The Caricaturist belly-lands…Crash, boink, boink, boink, scrreeeeeech…ooof!

Dear Readers of Every-kind,

I am back from the past. Here’s what’s been happening since my return.

The Caricaturist’s Hit List Leaked – Causes Bad-blood!

Tom Cruise, and Leonardo DiCaprio weren’t there at the Time-Portal to welcome me home. In fact, I also didn’t see Demi Moore, Penelope Cruz, and Madonna among those who had gathered to welcome me to this timeline. I don’t blame them. I know that your love for me might make you angry at all these actors, I’d request you to exercise restraint. They have a valid reason to feel unhappy about my return – they have found out that they are on the Caricaturist’s Hit-list.

Before you ask my why I didn’t contract Pricewaterhouse-Coopers to keep the list secure, I must remind you that this Caricaturist is the first of The 4 Types of Artists, and that PwC’s price-tag was a tad higher than I was willing to shell out. Nevertheless, I am not concerned. Other than these four, everyone else who’s anyone was there with bouquets of roses (thorns included), boxes of candies, and of course with requests that I shouldn’t caricature them, if possible.

Anonymous Reader and Commentator Makes my Day with a Minus 5 Rating!

… with an Ultra-Caustic review of my Free eBook at Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
Phew! Never thought that I’d get a 2 Star on a book that 4 NON-anonymous readers gave me 5 Stars for! But then I understand that just the way some people who like to donate anonymously, some like to comment anonymously. I appreciate the witticism in the comment, which goes as follows:

“Forgot 5th type of artist…Really bad self-published ones. Don’t waste your time. -5* – By Anonymous”

Hey! Does it say “-5*”?!! *Minus 5 Star”??!!! Oh Boy! I hope that the book didn’t cause any sort of fatal injury to the reader. I mean how terrible the experience must have been! I wish my Zeta reader tons of luck for recuperation. Now, if you are strong enough to stomach the contents of my awful, awful, awful book, check it out here.

If you disagree with my sweet anonymous commentator, will you please make another comment with your persona identified?

I must also mention that this anonymous commentator had the distinction of being the first of his (or her) kind, and so I mention the comment here. All other anonymous comments shall be royally ignored as I tap into the last drops of royal blood in my veins.

On smashwords however this book along with its sister book “The 5Ps of Creativity”, appears on the first page of the highest rated Free books in the Entertainment category. Don’t believe it? Well, here’s the link:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/category/87/highlyrated/0/free/any

Thank you, dear readers, for putting it there.

In the meantime, I invite my blog-readers to share their experiences with anonymous comments. They say that happiness grows when shared…or was it that sorrow reduces…

And finally, I bring you…

The Toony Pretzels – Cartoons with a funny aftertaste!

Well…well! The cat’s out of the bag, the mouse is out of the trap, and the mystery of those missing blogging hours is solved!

I’ve re-discovered my lost love for cartooning, thanks to the Great Ajit Ninan. There’s a lot I need to learn…but then quite like any other artist, I can’t wait to post my cartoons…so don’t go away…I’ll be back after a short break 🙂

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Caricature Gallery Updated with 15 Recent Drawings!

Dear Friends,

I’ve updated the Caricature Gallery with new caricatures in almost all sections. If you’ve begun to visit my blog recently, you might not have seen the caricatures that I’ve uploaded since November 2010, as they were not there in the Gallery until now.

The Celebrity Caricatures that have been added to the gallery include:

• Troy Polamalu
• Charlie Sheen
• Keanu Reeves
• AR Rahman
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Oprah Winfrey
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Sherlock Holmes
• Julius Caesar
• Monalisa (yes, hers too.)

The additions to the gallery also include:

• the Pen and Ink Drawing of an extremely resourceful terrier HH Dewey Dewster of Pawsylvania and
• a Polymer Clay caricature of the Devil.

So please visit the Caricature Gallery to view the recent additions (which appear towards the end of each section.)

Smiles,
Shafali

The Caricaturist Returns from Atlantis – with Fins and Gills!

