Caricature Portrait of Lionel (Leo) Messi – Argentine Footballer and Legend.

Lionel Messi is considered to be greatest football player ever, especially when we aren’t speaking of Cristiano Ronaldo – but we aren’t right now, so we’ll go by Lionel Messi being the greatest.

You know that I don’t like perfect faces – mostly because perfection is difficult to caricature. This is why among the two, Lionel Messi won my heart, and I caricatured him.

One look at him and I saw how beautifully unique each of his features is. His deep-set eyes, his straight long slim-ridged nose that ends in a tiny bump, his chin that sticks out even more due to his prickly beard, the lower half of his face sloping inward toward his neck, his ears with a tiny little lobe and a tinier tragus…but his hair that stands right up (quite like mine when I enter my porcupine avatar,) won me over entirely.

I know you want a quick biography of this football star…my way. So here it is:

Lionel Messi’s tiniest biography in the world.

Leo Messi was born on June 24, 1987, which makes him about 33 years old. He’s got some fabulous awards (six Ballon d’Or, six European Golden Shoes, 34 Barcelona Football Club Trophies) Leo Messi is of Italian descent, he celebrates his goals by looking up and thanking his maternal grandmother who would take him to football matches and training sessions. Quite like our sweet and trusting Indian “boys” he just played football, letting his dad manage all his finances, and ended up being investigated for tax-evasion. <– All this courtsey his wikipedia page here. (Reminds you of a certain Indian businessman who committed large-scale frauds and his middle-aged daughters who said something like, “Dad used to take care of all financial matters…we just signed.” <– Can you guess?

With 157M Instagram followers @leomessi is the most followed Instagram celeb of 2020.

 

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The Little Owl Roosts on the Caricaturist’s Blog.

A sketch in my diary that owes its existence to a photograph by ToutParMoi. Why this particular owl visited this particular writer, is something that confuses me. She’s a cat lady and I am sure the cats don’t let the mice play – so if there aren’t any mice around, what brought this owl to her house? Imminent good luck, I suppose, because sighting an owl is supposed to bring luck.

About Owls:
I love owls. I have a feeling they don’t give a damn. Look at them. Does it look like they care whether or not a caricaturist thinks that they are absolutely stunning?

Owl Symbolism:
Mythologically, Owl relates to femininity and wisdom. In Greek mythology, it appears as the companion of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom; in Roman, as the companion of Minerva. In Hindu mythology, it appears as Laxmi’s vehicle, thus, becoming the harbinger of wealth and luck.

Do visit the enchanting blog and medieval world of Denise Keay’s erudite cats.

The Caricaturist colors herself in a different hue and Illustrates for Kids :)

My friends in Cyberland,

I’ve been MIA because I was caught up in something new.

You know that this caricaturist wasn’t into illustrating for kids. In fact, until about a couple of months ago, she’d was over-awed by anyone who drew for kids. Using solid colors and simple lines to create a character or a place that would draw the kids (and their moms, of course,) into a story, appeared to be magical to me.

Then Bigsaw happened. First there was Bigsaw Designer and then Bigsaw Classic…and for both these wonderful picture-puzzle collections, I was called upon to create Albums for Kids. Granted that only one the many albums in each had pictures of kids, but I ended up creating 18 artworks in all. I felt blessed, because I could let my imagination go places where it hadn’t been before. I just let myself slip into the past and become the little girl that loved picture-books. What I saw from that little girl’s eyes, magically and almost effortlessly began to form on paper. Among the first ones to appear on the pages of my sketchbook was a snake mom coiled about a branch to form a swing for her little’uns, a pencil getting a haircut in a saloon with the sharpener having shaved off the lead, and a goldfish giving math lessons to little goldies in a fish bowl.

After I had sketched for a few days, I had about 40 ideas ready to be colored. I randomly picked eighteen of them, inked them in, and colored them up…hoping that they’d look good. However, the response that I got totally swept me off my feet. I was told that they looked really really good, and that kids loved them too.

Believe it or not, I’m still having a hard time accepting that I can draw for kids. I’m thrilled to be illustrating for kids because these illustrations are so full of happiness, innocence, and…colors.

So friends, that’s where I’ve been – in the beautiful fantastical world that exists in a child’s imagination.

I’ll shortly be sharing some of these pictures with you, but if you are in a hurry and you want to check them out now, download any of the Bigsaws for iPad and checkout the Kids Albums.

• Bigsaw Designer
• Bigsaw Classic

Adam has got his priorities right – Eve waits in queue while the Devil tries to figure it out!

You know something? We’ve found a solution to the problems of the world!

What solution?!

Here’s a clue.

Adam, Eve, and the iPad (Pen and Ink Drawing - Original Size: 12" x 12")

And I am not exaggerating…no Sir, I am not.

