many other mornings before it, demanded that I perform the chores of my job, without pain, but also without pleasure; with a sense of duty, but without any passion!
As I sipped my tea mechanically, I chanced upon a face in the newspaper. I just picked a pencil and caricatured it to make it funnier. I was drawing a face that could make me smile.
Here’s the face that I drew that morning.
A few squiggles…and a confused yet mocking expression. It would’ve been consigned to the waste-basket where many of its predecessors had gone, but it was meant to change my life, and so it didn’t. My husband saw it – and along with it, he saw my pain.
“Nobody ever sees the drawings you make – why don’t you start a blog where you can scan and post your sketches,” he said.
I tried to wriggle out of it. “I won’t be able to keep it up,” “Nobody would ever visit,” “Who wants to see funny faces,” and many more feeble excuses were made that day.
And yet that evening, we sat down together and created a blog on WordPress – shafali.wordpress.com. At the beginning, it was titled “Shafali’s Caricatures,” then when I began doing cartoons the title expanded to “Shafali’s Caricatures & Cartoons,” and now, because I also do a lot of portraiture work, it’s called “Shafali’s Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons” The tag line however has never changed. Drawing has always made me smile, and I think that there’s no point drawing if it doesn’t make you smile 🙂
This was the first header of this blog 🙂
Then came this…
Next was…
And now it is:
In the last 6 years, this blog has grown along with my portfolio of works (which began demanding its own space and so I created another blog – of course, again on WordPress,) it has helped me get some very interesting commissions, and more than anything else, it has given me a space where I can present my works, my thoughts, and be myself 🙂 I know I don’t do a lot of blogging stuff right, but I am open to learning and this is why I’ve joined blogging101.
So folks at blogging101, if you are just starting, don’t worry – blogging is like a little garden that you start from scratch…you must care for it and be patient with it. If cared for, it will bloom, that’s certain.
Thank you for sharing your beginning with us. It truly is a romantic story (and I love romance) and also for the encouraging words at the end.
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That’s the “honest me” 🙂 Once in a while, she pops out of her shell. But seriously, that’s how blogging is…a lot like gardening. You must not lose patience with it 🙂
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This is truly inspiring for me as a new blogger and an author who would like others to share her work. Again, thank you Shafali. You make me smile!
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Oh…in another comment, I said the same thing – that you make me smile. And I hadn’t seen this comment, I swear!
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We are true kindred spirits – thinking alike and making each other happy
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Reading about anyone who listens to their heart and does something about it gives me nice goosebumps. Lovely husband gets a massive thumbs up for being supportive to hold your hand on that wobbly first step, but you’re the one who made it happen. Thank you for sharing!
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Thanks for your kind words. I must consolidate these comments and send them to him 🙂 I agree that if I hadn’t continued to post, this blog wouldn’t have survived. He has no patience, I have nothing but.
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So glad your husband was there to support you. Your drawings are amazing!
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Thanks 🙂 Yes, I owe the existence of this blog to him. It surprises me how he can see things in me that I can’t.
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I think that’s a blessing in having loved ones. Not just our significant others but close friends, families – especially mums. It may be human nature to just not see potential in yourself that others can see.
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Thanks. I loved my mom and I think of her everyday now that she’s not in this world anymore. I think you are right – others can often see what we ourselves can’t – including our shortcomings. I am grateful for those who’ve given me love and attention.
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I remember most of those headers. You started, like, two months after me! 😉
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I am so happy for the encouragement your husband gave you. Your drawings are amazing! Following you for sure 🙂 and just because I’m wondering, I’ll ask, becuase I can’t be the first. How much would I have to pay for you to do a caricature of me?
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Thanks Margaret. Last five years have been different from all those past years. While I mostly illustrate for magazines (political, sometimes business) I do take up individual commissions. If you could send me your email id (mine is plastered all over my blog in the images…it’s my tagline at gmail.com,) I’ll be happy to send you the details. Thanks again for visiting and following.
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I can best be reached at (id-edited) 🙂 Thanks
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Thanks Margaret. It was foolish of me to have asked for your id, because I can see it my admin view. I had replied to your comment through the instant-view (that’s what I call it) that pops up at the top right…I’ll write to you later today.
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Thanks 🙂
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Wow what an amazing artist you are. Love the drawings. Thanks for sharing them.
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Thanks for your kind words 🙂
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Your blog is amazing. I have to follow you and watch you become famous. 🙂
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Thanks so much 🙂 I am grateful for your good wishes.
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