About

Shafali

Updated: July 2015

Shafali the Caricaturist
– All about this nut, in a nutshell – 

About the Artist

I am an artist who loves to create caricatures, portraits and cartoons; and a writer who in addition to writing about art, dabbles in satires and parodies. Professionally, I do cover-art and inner-illustrations for magazines, and cover-art for novels and books. Occasionally, I also accept personal commissions.

This blog is where I like to share what I do and what I know. The content of my posts includes (but isn’t limited to): caricatures, cartoons, portraits, parodies, art-tutorials, time-travel stories, and the once-in-a-while philosophical commentary on world affairs. The last type is more of an exception that only exists to prove that the content of this blog is funny, humorous, ticklish, and varied.

While some of my caricatures can be found in my Caricature Gallery here, my art primarily comprises:

1. Caricatures – Color (Digital as well as on Canvas (for special commissions.))
2. Caricatures – Black & White (Digital, Pencil on Paper, and also Pen & Ink Drawings.)
3. Portraits – Color (Digital, Canvas (for special commissions)  of people and pets)
4. Portraits – Pen and Ink (on paper of people and pets)
5. Cartoons – (Digital and Hand-drawn)
6. Interfaces Design, Graphics/Animations – (for iOS Games and Apps)

I am also the author of the book “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures.”  I am currently writing another book called “Evolution of a Cartoonist.”

Here are a few interesting links for you:

1. Caricature Gallery (for my  caricature-art)
2. The Evolution of a Caricaturist – A Book on How to Draw Caricatures (Available on Amazon as a Kindle eBook) 

   

3. Pet and People Portraits in Pen and Ink

About the Nut Behind the Artist

She isn’t a hazelnut, or a cashew nut, or even a beautiful brown almond. She’s the nut that keeps the artist hinged and lets her come unhinged when needed. This particular nut begins to draw right after her morning tea, rushes through her household chores at a maddening speed, just so that she can be back to any of her many loves: her Cintiq, her Notes, her Canvases, her drawing-sheets – the list is long and variable. But the love that has remained by her side through the years, never changing, keeping her anchored to reality, is her family.

In those rare moments, when she’s not drawing or writing or being a kitchen-witch,  she loves to read fiction (specifically thrillers, sci-fi, and once in a while drama – Ken Follett and Wilbur Smith are her two favorite authors, though Wilbur Smith is on the verge of falling out of her favors.) She also enjoys watching all sorts of non-sensical movies that make her laugh or wonder.

Every year in September, she’s reborn as a writer. In winters, she writes furiously and has already written 2 Novels, 1 Novella, and a collection of short-stories. These can be found in the bottom-drawer of her desk where they stay safe, guarded by her dog, 24×7. Whether any of these would ever be published remains a matter of speculation for the family. The nut knows that she lacks the time and understands the improbability of getting them published. Quite like any other writer, she knows that writing is the easier part – so she sticks to it, and to drawing 🙂

I guess I am summed up 🙂 Oh, yes…

a few other inconsequential personal-facts 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.) But only 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.

Write to Me 🙂

● If you like my drawings and they bring a smile to your face or
● If you’d like to commission me for :
° creating caricatures/illustrations for your magazine or book,
° creating graphics/animations, designing the interface of your iOS App or game, or
° writing Art & Culture related articles for your website/portal 
(Please visit my Art Portfolio)

You are welcome to write to me at DrawToSmile |at| gmail |dot| com.

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

You can also contact me through this Contact Form here or write to me at DrawToSmile |at| gmail |dot| com.