Tribal Pen and Ink Portraits: A Gadaba Woman with her neck-rings.

Did this portrait as a diversion from the rather mundane task of editing my novel.

The Gadabas are an Eastern Indian Tribe of Odisha and Andhra. The Gadaba women wear two silver rings around their necks (called Khagla) that together weight between 1 and 1.5 kgs. These rings are never removed (require a blacksmith’s expertise for removal) are removed only after death.

A Gadaba Woman. Medium: Pen and Ink on Acid Free Strathmore 9″x12″

It isn’t easy…

I have closed my eyes and tries imagining the rings around my neck – weighing down upon my clavicle when I sit or stand, hitting against my bones when I run, and pushing against my neck when I turn my side to sleep. I don’t think I could wear them for even a few hours – but then habituation is such a marvelous thing.

Stay tuned for my second pen and ink portrait on the Nose-ring, which is coming soon. (You can view the first one here.)

However, the next post shall bring you Chapter-2 from the Unreliable Book of Art History. (Read Chapter 1 from the Unreliable book of Art History here.)

Getting back to work now…

(BTW, if you like any of my works, click/tap the Like button…and your comments are forever welcome.)

Tribal Pen and Ink Portraits: A Dhaneta Jat Woman.

Just finished this portrait of a Dhaneta Jat Woman. Dhaneta Jat is a Gujarati Tribe of Sunni Muslims, that is known to have arrived in India from Iran. When the women of the tribe get married they start wearing a gold nose-ring that is quite heavy and must be supported by black threads that are attached to their hair.

Dhaneta Woman Portrait – Size 9″x12″ Approximately – Strathmore Acid Free Paper

Read more about Dhaneta Jats here.

 

A Pen and Ink Pet Portrait from a Photograph – Guess who got framed?

Fridays are Furry Furry Furry! (translating for the un-dogly, “Fridays are very very furry.”)

How so?

Through a Pet Portrait Commission of Ms. Oorvi. (Yep! A proper commission, I got a check for it – and I’m going to buy another box of color pencils with it.) I thought it’s a good idea to show you the photograph and also the Pen-and-Ink portrait, so here it is:

Size: 8 inches x 10 inches

 

One of these days, I am going to write a tutorial on making pen and ink portraits. This year I’ve done a bunch of them and I’ve been falling in love with the crisp beauty of the medium all over again. If you are interested in reading how this portrait happened, read about it at my Pen and Ink Portraits blog here.

Caricatures of Malcolm Gladwell & Serena Williams Coming up.

Now to the regular matters of Caricatures etc. I’ve been working on some cool caricatures (the left-brained would recognize the name of Malcolm Gladwell, and the non-studious population of the sport-loving kind would appreciate one of Serena Williams…perhaps.) I’ll be posting them soon. These portraits are special for me, because they are painted upon the sketches that I did directly in Photoshop – something that I never did before. Until about a week ago, I’d always sketch in my sketchbook, scan the sketch in, then send the sketch to the client for approval. I knew that people sketched in Photoshop, but I expected a steep learning curve, and so I stayed away…until last Saturday.

Guess what? If you are doing detailed pencil drawings (for example, the black and white caricatures that I do) where your want a finished look for your artwork; I’d recommend you stick to your art-paper and pencils. However, if you are doing sketches that you want to ultimately paint – Photoshop is cool. Just fetch a really small (say 4 or 5 point) round hard brush from Photoshop’s basic brush library, set pressure-sensitivity on, and start sketching. I found cross-hatching to result in a ball-point sketch kind of look…and I think it works. One of these days, I’ll share a few sketches that I did this way.

But enough of this…you are a busy person and you need to get back to your easel – digital or otherwise.

However, if you aren’t all that busy, do visit my Gallery. It has been refurbished and updated, and I think it looks better than before 🙂

Dog Portraits in Pen and Ink – The Beagle and the Rottweiler.

Fridays are still furry beautiful. This week, I am glad to present two portraits – a Beagle and a Rottweiler.

Beagles are scent-hounds. In my opinion, they are the cutest scent-hounds of all. They look like young precocious children – curious, alert and energetic – unlike the avuncular Bloodhound.

Stephanie Lilley, Regency Romance Author, dog-blogger, and mom to several beagles, captures the beagle-experience beautifully.

“So much to sniff, so little time to bay. A pack of beagles sounds like a symphony with individual instruments–a low oboe, a staccato bell, a bicycle horn, a stuttering trumpet, crescendo and decrescendo until there is just the oboe…and then little whoops…then silence when the scent is lost.”

