Stuck to the Wall and Plugged into the Phone…

Warning: This is a nonsensical post I am making while I am half-asleep. Nonsensical posts are subject to weirdness risk.

I tried out the Pexel image library.

… … …

I have no idea how it happened but the photographer happened to be around when I got tired with all these trials and decided to doze off with my feet stuck to the wall.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

And here’s another picture of me on phone with my friend writer Barbara G. Tarn, as she guides me through the process of inserting Pexel images.

As you can see, even though you can’t hear, I’m still quite confused. My hairdo is a faux Ted Gibson, the makeup, an imitation Bobi Brown, and the dress screams for Brandon Maxwell’s attention. (My near-basic research tells me that Maxwell is Lady Gaga‘s Designer, but check out the picture at the link…shouldn’t he be a model instead?)

BTW, I have no idea how that NSFW picture of mine ended up in the Pexels image library.

Photo by Kamaji Ogino on Pexels.com

Now, finally, I’m ready for the plunge.

You, and only you know what happened to me.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

Bye!

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7 Googling Accidents – What they wanted and what they found.

There’s a saying that an empty mind is the devil’s workshop. Yesterday, my mind was empty, and so the devil rented it for a day, set up office, and went rummaging my stats.

This is what it found:

1. madurie dik shet necked pic

Either you know what that is or you don’t. The underside of being a screen-diva is that about half the world population wants to witness you in all your “necked” glory. It doesn’t matter if the diva is now past her prime, it doesn’t matter if she now wears the highly respectable shoes of an Indian mom, all they want it to see her “necked” pic. Now why a passionate search for such “pics” of Ms. Dik shet should bring someone to my blog is beyond my comprehension. I never sketched nor painted Ms. Dik shet, and I never draw necked pics. In fact, sometimes, even the mice I draw are either wearing diapers or at least a bandolier.

2. download images of scheching in acters

Scheching in acters? What is scheching?

• Scratching?
• Measles?
• A euphemism of something unspeakable?

Or could it be a euphemism for sketches? Aha. Perhaps it is. Glad I got it right. But why download such images, if not for the nefarious purpose of painting over another artist’s sketch. Over the years I’ve received odd requests. A lady wanted to “copy” my caricatures and sell them with my permission; a gentleman wanted to use a drawing to create a 3D model of the face with it, another young man wanted to use a caricature for his avatar. I come across bloggers using images of paintings that they found by googling in their blogposts – without a permission statement/declaration that it’s a free image.

3. +18 caricature stories

Now this is a 66 percent match! caricatures and stories you can find here but unfortunately the +18 stuff isn’t. (I presume +18 is the steamy stuff of the “necked” kind.) I am genuinely curious to find how that search-string was born. Do people really enjoy +18 stories drawn as caricatures? Perhaps they do. Years ago I heard of a comic that presented a certain bhabhi (elder brother’s wife,) a +18 super-woman who engaged in various +18 acts with a wide-range of men. I am not a caricaturist who does those kind of drawings. Sorry searcher. You’ve got to take your searches elsewhere.

4. pics of dirty and comedy indian people with name laxman

I’m lost again. Dirty and comedy Indian people with name Laxman? Specifically named Laxman? Huh? I know that dirty clothes can actually make you look funny (comedy) but only if the dirt tells a story. My blog isn’t about Laxman, nor about dirty and “comedy” people, and so I trust that this searcher didn’t find what he or she was looking for, at least on my blog. I wish the searcher luck and cleanliness.

5. death caricatures

What?
Are you really looking for caricatures of death? I am not sure if I’ve understood your requirement correctly. I also have a feeling that upon arriving on my blog, you felt cheated. You wanted to give me a single-star rating and tell me that you didn’t find what you had expected, and so in your opinion my blog isn’t good, while I’ll continue to wonder how a basket of fresh apples could be rotten just because you were looking for oranges.

6. pictures of ugly people cartoon drawing of a naked woman

???

Ok. Pick one of the following:

• Ugly people drawing naked woman
• Cartoon drawing of ugly people with naked woman
• Cartoon drawing of naked woman watching pictures of ugly people
  Pictures of ugly people that’ve grown hands and are now animatedly drawing a naked woman

Now the clincher.

None of these options are available on this blog. Ugly and naked don’t happen here.

7. was cleopatra ugly ?

Finally. Now this is a question that only an intelligent person can ask. Cleopatra’s pedigree doesn’t matter. The fact that she was the last Pharaoh of Egypt doesn’t matter. That she could seduce both Caesar and Antony and wrap them around her pinkie doesn’t matter. All her accomplishments don’t matter. She couldn’t have become this famous by using her brains – could she? If she weren’t beautiful, then how in the world she did all that?

Good question. It is answered on this blog. Search again.

Caricature Portrait of Jimmy Fallon – the New Donald Trump.

Today is Jimmy Fallon’s Birthday. Yes, I’m talking about the new Donald Trump 🙂

Your Interview of Donald Trump was Fabulous.
Happy Birthday, Jimmy Fallon.

This is huuu……………..uuuuge. Isn’t it?

Giggle-wiggle with Bernie Sanders: Why he can or can’t win?

Reblogging for my American friends and fellow-bloggers 🙂

There was a time, not in too distant past, that the only democratic candidate who registered in our minds was Hillary Clinton. Then came Bernie Sanders (Oh, he was already in the race, alright, but I am speaking of the moment when we realized this fact.)

Today, Bernie is being seriously considered as an alternative to Hillary, who he admits, he likes. But why or why not would he become the blue-eyed boy of the American public? The Giggler-wiggler takes a shifty-stance on this hot topic.

View the Original post and Funfographic here: Giggle-wiggle with Bernie Sanders: Why he can or can’t win?

Caricature/Cartoon of Neo a.k.a Keanu Reeves hacks into the Caricature Matrix!

Neo has finally hacked into the Caricature Matrix!

In this Caricature Matrix, everyone sees everyone else as a caricature of his real-self…and this is also true for Neo a.k.a Keanu Reeves, who appears here in his caricature avatar!