• When I go for my morning walk, I often see this couple (if you could call them that) walk together in complete silence – both plugged into their respective iPods.
• When I visit restaurants, I see pretty girls batting their eyelashes, patting their hair in place, fixing their make-up; all so that they could catch the attention of their boy-friends, who appear to be happily lost in their iPhones or iPads!
• And now, they tell me that Apple has reported that they’ve sold 3 Million iPads ever since they launched it on March 16th (and it’s not even two weeks since!) Whoa! I guess many more Eves would be playing second fiddle to the iPad – right?

In my opinion, if every man on earth could be given an iPad, we should be able to tackle the population problem, which is the root of all our other problems! You get my drift?

(Women? They buy iPads for sure, but they’ve got their priorities mixed up – I mean why must I want to cook dinner and not play a game on my iPad? Go figure!)

Caricature/Cartoon of Charlie Chaplin – The Silent Millionaire Tramp of Hollywood

Update: September 03, 2013

Click to view.

Painted this caricature 🙂  Check it out here.

Original Post follows:

Everyone knows Charlie Chaplin, so let me come straight to the point. Here’s my rendition of “The Tramp” the character that made Charlie Chaplin famous. I will save myself the trouble of telling you all that you perhaps already know, and end this post with a short biographical note about him.

Charlie Chaplin’s Short and Sweet Biography

Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16th 1889, in London. Both his parents were entertainers so the believers of genetics might say that his genes made him what he was. Yet I believe that how you nurture your talents has a lot to do with how far you go, and so the credit of Charlie Chaplin’s success cannot be given entirely to his genes. Biographies usually are a lot more than a nature-vs.-nurture discussion, so allow me to proceed. Charlie’s dad was an alcoholic. (Why do most celebs have a twisted childhood? Does it mean that people with normal, regular childhoods don’t stand a chance at greatness? Jot these questions down and ruminate upon them when you have nothing better to do.) This must’ve led his mom to a nervous breakdown – so, in a manner of speaking, little Charlie was more or less on his own. At the age of 13, Charlie landed a role as Billy the Page boy in a Stage Play themed upon Sherlock Holmes. The long and short of it is that Charlie had started walking the rickety bridge to stardom, when he stepped into his teens – he just didn’t know it yet. It was in 1910, when CC was 21 that he first arrived in the US. It was in this land of opportunities that CC first found himself working for films and during 1914/15s he was presented to the world as THE TRAMP! Who would think that a Tramp could become so popular – and a tramp that couldn’t talk at all! But it was the tramp wearing a really tight coat over a huge pair of trousers, shod with a gigantic pair of shoes who caught the fancy of people and brought them back the laughter that the First World War had stolen away. In 1919, not long after the success the tramp, Chaplin co-founded the United Artists film production company and made many more silent and talking(?) films.

A Couple of Caricatured Charlie Chaplin Highlights

(You know that I look in awkward places.)

• Charlie Chaplin could’ve written books on wooing women…but he was too busy making films. The guy’s ability to charm the…oh well…the sandals off the feet of women has been considered mysterious, even mystical by many. I mean, how a 5 feet 5 inches “tall”, twiggily-built gentleman could do that with women who were half his age, is something that should be investigated thoroughly by the historians.
• Charlie Chaplin sired 12 children (that’s if I counted right – I suffer from double-vision at times,) and he made the last one appear when he was a young and healthy 73! I know that a dozen kids is nothing when compared to Osama bin Laden’s 24 and Osama’s dad’s 54, but they weren’t 73 and so what amazes me is that when most playful male septuagenarians of our time include viagra in their staple diet, how did Mr. Chaplin manage this feat in the pre-viagra era.
• Charlie Chaplin couldn’t enlist in the military because he was too short and too light – characteristics that endeared him to people the world over.
• Charlie Chaplin made a movie called “The Great Dictator”, in which he played the role of a Jew. This movie brought academy nominations but it also ignited the controversy that CC was in part a Jew. (According to this information here, the Jewish people are the highest IQ community on this planet, and so, if he really had Jewish blood, it could have played some part in making him the legend that he was.)

Guess that’s all that I have on Charlie Chaplin 🙂 Coming up…

• Sarah Palin
• Shia Labeouf
• Napoleon Bonaparte

100000 Views :-) Crossing the Sound Barrier with a resounding Thank You!

Dear Visitors,

Your favorite caricature blog (ahem!) crossed the 100000 views milestone sometime last night. I am also happy to tell you that this post is my 200th post since this blog came into existence in December 2009.

I want to say that I enjoyed playing the blogging game, but I am also enjoying the score:) As Karma says, “Winning is as good as digging!”

