Caricatures Gallery Update: Political, Business, Sports, Hollywood, Television, and Fiction.

This Gallery Update was pending for some time, and while I still haven’t been able to put together the icons for my graphite and pen-ink artworks, I got the icons of the painted artworks together to update the gallery.

I am reproducing the updated part of the gallery here – just in case, you are a kindred (read: lazy) soul.

Mike Ross – Asa Hutchinson TBP Arkansas	Jeff Bezos CEO – Amazon	Jimmy Fallon Host – The Tonight Show
Selena Gomez Singer/Actor	Malcolm Gladwell Author: The Tipping Point	Serena Williams Tennis Star
Pat & Babs Characters in a Novel	Mark Pryor vs. Tom Cotton TBP – Arkansas	Gandalf the Grey Lord of the Rings

I’d love to mention how the post that I did on Nude Celebrity Pictures has been getting all the attention. I think a new caricature genre with nudes as its central theme could become quite popular, only if someone had the talent and the will to pursue it. The fact that I am sharing this priceless idea so openly with you, must tell you that I’ve decided that my caricatures stay clothed and dignified.

Before I make this post, I’ve got to ask you something? Do you want to make caricatures? (Note that I am not asking you whether you’d like to draw caricatures.) Click the following sticker to find out more about my caricaturing app “Toonsie Roll”, which is going to be in the App Store soon 🙂

That’s all for now 🙂

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Caricature/Cartoon – Liam Neeson – The Profile of a Superb Actor.

Liam Neeson has a striking face with the most hypnotic deep-set eyes I’ve ever seen. I think his eyes must have hypnotized me into drawing this caricature.

For the very few who do not recognize this fabulous actor, here’s a quick biographical sketch.

About Liam Neeson:

Neeson is an Irish actor who was born in Ireland (in 1952) and who finally made his way across the Atlantic and the vast expanse of the North American continent to arrive in Hollywood 35 years later. He almost won the Best Actor Oscar for his role of Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (Tom Hanks wrested it from him for his role in Philadelphia…another awesome movie with an absolutely riveting performance by Hanks.)

Known for his gripping performances in movies such as Schindler’s List, Kinsey, and Taken, Neeson caught this caricaturist’s eye in his role of John Ottway in The Grey, and then more recently in Kingdom of Heaven (he isn’t the main protagonist in this movie – Orlando Bloom is; yet he plays an important role.)

Learning from this Caricature…

Why the Profile?

One of the reasons, of course, is that he is most recognizable in his profile. His eyes are deep-set but to realize how much, you need to look at his profile. The root of his nose doesn’t connect with the forehead in the usual depression seen in most other faces, and this deviation is a lot more pronounced in his face because he has a very strong brow ridge. All in all, he has a very unique face and its important deviations are more pronounced in the profile. (I’ve discussed the selection of the important deviations in “Evolution of a Caricaturist.” If you have the book, check out the chapters “Caricaturing the Brow and the Brow-ridge” and “Caricaturing the Nose.”)

PS: I am just wrapping up an App-design assignment so the newsletter will be going out soon 🙂 Thanks for subscribing. (If you haven’t subscribed yet, click here.)

Caricatures of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for the American Spectator Magazine.

A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to caricature two most talked about talk-show hosts of America: Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Most of my readers are aware of the pains I take to hide my ability to travel through time. But as they say, it’s impossible for talent to stay hidden for long. Someone must’ve blabbed about my ability to time-travel, to the American Spectator Magazine. They hired me and my time-machine to transport Limbaugh and Hannity into the past, dress them up as the nobility of those times, and transform them into pamphleteers!

While I usually don’t like to take passengers on my trips into the past, I couldn’t refuse this particular offer. After all, these two distinguished gentlemen have been striving hard to make America see the pluses of Conservative thought. I also knew that they’ve each got about 15 million viewers of their talk-shows, and if only 1% of their viewers thought that they looked awesome in their retro-gear, and decided to hire me as their fashion-designer, I’d be famous too.

So this caricaturist hauled up this precious cargo to the past, dressed ’em up in wigs’n frills, made ’em stand in front of a printing press, handed ’em those pamphlets to pose with – and shot this picture. Then she got ’em back, took out her wand and used the obliviate spell to wipe their memories of this event. (This is why they’d deny ever accompanying me on this trip!)

Here’s a snapshot of the magazine on my desk 🙂

Click for Larger View.