I’ll be truthful. I didn’t know anything about this gentleman until I watched The Matrix, then The Matrix Reloaded, and then The Matrix Revolutions! Even then, I knew him only as Neo the hacker, who asked the multi-million Dollar question – What is the Matrix? He was this tall, slim, rubberband of a man who wore dark glasses and was never sure of his own potential, which everyone else happened to know about! I found Morpheous (played by Lawrence Fishburne) a far more interesting character…all Neo made me wonder through out the trilogy was why the heck was he interested in that emaciated, vertically stretched, Na’vi-like woman called Trinity, who wore shiny black body paint?

I must’ve seen him in a couple of other movies…but I didn’t give him more than a passing thought…and even that passing thought was – why does he have those oriental eyes on an extra long non-oriental face?

But I gradually began to realize that Keanu Reeves is a popular star…and he rules many hearts, including the one that belongs to our dear Barb.

So…ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else,
Please welcome the Caricature of Keanu Reeves to this blog!

Mysterious Keanu Reeves

Here’s a Snapshot of Keanu’s Biography:

Keanu was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 02, 1964. His passion for stage an acting came from his mother and his oriental eyes from his father who had among his ancestors, a Chinese. His father abandoned his mother when Keanu was 3, and so he never had anything to do with his father. His mother moved from husband to husband, until she married the fourth time, broke up and decided to call it quits. Since Keanu’s mom moved to Canada after her second marriage, he spent most of his childhood there.

Keanu wasn’t great at studies. His lack of interest in studies is said to be because of dyslexia. (According to this page here many famous people suffer from dyslexia, and the list includes “Whoopi Goldberg, Keira Knightley, Susan Hampshire, Orlando Bloom, Keanu Reeves, Richard Branson, Henry Winkler, Patrick Dempsey and Tom Cruise“!)

Interim Update – The Asperger Syndrome?

A comment made to this post made me research some more. Some experts believe that Keanu might have the Asperger Syndrome, which is characterized (among other things) by difficulty in maintaining meaningful social relationships and a quirky behavior. I guess Asperger’s might be a lot more common than what the experts believe!

Keanu Reeves’ Rise to Stardom:

Keanu Reeves journey to stardom began with a movie about hockey (Keanu used to love playing hocky,) which was shot in Canada. Next he was seen in the movie, River’s Edge. His performance in this movie received critical acclaim but what truly established him in Hollywood was his role of Ted in the movie, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a movie based on Time Travel.The next four years were a quiet time in which Reeves took more sophisticated roles. In 1994, he made an impact with Speed. The next few years were a low time for him, until the release of Matrix in 1999.

The Mystery of Keanu Reeves:

Reeves’ Charisma is often attributed to the air of mystery that surrounds him.

• He took a cut of $2 Million on his pay so that The Devil’s Advocate could cast Al Pacino!
• He took a 90% cut on is pay for The Replacements. Why? So that Gene Hackman could be cast in the movie.
• He also refuses offers of good movies; this deepens the mystery around him. (example: Speed 2, Platoon)

In his own words, “I’m Mickey Mouse. They don’t know who’s inside the suit.”

I think that this sums up his journey rather well…For his first movie “Young Blood” he was paid USD 3000. For Matrix Revolutions he was paid USD 15 Million and 15% of the Gross!

Different Keanus:

Sad Keanu:

Read about the Photoshop Meme (and watch its video too), which shows a sad looking Keanu sitting on a bench, here.

Immortal Keanu:

Could it be that he is immortal? Here’s why some people think that Keanu Reeves is immortal!

Married Keanu:

They say he never married – they say he got married. Only Barb can tell.

Gay Keanu:

He neither accepts nor denies it, so…is Keanu Reeves gay?

Left-handed Keanu:

Well…Keanu’s sort of left-handed, but he plays bass (for a band called Dogstar) with his right hand. Guess that makes him an ambidextrous or…a freak?

 

Are you Keanu-krazy? If you are, and if you liked Keanu’s caricature on this page, you should visit Barbara G. Tarn’s Website at: CreativeBarbwire.wordpress.com.  Check out her Portraits of Keanu Reeves in her book, “Keanu Portraits 2001-2009” 🙂

As always…thanks to Wikipedia and IMDb for being such fantastic resources of information.

Caricature/Cartoon of A.R. Rahman, Indian Music Composer and Oscar Winner!

A.S. Dileep Kumar who for some personal reasons changed his religion to Islam and his name to Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian musician and music-composer, who won two Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire a movie directed by Danny Boyle.

Here’s my take on this legend.

The Halo of Music...or Controversies?

A Short Biography of Rahman:

A.R. Rahman was born on January 6th 1966, in an affluent Hindu Tamil family. His father composed music for Malayalam films. He lost his father at a very young age and it was somewhere around that time when he and his entire family decided to change their religion and convert to Islam. According to this article here AR Rahman’s mother (Kareema) was a Muslim and after his Hindu father’s death, the family reconverted to Islam and acquired Muslim names. The reason why he changed his religion is still shrouded in mystery, however, it’s said that he did it to save his sister’s life.

Rahman is married to Saira Banu (not the emaciated yesteryear beauty though!)

An Interesting Bollywood Coincidence, which will make more sense to Indians:

Here it goes.
Saira Banu (of vintage Bollywood variety) married Dilip Kumar, who changed his name from Muhammad Yusuf Khan to Dilip Kumar – she did have to struggle with Yusuf Khan’s polygamous nature though. However Yusuf Khan took up the name Dileep Kumar only as a screen name with a wider appeal, and saw he was never on the wrong side of the law by having more than one wife.
Saira Banu (wife of AR Rahman) married AR Rahman, who changed his name from Dileep kumar (don’t worry about the spelling) to AR Rahman.

Coincidences happen in a chaotic world…right?