100000 Views - Whats the big deal? Ask the Human.

I love the purity of numbers. If there were no numbers, we’d still be living without electricity, airplanes; we’d be living without the Internet! Can you imagine that?!

The 0s and the 1s – they are the fundamental building blocks of everything in this virtual world, and the number that’s my immediate favorite is made of 0s and 1s too 🙂

In my previous post “A Note of Thanks”, I thanked all those who made me smile during these 16 blogging months. In this post, I’d like to thank those who made it possible for me to blog. I’d like to thank the WordPress team for creating this fabulous blogging software and the Google Knol team for establishing the Knol platform, without which I couldn’t have written and published my book “How to Draw Caricatures – Evolution of a Caricaturist“, which has received about 40,000 views since I began writing it.

It’s customary to recount some interesting details of your journey, when such milestones are reached…so here’s the briefest of all summaries.

I’d like to say that though I was rather short of time this whole year, and I couldn’t really create as many caricatures as I’d have liked to, let alone visit other blogs; still there were some nice people who visited my blog. I also received a few nice emails and some heartening comments that kept me going. Thanks everyone (sniffle!)

That’s all for now…until I post the caricature of…the Hollywood Dracula:)

Wishing everyone the best of everything!

Regards,

Shafali

Karma the dog shares one of his pet peeves!

If you like dogs…

Ah well! That’s not the right way to begin. Let me try again.

If you like truthful dogs who don’t like to mince words…you’ll like Karma. I do:)

Here’s his pet peeve # 36!

Damn! I've got to undo what they've done!

Find Karma at the WiseK9’s blog here.

On the caricatures front, Mr. Holmes will find his way to this blog soon. I’ve also invited Charlie Sheen over and I can hear the sound of “winning” in the distance…he too should be here shortly.

Caricature/Cartoon – Ozzy Osbourne of the Black Sabbath – A Visual/Verbal Caricature.

Let us SCREAM >>> OZZY!

The Rodent Warrior Fights Back!

Ozzy Osbourne’s Shortest Biography on the Web:

On December 3rd, 1948; a baby was born who’d father Heavy Metal, and whose music would be “intentionally” dark!

This sweet little baby grew up with dyslexia, a learning disability that has plagued many famous personalities. Obviously his teachers thought nothing of him because teachers prefer average performers, and so he was drawn towards more interesting matters such as stage performances.

Before Ozzy Osbourne began his “black” career, he worked as a laborer, plumber, tool-maker and even a sort of butcher. It’s easy to see how all this work-experience may have been instrumental in the making of the “black” sabbath, and the “heavy metal.” Black Sabbath was born in 1969, and as anything black is usually high in demand and short in supply, it met with a phenomenal success. For obvious reasons, the band was more popular among men.

Moving from gray to dark gray to black to ebony…

Black Sabbath released the following albums featuring Ozzy Osbourne:

• Black Sabbath
• Paranoid
• Master of Reality
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
• Sabotage
• Technical Ecstasy

And then Ozzy oozed off the Black Sabbath for a solo project he called Blizzard of Ozz (How creative!) Things didn’t work out until 1980, when Ozzy’s wife (ahem! Well yes. Brand new grapevine starting here has it that whenever a woman spent a night with Ozzy in the morning she’d leave looking like Ozzy’s double. Looking at Ozzy’s face in the darkness of the night had that effect on them. (see picture above) – but Sharon survived it all. The next morning she was as pretty as she was the night before – and so Ozzy slipped one of his many rings on her ring finger and they became an item (read: got married.) BTW, Another survivor was his first wife Thelma Rieley. Amazing women – both!

To make a long story short – Ozzy went on singing… there were many other albums…here’s a list (as always thanks to Wikipedia.)

• Blizzard of Ozz (1980)
• Diary of a Madman (1981)
• Bark at the Moon (1983)
• The Ultimate Sin (1986)
• No Rest for the Wicked (1988)
• No More Tears (1991)
• Ozzmosis (1995)
• Down to Earth (2001)
• Black Rain (2007)
• Scream (2010)

Other Interesting Ozzisms or Psycho-acts by Mr. Osbourne:

• Ozzy’s been accused of being a negative influence on the youth and a proponent of Satanism – Anti-Christ/Anti-Christian.
• In 1981, when he signed his first solo-deal (when he’d left Black Sabbath,) he had been fasting for a while (praying for the deal) and he was so hungry that he bit off the head of a dove (quite foolishly I’d say…the head of a bird has the least meat on it.)
• Shortly afterward, during one of his performances, he bit-off the head of a poor bat – that bravely fought back and bit Ozzy in the mouth before it died – and Ozzy had to take shots to prevent himself from getting Rabies. (What most people do not know is that the bat was the reincarnation (yes, the avatar) of the dove, who had come back seeking revenge!)
• Next, he had a fight with his brave wife Sharon, then to make people think that his wife was going around urinating on cenotaphs, he wore his wife’s dress and urinated on a cenotaph, which was erected in the honor of those who died in the battle of Alamo.