I know that you’d like to see the details of their dresses (especially, if you were to hire me as your fashion-designer,) so here’s the closeup.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity

Both these gentlemen have their websites too. Check them out at:

• Rush Limbaugh
• Sean Hannity

I’ll return with more next week, when Bigsaw Classic arrives on the App Store 🙂 In the meantime, download and play with Bigsaw Designer – a custom picture puzzle-making machine for your iPad.

Black-and-White Caricatures – All dressed up for the pageant.

Folks,

This caricaturist has found a new toy called “Gallery”. Here is a collection of some of my favorite black and white caricatures done over the past few years.

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

Caricature – President of Iran – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – copyrighted image – For permission to use/licensing, please contact.

Caption in reference to her recent tweet (May 16, 2013) about the IRS Raid on the Tea Party office.

I’ll martyr Libya. (What did I say? Oh…I meant I’ll die a martyr for Libya!)

I wonder why I wrote and sang “Imagine No Possessions”?

Merkel and Hollande try to tame the dragon

Congratulations for 100 100s!

Illustrated for The Suit Magazine – Issue 43 (Copyrighted Image – Please don’t use without Permission.)

Copyrighted Image. Don’t use without permission. For licensing the caricature, you are welcome to send me an email.

Pen and Ink Drawing – Actual Size: 7 inches by 9 inches.

This is all for now 🙂 I hope you like them.

Have a Great Day!

– Shafali

Abraham Lincoln’s Color Caricature – This should brighten everyone’s day!

I’ve returned from Qo’noS, 2375. I believe the members of Martok’s family were reasonably satisfied with my work, which is usually more than what a caricaturist can expect.

It must’ve been late at night when my pod entered the iOS7-iPhone 5C-charged atmosphere of earth. If you know me, you know that I hate the new buttons and I hate the fact that Steve Jobs told Tim Cook that he should run Apple the way Tim wanted to run it and not the way Steve would’ve run it. I think that made Tim Cook guilt-free. I mean who puts a hardware designer on UI design?!!! Only Tim Cook.

In the next few days, I expect people to start hating the new buttons more vociferously on the social media, and then Jobs will appear in Cook’s dream telling him to get the glossies back.

When I got out of the pod, I stepped on a piece of virtual paper that had colored circles on it. Curiosity made me pick it up (yeah, don’t start thinking that I go around picking stuff up from the ground.) It was Apple’s invitation. Drat. I had missed it, and the pod had disappeared – so I could only time-travel to the conference if I cranked up my clunky tin-box, which works on the invalid principle of going faster than light; and I wasn’t going to do that. The prospects of traveling in it repelled me, especially after having experienced the awesome Klingon time-pod!

Cutting a long story short, I must tell you that the launch of iPhone 5C in those drool-worthy candy-colors reminded me of my color caricatures that I had painted before time-and-space-hopping to Klingon.

Here’s Abraham Lincoln’s Caricature for you. This is based on the black-and-white illustration of Lincoln that I did a few years ago.

Actual Size at 300 dpi: 12 inches by 12 inches (the above image is cropped on the sides.)

 

Here’s the black and white illustration once again 🙂

What is he thinking?

 

I’ll return with an important post for Moms and Dads, so if you’ve a young child at home and you are wondering whether he or she’s possessed by the gremlins of art, I’ll give you some pointers to help you in your quest.

 

 

Turning over a new leaf…Spring brings color to this blog :)

My dear valued visitor,

If you have been here before, you might be wondering whether you’ve arrived at the right address. I assure you that  you have. While I’ve made a few changes to its look, but underneath it’s still the same. Nothing has changed, except that I’ve tried to make it easier for you to find my caricatures (new ones are coming…) and that I’ve taken off a few other pages from the menu.

 

A Snapshot of the Changes…

“Cool Caricaturists” will return on the sidebar, “The Evolution of the Caricaturist” can be accessed from the sidebar even now, and a couple of other pages have been renamed. My eBooks (sadly only two so far) are primarily satire and so they find a place under “Satire“. “The Time Machine” page is no longer there on the top menu but it’s available through the side-bar (yep! the avuncular looking gentleman with those soda-cap glasses.) The Gallery remains open 24×7 – accessible from the top- and the side-bars.

I’ve also updated the “About” page. This page used to be about a paragraph long earlier, and it led some of my visitors to share the observation that I am pretty stingy about sharing who I am. That isn’t true anymore for almost every important bit about this crazy caricaturist can now be found on the page. If your curiosity is piqued enough, check it out !

