Aug 30 2010

A Personal Post – for Friends.

Hello Friends,

I am off to watch Avatar in 3D. Though I did this caricature of the Avatar many months ago – I did it from the perspective of a person who hadn’t watched the movie…I intend to another, maybe Neytiri‘s, after I’ve watched the movie:) Let’s see what comes out of it.

I am going to be busy for a few days, but I have Edward Norton‘s caricature stashed away and I think it’s one of my better ones – but I’ll let you be the judge.

I also want to write a Thank You Note to all the visitors to this blog, and all the readers of my book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. As I had said in one of my ancient personal posts, I started this blog because it had been a while that I had smiled. This blog gave me an opportunity to do something that I love doing without being under any sort of pressure – and it was fun.

The book helped me demystify caricature-drawing by breaking it down into a process. I believe that if you can draw, you can draw anything. I didn’t do caricatures until last year – I used to do portraits – but then one day I decided to do one – I could do it. So I began to analyze my process as I drew caricatures, and it resulted in this book.

The book has had more than 16000 views, which is an excellent number, especially for a book for something as niche as caricatures! I am happy that people are reading it and suggesting it to their friends:) Keep doing it…the book is free. It’ll be published as a hardcopy with a lot of interesting additions, but this basic version will always remain free:)

——Avatar Movie Interruption ——

Well, I saved the draft of this post, and I am completing it now, after having watched the movie. I will write about my movie experience when I post Neytiri’s caricature. You might want to checkout my Avatar Caricature here, but I assure you that it isn’t Neytiri’s!

Meanwhile, enjoy Ajay’s story for the Story-in-the-Caricature Blog Carnival, and wonder how a small, apparently insignificant event can change the course of one’s life!

If you haven’t read the other Carnival stories, here they are:

Dungeons & Dragons by Vivienne Tuffnell
Crime Never Pays by Dewey Dewster
Player to Pawn…Player to Pawn – You’ve been Duped by Oorvi

The formal Announcement Post for the August Carnival Participation shall go up on September 1, 2010! So, if there’s a story brewing up there…you’ve still got another day:)

Smile…

Better still…

DRAW to SMILE!

Regards,

Shafali the Caricaturist.

Jul 18 2010

I write like…

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I tried analyzing my writing for the post:

Caricature/Cartoon of Avatar – The Story – A Verbal Caricature

Try http://iwl.me/ to find out who you write like:) It’s fun, and very very motivating!

And now I need to read David Foster Wallace. The bad news is he died young (1962 – 2008.)

Mar 5 2010

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.

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.

Jan 26 2010

Caricature/Cartoon of Avatar – The Story – A Verbal Caricature

Do you find the Na’vi men handsome?

Look into my Eyes!

I haven’t seen Avatar yet. Somehow the prospects of watching a human fall in love with a 10 ft blue-skinned “beauty” through his genetically engineered avatar don’t appeal to me. This of course isn’t everything about the movie and so I am confident that the other great things about it will motivate me into watching it. Avatar, a James Cameron movie has beat the record of Titanic in revenues, and it has used a variety of hi-tech multimedia effects. They say that the Avatar imagery outshines everything that we’ve ever seen before.

Here’s a quick verbal caricature of the story (Don’t read if you haven’t watched the movie yet.)

Avatar – A Verbal Caricature of the Movie (from Whatever I’ve read and heard!)

About a century and a half from now, the rapacious humans have exhausted Earth’s natural resources, and have somehow (don’t ask me how) found another place to exploit. It is the moon in the Alpha Centauri Star system, and is aptly named Pandora. Humans, like Terriers, love to dig, and so they dig in Pandora, to obtain Unobtainium (and they succeed! Remember, Nothing is Impossible.) But then there are others. These others are called Na’vis and they are blue-skinned, slim, and about 10 feet tall – this obviously makes me wonder what the bending moment of these Na’vis is?

Never mind their long, lithe bodies – they are the mix of the primitive and the evolved. And so it isn’t easy for the Humans to obtain Unobtainium on a sustained basis, as the Na’vi resist them (and also because the finicky humans can’t breathe in the Pandora’s box.) So the humans do what they do best. They use their usual underhand espionage tactics and slip in as genetically engineered avatars controlled by real humans through their minds – this is where I smell a bit of the Matrix concept – but as “an idea cannot be copyrighted, only its expression can be,” I am sure nobody would be suing Mr. Cameron.

Anyway, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is found worthy of being sent out in form of a blue-skinned, 10 ft, alien. After some twists and turns of the Hollywood movie variety, he’s “rescued” by a beautiful Neytiri (Zoe Saldana,) the lovely Na’vi princess who he falls in love with. (Now that’s something that doesn’t connect. If I play the part of a mouse in a movie, will I fall in love with a real mouse?)

Next there are more twists and turns, which you can read about here. The important point to note is that in the end, Jake happily becomes the new leader of the Na’vi tribe and his Na’vi avatar is made permanent by the blue-skinned, 10 ft, aliens! I don’t know how he jumped and swung from tree to tree (Someone tell me that this swinging/flying doesn’t look like “Tarzan” or “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” variety! If my height doubled, I won’t even be able to walk!)

All said and done, if this movie has beat the world’s ever highest grosser Titanic, it must be good, and the Na’vis must be beautiful!

PS: The blue bodies, the “avatar”, and Neytiri…all make me think that James Cameron has read some Hindu Mythology as well. Ever wonder why his script was exiled into his cupboard for 14 (no more, no less, but 14 years)? The exact period of Rama’s exile? And Na’vi? It means – New, in many Indian Languages:-)

Ain’t those Na’vi men Handsome?

Update: March 14, 2010:

When I created and posted this caricature, I didn’t expect these many searches for “Neytiri Naked” to end up on this page! I can understand the disappointment that these starry-eyed, steamy-breathed bounty-hunters must feel when our self-proclaimed Handsome Na’vi Avatar sneers at them from this page!

The continuation of the thought that resulted in the verbal caricature makes me wonder why we are so keen on seeing what a female alien looks like naked? (There wasn’t a single search for the male Na’vi avatar naked!) I guess those searchers and researchers must’ve somehow guessed that Neytiri was actually a vertically stretched human called Zoe Saldana, with blue paint all over her body! Only that could explain those searches – otherwise, why wouldn’t we search for naked Guerilla, naked chimpanzee, and so on, and so forth!…the Caricaturist wonders!

Well, for those who are keen on the Male Na’vi (Women visitors, come forward,) I’ve uploaded the calendar.

Download Na’vi Avatar in Jame’s Cameron’s Avatar 3D Character Printable Calendar for 2010.