And yes…

those who are interested in Ozzy’s tattoos, should click here.

Finally, in defence of Ozzy Osborne and his brave wife Sharon Osborne, they are one of the richest couples in UK. Doesn’t matter if Ozzy looks a little mad. I mean – all the rich of the world are a little mad…he just doesn’t hide his madness…he lets it Ooze out of him ozzily!

Caricature/Cartoon Bollywood Hero Aamir Khan – 3 Idiots – Bollywood ka King Kaun?

Presenting Bollywood ka King – Aamir Khan!

Bollywood ka King - Aamir Khan!

Lost? The Story Behind this Caricature of Aamir Khan:

What you  need to know in order to understand this caricature is that Bollywood is dominated (was) by three Khans. They all came into the industry almost together and India watched their progress with great interest. These three Khans were:

• Aamir Khan (Of this post.)
• Salman Khan (Son of Screenwriter Salim Khan)
• Shahrukh Khan (The only Khan with no family connections in Bollywood) (Update: Feb 12, 2011: You can view Shahrukh Khan’s Caricature here.)

There was a time when the three Khans were in obvious competition.

• Then Salman destroyed himself (he does weird things, like hunting endangered animals  – and I remember that he even mowed down some people – one person died – once.) The overall impact of these legal hassles was that in this race of the three Khans, he fell behind.
• Shahrukh was ahead in the race (the man is talented and when he was younger, he was much better looking than the other two – ever since he got into the six-pack business, his face has begun to look like a desiccated mango 😦 ) Unfortunately, fame got to his head (happens with people who come from humble backgrounds and become very famous) and he went around telling everyone that he was the King of Bollywood.
• Aamir however was used to fame from an early age, and so when he became successful, he stayed humble. Now humility is something that is appreciated a lot in India and we especially like to see some of it in those we idolize – helps our egos I guess. So, in the long run, he emerged the winner.

Aamir Khan’s Shortest Biography on the Web:

Born on March 14, 1965, Aamir Khan is one of the most popular actors in Indian Cinema today. He began his career in 1973, as a child actor (who played the character of Ratan, the third brother) in Yaadon ki Baaraat. This film was produced by his Uncle. Thus, Aamir Khan belongs to the first wave of Bollywood Putras (Sons of Bollywood) in Bollywood. In 1988, at the age of 23, Aamir acted as the male lead in QSQT (Quayamat se Quayamat tak), which was made by his cousin.

Aamir Khan’s Rise to Fame:

Aamir however was made for bigger and better things. He turned producer for the film Lagaan in which he also played the male lead – and Lagaan was nominated for the Academy Award. In 2007, for the first time, he turned a director with the movie, Taare Zameen Per (Stars on the Ground) – a movie about the struggle of a dyslexic child. Next he dazzled India with Ghajini (and his young male fans went around sporting the weird hairstyle that you see here.) And then came 3 Idiots – the inspiration for this cartoon.

And so, Aamir won the race with three phenomenal successes in a row, Taare Zameen Per, Ghajini, and 3 Idiots.

Recently, he also received the Padma Bhushan for his work…and right now, as he says on his blog, he is on a promo-tour for his newest film Peepli Live (already in controversy for its song, Mahangai dayan (inflation witch)).

Alll Ijjj Wellll!

Caricature Cartoon – Oracle Octopus Paul – I want out! – A Verbal Caricature

You know about Oracle Octopus Paul. He’s the one who’s got 8/8 in predicting the fate of the world cup teams. Here’s what he’s got to say about the whole deal.

I want to break free!

Here’s the Video of Paul, the Oracle Octopus, predicting the victory of Spain in the Football World Cup Final – and Spain did win!

Oracle Octopus Paul says:

• I need an anti-depressant.
• I also need a pillow, a glass of wine, and a masseur; because I am tired, and because my tentacles ache from overwork.

You know something?

• It isn’t easy being an octopus. Those tentacles get entangled all the time, and that huge body of mine doesn’t make those cumbersome moves any easier for me (yes…if you think that’s my head, you need to get your eyes checked.)
• What’s worse is – I live in a glass-box. It’s quite like living in a glasshouse. You are always on display, and you can’t lash out, because if you do, you’d destroy your own home.

But do you know what’s the worst?

• It’s being a celebrity Oracle that really brings me down.

To understand this, let us look at the entire human species as one. (I know, it isn’t easy – they come in different shapes, sizes, and attitudes…and at their rotten core, they hate one another.)