I’ve made some really cool caricatures (Hey, don’t give me that look. Every artist thinks that every squiggly that he’s ever drawn is cool.) I’ll soon share them here. (Now you know why I’ve renovated the site – it’s to welcome those brand-new caricatures!)

Bye then…I’ll see you again and soon 🙂

Caricatures/Cartoons of President Barack Obama – Mitt Romney’s Coming Soon.

Click here to view President Obama rejoicing upon winning his second term 🙂

It’s time for Americans to choose their new President.

I’ve followed the three Presidential and one Vice-Presidential Debates closely; I’ve seen the Aggressive Romney of the first debate turn somewhat docile over the past one month. I believe that Romney has the expertise to put the house in order. I am not sure of his foreign policy though. I’ve been thinking of creating a caricature of Romney for a very long time (truth be told, I already have a digital one ready, but that was created when I hadn’t watched Romney talk…at least I hadn’t seen him talk long enough to really understand how his features worked together to create various expressions.) Now, after all these debates, I feel that I need to make another caricature of his. I am working on it, I assure you.

In the meantime, let me show you all the Obama Caricatures that I’ve published on this blog in the past three years.

Obama Care – Cynically yours (2012)

Penalty or Tax? Whatever! (Published in The Suit Magazine – October 2012 Issue – Copyrighted Image – Contact me or use.)

The Debt Burden  (2011)

Illustrated for The Suit Magazine – Issue 43 (Copyrighted Image – Contact me for use.)

A Worried President Obama after being elected as President – (Early 2009)

(I know you can’t read the text – but I was just beginning :))

What’s he thinking?

I will be back with Mitt Romney’s Caricature…soon 🙂 Until then…stay happy!

Some More SEO Humor and… Who is Shafali the Caricaturist?

Dear Readers of all varieties (quick, fleeting, or lingering; medium, rare, or well-done; well-read, well-meaning, and curious,)

Once every few months, I sit down and scroll through the searches that’ve brought people to my blog.

Here are just a few of these terms.

Humorous Women Cartoons

“Humorous Women” Cartoons? I’ve told you earlier and I tell you again. Women aren’t built to be humorous. When God’s engineers were busy  putting women together their operations were sabotaged by Men (who by the way, were already built and ready to be launched.) The men stole the vial that contained humor and replaced it with another vial that contained the potion of tears. That’s why women cry and men laugh (often at the same time.) Got it? So stop searching for humorous women cartoons. The only humor we’ve got is of the sooty black kind.

Cartoon Nazi Girl Angela Merkel

So which part confuses you? Nazi or Girl? or Angela Merkel?

Beautiful Pic Men Caricature

Did you mean Pacman? or Pokemon? If you meant Beautiful pictures of men…I am sorry, dear – but you are looking for something that can never be. No? Okay…then I have the right image for you, I think.

Ghost of you(r?) my chemical romance sketch:

Chemical Romance?
Really?
Please postpone the romance until you are out of the Chemistry Lab. I beseech you. There’s never a more dangerous place to get mushy (umm…wait. Perhaps there is. How about the Forge Shop? Imagine that one of you is holding the sledge hammer and the other person is struggling to hold the red-hot iron piece using the tongs! PS: Don’t assume this happened with me because it didn’t or I’d not be here warning you against it.)

Cartoon Sketch on Sports of Shafali

Shafali doesn’t play sports, so this has to mean something else. Perhaps a sketch of a sportsman by Shafali. I hang my head in shame. I’ve done only a few sports caricatures, but you can check out Troy Polamalu, Tiger Woods, and Sachin Tendulkar.. An unlikely combination – but that’s all I have on this blog right now. Sorry.

Pakistani Caricaturist Cartoonist

Now this is important. I am an INDIAN Caricaturist Cartoonist.

Caricature of Women with Mustaches

Ho, ho, ho! hee, hee, hee! Tee, hee, hee!
Gone are the days, Sir, when you could see women with mustaches. With Laser hair removal techniques, every woman’s upper lip is as smooth as a baby’s! Why mustaches? Women today have no hair anywhere except on their heads and in their brows (OMG! what did I just say? I am going to be killed for giving this secret away.) But it gives me an idea… a real good one too 🙂 Thanks.

And finally…

The questions that have been asked many times during the last two years, but are being asked more frequently these days.