A. R. Rahman’s Meteoric Rise:

Rahman’s rise in Bollywood began with his meeting with Mani Ratnam in an advertising awards function, after which he gave music for Roja in 1992 (Note that Rahman was paid 25K INR (about USD 1000 in those days) to compose music for Roja, this is in stark contrast to around Rs. 5 Crores equivalent of USD 1 Million for composing the Commonwealth Games 2010 Anthem) After Roja, he created music for many Tamil films, until he got the opportunity to compose the songs for Rangeela. After the success of Rangeela’s songs, Rahman continued to work for the Mumbai Film Industry to compose many hit songs. Among his noteworthy films are: Rangeela, Dil Se, Taal, Rang De Basanti, Bombay!

His Album “Vande Mataram“, which he released on August 15, 1997 (the fiftieth anniversary of India’s independence,) sold more than a Million copies in India.

Find an extremely detailed biography of Rehman here.

Rahman’s Jai Ho wins him the Oscars:

In 2009, Rahman wrote the score for “Jai Ho“, which helped him win the first two Oscars for India. He got the Oscars for Danny Boyle directed movie “Slumdog Millionnaire”. (Unfortunately, the only movie about India that became internationally famous is an extremely biased movie, which completely ignores the positives of India to accentuate and glorify its poverty.) The two Academy Awards that he won were for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song.

Visit Rahman’s official website here.

Rahman in News Again:

The newest news on the international scene is that AR Rehman has bagged 2 Oscar nominations for Danny Boyle’s 127 hours. What’s noteworthy is the ease with which Rahman has been able to establish a long-term relationship with Danny Boyle – I’d have loved to see him work with other Hollywood Directors too…but Rahman is a steady goat, isn’t he? I hope he gets the Oscars this year, because after the CWG Anthem fiasco, which gave us a soggy song (read about it here) touted to be better than Shakira’s waka-waka, I’d love to get a confirmation that the awards were for the musical score and not for a fantastic rendering of India’s poverty. Go Rahman Go! Get those awards and win back my trust…if you’d care to.

Want to know if I am an ARR fan?

I love some of his work – if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have drawn his caricature here:) But I saw him on the CWG stage – and I don’t think that if his…what was the CWG Anthem again?…well that anthem needed the crutches of Jai ho, especially when after the whole corruption scandal we were waiting for him to spin gold or silver at least…so – my current status is “NOT FAN!”

I believe there are things that are bigger than money, fame, and even Oscars. A sense of pride in being what you are and carrying it through with your head held high. I’d never work for a Slumdog Millionnaire nor would I ever charge Rs. 5 Crores for composing an anthem for my country.  (Remember that it was the first time in its history that India was hosting a sports event at International scale!) But I guess I am being the milkmaid, if you know what I mean:)

Caricature/Cartoon – Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers – National Football League of America

I wouldn’t have known about Troy Polamalu, the Steelers, or even the NFL…had it not been for Tim Berners Lee,  Matt Mullenweg, and Nancy Johanson, so I begin this post by thanking them.

But I learned about him, I looked at his images and his videos and I was smitten…by his hair!

Troy Polamalu of Pittsburgh Steelers, and his Magnificent Hair!

Especially for the fans of Troy Polamalu:

Download Troy Polamalu’s  Printable High-Resolution Caricature (PDF)

Troy Polamalu’s Shortest Biography on the Web (and I mean it.)

Troy Polamalu who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers in different defensive roles, was born on April 19, 1981. He began playing for the Steelers in 2003. He first played in the Superbowl of 2006, which the Steelers won with 21-10 defeating the Seattle Seahawks. In 2007, the Steelers gave him a never-before-seen-in-the-history-of-Steelers contract, which totals around USD 50 Million.

Polamalu’s Change of Name:

He changed his surname to Polamalu, his mom’s maiden name. He was earlier called, Troy Aumua!

Polamalu’s Jersey Number 43 (yes, I mean it.)

His Jersey #43 moved from being the 15th highest selling jersey among all NFL jerseys in 2008, to the highest selling jersey in 2010 (according to the NFL.com shop.)

Polamalu’s Personal Life:

Troy Polamalu is married to Theodora, has two sons, is an Orthodox Christian, and a soft-spoken person.

Polamalu’s Hair (Ahem!):

Well…
Here’s the math.
Let’s say, I took time “t” to draw his caricature.
I spent 0.9t (90% for the right-brained a.k.a. mathematically challenged) time drawing his hair!
So his Hair IS important, and this is probably why P&G has paid a Million Dollars to get his hair insured. (Reason: He endorses the Head & Shoulders Shampoo) . The Steeler #43 gets a haircut about once a decade, and grapevine has it that if anyone thinks ill of his hair, he ends up staying late at work on the Superbowl night – so Beware!

Question: Do you think Clay Matthews‘ hair can compete with Polamalu’s?

Another interesting byte about Troy & Clay is that they both played college football at University of Southern California!

Read more about Troy Polamalu at the Wikipedia Page

Data Hounds, find data at:

• The Yahoo Sports Page
• The ESPN Page

Interesting Byte:

As all celebrities have their sets of alternate amorous realities, I tried searching for Polamalu’s by googling for “Polamalu Love Affair” – Guess what popped up?
HAIR!

And…quoting Polamalu:

“We’re a road team. We’re the Pittsburgh Steelers. We have fans everywhere.”

About Superbowl 2011…

And now about the Superbowl XLV (45 for the non-Romans), in which the Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin in the Cowboy Stadium at Arlington, Texas!
The Superbowl tickets went for..
$2842  to $23730  each!!!

…………)))))
…….))))
….))
..)
.

(Sorry! Had to pause to pull my eyeballs back into their sockets!)

Guess they are ALL sold out now (Imagine that!)

So…

Wherever you watch the Superbowl 2011…

in your homes or in a sports bar…

Go Wave your Terrible Towels…
Fly the Steelers Flags…
Paint yourselves Gold and Black…

May the Steelers win the Superbowl 2011!

Coming up Next…A Caricature of a Portrait!

Last night I dreamed that I couldn’t get out of my house because my caricatures were protesting outside. My caricatures had organized a rally and they had congregated from all over the world to protest against my casual attitude towards them. They were holding placards that read “The Caricaturist has let us down”, “We want her out!”, “It’s our blog!”, “She’s turned against us!”…and so on!