I see that the blog has been as active as ever  and that the caricatures have been doing their bit to keep this place busy. Thank you my Dear Caricatures. My special thanks to:

• Amitabh Bachchan – Bollywood’s most caring father,
• Lady Gaga – The Meat-y Material Lady,
• Troy Polamalu – The Steeler with a heart of gold,
• Queen Elizabeth II, and her Crown… and…
• Brad Pitt, The Achilles of Troy!

This morning, I found myself bobbing up and down in the swimming pool of Hyatt Regency. I was semi-conscious and dressed in what can best be described an aquatic gear. But what the staff at the hotel truly found surprising was that I had sprouted fins and gills. I guess it comes from spending the last two weeks in the City of Atlantis. The fins and the gills are gradually reducing in size…even the webs that had grown between my fingers are shrinking! This means that I should be able to draw more caricatures soon!

More later…I am still not able to breathe properly in dry air, I need to dunk my head in a water jar to get my oxygen…

See you soon:)

The Final Chapter of the Book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” has been Written!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Hello Readers and Visitors,

I’ve posted the final chapter of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. This chapter is titled, “The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature,” and it’s about increasing the “stickiness” of your caricature by adding a visual story to it.

With this chapter, the book ends on Knol. As I mentioned earlier, I would love to get it published through the print route and I’ve been trying to figure out how. I’ve been weighing the option of self-publishing but I am not sure if I should go for it…especially as there’ve been a couple of inquiries from some cybernetic well-wishers. I’m going to swim along with the current and so if you want to send any inquiries/information, or even good wishes my way – you are welcome!

I have plans of including a lot of other stuff in the printed/formally published version, but I believe that if you want to truly develop the ability to caricature, the online version of it should be sufficient to put you on the fast track.

 

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears
• Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose
• Chapter 12 – The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature!

With this chapter, one of my projects come to an end. I had hoped to complete it last year, but with food-on-the-table work occupying about 90% of my waking moments, I just didn’t find the time. I hope that the regular readers of this book will forgive this lapse and enjoy the final chapter 🙂

A Request:

If you’ve read this book, I’d like to ask you what you’d like to see included in its printed version. Please send me an email at my email id, which is DrawToSmile[at]gmail[dot]com.

And a Note of Thanks too 🙂

The book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” was visited more than 30,000 times in 2010. Some readers left comments, some sent me emails, and a few sent me the caricatures that they had drawn using the methods that were discussed in the book.

I would like to thank you all – for your visits, your comments, your emails, and your drawings. You were there watching me. Whenever I felt tired and wanted to give up, you did something to inspire me. You don’t remember it – but you were there, telling me that if I wrote another chapter it’ll help you DRAW TO SMILE 🙂

So…

A BIG THANK YOU!

Caricature/Cartoon – Sarah Jessica Parker – The Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City.

Know Sarah Jessica Parker?
No?
Know Carrie Bradshaw?
Of course.

Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City brought her four Golden Globes and many other awards. She is also a Hollywood Actress who has worked in a movie by the same name (SATC) and many other films.

The Caricature, Cartoon, Portrait, Sketch of Sarah Jessica Parker, the Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City - SATC

Short biography of Sarah Jessica Parker:

Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Ohio (1965) and had 8 siblings of the half and the full kind. The interesting but unfortunate bit about her lineage is that Esther Elwell, one of the women who was accused of being a witch and tried in the Salem witch trials, was her ancestor. She began acting at a very early age. Her career swung upwards in 1990s and she starred opposite Nicholas Cage, Bruce Willis, and Johnny Depp too!

However, she’s best known for her role as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, which was first aired in 1998. Sex and the City was an HBO sitcom, which brought her awards and fame.

Sarah has also endorsed some important brands (Garnier, Gap…) and in 2005, she even released her own perfume called, “Lovely”.

Her lovelife between 1984 and 1991 was centered on Robert Downey, Jr. (Something that I can’t understand is how can someone go through his whole life lugging someone else’s name with a Junior attached to it! I guess this must’ve been the real reason behind Downey’s drug problem, which ultimately terminated his relationship with Ms. Parker.) In 1997, she married Matthew Broderick.

Sarah Jessica Parker in News:

“I Don’t Know How She Does It” a movie based on a book by Allison Pearson will feature Sarah starring opposite Pierce Brosnan. The movie is expected to be in theaters by 2012. SJP plays a finance executive who is the breadwinner for her family, which includes her husband and children.