Who is Shafali the Caricaturist? Who is Shafali the Cartoonist?

Shafali is an artist with a temperament. Let me begin this information capsule with a quick demonstration.

I am a woman so I am not Mr. Shaf Ali. When anyone calls me Mr. Ali, I get my knickers in a twist, my eyebrows in a knit, and my arm in a splint! Shafali is a the name of a beautiful flower that’s offered to Lord Shiva and is called Shivli (Shiva’s friend) in Assam and Shefali in Bengal. While my name is Shafali, I’ve learned to live with people addressing me as “Shefali” in their emails and snail-mails – at least they don’t change my gender. One should be thankful for small mercies.

More…

I like to read, write, and draw. I love dogs, cats, and squirrels. I am selectively ambidextrous and can reverse-write with the same ease with which I write normally. I am good at both manual and digital drawing and painting, but I gravitate towards black and white drawing because it’s faster 🙂

Oh..move away and stay there! I can feel that wave of temperament wash over me again…

…And to those men who keep asking me about my age, all I have to say is – if you could ask that question, you weren’t brought up to be a gentleman; and my Grandmother would revive herself just so that she may put me under house-arrest for talking to you. And you must disappear before she comes back or I won’t be responsible for what happens to you!

(Psst…she once set her two dogs on a young man who had the temerity to send me a card…I am just say’n…)

Caricature/Cartoon – Robert De Niro – One of the Greatest Actors of all times asks, “You talkin’ to me?”

Robert De Niro is a fabulous actor, but an equally difficult subject for a caricature. I disagree with my dear blog-friend and fantasy writer Barb‘s opinion that it must be easy to make his caricature. It isn’t. At least, it wasn’t for me – despite the fact that usually it’s quite easy for me to caricature most people.

Let me explain. De Niro’s eyes have a sparkle that make them look like he were making fun of you – and if you want to draw the real De Niro, this look has to be combined with the over-all maturity of his personality. It isn’t easy. You need to really walk a tightrope. A little more of this and he begins to look like a clown, a little more of that, you turn him into someone who’s never smiled in his life.

My favorite De Niro performances are in the roles of Max Cady and Vito Corleone. Yet I chose to caricature a not-so-young-not-so-old De Niro, because I wanted the caricature to be a visual bridge between his past and present looks.

Okay, it’s time to unveil the drawing 🙂

When an actor transform himself into the character that he has to portray for his role the Robert De Niro does, you begin to feel that those characters and their descriptions are closer to his biography than his real life’s story. So, in a daring move, the Caricaturist breaks away from the established tradition of beginning the post with a short biography. Instead, she talks about the characters that he played.

The Most Memorable Characters played by Robert De Niro

Vito Corleone:

In the movie, The Godfather II, he portrays the young self of Don Corleone played by Marlon Brando. He won an academy award for his performance in the movie and yes, he had traveled to Sicily and stayed there to “become” a Sicilian for the movie.

Max Cady:

In Cape Fear, he plays the revengeful, tattooed psychopath, Max Cady, who makes you sit at the edge of your seat, ready to take off if he stepped out of the screen and lunged towards you.

Neil McCauley:

In Heat, he starred opposite Al Pacino (another titan of Hollywood, who I must sketch soon.) In this movie he played the role of Neil McCauley, a psychologically disturbed bank-robber and a medium-gray character.

And finally,

Travis Bickle:

Travis Bickle the Taxi Driver is a social misfit. Travis begins to fantasize about cleaning the “filth on the streets.” In the role of Travis Bickle, he immortalized the lines, “You talkin’ to me?”

Now a quick snap-shot of his life.

Robert De Niro’s Biography

He was born on August 17, 1943. His parents were both artists. His dad, true to his artistic persona, had a colorful lifestyle (why do you think artists become artists – it’s the glamor of the creative license, more than anything else, which leads them to recklessly plunge into the artistic waters!) This perhaps drove a wedge between his mom and dad – yet Bobby remained close to his dad. He caught the acting bug when he was quite young (that’s the time you catch most bugs – I too remember catching the drawing bug when I was quite young.) One thing led to another and then he got that memorable role, which established him as the one and only Godfather of Hollywood – He became the younger self of Don Corleone. You know the rest.

Read more about Robert De Niro at the following links:

• Biography at IMDB
• Biography at Wikipedia
• Recent News – The white first lady joke controversy
• Robert De Niro at Rotten Tomatoes
• De Niro’s Best Movies (Source: Rotten Tomatoes here.)