Guess I’ve been keeping busy with drawing portraits and dreaming about meeting Leonardo da Vinci in person.  But that Caricature Rally jolted me back to my senses, and I drew a caricature.

Coming up Next – IS the CARICATURE of a PORTRAIT – The Mona Lisa (also called Monalisa) by the arto-scientific genius Leonardo da Vinci 🙂

For all of you who’ve boarded the Caricature Express recently, here’s the caricature of the Master,  drawn from his self-portrait.

 

Monalisa's Creator - Leonardo da Vinci!

I’ll meet you at the next station with Monalisa’s caricature and the true explanation of her smile!

 

Announcement – Blog Carnival for Bloggers – Tell the Story-in-the-Caricature – December 2010 – Edition 7!

Dear visitors, bloggers made of matter as well as antimatter, and all other esteemed treasure-seekers,

The November 2010 Storytelling Blog Carnival was…well, to be honest…it had but one participating entry – so, you can’t even say that it was a carnival 😦

But let’s not worry about the past; let us charge into the future!

Here’s the caricature for the December Carnival.

What's his story?

Here are the Rules for the Carnival:

1. Write a story, small or big, about this caricature.

2. Publish the story on your blog, along with this caricature.

3. Leave the link to your post, as a comment to this post here.

4. The festival ends at the midnight of December 31, 2010.

The Three Rewards for this Story Carnival:

1. All the story links added for stories published along with the above caricature, until the last date, will be published on this blog in January  2011, along with the blog-address, and a link to the About Page of your blog.

2. The blog addresses of the participating bloggers will find way into my “The Storytellers” blogroll, and of course in the Carnival posts that I make through out this month.

3. We will also request all the story-writers to publish the links of other story-writers in a blog-post on their respective blogs. This will help the story writers find more readers – but of course, this would be voluntary.

An Important Note:

This blog has absolutely no tolerance for pornography and abusive language and so any comment/story containing such material will automatically disqualify from the Carnival.

Let your creative juices flow…tell us your story 🙂

Caricature/Cartoon – Oprah Winfrey – The Rich Talk Show host who Oprahfied two Vacationing Mice!

After a long hiatus…presenting...Oprah Winfrey, the television host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, who is the world’s only black billionaire, and well…the most influential woman in the world.

So, you see…it was essential that we waited!

Post-Oprahfiction, the Mice realize that you don’t need your own money to get a tan!

Oprah Winfrey’s Shortest Biography on the Web (I hope so.)

Oprah was born on 29th January 1954, somewhere in rural Mississippi, a difficult place for an African American, even as late as 1950s. She had a difficult childhood – her mom definitely wasn’t the greatest moms in the world, possibly because she herself was a teenager when Oprah was born. Vernita, her mom was a maid who left little Oprah with her Grandmother Hattie Mae Lee. According to Wikipedia (where do you think I got about half my information from,) they were so poor that Oprah had to wear dresses made of potato sacks! Guess that was when she made up her mind to kick poverty out of her life.

Oprah’s miserable childhood wasn’t just the result of her potato-sack-clad poverty, but also the loose morals of her cousin, her uncle, and a “friend” of the family, who molested her. Oprah chose to run away when she turned 13, became pregnant at 14, and lost her child at birth. Finally, her mom sent her to the gentleman who she now calls her father (and who possibly is,) Vernon Winfrey. Her dad decided that she should study. Oprah was a bright and extremely popular student as a child. One thing led to another and she began to read news at the local black radio station.

Oprah’s popularity continued to grow and in 1983, she hosted A. M. Chicago. Within a few months, she had overtaken Phil Donahue, another media personality of great caliber. This was the time when The Oprah Winfrey Show was born.

Read Oprah’s detailed biography here.

Interesting Oprahbytes!

The Oprah Winfrey show drew its largest audience when Oprah interviewed Michael Jackson: 36.5 Million; David Letterman drew its largest audience when Letterman interviewed Oprah: 13.45 Million! Wow!

Oprah’s Personal Life

The glimpses of Oprah’s personal life can often be seen in her show. She’s suffered a good many lows in her life, including the time when her hair fell out completely (beware of getting your hair permed, if it could happen to Oprah, it could happen to anyone in the world,) and then her weight problem which was a result of her depression (no rewards for guessing who caused the depression – a man, of course. The point to note (and learn) is that in Oprah’s life, these could’ve been inflection points – but she pulled herself out before she was sucked into the whirlpool of depression.

Where is Oprah Now?

Just yesterday, Oprah received Kennedy Center Honors from Obama, along with the hero of her youth, Paul McCartney of the Beatles.

Comedian Chris Rock parodied the situation by saying, ‘No one deserves this award more than Oprah Winfrey, but no one needs it less,’ comedian Chris Rock said to laughter from the audience.

The Oprah Effect and Oprahfication

And finally, if you could get those smart, cunning, difficult-to-impress marketers to speak of the Oprah Effect, you must really be something! Quoting from the Wikipedia entry on Oprah Winfrey, “The power of Winfrey’s opinions and endorsement to influence public opinion, especially consumer purchasing choices, has been dubbed The Oprah Effect” Then there’s something called “Oprahfication“, which is the act of making a public confession and being cured, in the process. Oprah thus, is almost a religious institution where you could make a confession and relieve yourself of your sins.

Now about the question that’s I can hear coming from the depths of your heart…

How much does Oprah Winfrey Earn?

Good question. Around 300 Million USD a year!

So…you know how much it must’ve cost me to bring her to my blog. Well, now that she’s here…go get Oprahfied!

Announcement – Blog Carnival for Bloggers – Tell the Story-in-the-Caricature – November 2010 – Edition 6!

Dear Visitors, Aliens, Occasional-stopperbys, and Everyone Else in this Beautiful Virtual world,

The October Carnival ended on October 31, 2010 – on a really low note (sniff!) I guess the drawing failed to get your creative juices flowing. But two brave-hearts persisted.

Here are their stories:

• Robin & Beth, a lovely romantic story with an unusual twist,  by Creative Barbwire .
• The Trump Card , an eye-for-an-eye story by currently Blog-less Oorvi.