Read about it here.
Sarah J Parker made it to the top of the ugliest women list published by the Men’s Magazine Maxim. However, not everyone agrees – she’s got boat-loads of fans who think she’s witty and charming. (Remember something about beauty being skin-deep? This is especially true when men sit down to assess beauty!)
Read a fan’s take on Maxim’s listing here .

Sarah Jessica Parker Quotes:

Here’s a really cool SJP quote:
“After all, computers crash, people die, relationships fall apart. The best we can do is breath and reboot.”
and another one…
“I like my money right where I can see it… hanging in my closet.”
and finally…
“Can you really forgive if you can’t forget?”

The woman has a head on her shoulders…right?
read more Sarah J. Parker quotes here.

Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose – Published!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Hello Friends,

I am pleased to present the 11th chapter “Caricaturing the Nose” of “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. This chapter focuses on the human nose, which for a caricaturist, is the most interesting feature of the human face.  This chapter has been posted after a hiatus – a break of about 2.5 months, which I believe is a long wait for a sincere reader. I apologize to my readers.

I should also tell you that the book is now about to end – at least on the Knol.  A more detailed and slightly expanded version of the book will become available in the market soon. Nevertheless, I am striving to include all the essentials in this book – so we would be seeing at least one more chapter before I write its conclusion.

 

Here’s a list of all the chapters in the book so far.

 

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

 

 

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears
• Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose

I hope you find this book useful.

All the Best and Thank You!

And remember…you should…

DRAW to SMILE!

Caricature/Cartoon – Edward Norton (Aaron or Roy?) – Primal Fear!

Presenting the Caricature of Edward Norton (The Aaron Stampler of Primal Fear!)

Who Am I? Aaron or Roy?!

Edward Norton’s Shortest Biography on the Web:

Edward Norton an American Hollywood actor who gained prominence for his role in the movie, Primal Fear, was born in 1969. Norton’s mom was a teacher of English and his father is an environmental lawyer. Norton himself is engaged in various environmental activities. Norton began acting in 1993, but he got his first major break in Primal fear, in which he acted alongside Richard Gere. He was awarded the Golden Globe award for his performance in this movie and he also won an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Incidentally, this role was earlier turned down by Leonardo Dicaprio.

Norton is known to play gray characters. The type-casting probably began with his role in Primal fear.

Edward Norton Movies:

His Important performances were in the movies:

• Primal Fear
• American History X (for which he gained about 14 kgs.)
• Kingdom of Heaven
• The Illusionist
• The Painted Veil
• The Incredible Hulk

The Women in Edward Norton’s Life:

• Singer Courtney Love (3 years, 1996-99)
• Actress Salma Hayek (4 years, 1999-03)

Currently he appears to be Unattached!

Edward Norton Quotes:

• I don’t smoke and I don’t want to smoke. I am not a fan of gratuitous smoking in films.
• Fame is very corrosive and you have to guard very strictly against it.
• All people are paradoxical. No one is easily reducible, so I like characters who have contradictory impulses or shades of ambiguity. It’s fun, and it’s fun because it’s hard.
• If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I’m gonna have a heart attack.

Chapter 10 – How to Draw Caricatures – Caricaturing the Ears- Published!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Dear Readers,

The 10th Chapter of the Free Online Caricature Drawing Book,  “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist” is online now. The book is almost complete. We will be discussing the most important feature (the Nose, what else?) in the 11th chapter. The book is going to have 14 chapters, in all.

This chapter, “Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears” begins by classifying the human ear on the basis of its size, angle, and shape. It then discusses the structure of the human ear from the caricaturist’s viewpoint, enabling you to become comfortable not just with caricaturing the ear, but also drawing it without exaggeration. Finally, the chapter uses two examples to illustrates how the human ear can be caricatured.

If this is the first time that you’ve come across this book, the following links will help you explore it chronologically.

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears

The readership of this book is growing and I am glad that it’s being received well by the young artists who want to venture into this somewhat mysterious field of caricature-drawing.

I’d like to end this note by saying that if you are a regular reader of this book, comment on it and let me know if there’s anything else that you’d like to see in it. I hope to complete the book sometime early next month…this is the time to tell me if you’d like an additional chapter or two, on something that could make this book more useful to you:)

And now, Find a pencil and a paper – and

D R A W      T O      S M I L E   !