• I became Oracle Paul because of some dumb trick played on me by some dumb human who wanted his 2 minutes of fame!
• Next, I became  Celebrity Oracle Paul because some other dumb human bearing the journo tag, decided to photograph me and put my name into the newspapers, which made money for some humans; and the other dumb humans decided to believe what they had to say!
• Now, I’ve become Hunted Celebrity Oracle Paul, because more dumb humans of the kind, who had made a Celebrity out of me, have decided to make minced meat out of me. And you know why? Because I decided to eat out of one of the two boxes and my country failed to make it to the finals. Remember that it was some other dumb human who had lowered the two boxes into my glass box!

Do you see what’s happening?
Please wake up!
I am not deciding the fate of those teams; the humans are deciding mine!

If I end up a Dead Celebrity Oracle Paul on a German dinner table, it will be because a human chef diced, grilled, or filled me; and a human waiter served me to human guests, in a restaurant that makes money for its human owners! I am an unwilling pawn in the prediction racket…in a game of chance!

I want to know – why me?
And now, when I have already reached the end of my short life, I’d really like to break free of this Oracle mould.

For once…
I want to be just Paul the Octopus!
Just…PAUL the OCTOPUS!

…the Retired Octopus Paul!!

Do you hear me…Humans?

I want Out!

——————————————————————————————–

Paul the Octopus left this world on October 26, 2010. He died in his glass tank, at the age of 2.5 years.  A memorial will be erected at the Aquarium in his memory.

(Source: BBC News)

Good bye, dear Paul!

——————————————————————————————-

Story Writing Contest / Competition – Tell the Story in the Caricature – The Man and the Rat!

What is the story in this caricature?

Could it be that I had just watched Pulp Fiction (Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman), and some of it just transformed into this seething, sneering, and fuming man here? And what about the mouse (or the rat, if you please.)? Why is he holding a rifle and wearing a bullet-belt? Was he supposed to terminate somebody before he reported to the boss? Could it be that these two plan to watch Avatar together?

What's the Story?

I don’t have a story to tell…but you could have one.

Do you read a story in this caricature? If you do let people read it.

So here are:

The Rules of the Story Writing Contest:

The story should:

1. BE between 250 and 500 words – the right length for a blog post.
2. INCLUDE the two characters that you see in the caricature.
3. DISPLAY this caricature in your post.
4. NOT include explicit/mature content.

Important: After you’ve done this, drop me a comment against this post with a link to your story.
(Otherwise how my other visitors and I would read your fabulous story?)

Contest Closes: April 30, 2010

The Reward for Competing & Winning:

I’ll link the blog, the story, and the profile of 5 story writers whose stories win my heart, through a dedicated blog post, and if they aren’t already on my blog roll (I am selective, I know:-() they shall be.
(And of course, even if you don’t win now, I promise to be back with more contests!)

(Note: To participate you don’t need to have commented before, but you do need to be a blog-owner. Don’t write the stories in the comments section – Just leave the link to your story so that other visitors can reach your blog and read the story there.)

Let us S P R E A D T H E S M I L E 🙂

How to Draw the Caricature of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

How did I draw this Caricature of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of Caribbean fame?

Look at the caricature closely, and then scroll down to read how it was drawn.

Where is the cheese...Captain Sparrow?

This was an easy caricature to do. Let us see why.

When you are trying to create a caricature of an actor in a persona that has several distinctive features and accessories, then if you focus on the accessories, you can create a likeness of the persona…and because the persona (in this case, Jack Sparrow) is recognized by every human, cat, and dog; you can rest your brush and sleep in peace!

Take the example of Jack Sparrow. Here’s a list of his distinctive features.

• The head-cloth/rag/band tied at one side,
• The long matted hair,
• The beard plaited into two,
• The beaded hair-rings (!)
• The blackened teeth,
• And of course, the kohled eyes!

If you just drew the first three and left everything else blank, I believe most of the humans at least would readily nod their heads and tell you that you’ve indeed sketched Jack Sparrow.

But then, that would be an average attempt, and you don’t seem to me a person who’d accept anything that’s not classy! So next, you’d need to create a likeness with the actor too. So look for the features that the makeup-man didn’t mess with – so what you have now is the nose and the mouth (notwithstanding the blackened teeth.)

Here’s what I did to create this caricature.

Studying Johnny Depp and Jack Sparrow Pictures:

I first studied some Jack Sparrow pictures and then some Johnny Depp pictures. The Jack Sparrow pictures helped me see the details of his accessories and told me a lot about his personality, and the JD pictures gave me a clear picture of his nose, his mouth, and the shape of his face.