The Portrait of a Beagle

Beagle Portrait, Medium: Pen and Ink, Size: 8 inches by 12 inches.

And the Rottweilers.

The Rottweilers are dogs of a different kind. They were bred to guard and to protect. Humans being humans, first bred them for protection – because they needed their protection; now they brand the Rottweilers as aggressive and dangerous dogs, because in the protected-by-law environment of today, humans don’t see much use of them.

The press too has been unkind to the Rotties – just the way they’ve been unkind to many other dog-breeds, the worst affected are the Pit Bulls, who were bred to entertain a certain section of blood-thirsty humans. When we denigrate dogs on the basis of their breed, we contradict ourselves on our stance of the nature-vs.-nurture debate.

We don’t automatically brand a murderer’s child a murderer, because we expect that even a child with the genes of a killer father, if nurtured right, has the potential of becoming a law-abiding, even productive citizen of the world. However, we don’t think twice before giving sweeping statements that brand specific dog-breeds negatively.

Dogs, you see, are more amenable to be trained into becoming adorable family dogs. Quite like in the case of humans, dogs too respond to their environment and the treatment that their families mete out to them. A boy born of non-criminal parents, if adopted by an uncaring family could grow up to be a criminal. This is also true for dogs.

So if at all you come across a dog that’s ferocious, check out the family. Chances are that the dog is kept on a leash even when inside, that it’s not petted or scratched or hugged ever by the “owner.” Also remember, a dog is supposed to protect his family and his house. As a human you would do it too – won’t you?

Here’s a portrait of one such misunderstood dog – The loving and caring Rottweiler.

The Portrait of a Rottweiler

Rottweiler Portrait, Medium: Pen and Ink, Size: 8 inches by 12 inches.

If you love dogs, do visit my Pen and Ink Portraits blog 🙂 There are a lot of other dog and cat portraits, that you can view there. Some wildlife art is coming up too 🙂

 

 

Freud’s Cartoon Analyzes Sherlock Holmes’ Psychology while Vladimort, Salman Khan, and the Psycho-Lady Rock and Roll in the Antechamber!

Every couple of months, I look at the searches that bring visitors to my blog, and being the unfeeling brute of a caricaturist that I am, I end up ridiculing the ones that I don’t understand. It’s the classic case of the fox that ended up ridiculing the grapes that she couldn’t reach. So, here I go…

vrrrrroooooom….

1. types of artists

I thought there were four-types – Starving, Dying, Dead, and Rich, and so I wrote about them. While some readers thought that my classification was dead-right, a few felt that I was one bitter artist with tons of venom inside me. Now if a caricaturist didn’t ridicule stuff, who would? President Obama or Chancellor Merkel? So if you are looking for The 4-Types of Artists and you have the ability to digest the venom that I’ve spewed in this book, go ahead, download it Free and wonder why you ever decided to play the high-risk game of becoming an artist.

Click to download in a format of your choice.

2. sherlock holmes psychological analysis

I am not sure I know what you are looking for. The psychological Analysis of Mr. Holmes himself, or the methods of psychological analysis employed by Mr. Holmes. I can help you with the first, but not with the second. I think Mr. Holmes was an artist with a scientific mind, quite like his creator. (Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle was a writer who was a doctor.) Perhaps Dr. Doyle created Mr. Holmes with a missing corpus callosum and so his equally powerful brain-halves were always in sync. While his right brain made him intuitive, creative, and musical; his left brain made him logical and analytical. Together, his abilities and his idiosyncrasies transformed him into a social disaster.

But then you could’ve been looking for the psycho-analytical methods that Mr. Holmes used to solve his cases. If so, I’d recommend that you gave up the search. It isn’t easy to decipher crazy geniuses, especially of the fictional kind…and even when you succeed, you’ll not have Dr. Watson building real-life situations around your incredible talent and impeccable methods.

Mr. Holmes….

3. vladimort cartoon

I think there’s a demand for a cross of Vlad the impaler and Voldemort (Oops! I named him – I named You Know Who! But wait…isn’t he dead already? I think he died in the seventh book of the Harry Potter Series. Oh God! I’ve lived in that world for so many years that I can’t bring myself to believe that Voldemort’s horcruxes were destroyed by forever-wronged yet forever-loved Harry Potter!)

