Kentucky Derby, The American Pharaoh, and Jimmy Fallon’s Puppy Predictors!

Saturday was a big day!

1. Floyd Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao in what is being called the “Fight of the Century.”
   
2. Kate Middleton and Prince William had another child, a royal baby girl, which is now fourth in the line for the British crown.
3. The American Pharaoh won the Kentucky Derby, an event that was accurately predicted by Jimmy Fallon and his super cute pups on the Tonight show!

Without contest, the third news-byte is the best! A dog predicts the outcome of the Kentucky Derby a week in advance? Now that’s something, isn’t it? How many astrologers got it right? I have no idea, nor am I interested in finding out. All I am going to do before the next Derby is watch Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show and hope that he and his pups repeat their performance.

Come to think of it – I always liked Jimmy Fallon. In fact, since after his recent astrological feat, I have begun to like him better than Jay Leno.

The Kentucky Derby winner American Pharaoh…or not.

If you haven’t seen the video of the predicting pups, you’ve missed something; and if you had watched the Tonight Show with the predicting pups and failed to act on their advice, you’ve missed a lot! I don’t really want to rub it in, but just think about it…if you had taken the pups seriously…you could’ve struck it rich. Perhaps not as rich as Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao, who despite losing the fight, goes home $200 Million richer; nor as rich as Kate Middleton and Prince William who takes home another royal baby – but rich enough.

Readers, we’ve got to take pup-predictors very seriously. This evening, I am going to use my month’s savings to buy my dog a silk cushion and a crystal ball. What are you going to do?

PS:

Speaking of the royal couple, I am reminded of the caricature that I did for the royal couple (seen here on this royal wedding invitation card.) Oh…I suddenly realized that it’s been just four years since their wedding…and they’ve already produced two additional heirs to the throne. A couple of hardworking royals…aren’t they?

Invitation for the Royal Wedding – 2011

I’ll see you again…with another work that I did recently…until then…get serious, watch some pup-predictors, and make money!

 

 

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My Children’s Illustrations Blog – A Place for the Impossibles!

Friends,

I’ve got a new corner on the web. If you are drawn towards the vibrant innocence of kids’ illustrations, check it out and while you are there click the Follow button too 🙂 Expected update frequency: Twice a week.

Please await news on The Evolution of a Caricaturist, which will soon be available on iPad, Android, and Kindle through Kindle eBooks.

Cover Art -The American Spectator Magazine July-August 2013 Issue.

I was earlier planning to post a caricature of Julia Gillard along with my story of why she resigned from her position as the Australian Prime-Minister, but when I received my copies of the American Spectator Magazine’s July-August issue, I couldn’t resist from sharing these pictures here.

Let me start by showing you the magazine.

The American Spectator – July-August Issue 2013 on my Desk. (Click to enlarge.)

The Story of the Cover’s Creation

When I heard from the magazine that they’d like me to do the cover for the July/Aug issue for them, I felt thrilled yet a bit anxious. A cover is, well, a COVER. I could live with having forgotten to paint those draw-strings on Red’s pajamas, but when an image is destined to become the cover of a magazine, it asks for a lot more dedication from the artist.

The requirement was – an American family of 1940s/50s, gathered around the radio. Sounds simple, right? Let us analyze.

An American family? That was easy. I am so completely into Hollywood movies, American News (CBS News is on my top-bar,) and American sitcoms that I often think of myself as a virtual American.

But an American family of 1940s/50s? I wasn’t even born in the 40s and 50s. In fact, my mom must have been a little girl back then. So, I had to research. I had to research the radio, the dresses, the toys, the papered walls, the floral couches, the pooch (who would’ve been a cocker-spaniel if my friend Nancy wouldn’t have told me that the middle-class family in those days would likely own a mutt and not a spainel,) and the colors that would make it look more like the 1940s.

So, upon receiving the requirement, I did my research, got it all into a sketch, and sent it over for approval. After they okayed it I began painting…and I did little more than paint for the next many many many hours. Eventually, a very tired, zombie-like me sent the artwork to the Magazine , plopped down on the bed and got ported to Atlantis. The next morning, I heard from them that they were happy with it. I took a small break from work and then returned to work on a Graphic-design project.

Then two days ago, I received the copies of the magazine. The cover looked even better than I thought it would. The Design team had done such a great job on it. The subtle, low-intensity colors in the Title, the subtitle, and the top and bottom bars integrate with the picture seamlessly. I was so happy when I looked at it that I decided to photograph it and post it along with the artwork.

Here’s the image closer up.

I’ll return with Ms. Gillard’s story soon 🙂 Until then keep drawing to smile.

Happy New Year 2013 – May this Year be different…

May this year surprise us by not bringing us news that makes us cringe and cry, that makes us feel sad and hopeless, and that makes us wonder whether the planet that we inhabit isn’t really turning into hell.

I wish that in this new year:

The politicians keep their promises,
The terrorists drop their guns,
The rapists are brought to justice,
The psychos get help before they murder innocents,
The religious fanatics turn rational and moderate,
The war-mongers lose their blood-lust, and
The fraudsters lose their greed!

and that everyone  finds happiness, health, and love.

Once in a while…this caricaturist too feels colorful…and Dogs do Rock!

I love black, and white, and gray. I like color, but only when I have to like it. If I were invisible to others, I’d wear black, and white, and gray. Here’s a bit of color for this colorless blog 🙂

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 – 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.

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.

Caricature – Barack Obama – What worries him? The Pups Know – Sasha, Malia, and Bo!

Click here to view the caricature of President Obama rejoicing upon winning his second term 🙂 (Posted on: November 09, 2012.)

 

The most powerful man in this world seems to have a lot on his mind.

What’s he thinking?

Think about it!

PS: Recapturing the illegible text in the callout.

“D’you know what’s on his mind? How’s that the most powerful man in this world is second to Sasha and Malia when it comes to managing Bo.”

Caricature – Darcy the Border Collie saved from Quarantine by his 9000 Supporters on Facebook!

Caricature of a dog?

Not of any dog, but of Darcy, who inspired 9000 facebook users to campaign for her release from quarantine. (He assisted in the search and rescue operation in Indonesia – and then upon her return, he was quarantined despite his tests being clear!) Read the story here.

Darcy Reflects upon his Career Options!

And why not?

The Noses – Nicole Kidman and the Bloodhounds!

What’s there in a nose?

A lot, if those attached to the noses are Nicole Kidman and the Bloodhounds.

Looks aren’t everything…especially with the Bloodhounds!

Didn’t sniff someone’s butt properly – did she?

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