List of Robert De Niro’s Best Movies from Rotten Tomatoes (Primarily for my own reference :))

1. GoodFellas — 96%
2. The Godfather, Part II — 96%
3. Taxi Driver — 93%
4. Heat — 92%
5. Raging Bull — 92%
6. Once Upon a Time in America — 92%
7. Casino — 91%
8. The Deer Hunter — 91%
9. Brazil — 89%
10. A Bronx Tale — 89%
(Source: Rotten Tomatoes.)

What has the Caricaturist been doing? – A Personal Post.

New Visitor – Please be warned.

While you are welcome to read this post, it mightn’t make much sense to you. This post is for those who know everything (well, almost everything) about me. They know about my excursions into parallel worlds and my tours into the past; they know that I remember most of my past lives in vivid details – especially the one in which I was born a dinosaur; and they know that I spend most of my time doing stuff that’s got nothing to do with making caricatures.

If you still want to read on, please don’t hold me responsible if nothing makes sense to you. 

——————————————————————————

What has the caricaturist been doing? Other than apparently “foolishly” refusing to accept the once-in-a-lifetime offer of having a designer clothing line based exclusively on her designs, deleting funny comments from septuagenarians who are more interested in her photograph than in her work, and annoying those who have her best interests at heart.

Well, she’s been:

• reading a novel called Isis Reach by David Elvar and wondering how the author came up with Shona Madoc, the beautiful and intelligent protagonist of this paranormal mystery, and whether he had some personal paranormal experiences that made the novel so interesting to read.
• wondering why Mark Zuckerberg‘s got mired in all the controversy that he’s got mired in, and how she can bring herself to believe what they say about him – he’s so young and he’s got an ultra-cute face – regardless of that bump in his nose. I know that my reason sounds flimsy, but that’s the best I can come up with.
• trying to make up her mind whether or not she should buy a couple of new floral skirts for the summers.
• booking her flight-tickets to Atlantis. On her last trip to the wonder-city, she had left her favorite mechanical pencil there, and she needs to get it back. Pronto.
• thinking why she needs to bother herself with drawing Keira Knightley‘s body at all? I mean, who’d notice?
• trying to engineer a clock that fits 48 hours in a day. If she’s able to do this, a hundred years from now, she’d be known as the Leonardo da Vinci of the twenty-first century.

Though there are other things that she’s been doing – but if the last one works out, they wouldn’t matter; so the super-optimist yet ultra-practical caricaturist now refuses to waste your time as well as hers, telling you about her other crazy pursuits.

That’s all for now, friends. I hope to return with Robert de Niro‘s caricature soon 🙂

The Caricaturist found her inspiration again…

brace yourselves – caricatures are about to invade your world!

I could list them out – all 10 of them, but then I’d kill the suspense – so I won’t.

I’ll just tell you this that last week I received a package that gave me a shot in the arm. What was there in the package?! Well, it had some drawings that I am going to cherish forever. But why did they inspire me? Ah, that’s a trick question – isn’t it? Okay. Here’s why. Because I looked at those drawings and thought that one day…perhaps in not very distant future, I’ll wake up into a day filled with the possibility of doing nothing but drawing. Those drawings made me want to draw. So, that’s exactly what I did. I woke up the next day, and I saw nothing but the possibility of drawing. I drew and drew and drew…until I had drawn everyone whose photographs I found in my reference folder.

Weird?

…Unbelievable?

…But true! Your caricaturist is back…figuring out ways to get herself killed!

And the end-note…to my idol in the world of cartooning. Thank you for inspiring me.

 

 

NEWS!!! The Missing Caricaturist was found fighting an invisible mutant spider!

I know you don’t believe my luck. I mean how could someone as normal as this caricaturist end up fighting a mutant spider of the invisible type?! Such things happen only in movies – don’t they? Well…I feared your disapproval so I came prepared with some other options that might sound more normal to you.

You could select from:

1. a deep sea dive that culminated in my getting stuck in an underwater crater, which connected to the super-duper city of Atlantis.
2. my journey into and out of (yucks!) a polar bear’s belly (this one really happened. You could read the details here.)
3. my being first selected and then being dumped…for running the race for the Republican Party Presidential  Primaries!
4. one of my caricatures getting mad at me for drawing him with a bigger than normal nose and a smaller than normal mouth…(Shia Labeouf or Edward Norton? Don’t ask. I don’t want to take any names and get into more trouble.)
5. I was shipped to Shutter Island where I met Leonardo DiCaprio and realized that I was merely a figment of his imagination.