Let me not meander. If you are a writer hoping to make it big one day, here’s the idea of the decade. There’s this villain who is as evil as they get (Vlad and Voldemort rolled into one) and there’s this sweet young guy or girl carrying the responsibility of ridding this world of evil. Once you are done writing and then done getting it to the agents, and then done getting agents to reading it, and then done with a publisher publishing it, and then done getting it famous – I promise to caricature your villain Vladimort and present him on this blog. In the meantime, I’ll stick with the heroes. Here’s young Mr. Potter for you 🙂

4. caricature of salman khan

Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been thinking of drawing Salman Khan’s caricature for the last two years, but I haven’t gotten around to actually making it. In these years, Salman Khan has been doing his best to make me dislike him. He’s called women younger than him “Aunty” (all because they don’t gym-out five-days a week as there lives don’t revolve around biceps, six-packs, and washboard stomachs,) and he has trashed Vivek Oberoi’s career (because his ex-girlfriend Aishwarya used Vivek as a bait)! I can understand “accidents” and “impulse-actions” but I can’t understand studied malice. So, Salman’s Caricature still appears at the bottom of this Caricaturist’s To-Do list.

5. caricature adam et satan

Interesting!
Dear Searcher, do you realize that you are looking for one guy and not two? Adam is Satan…and every once in a while Eve too is. Satan doesn’t live outside of us, nor does God. They live within us. God pulls us towards good and Satan towards evil. When Satan begins to dominate Adam, you get a James Holmes, an Adam Lanza,  a Ted Bundy…and of course, an Adolf Hitler!

6. sigmund freud cartoon dreams

Sigmund Freud’s Cartoon must definitely dream for if it didn’t, how would Freud go about analyzing those dreams. Freud’s caricature is one of my favorites. Check it out here.

I know what you are thinking.

7. rock and roll cartoons

I love these, and thank you for searching 🙂

8. viking caricatures

Thanks for the idea. I’ll make one 🙂

9. learn to caricature like Mario Miranda

Don’t. Don’t learn to caricature like anyone. Learn to caricature and develop your own style and methods. Study the methods employed by the Greats, but don’t caricature like they did. Why? Well, for two simple reasons. 1. You’ll deviate from the way you draw and paint – you’ll change your natural style and end up with a contrived style…and be assured – contrived styles look contrived – they never look natural. 2. People will look at your work and see the reflection of Mario Miranda’s work or Ajit Ninan’s or even Uderzo’s!

So, learn to caricature. Period. 🙂

Here are the caricatures of Mario Miranda and Ajit Ninan, caricatured like Shafali 🙂

Mario Miranda (1926 – 2011) with his characters.

10. psycho lady cartoon

Check out my avatar 🙂

11. cute husband with nagging wife

Oh yeah! Cute Husband with Nagging Wife! This search smacks of chauvinism, it reeks of gender-bias, it…it…it makes me gnash my teeth and sharpen my claws; it makes me want to sketch a cute wife and a nagging husband – just to spite every chauvinist out there!

12. titanic merkel

She is indeed the Titanic Merkel, isn’t she?

She’s also Merkel the Dragon-slayer!

13. one direction caricature

???
I am sure this has a deep meaning. I just don’t know what. Let me try.

• It could a coded love-message sent to me by my long-lost college sweetheart.

No?!

• It could be a caricature of a person looking for directions.

No?!

It could be…
OK. I give up. I’ll stay with the love-message interpretation, then. Now let me check if I’m Mensa Material.

14. shafali.wordpress.com/shafali’s caricatures/evolution of a caricaturist!

Thanks folks. You were looking for my caricatures and you reached the right place. You’ve been my top-searchers for the last quarter and I really, truly appreciate that my caricatures have been the objects of your attention.

I appreciate your visits. Keep visiting – even though I may pick your search term and caricature it 🙂

What’s on the Caricaturist’s Table? Planning the New Posts.

I didn’t feel like doing much today. It’s always the case after a tragedy. I begin thinking about serious matters and such matters, in the deteriorating world of today, seldom brighten up your outlook towards life.

So I pulled myself up by the collar (the proverbial one) and made a plan for this week.

I intend the make the following posts this week. If you are a regular visitor, you’d like to return when your favorite post comes up:)

• July 15, 2011: A Pen-and-Ink Portrait of Anna Hazare (Posted on: July 15, 2011), who has surprised not just the caricaturist but also the Government, by remaining honest all his life. If the Government has not yet been able to find anything to taint his reputation, I doubt that they would do so in future.
• July 17, 2011: Interactive Art Tutorial – How to Draw Expressions – Part II – Animated Faces. (Posted on: July 18, 2011 – Delayed by a day – blame it on work and on the ‘orrible ‘orrible weather.) This tutorial is also a fun activity (and the character has turned colorful – based on a few email requests.) So, whether or not you are an artist all bent out of shape, you should download it and enjoy.
• July 19, 2011: A Caricature of Sarah Palin, the colorful Alaskan Governor, who’s been criticized for being a bimbo, but who makes me wonder whether she really is one?