Now if you are wondering why I am still keen on continuing the Blog Carnival, the answer is:  I have a lot of faith in my fellow bloggers. I know that there are many who are sitting on a gold-mine of talent (including some who’ve recently visited mine,) and that one day, I’ll come up with a caricature, which will make them want to write a fabulous story.

So, here’s the Caricature for the November Story-in-the-Caricature Blog Carnival, which I hope will inspire you to write:)

O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou?

The rules remain the same, but I am adding a new constraint.

Your story SHOULD have a Romeo and a Juliet, who are called Romeo and Juliet, respectively!

Here are the rules:

1. Write a story, small or big, about this caricature.

2. Publish the story on your blog, along with this caricature (A link to this blog would be appreciated, but it isn’t necessary.)

3. Leave the link to your post, as a comment to this post here.

4. The festival ends at the midnight of November 30, 2010 (Tuesday.)

The Three Rewards for this Story Carnival:

1. All the story links added until the last date, will be published on this blog in November 2010, along with the blog-address, and a link to the About Page of your blog.

2. The blog addresses of the participating bloggers will find way into my “The Storytellers” blogroll.

3. We will also request all the story-writers to publish the links of other story-writers in a blog-post on their respective blogs. This will help the story writers find more readers – but of course, this would be voluntary.

An Important Note:

This blog has absolutely no tolerance for pornography and abusive language and so any comment/story containing such material will automatically disqualify from the Carnival.

Waiting to hear from you, O fellow bloggers! Tell us your story!

Caricature/Cartoon – The Angry Young Man of the Indian Film Industry – The Great Amitabh Bachchan!

I had been thinking of drawing the caricature of Amitabh Bachchan ever since I began this blog some ten months ago, but I didn’t because I couldn’t decide which version of Amitabh should grace this space. The young Amitabh who I grew up with, or the older and the currently popular Big B! I vacillated. I got my references in order for both – and waited.

For reasons unknown to me – I can’t connect with Big B. He isn’t the Amitabh who we talked about when I was a child – Big B is a father and an exemplary one too, who sits with his son on his lap so that his halo blinds us into believing that his son too has got one; he is a patriarch trying to put together an inheritance for his next twenty generations; he is an anchor of a very serious show built around the middle-class dream of becoming a millionaire – Big B is different from the Amitabh of my childhood.  I loved his image of the angry young man, the young and emotional persona that swept the entire country off its feet in the 70s and 80s! If that young Amitabh wasn’t there, Big B, Abhishek Bachchan…and all the rest of them wouldn’t be!

I present, with my respect, regard, and love, the caricature of the legendary Bollywood hero, the Great Actor  of the Indian Film Industry – Amitabh Bachchan, in his young Avatar!

Amitabh Bachchan – During his “Angry Young Man” Days!

Here’s a short biography of Amitabh Bachhan.

Amitabh Bachchan’s Shortest Biography on the Web (which still is long enough!)

Amitabh Bachchan, was born on 11 October 1942, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. His father Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a Hindi Poet, who was as modern in his ideology as he was in his poems. Long back when the caste system still ruled the roost in India, he got married to a beautiful Sikh girl called Teji, and their union resulted in Amitabh and Ajitabh! Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a Shrivastav, who used Bachchan as his pen name, which became extremely popular, and so the family decided to adopt Bachchan as their surname.

Amitabh, unlike the scions of the affluent and the influential didn’t study at Oxford or Harvard, because he probably was born before Harivansh Rai Bachchan had reached the pinnacle of his success. Thus, the Kirorimal College of Delhi University can boast of being his Alma Mater! Three Cheers for KMC at DU.

Now young Amitabh tried to work for a shipping company run by birds – but his Mom Teji Bachchan possibly told him that he was made for bigger and better things. Young Amitabh decided to give acting a shot in 1969 and debuted in Saat Hindustani (7 Indians! Wow…and all of them in the same movie! No wonder that the movie didn’t do great at the box office. If you are reading between the lines…there’s nothing…honestly.) However Amitabh ended up with an award!

Then onwards, there was no stopping the tall young man with those smoldering eyes and with that deep baritone voice. In 1973, came his biggest success – Sholay (The Violent Sparks of Fire)! By this time, Amitabh had established his Angry Young Man image completely. His fans were beginning to copy his hairstyle, his dance moves, his dialogs, even the angry look in his eyes! Amitabh was fast becoming a phenomenon in Bollywood.

Sometime around the late eighties, when Amitabh was shooting for Coolie, he was injured. With that almost fatal injury, he turned somewhat pessimistic. One thing led to another (as it always does in my posts,) and Amitabh disappeared from the scene for almost a decade. However, the new century brought about a change in the Bacchhan family’s fortunes. It began with Mohabattein in which he worked with Shahrukh Khan. In the same year, he also appeared as the host of the TV Show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” (the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”).

His most recent success was Paa, in which his son Abhishek played his father, and for which he won the National Award for Best Actor.

Amitabh Bachchan – Interesting Infobytes:

• Amitabh could’ve been called Inquilab (Revolution) had his name not been changed to Amitabh. I wonder whether his name would’ve changed his fortune.
• Amitabh and Jaya (his wife) worked together in a movie called Guddi, before they got married. There’s about a 14 inch difference in their heights.
• Amitabh has been romantically linked with the beautiful Bollywood actress Rekha (his co-star in Silsila.)
• He is the first Asian actor to have his wax model at Madame Tussaud’s
• His most common screen mom was Nirupa Roy.
• His most common screen name used to be Vijay.
• He was awarded the Hottest Male Vegetarian Award by PETA.
• Amitabh Bachchan’s family has not one but two legends – Amitabh and Aishwarya, his daughter-in-law!