Caricaturing the Eyes:

The eyes grew bigger than actual to accommodate the effect of the kohl and the expression of surprise (at the audacity of the mice, of course.) You can read about caricaturing the eye here.

Caricaturing the Shape of the Face:

I’d classify Johnny Depp’s face as pentagonal. So when I did his jaw-line, I pulled out the mirror points to exaggerate the pentagon. Read about caricaturing the shape of the human face here.

Caricaturing Jack Sparrow’s Costume, Accessories, and Overall Persona:

As I said earlier, the accessories become extremely important in characters such as these. Other examples of such characters are: Captain Hook (with the Peter Pan connection) and Agent Smith (of the Matrix Trilogy.)
So…
The head ornament became a butterfly (it brings in a humorous contradiction with a pirate’s personality,) and a huge nut got added to the string of beads that hangs from his matted hair. The twin beard plaits became thicker and more prominent too.

The Joke in the Caricature:

Remember that a caricaturist need not stop at creating a visual caricature. Use words to your advantage. Also remember that a story makes a caricature more interesting and lively.
The concept that mothered the joke in this caricature was the slovenly (and unhygienic) look of Jack Sparrow. Such a man would be quite capable of hiding his cheese behind his ear and the mice would be his constant companions. Voila, two cute little mice jumped out of my pencil and began climbing his beard!

So, that was how the Johnny Depp – Jack Sparrow caricature came to be.

Next in this Series >> How to Draw Tiger Woods, his Women, and the Devil!

If you want to learn the nuances of creating caricatures in a fun and easy to learn way, you would like to read, “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist.“

Caricature/Cartoon – Tom Hanks – The Cast Away or Robert Langdon?

Was Robert Langdon Cast Away? Or did Tom Hanks become Robert Langdon after he was Cast Away?

Someone please help the pups!

Same Guy?

In his recent movies, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Tom Hanks plays the role of Professor Robert Langdon, who teaches Symbology whenever he finds time from his sabbaticals in Europe (the seat of all symbological trouble.) In Dan Brown‘s new Novel, The Lost Symbol, Langdon is closer home, burying his nose into masonic issues of symbolic proportions.

Among the Tom Hanks movies that I’ve watched two made a strong impression on me. One was The Green Mile, and the other Cast Away. The Green Mile made me wonder how he could convey such strength of feeling through a character molded in passivity. The Cast Away was a movie that I saw at the second inflection point in my life – it helped me by reinstating my faith in what humans can achieve.

Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia, and in 1994 for his role in Forest Gump.

Nineteen of his films raked in more than $100 million (per film), which obviously makes him the biggest Hollywood star of today.

Here are some other info-bytes about Tom Hanks.

• He is a supporter of gay marriages.
• He once wanted to be an astronaut (not a caricaturist, mind you.)
• Tom Hanks loves old typewriters, baseball, and many other things that you could discover on his myspace page.

Also check out these two links.

• Tom Hanks profile at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Wikipedia Entry on Tom Hanks

If you’d like to figure out whether Tom Hanks is related to you, here is his family tree.
If you call yourself a Tom Hanks fan, take this quiz!

Update: April 16, 2010:

Is Robert Langdon Gay?

A search string that brought a visitor to my blog, prompted this update:-)

Well…I believe that Robert Langdon isn’t “just” gay. He might be a bisexual – but none of the books that he figures in, has anything to suggest that he is a gay.  In “Da Vinci Code” he ends up spending the night with the heroine of the book, and in “Angels & Demons” there were undercurrents suggesting that Langdon was attracted to Vittoria, the heroine! None of the books, including “The Lost Symbol” had anything indicating that Robert Langdon could be gay!

The List of Celebrities whose Caricatures Grace this Blog…so far:-)

As many of my visitors would know, I started this blog sometime in the middle of December 2010. Since then, I’ve added quite a few Celebrity Caricatures to it. The regular visitors have probably seen them all, but I wouldn’t want my new visitors to miss out on the treats:) So here’s a consolidated list for your viewing delight.

1. Gorgeous George Clooney’s Impeccable Hairstyle
2. Julia Roberts – The Pretty Woman’s Dazzling Smile helps the Rodent Household!
3. Pamela Anderson (Lee)…the Fish, and the Missing Fish-bowls
4. Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft – The Tomb Raider
5. Brad Pitt and Achilles’ Dilemma in Troy
6. Avatar – A Visual/Verbal Caricature
7. Bruce Willis – the Unbreakable, and the Die Hard Woodpecker.
8. Jack Nicholson and the Two Birds – As Good as it Gets!
9. Morgan Freeman a.k.a Detective Alex Cross and… The Two Dueling Mosquitoes.
10. Michelle Obama – The First Lady’s Smile & The Toothpaste Ad!
11. Barack Obama – What worries him? The Pups Know – Sasha, Malia, and Bo!
12. Nicole Kidman, Her Nose and the Bloodhounds!
13. Tiger Woods, Women, Nike, and Devil!
14. Halle Berry, her Hairstyle, and the Birds!
15. Johnny Depp – Captain Jack Sparrow – The Pirate!