So, which one did you pick as the most plausible explanation for my absence?

Anyway, the point is that I’ll shortly be back with more caricatures and…well more detailed caricatures…perhaps caricatures that have political stories to tell 🙂

Won’t make any promises as, so far, I haven’t been performing great on the promises front – not keeping too well – especially after that near-fatal battle with the oh-so-venomous spider – yet, watch this space for some cool new caricatures!

Caricature/Cartoon of Galileo Galilei – The Scientist who was Persecuted for Speaking the Truth.

Does the earth go around the sun or does the sun go around the earth?

You know the answer and I know it – but 500 years ago, neither of us would’ve known it, and even if we did, we wouldn’t have the nerve to say it; and if at all we had the conviction and the nerve, we would be Galileo Galilei!

The caricaturist humbly presents the caricature of one of the most important men in astronomy and science.

Galileo in Heaven: So, where are those who had imprisoned me? Never mind - I'm just glad they aren't here!

So who was this man? And what did he do to go down in history as the man who defied the authority of the Roman Catholic Church?

Here’s Galileo’s tiniest biography on the web.

Biography of Galileo Galilei

Galileo was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564. His dad was a musician who decided that his son Galileo must become a Doctor (possibly as Doctors are never out of work, the way musicians are – and because even then they earned rather well.) As it happens with most sons, Galileo didn’t want to a Doctor, so despite his dad sending him to the University of Pisa to study medicine, he became a Professor of Mathematics.

Galileo’s first important invention was the telescope, which made faraway objects appear closer…and Galileo got hooked into using it to spy on the moon. To the chagrin of lovers world-wide, Galileo discovered and made it known that the surface of the moon was pimply, wrinkly, and not at all smooth and beautiful – thus, he robbed many romantic relationships of their lunar poetry.

He also discovered a myriad other things, but what literally made his world go round n round, was the discovery that Earth indeed revolved around the Sun. This obviously didn’t go down well with the church who’d been preaching otherwise for hundreds of years. So Galileo was accused of being a heretic (a non-believer in the teachings of the Church,) but Galileo managed to get himself cleared of the charges. Yet, he was barred from stating the truth, because the Church didn’t want to be proved wrong in front of the whole world!

Galileo however became more and more convinced of the fact, and then he published a book “Dialogues concerning the Two Great World Systems” that re-affirmed the Copernican Heliocentric Theory. The Church could take his blatant disregard for their authority anymore and they incarcerated him in his own house. He stayed imprisoned for 9 years, until he died in 1642, at the age of 88.

Galileo’s “Pardon”

In 1992, Galileo was finally “pardoned” by the Roman Catholic Church. Unbelievable but true. After taking away 9 years of a man’s life for their own error, they “pardon” him! I would think that an organization that committed such a mistake should seek a pardon instead. (I really can’t comprehend it – but then I am not the smartest person in this world – there must be some reason why the entire world accepts this…and I bow to the opinion of the majority.)

What else did Galileo do?

Among other things, he discovered that there are other planets that have their personal moons, and that gravity isn’t partial to heavier objects.

I know that this is merely tip of the iceberg of Galileo’s accomplishments, so click here to read more.

A POA for the New Year…and some Birthday Wishes – A Personal Post…

…and so you may want to skip it. I heartily recommend that you check out the Caricature Gallery and if you are the reader-type you may also want to checkout my Verbal Caricatures (the eBooks.)

The first week of January is a wonderful time. It’s filled with fresh hopes and new energy, and for me it’s doubly so, as my Birthday too falls in the first week of January. I thought it’s time for me to reflect upon the journey of this blog and also to share my blogging plans for the year 2012.

The Journey so far…

I had started this blog on a foggy December morning. It’s only goal was to bring me some happiness, as I wasn’t really doing well – neither financially nor physically. The act of drawing had always brought me happiness and peace but I had almost never done art commercially…and caricatures – I had never done caricatures before I started this blog. In December, this blog turned two. It now has about 80 caricatures of different personalities supported by this caricaturist’s take on their lives, and it attracts a good number of visitors too.

I made some wonderful friends through this blog. I’d like them to know that I’ll always cherish their friendship. I am also working with two clients now – earning through art had always been my dream and I am now inching closer to my goal.