A List of Amitabh Bachchan’s Films:

1. Saat Hindustani
2. Anand
3. Reshma aur Shera
4. Guddi
5. Zanjeer
6. Abhimaan
7. Namak Haraam
8. Roti, Kapda, aur Makaan
9. Chupke Chupke
10. Deewaar
11. Sholay
12. Kabhi Kabhi
13. Amar Akbar Anthony
14. Trishul
15. Don
16. Muquaddar Ka Sikandar
17. Mr. Natwarlal
18. Do aur Do Paanch
19. Lawaaris
20. Silsila
21. Yaraana
22. Kalia
23. Satte pe Satta
24. Namakhalal
25. Khuddaar
26. Coolie
27. Sharabi
28. Shahenshah
29. Mohabbatein
30. Baghban
31. Black
32. Sarkar
33. Nishabd
34. Cheeni Kum
35. Paa

(This, of course, is a partial list of his movies, but I guess it covers the collectibles!)

• You can find the Complete List of Amitabh Bachchan’s Films here.
• Find the List of Amitabh Bachchan’s awards and nominations here.
• Find Amitabh Bachchan/Big B’s Blog here.

Announcement – Blog Carnival for Bloggers – Tell the Story-in-the-Caricature – October 2010 – Edition 5!

Dear Readers, Visitors, Tourists, Treasure-hunters,  and Creative Bloggers!

The September 2010 Blog Carnival ended on September 30, 2010. Following were the stories that were written for the lady in the caricature.

Stories Written by the Authors:

• The Circus Comes to Town – A Short Story by Dewey Dewster!
• In Love with Melody by Oorvi
• To boldly go… by Viv
• Every job has it’s good bits by Ian

I thank all the writers who spent their time and taxed their creativity to come up with their colorful stories.  Thank You:)

Now, of course, is the time to unveil the caricature for the October 2010 Carnival. This caricature is different from the previous caricatures in two ways:

• It’s got two characters instead of one.
• It shows more pleasant (apparently) people.

So here it is…

What's their Story?

Don your thinking cap, get into your most comfortable clothes, and find a writing pad…tell us their story!

The Four Simple Rules for Participating:

1. Write a story, small or big, about this caricature (There’s no upper limit – you are welcome to write a thesis if you please:))

2. Publish the story on your blog, along with this caricature (A link to this blog would be appreciated, but it isn’t necessary.)

3. Leave the link to your post, as a comment to this post here.

4. The festival ends at the midnight of October 31, 2010 (Sunday.)

The Three Rewards for this Story Carnival:

1. All the story links added until the last date, will be published on this blog in the first week of October, along with the blog-address and a link to the About Page of your blog.

2. The blog addresses of the participating bloggers will find way into my “The Storytellers” blogroll.

3. We will also request all the story-writers to publish the links of other story-writers in a blog-post on their respective blogs. This will help the story writers find more readers – but of course, this would be voluntary.

An Important Note:

This blog has zero tolerance for pornography and abusive language and so any comment/story containing such material will automatically disqualify from the Carnival.

Are you a Storyteller?

Never written a story?
Why not start now?

Read the stories and connect with the authors of the previous Tell the Story in the Caricature Blog Carnivals here!

Amunet – The Harlot of my Dreams – Caricature/Cartoon – A Polymer Clay Sculpture and a Short Story.

Amunet – The Harlot of my Dreams

(A Short Story and a Verbal Caricature – by Shafali The Caricaturist)

The Year: 2020 A. D.

Brice checked the machine once again. Everything appeared to be in order – but Brice wanted to be sure. On his last trip into the past, his time machine had developed some sort of engine trouble, and it had delayed his arrival back. Technically you could never be late in arriving back into your time as you could program the machine to bring you back as soon as you had departed – but when you spend 2 years of your time in the World War II Europe, trying to fix your machine, you age. Those worry-lines on Brice’s forehead weren’t there when he had walked into the time travel machine for that last trip!

So after Brice had ensured that the machine was in good shape, he stepped into it, set the time dial to 5:30 PM, July 1725 BC, and typed in the longitude and latitude of the place of his dreams. It was time of inundation; it was the time when the androgynous goddess of fertility Hapi rode the Nile and made the land fertile; it was also the time that he had been dreaming of, every night of the last three months – it was the time of Amunet!

—ooo—

The door closed behind Brice. It would take the machine about 3 minutes to reach its destination. Brice closed his eyes and memories from his dreams rushed to fill his mind. The beautiful almond eyes outlined with kohl, the full red lips, and the dewy freshness of her skin – the way he had been seeing Amunet all these months. He also saw the banks of the swollen Nile; and he almost felt the happiness that came with the flooding of the Nile. Brice was a time travel scientist, he wasn’t a historian; but that girl in his dreams made him spend hours of his time researching not time-travel, but the history Ancient Egypt. She had become his obsession, and he had to find her – and if he really did, he might even stay back in time…Love makes you do strange things.

A sharp beep told him that the time machine had arrived into the past, at his destination – the City of Thebes on the eastern bank of the river Nile. Everything was as he had visualized…except the landscape. What were they? Broken Chariot wheels?! The Hyksos had brought the chariots to Egypt, and they hadn’t arrived until 1700 BC! Something wasn’t right – but then everything else wasn’t a lot different from what he had seen in his dreams! He hid his time machine, and looked around…if Amunet were there he’d see her because nobody else could be as beautiful!

And then he saw her…on the steps of the ruins. The steps, on which she sat, looked like they belonged to the beautiful fountain that he saw in his dreams. It was the same place – and there she was – the same almond-shaped eyes, the same sideways glance…but she looked different with all that makeup! And her jewelry was mostly blue…Lapis Lazuli. He looked again. She sat there laughing, talking to drunken men, who’d pay her and then stagger over to one of the younger girls and…Brice could watch no more. He turned and ran, trying not to vomit – the girl who he had seen in his dreams was now the much older harlot who sat on those steps – she and all the other girls, wore the blue Lapis Lazuli stone on their foreheads or in their hair – he had read in the history text s that the law in Ancient Egypt required that the harlots announced their calling to everyone by wearing the blue stone on their foreheads.

Amunet, the Egyptian Harlot. A Polymer Clay Model – 3″ tall, 1.75″ wide, 1.5″ deep.

Brice ran across the fields towards his time machine. He couldn’t understand it at all. What went wrong? And then it occurred to him…the history books that he had read during his research and based his calculations on – were wrong! They were at least 25 years off the mark!