– Shafali

Shafali’s Caricatures on YouTube – Thank you Nancy!

I’d never have made it to YouTube.

I wouldn’t even have made a Slide Show – because I just don’t know how to…

And now, I don’t know how to thank Nancy (Dewey Dewster‘s Gram:-)) for creating this beautiful Slide-Show with my caricatures.

Nancy, it was the sweetest surprise I’ve got in a long-long time:) It is beautiful!

THANK YOU!

Chapter 9 – How to Draw Caricatures – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair – Published.

Some of my readers are closely following the evolution of my Free Online book “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist”. They would be happy to know that the next chapter of this book, “Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair” went online today.

This chapter discusses the different types of foreheads, hairline, and hair (or the absence of it.) It also enables you to identify the elements that should be exaggerated in this higher (hairier?) arena of the human anatomy.

 

If this book is new to you, the following links could help you explore it.

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair

This book has been witnessing a growth in its readership. With more than 10,000 views for a topic of such selective interest, I couldn’t have asked for more:) Thanks!

I hope to soon post Ben Kingsley’s Caricature in his avatar of Gandhi:) And the “soon” could be as early as tomorrow morning. I’ve also created a very interesting caricature that you might want to write a story about…

– Shafali

The Caricaturist – Behind-the-Scene, The Caricature Drawing Book, The Upcoming Celebrity Caricatures and Calendars, and Permission to Use Shafali’s Caricatures.

Dear Readers and Visitors,

Thanks for visiting:) Without visitors no blogger can remain charged – especially not the artistic kind! Your visits are the source of my motivation – your smiles inspire me to do better.

This is a personal post, so if you are looking for caricatures, feel free to skip this. The whole idea behind this post is to tell the serious followers of this blog about the behind-the-scene going-ons.

News – The Book – The Evolution of a Caricaturist!

Do you want the good news first or the bad?
Let’s look at it like this – if you know that all you can have is burnt bread and delicious cake, and if you have to eat both, which would you like to eat first?

Ah…I knew. So here’s the burnt bread!
Some of you know that I am writing a book and publishing it on Google Knol. I’ve already published four chapters, but due to some non-artistic back-breaking work on the personal front, I haven’t been able to publish the fifth chapter so far (I intended to add the chapters on a weekly-basis.)

Now the delicious, aromatic cake.
The good news is that the book is half-complete. I’ve written 9 chapters in my notebook! By the end of next week, you will be able to read two more chapters:-)

About the Celebrity Calendars…

I’ve already added the Celebrity Calendars and many of my dear readers have downloaded them – thanks! The Celeb-Calendars shall be added once a month.

About the Upcoming Caricatures…

George Clooney and Julia Roberts will be appearing on your favorite caricature blog very soon! Do return for your share of smiles:)

And…About the Permission to Use Shafali’s Caricatures:-)

I’d also like to re-state that unless specifically stated, all caricatures on this blog can be used by you for any non-commercial purpose. Let’s understand this –

You’ve got a blog/website and you feel that one of these caricatures could add value to your post – go ahead use it. Just don’t change the image or remove the copyright information given on the borders. This way it’s a win-win for both of us:-)

Spread the Smile!

Caricaturist Neil K Kempsell’s Work

Neil K Kempsell’s gallery can be found at http://www.mycaricatures.co.uk/ He’s great at bringing out the expressions that characterize the subjects of his caricatures. What first took me to his site was this caricature of Jack Nicholson.

(Note Added on January 15, 2010: Please view my attempt at Jack Nicholson’s caricature here.)

His Celebrity Caricatures can be found here.

Kempsell not only creates caricatures, he’s also a prolific cartoonist. View his cartoons here.

I’ll be posting the result of my own Celebrity Caricature drawing effort (Nicole Kidman) tomorrow. Will you please visit again:)

Caricature – Halle Berry & The Birds

Halle Berry is one of my favorite women actors in Hollywood. The messy hair look was just fantastic – and it inspired this caricature!

Wonderful place to bring up your chicks!

A symbol of Halle Berry’s benevolence towards our avian friends?

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