This past year, I also wrote a book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” which I published on Google Knol (a Platform that’d be put to sleep April this year), and which got about 55,000 views, earned me a Top Knol Author badge, and was appreciated by its readers.

Another addition to this blog was the Interactive Art Tutorial Section, which didn’t really get sufficient attention from me, as my job kept me busier than usual – yet, the these interactive tutorials were downloaded 2000 times in the last six months and I am hopeful that people liked them.

The Plan for 2012

• The plan is actually that this blog will retain its organic format. I will try not be tardy in posting to this blog and I will try to make at least two posts a week.
• In 2012, this blog will see more of color-caricatures and I may also do some political caricatures and cartoons.
• I am planning to do some How-to Posts that have been planned on the basis of some feedback that I received on the “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” book – for instance, how to do shading in caricatures, how to establish volumes in drawings…etc. I hope that my readers will find these posts helpful.
• I also hope to find a publisher for an expanded, more detailed, and more richly illustrated version of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist.” I was approached for it last year, but things didn’t work out. However, if you are a publisher who’s interested in publishing the book, please let me know.
• And finally, I want to become a more active blogger. I’d like to visit more blogs, find bloggers who I’d like to read, and make some new friends in the New Year.

I guess that’s all 🙂

Once again, I’d like to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

 

 

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!

 

Still here…

but busy as a bee…

Any thoughts on who I should be sketching next?

The following are currently on my interest list:

• Oprah Winfrey
• Leonardo DiCaprio

You are welcome to leave your suggestions:) And of course, your stories for the Blog Carnival too…I’m dying to read some interesting original fiction. (The newest story can be read here.)

And Oh…if you are an Indian (or if you love India) you should stop by my friend Gorakh Nath Ji’s Indian Fiction and Humor blog.  He’s dead but more spirited than many of the living. If you are an Indian and a woman – find Vicky on his blog and follow him (don’t ask me why…discover it yourself!)

Meet Gorakh Nath Ji:

Find him at: http://karelasplit.wordpress.com

Smile away, even if you don’t DRAW to SMILE!

Licensing Caricatures, Free Book, and Some Straight Talk!

Every once in a while, I feel like slowing down, taking stock, and talking:) This is one of those once-in-a-whiles.

The Beginnings of this Caricature Blog

I started this blog about 9 months ago – hoping that it would help me smile.  I began my art-journey as a traditional portrait artist, then I freelanced with a book publisher,  and then I did some work in the fantasy art genre for a couple of American RPG publishers – so there was a time when I managed to sell some stray bits of art,  but that was a long time ago – and it isn’t something that I truly relished.  The only good part was that I never had to do what makes every artist, every writer cringe – I wasn’t ever asked to do rework , except once – when after a couple of non-productive rework rounds, I chose to give up. Then for many years I decided not to publish my art – there was a phase when I’d refuse work, when I stripped away all my artwork from the web – in a nutshell, when I decided to give up.

Drawing is my Passion NOT my Profession!

I’d still draw almost every day – but I drew because I couldn’t stop myself from picking up a pencil (I have a couple of hundreds of those), until one cold December morning, when I saw this funny man in the newspaper. I dropped my comb and I sketched his caricature, which became the first caricature on this blog.  Creating caricatures for this blog has been fun, mainly because I don’t have to work with time-lines, and also because I can draw whoever I want to.  If I don’t want to draw someone, I just won’t draw him or her – and if I want to, it doesn’t matter whether that person is not a very popular guy. In art, I don’t like to do things that I am asked to do – I prefer to do what I want to. I don’t like to ask people to do things for me for FREE, because I value their independence and their time, and I expect them to value mine.

Do you Want to License my Caricatures for Commercial Use?

I’d like to say that with the growing popularity of your favorite blog, I am beginning to receive requests for free and paid work. I think I am doing enough for free (all the caricatures that appear on this blog are free for people to use in their non-commercial products, and the caricature book too is free, if you want to read it online.) If you want to make a few thousand copies of my caricatures and use them in your “commercial applications” they aren’t free at all. I’d also like to make a recommendation to the serious, well-intentioned people who wish to use the caricatures from this blog commercially, to be upfront about their organization, their intention – and if possible, NOT consider me their “vendor” even before I’ve reviewed their requirement. Be nice if you want to be treated nicely – Drawing is my love, not my profession. If you aren’t happy introducing yourself, you should find other artists – and sadly there’s a glut of out-of-work artists in this part of the world!