The time machine was still there. Brice thanked his stars, climbed into it, and reset the dials! He was going back to his home in the time-space – never to return!

—ooo—

The Year: 2025 A. D.

After his Egyptian fiasco five years ago, Brice decided to junk his job as a time-travel scientist and decided to become a computer programmer instead. Now he programs computer applications that drive people nuts by asking them for updates twice a day!

 

Special Thanks to:

• Nancy Johanson, Dewey’s Gram who inspired me to dabble with clay.
• Wilbur Smith my favorite author, who helped me time travel to Ancient Egypt through his Egyptian series.
• Oorvi’s Cameo who photographed the Harlot 🙂

Caricature/Cartoon of Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Bean (played by Rowan Atkinson) on your Favorite Caricature Blog!

Mr. Bbbbeeaaan!

For all I know, Mr. Bean could be the most caricatured celebrity ever! The web is full of his caricatures, and mine is going to be just another one of them. I’ll be honest with you. Not doing Mr. Bean’s caricature was like…well, not eating chocolate. Everyone I know eats chocolate, except my dog and I. Similarly Everyone who can draw makes a caricature of Mr. Bean – in fact, most of the times, you don’t even have to make the effort of exaggerating his features…you just draw his portrait and you are done!

So, I’ve done it too; and now that I’ve got Mr. Bean’s sketch ready, I’m feeling lighter, brighter, snappier, and happier! I’ve done it too!

For those of you, who haven’t known this paradox in a tweed coat, here’s…

The Shortest Biography of Rowan Atkinson a.k.a. Mr. Bean, on the Web!

Rowan Atkinson was born on 6th January, 1955 in the Durham County of England. Being a Jan-born, he obviously stuck with safer career options than acting, and studied to become an Electrical Engineer. Things would’ve been different if the acting-bug hadn’t bit him. But it did, and despite his obvious disadvantage of having been born a Capricorn (a goat if you please) he managed to become a comedian. He began his career with Radio Comedy Show called “Atkinson People“. Then he worked with Angus Deayton as a comic, to form a comedy duo where Angus was the straight man (in a different sense of the word.)

Rowan Atkinson’s Career:

Atkinson worked on many different TV serials (sitcoms). Here are some of them.

• Canned Laughter
• Not the Nine O’clock News!
• The Black Adder
• Mr. Bean

Rowan Atkinson’s most famous character is of course, the unfortunate and clumsy Mr. Bean.

Mr. Bean – A Semi-biographical Caricature-sketch:

Mr. Bean was conceived by Rowan Atkinson while he was still at the University, however, this interesting character that keeps you balancing on the tightrope stretched between affection and irritation, was born in 1990. Technically, Mr. Bean was born on January 01, 1990, when the first episode of Mr. Bean, a British Comedy series was telecast. Mr. Bean then figured in many spinoffs and two movies, “Bean” and “Mr. Bean’s Holiday.” Mr. Bean also inspired an animated series and some books.

Mr. Bean’s Personality and Life:

Mr. Bean lives with his teddy bear, who’s called Teddy. His landlady is called Mrs. Wicket and he’s got a girl-friend Irma Gobbs (View picture here – can you guess who’s who?), with whom he mis-manages his relationship, to the delight of his viewers. Mr. Bean is utterly clumsy.He doesn’t understand the social norms that so tightly bind normal people like you and me, and so he ends up enjoying himself, often on the cost of others. Mr. Bean doesn’t talk much. Yet he combines a lot of mumbling and stuttering with his stumbling and fumbling!

Blog Carnival for Story-writers – 3 Days to go…Read the Stories that have come in!

Hello Visitors of both the Serious and the Casual kinds:)

STOP & READ THIS!

If you don’t know about it already, let me remind you that the September Blog Carnival for Storywriting “Story in the Caricature” is drawing to a close…have you written your story yet?

Here are the stories that’ve come in so far:

• In Love with Melody by Oorvi
• To boldly go… by Viv
• Every job has it’s good bits by Ian

I am waiting to read your story:-)

Here’s a quick To-do list for participating in the Carnival:

1. Write a story and post it on your blog.
2. Add the Permalink to your post in the comments section of the September Blog Carnival Announcement post here.

And yes…

if you love to read stories, read the entries for the previous 3 carnivals here.

I now return to the act of drowning myself in work, but I shall return soon! Meanwhile, go for a treasure hunt in the exotic lands of your mind and bring back a beautiful story. Discover the storyteller within you:-)

Caricature/Cartoon – Brendan Fraser – George of the Jungle Discovers Ursula!

Drawing Brendan Fraser‘s caricature was a decision driven more by my desire to capture his clean bright looks than by his popularity. The fact that his Wikipedia page scrolls to just two page-heights tells me that he isn’t as famous as I think he should be, but then, the point is, he is still young – and he’s got about 30 years worth of movies left in him. I don’t believe he’d stop acting before he turns seventy!

Here’s Brendan Fraser, George of the Jungle (Tarzan?), with a short-haircut (why can’t he have short hair – he’s got a well-supplied cabin – doesn’t he?), looking at Ursula (Jane?) for the first time. Doesn’t he look smitten?!

Now who's that? George's very own Gorgeous?!

Brendan Fraser’s Shortest Biography on the Web:

Brendan Fraser, the Hollywood actor, is a Canadian-American, who was born on December 3, 1968, in Indianapolis, US. His acting career began when he was twenty. In the last twenty years Brendan has worked in more than 30 movies. Fraser was married to actress Afton Smith for fourteen years (a rather long marriage by the Hollywood standards.)

Some Brendan Fraser Movies that you should Watch:

• George of the Jungle (co-star: Leslie Mann who plays Ursula Stanhope)
• The Mummy Series (co-star: Rachel Weisz who plays a loony ultra-curious librarian in the first movie, then graduates to playing his wife in the second.)
• Bedazzled (co-star: Liz Hurley who played the Devil)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth

Other Interesting Links for Brendan Fraser:

• Brendan Fraser on Rotten Tomatoes
• and on Celebrity Wonder,
• and of course, on IMDB!