Another Caricature of a Forever Celebrity graced this blog recently (The Pierced, Tattooed, Dermal-Implanted, and Otherwise Modified Human’s Unique Selling Proposition!)

If you liked my caricatures and if you’d like to make caricatures too…my Book – “How to Draw Caricatures – Evolution of a Caricaturist” , which I am publishing as a collection of knols, should interest you. If you are interested…do visit. You can also read more about this book in “The Book” section of this blog. Your comments shall be appreciated.

Caricature/Cartoon – The Pierced, Tattooed, Dermal-Implanted, and Otherwise Modified Human’s Unique Selling Proposition!

This caricature was inspired by Mr. Don Mills’ blog, “The Problem with Young People today is…” and more specifically by his post, “God Damned Teenagers and Their Pierced Noses Make Me Crazy!”

I am Unique!

So, what all have you got pierced? Your ears? Your nose? Your upper lip? Your lower lip? Your tongue? Your eyebrows? Anything else of the unmentionable variety in the nether regions?

Primarily tribal in origin (lip piercing and stretching common in the African and American tribal culture/nose-piercing common among the Indian tribals/Septum piercing among the Aztecs, the Mayans…and so on and so forth,) Piercings and other kinds of body modification techniques are making a comeback…especially in the West.

The body piercing movement in the US gained ground in 1990s. According to Wikipedia, a survey in England too found that 10% of those above 16 had body piercings in places other than their ear lobes.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The most commonly cited reasons for piercings are: religious beliefs and self-expression. “I was born to look like everyone else – but I wanted to look different! Piercings, Tattoos, and even dermal implants make me unique!”

Fantastic! Unique, with a uniqueness quotient of 10%!

And Tattoos?

They are considered to be marks of status and religion. They are also thought to have magical properties. No Wonder about a third of the world population has had a tattoo of some kind.  Please take this information with a pinch of ink, because I’ve misplaced the source!

So here is an interesting fun fact about Piercings:

The Most Pierced Woman in the World is Elaine Davidson. As of Feb 2009, she had more than 6000 piercings, and lugs about 3 kilograms of jewelery, nicely distributed upon her person. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.  What we need to note is that in May 2000, she had 462 piercings, and this number ballooned to more than 6000 in the years that followed her discovery by the media.

Caricature/Cartoon – Julia Roberts – The Pretty Woman’s Dazzling Smile helps the Rodent Household!

Of course, you’ve seen this smile before. But did you know that her dazzling smile could help Mr. and Mrs. Mouse get over their electricity woes.

Julia Roberts has many reasons to smile. She’s one of the prettiest women in the world, she was one of the best-paid actresses in Hollywood, she won an Academy Award (for her performance in Erin Brockovitch,) and in 2007 (according to Wikipedia) her estimated net worth was $140M. She also made to the list of the “50 Most Beautiful People” by People Magazine, 11(!) times, and 2001, Ladies Home Journal voted her the 11th most powerful woman in the world! All these reasons put together could make Hitler win the Best Smile contest – leave aside Ms. Roberts, who has a spontaneous smile:)

Here are my favorite Julia Roberts Movies:

• Pretty Woman (with Richard Gere.)
• Sleeping with the Enemy (with Patrick Burgin – the psycho husband.)
• The Pelican Brief (with Denzel Washington – The movie’s based on an extremely readable book by John Grisham – Do read it.)
• My Best Friend’s Wedding (with Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett.)
• Erin Brockovitch (with David Brisbin and Erin Brockovich-Ellis (Yes, the real Erin Brockovitch, who played the part of the waitress.) (Read the real Erin Brockovitch story. )

Julia Roberts’ smile is almost as famous as the MonaLisa smile…but do you really know her smile? Find out here.

Download the Printable Julia Roberts Hollywood Celebrities Calendar for 2010.

Caricature/Cartoon – Pamela Anderson (Lee)…the Fish, and the Missing Fish-bowls.

These fish are confident that those aren’t “Pancho” and “Lefty”…or if they are, they are also their erstwhile homes!

They aren't Pancho and Lefty!

Pamela Anderson, the evergreen model, actress, and sex-symbol, was born Pamela Denise Anderson in 1967. Pamela’s popularity, among other things (most not known to me,) result from her incredible twin assets. In fact, while for most celebrities the caricaturists look for their characteristic facial features that they could exaggerate; with Pamela, ignoring her non-facial features would probably be an insult. But then, you can’t ignore her wild hair too.