This may sound arrogant, but I can’t stop myself from writing this. I never thought to write it earlier but recently my mail-box isn’t entirely happy with the kind of emails that find their way there.

Sharing What I know for those who “Genuinely” want to Learn – My FREE Online Book – “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist”

Sometime  in January 2010, I also started writing “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” – A Book on How to Draw Caricatures. This book is almost complete with 10 out of its 14 chapters online. I’ve received some good feedback on this book and I have received an unofficial offer for its publication. I am still reflecting on how I should go ahead with it – but the fact that the 10 chapters that are currently online for this book have garnered about 22000 views so far (Don’t go by the numbers they show there – Knols have a funny way of updating data), tells me that there are people out there who are finding it useful. A big Thank You to all the readers of this book:) I promise to complete it very soon:)

Announcing the Arrival of Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean!

This evening, you are invited to meet Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean 🙂

See you then…

Shafali the Caricaturist

Draw to Smile!

How to Draw These 7 Personalities?! Let them Draw themselves!

I can’t stop myself from writing this post…so I’d begin by apologizing to my serious visitors – I am sorry! This isn’t a deliberate, thoughtful post – it’s what the netizens would call an impulse post.

You see I came upon the search string, “How to Draw Ozzy Osbourne” in my blog’s data. Isn’t that the joke of the day?! Do you really need to figure it out? Really?!

You see…you don’t make Ozzy’s caricature – he’s already done the job for you. Instead, you make his portrait! So if you can draw, you can draw his caricature!

Here are some other “How to Draw the Caricature of…”! Smile Away:-)

How to Draw the Caricature of Mahatma Gandhi:

Draw the nose, the ears, and the spectacles – the viewers will fill in the rest.

Read the Post on the Caricature of Mahatma Gandhi

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How to Draw the Caricature of Ozzy Osbourne:

Forget it. I’ve tried but I believe that no caricaturist can beat Ozzy himself, when it comes to drawing his caricature.

Read the Post on the Caricature of Ozzy Osbourne

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How to Draw the Caricature of Abraham Lincoln:

Draw Gandhi’s caricature, add hair,  and remove the spectacles.

Read the Post on the Caricature of Abraham Lincoln

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How to Draw the Caricature of Pamela Anderson:

Draw the fishbowls. Period.

Read the Post on the Caricature of Pamela Anderson

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How to Draw the Caricature of Lady Gaga:

Draw a nest, or a Computer, or a Robot, or a Christmas Tree; and label it “Lady Gaga”

Read the Post on the Caricature of Lady Gaga

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How to Draw the Caricature of Queen Elizabeth:

Draw the crown. Period.

Read the Post on the Caricature of Queen Elizabeth II

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How to Draw the Caricature of Tiger Woods:

Draw the cap, the women, the Nike symbol…or…to draw a more modern Tiger Woods, draw a Tiger lost in the Woods with beautiful tigresses to give him company!

Read the Post on the Caricature of Tiger Woods, his Women, and the Devil.

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I could go on and on, and never stop…but I’ve got to go! Have fun, enjoy, and Draw Ozzy Osbourne’s Caricature – and see if you can do a better job than he did.

And…

if you are serious about doing caricatures, you must check out my FREE Online Book “How to Draw Caricatures – Evolution of a Caricaturist“!

Mariah Carey will be flashing her smile on this Caricature Blog soon!

Next in the queue, waiting for her turn, is the pop and hip-hop singer who is also an actress. Sometime today, Mariah Carey will make an appearance on this caricature blog:-)

Stay awake…

PS: She’ll be followed by an Indian celebrity:-) who looks like Paris Hilton, but has more color in her hair and her eyes – Guess who?

I know it isn’t easy to guess for my non-Indian visitors or for my Indian visitors…Alien Visitors, will you try to find who this Paris Hilton look-alike is?

(Hint: The answer is given in the Indian Celebrities post here.)

And yes…

About the How to Draw Caricatures book – The Evolution of a Caricaturist…

I’ve been seeing searches for “Chapter 10 – Evolution of a Caricaturist” happening on this blog. I am sorry for the delay in adding Chapter 10, but thanks for motivating me. If you want to read the tenth chapter, who am I to stop you from reading it:) “Chapter 10 (Caricaturing the Ears)” will be going up sometime this week. Draw…and SPREAD THE SMILE!