It’s the time to cast your vote!

It’s voting time once again 🙂

Who do you want to see first?

Brendan Fraser

OR

Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean?!

And yes,

if you haven’t yet read the first story (yes! by Ian Holliday, the Sceptical Believer) “Every Job has its Good Bits“,

please do so…and when you are done, pen down your own story for the Carnival🙂

Thanks Ian:)

Regards,

Shafali the Caricaturist

(Draw to Smile!)

How to Draw the Caricature of Lady Gaga & The Story of Bad Romance!

Lady Gaga (yes the very same lady who’s entangled in a Bad Romance) is an extremely interesting and an unbelievably creative person.

She is a magician, a dress designer, a hairdresser, a lyricist…and of course, she is a woman trying hard to prove that she’s indeed one. If you ask me, she is one of those amazingly talented control-freaks who don’t even want to leave their caricatures to chance – they want to do them themselves! (Remember Ozzy Osbourne?)

Anyone who’s ever looked at Lady Gaga would know that there’s no caricaturist in the world who could do a better job of caricaturing her, than the lady herself. However, I made the attempt, and now I am here to discuss how you too can draw Lady Gaga’s caricature. (And no – you don’t stop at making her portrait!)

Here’s the caricature under discussion.

Lady Gaga and the Spider Colony!

Caricaturing the Eyes of Lady Gaga:

Lady Gaga’s eyes are characterized by the kohl she puts around them! You’ve got to load her eyelids and eyelashes with black paint to get the look right. Also stretch those eyelashes to exaggerate them. Don’t change the basic almond shape of her eyes.

Read about “Caricaturing the Eyes” here.

Caricaturing the Lips of Lady Gaga:

Lady Gaga has thicker than usual lips (which go well with her slightly heavy yet chubby face.) Note that I’ve drawn her with an open mouth, which helps you see her teeth. Her teeth are slightly crooked and I’ve maintained that lack of symmetry in the drawing.

Read about “Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth” here.

(If I were drawing the caricature of a man, I’d treat the teeth differently (they’d be exaggerated to add more humor to the treatment.) However, while drawing the caricatures of women – ensure that their caricatures continue to look pretty:-))

Caricaturing the Hair of Lady Gaga:

Ah! This is where I had to compete with Ms. Gaga herself. I selected what I call her “Candy Floss with Noodles” hairstyle. The size of her coiffure was big enough but I did exaggerate it a bit. The cobwebs were added for the storyline.

(Read about “Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair” here.)
Storyline?
Well. Since Ms. Gaga had done a great job of caricaturing herself, I had to go do something extra to exaggerate her hairstyle, and so I thought of the spiders and the cobwebs. Whenever Lady Gaga discards a wig, the space on the wig is auctioned away to the spiders that want to move in to this “premium” location!

Well…
So in came the spiders and their webs, and of course the decorations added by the property dealers along with the prize car!

And Ms. Gaga was decked up and ready to give the other singers a run for their money!

And yes, if you want to learn how to draw caricatures, you should check out “How to Draw Caricatures – And Evolution of a Caricaturist.”

Before I wave goodbye, here’s an interesting bit about her current hit “Bad Romance”.

The Theme of Bad Romance by Lady Gaga – A Verbal Caricature:

Bad Romance is a bad-bad song that begins with the abduction of Lady Gaga by some super-models. These super-models, who probably are about to slide into middle age and hence into oblivion, dream up a new way to make money. They kidnap Lady Gaga, bathe her in a white bathtub, and then in her inebriated condition attempt to auction her off to the Russian Mafia. (Note the Russian connection in all such deals, and also note the marked absence of the Italian Mafia from this whole show.)

While the Russian men sit around with their electronic bidding machines, Lady Gaga seductively walks towards them and then selects the one with a golden chin guard (guess he wore it because he expected Lady Gaga to slap him) to do a provocative lap-dance for him. Now this all is hogwash, because after he becomes the highest bidder, she roasts him alive by activating her pyrotechnic bra. The point to be noted here is the Lady Gaga remains unscathed…and probably vanishes with the auction money, and shares the booty with the models who had kidnapped her…because it was all staged!

But that part wasn’t there in the video that I watched, and so I believe that the video was edited!  If anyone has access to the unedited video of the song Bad Romance , please let me know, because I am dying to hear the end of the story.

BTW, I wonder if the Russian Men would have bid at all if she had worn her meat dress to the auction?
(Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress.)

Caricature/Cartoon – Bald Man Smiling – A Polymer Clay Sculpture!

99.9% Artists don’t eat…from doing art! I am one among the 99.9%! Drawing is a skill that’s as useless as the skill of scratching your own back – It isn’t easy, it twists you all out of shape, it’s also extremely gratifying; but you can’t earn by scratching your back!

So what does an artist (specifically this one) do? She tries out other options.

Remember she turned a writer recently? No? Well…that tells us something – doesn’t it?!

Obviously then, something else had to be tried – and so she turned a caricaturist sculptoress (sculptor/sculptoress?! Dictionary writers must all be men – they didn’t bother! Artist/Artistress?! See what I mean – Woman artists are twice as unwanted as their fellow male counterparts!)

So here’s my second effort at creating clay sculptures (and don’t ask me to show you my first…it was a disaster!)

I am bald and bearded, and I have a handlebar mustache...it must make me look funny...but who cares! Check out my smile, because that's what's really important!

A Thank You Note to my Teacher:) Nancy Johanson (Dewey Dewster‘s Gram), who makes beautiful clay doggies, and whose creations inspired me to try out clay modeling.

Dear Nancy,

Thank you for inspiring me and telling me all about clay modeling. It’s fun though it’s different:) I think I’d stick to modeling caricatures in clay for some time…they are simpler for me to handle:) This afternoon I used the second box of clay to create this wall-plaque. It’s tiny. About 2.5 inches by 1.25 inches. I made a wall-plaque of it by adding a clay-loop behind it, and right now it’s hanging on my soft-board, with a push-pin!

That’s all for now:) See you soon with some new caricatures!