Our newspaper brings along eight pages of gossip – and a recent, drab bit of such gossip says that these days Pamela is living in a trailer that’s parked in her own lawn, so that she doesn’t distract the renovators of her house and cause accidents!

Here are some other factoids about Pamela Anderson:

• She tried staying married to Tommy Lee. Some of their home-videos of the saucy kind escaped into the cyber-space.
• She appeared in the role of Casey Jean Parker in the Baywatch serial and helped save souls!
• In the 1990 Feb Issue of the Playboy magazine, Pamela appeared in the centerfold (having been chosen the Playmate of the Month.)
• After 14 years, she returned in nude on the cover of the Playboy magazine’s May 2004 issue. (Yes, I am not providing a link here – go, find it yourself:-)

After the Juicy Gossip…now something else!

• She’s a vegetarian.
• She’s an active member of PETA (Of course – who could be a better model for the “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign.)
• She also wrote to President Obama for the legalization of marijuana.
  (These factoids are credited to Wikipedia.)

Finally, she’s also one of the pioneers of cosmetic surgery. She’s done for this industry more than any other woman. But then, the fish can’t be wrong…can they? After all glass is silicon, and so are the implants!

(Short link for this post: http://wp.me/pJgyP-5G)

Download the Pamela Anderson and the Missing Fishbowls Hollywood Celebrities Calendar for 2010 here.

Celebrity Calendars 2010 Unveiled!

You did want a copy of that caricature of Johnny Depp…didn’t you? Or did you want Nicole Kidman’s? Or…Bruce Willis’? Or…Jack Nicholson‘s?

I’ll tell you about my selection:-)
The Jack Nicholson calendar graces my pin-board in office and Bruce Willis and his woodpeckers smile down upon me at home:-)

If you want your favorite celebrity to make you smile through those tough moments at work, find him or her at Celebrity Calendars. Just click here, then select your favorite Hollywood Actor, Musician, Singer, or Sports Personality; and click their link to download their calendars. Feel free to distribute the prints – Spread the Smile!

These calendars are in pdf format with crisp images, so you’ll get lovely prints:) For added beauty, use a lightly colored paper.

This list is growing:-) so you may want to check every week to see whether your favorite celebrity calendar has been added.

The next on my Caricature hit list is none other than the Eyeball-Magnet, Ms. Pamela Anderson! Do return for your share of smiles:-)

Caricature/Cartoon – Bruce Willis, the Unbreakable, and the Die Hard Woodpecker.

Bruce Willis – The Unbreakable!

Unbreakable – Eh?!

I had watched the first three Die Hard Movies before I watch The Sixth Sense, when Bruce Willis catapulted to the top of my Hollywood favorites list. Somewhere around the same time I saw “The Unbreakable” – Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. I think that both these movies (the Sixth Sense and the Unbreakable) were directed by Manoj “Night” Shyamalan. So one thing led to another, and I became a fan of Shyamalan’s work too – until I saw “The Village“, which made me wonder whether Shyamalan could weave his magic only through Bruce Willis!

Here are some other interesting links.

• Learning from Die Hard
• Bruce Willis Fan-site
  
• Manoj “Night” Shyamalan’s Website (Interesting – but dark!)

Coming up shortly…Celebrity Caricature Calendars of the printable sort! Do return for your copy.

News Flash – Calendars are Up!
Download Bruce Willis’ Printable Calendar pdf here.
(Opens in New Window and includes a crisp print-quality image of this caricature.)

List of Celebrity Caricatures/Cartoons Drawn Last Month!

This is the list of celebrity caricatures that I created in the past month. I thought that creating this list could help the new visitors find their favorite celebrity drawing with ease.

1. Jack Nicholson and the Two Birds – As Good as it Gets!
2. Morgan Freeman a.k.a Detective Alex Cross and… The Two Dueling Mosquitoes.
3. Michelle Obama – The First Lady’s Smile & The Toothpaste Ad!
4. Barack Obama – What worries him? The Pups Know – Sasha, Malia, and Bo!
5. Nicole Kidman, Her Nose and the Bloodhounds!
6. Tiger Woods, Women, Nike, and Devil!
7. Halle Berry, her Hairstyle, and the Birds!
8. Johnny Depp – Captain Jack Sparrow – The Pirate!

I am planning to add the caricature/cartoon of Bruce Willis shortly:) So stay tuned. (It’s been added:-) View it here.)

I am also writing an evolving Book – “How to Draw Caricatures – Evolution of a Caricaturist” as a collection of knols. If you are interested…do visit. You can also read more about this book in “The Book” section of this blog. Your comments shall be appreciated.