These are all positive posts, and I hope that they’ll all help us brighten up our week.

Presenting The Pen and Ink Portrait of Dewey Dewster, the Wire Fox Terrier with an Attitude!

I thought that the visitors to my blog shouldn’t be denied the opportunity of meeting Mr. Dewey Dewster, the magnificent Wire Fox Terrier, who works as a reporter in Petsburg, Pawsylvania. This gentle-dog gave me the opportunity to create his portrait in pen & ink. I sought his permission to present this portrait here, by writing to his Gram who obviously is his Personal Assistant as well – and he has given me a paws-up for it.
So, my dear visitors, MEET Mr. DEWEY DEWSTER, the Canine Reporter of Petsburg, the Hunter of the Vermin, and…the Detector of Porcupines (Ouch!), Turtles, and Rabbits!

Dewey Dewster, the Fabulous Wire Fox Terrier from Petsburg Pawsylvania – Done in Pen and Ink – Approximate Size 7.5 inches by 8.5 inches.

A little about Dewey Dewster’s Portrait.

It’s done in Pen & Ink, on 120 gsm, acid-free, cartridge sheet in approximately 7.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Nancy had sent me a few high-resolution pictures for reference. I selected one of them as the main reference, and used others to understand Mr. Dewster’s features and personality. The important point to be noted here is that a Pen & Ink pet portrait is different from one that’s done either in oil, water, or pencils. You just can’t afford go wrong in a Pen & Ink drawing, because if you do, you can’t go back and make changes and so you’ve got to start again from scratch. Now that may not seem like a big thing, but imagine going wrong when you are putting the last stroke on the drawing!

Another important aspect of the drawing was that it was to be Dewey’s, and not ANY Wire Fox Terrier’s, portrait. A dog’s face is every bit as unique as a human face – and a pet’s portrait has to capture all that uniqueness, so that when the dog’s human friends look at the portrait, they see THEIR special dog.

I made some sketches, I looked at Dewey’s pictures again and again, and again…until I thought that I could look into his eyes and feel his furry paw in my hands, until I could feel my fingers run through his wirey fur, and until I could feel the silk of his delicate ears…and then I went out on the terrace, sat down against the wall with my drawing board on my knees, then with the soft rays of the December sun lighting up the drawing, I began to draw. Then I guess, I just went on drawing, until I saw Dewey smile at me from the drawing. His smile, half hidden in his magnificent silky beard, inspired me to draw in a cushion, and to give him a private corner of his own…

I would like to thank Dewey Dewster and Nancy Johanson for giving me this wonderful opportunity, and I will thank my own dog Oorvi for overcoming her jealousy and bearing with me:)

A little about this drawing.
It’s done using Pen & Ink on 120 gsm, acid-free, cartridge sheet in approximately 7.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Nancy had sent me a few high-resolution pictures for reference. I selected one of them as the main reference, and used others to understand Mr. Dewster’s features and personality. The important point to be noted here is that a Pen & Ink pet portrait is different from one that’s done either in oil, water, or pencils. You just can’t afford go wrong in a Pen & Ink drawing, because if you do, you can’t go back and make changes and so you’ve got to start again from scratch. Now that may not seem like a big thing, but imagine going wrong when you are putting the last stroke on the drawing!
Another important aspect of the drawing was that it was to be Dewey’s, and not ANY Wire Fox Terrier’s, portrait. A dog’s face is every bit as unique as a human face – and a pet’s portrait has to capture all that uniqueness, so that when the dog’s human friends look at the portrait, they see THEIR special dog.
I made some sketches, I looked at Dewey’s pictures again and again, and again…until I thought that I could look into his eyes and feel his furry paw in my hands, until I could feel my fingers run through his wirey fur, and until I could feel the silk of his delicate ears…and then I went out on the terrace, sat down against the wall with my drawing board on my knees, then with the soft rays of the December sun lighting up the drawing, I began to draw. Then I guess, I just went on drawing, until I saw Dewey smile at me from the drawing. His smile, half hidden in his magnificent silky beard, inspired me to draw in a cushion, and to give him a private corner of his own…
I would like to thank Dewey Dewster and Nancy Johanson for giving me this wonderful opportunity, and I will thank my own dog Oorvi for overcoming her jealousy and bearing with me:)