Thursday 19 January 2012

my bug

Isn't he sweet?
He was given to me by my cousin, Chetna. (thank you Chetna, you're awesome! :*)
I havn't come up with a name for him yet. Suggestions anyone?
(Watch him hit a block and turn in the video. It's adorable)


Wednesday 18 January 2012

3. this is not a kite

Last week was the kite festival, Uttarayan, here in Gujarat. It is a beautiful festival full of fun and colour and, of course, lots of kites. 
And if you, like me, are hopeless at getting a kite airborne, (despite copious running and jumping) Gujarati's generously offer you the option of buying balloons instead! 
Even better, if you don't look the four-year-old-kite-flying-pro's in the eye you might not even feel silly.


Sunday 15 January 2012

sixty

Tomorrow, i embark on Project Sixty.
Over the last year, i've been blowing hot and cold with my blog updates. Sometimes, the posts are overflowing other times my blog is in hibernation. :(
Well no more! For the next (count the fingers below) days, i am going to put up one post everyday on my blog. No excuses.
So don't forget to look out for the posts! (unless of course, i fail to put them up)

Sunday 1 January 2012

100!

My hundredth post!
wooooooooo!
*firecrackers and celebration
And to think it took me just two years! (yes, I'm being sarcastic)
There are a 100 faces down there and i'm in there somewhere amongst them. Bet you can't find me!























The colour i'm using is Madras Marine, gifted to me courtesy Kalapi! :)
And, incidentally, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friday 9 December 2011

testing testing..

Whenever i start painting an illustration i keep a strip of paper beside me to test and prepare colours before i paint it in. The last illustration i made was so colourful that even the strip looked pretty by the time i finished! 
I added a little me on top to finish it off!

Sunday 4 December 2011

letters are fun!

I took a break from drawing on postcards and drew on an envelope instead.
I love writing letters and drawing on brightly coloured envelopes. 
Letters make separation fun! :)

Wednesday 30 November 2011

birthday yay!

Tomorrow's my birthday! 
Yay!
I'm going to be celebrating in Diu, a little beach town.
It's going to be a day of sun, sand, fried fish and beer!
Woooooooooooo! :D



Monday 28 November 2011

Beaten Black and Blue

This is one of the illustrations i made for a short story from a collection of stories by children, for children. The book is called 'By Us, For Us' and is being published by Katha. (check them out!) 
It is another story form the same book in my previous post.
This particular story is called 'Beaten Black and Blue' and is about one politician's suitcase that saves India from the clutches of his corruption.
It's a lovely story. Do buy the book if you see it!
(click on the image to see more detail)


Saturday 26 November 2011

Rover the dog

This is one of four illustrations i made for a short story. 
It is part of a collection of stories written by children, for children, and illustrated by various people. The book is called 'By Us, For Us' and is being published by Katha.(Look them up!)
The book is being launched on the 29th and i'm extremely excited!
The story I illustrated is called Rover the dog, and it is a sweet story about Lila, who can't find her dog, Rover anywhere. She searches high and low and then finds him in the most unexpected place!
Do buy the book if you see it!


Thursday 24 November 2011

one of those days

It's one of those days.  
Everything seems wrong, just, wrong. 
When nothing you do makes you feel better. 
All you want to do is sit in the corner and cry.

Thursday 10 November 2011

twitterer

My friend, Kalapi, had asked me to create an avatar of him for his public profile on Twitter. After making a few drawings, I sent him the final one along-with a scan of all the doodles around it. To my surprise he ended up using most of them! 
I dislike twitter but i feel like visiting his profile just to see my drawing! :)




Wednesday 9 November 2011

Shilpa

Another book-converted-into-monster book, and oddly, my first female monster. (I've been neglecting gender equality!) 
She's on her way to party. 
Female monsters have busy social lives you know.



















Also check out my friend Karno's monsters
I think Ramola and Shilpa would have been very good friends.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

sabhabathi

I converted another book into a monster. This one is called Sabhabathi. 
You can call him Sabby for short!
I quite enjoy converting my books into monsters. 
I think i should make it a ritual.
You can see my first monster-book here.


Sunday 6 November 2011

dinesbhai

I'm on a monster roll!
It occurred to me recently that i have been in Baroda for over 6 months and i've become quite fond of both the place and Gujarati people! High time then that i make a gujju monster, isn't it?
Meet Dineshbhai.
He's a sweet and rather shy guy. 
He's the silent type.
He's gujju (obviously).
His favourite 'snakes' are kites, preferably sweet ones! :P

The photograph, unfortunately, is not mine, only Dinesh is. I drew him on a postcard i picked up in Ahmedabad.

Sunday 30 October 2011

halloween horns

This halloween my friend wore an awesome pink wig with horns. 
I want one too!



Monday 24 October 2011

flipkart

I am absolutely, totally, head-over-heels in love with flipkart! I love how books i can otherwise never hope to find arrive so deliciously packaged at my doorstep! My wishful wishlist is (as expected) just about endless and my obsession with it is bordering on unhealthy. I check it every single day and it takes me all my willpower to move my cursor away from that tantalising Buy Now button.


Sunday 9 October 2011

petite éclairs

Nowadays, I seem to swinging from drawing to cooking an awful lot. 
My most recent adventure with the oven was petite éclairs. They weren't actually supposed to be petite, i couldnt find the right nozzle size so they ended up mini, but they're tasty anyway! (and they sound fancier when i say petite éclairs! :P)
Turns out eclairs are quite easy and fast to make. Unfortunately, they're even easier and faster to eat! This lot lasted for about 10 minutes before they were gulped down. 


As you can see, my brother enjoyed them quite a bit! :)



Thursday 29 September 2011

garba

This is how i garba.

postcard 10: home

There is something extraordinary about the beach. It's so calming. No matter how sad, angry, unhappy i feel, a quiet hour at the beach with the salty sea breeze and the sand between my toes make me feel at peace.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

I was flipping through my log recently and found a forgotten doodle. I really ought to have put this up a very long time ago! 
For Easter last year my friend Vishnu gave some of us the most delicious chocolate bunnies to eat. Over the next few weeks our fridge was littered with headless, butt-less and various other parts-less bunnies. I figured their conversation in the recesses of my fridge went something like this.


This is what the actual chocolate bunny looked like.
 
You can see the bunny Aaju received, here.

postcard 9: metamorphosis complete

Finishing off what i started!

Sunday 25 September 2011

postcard 8: *cough

Asthama problems. Several month's worth of dust accumulated around the junk lying in my room finally got to me. 
My lungs were complaining. :(

stamp tramp

stampFor as long as i can remember i've loved rubber stamps. When i was a kid i would steal my dad's office stamps and ink pad and stamp them all over my books (and an occasional wall).
Recently, (joy oh joy!) Kalapi made me one as a gift. 
It is awesome.
(Most available surfaces in my room are now stamped with my name.)


postcard 7: filters

I bought my Gujarati friend (and myself) a set of lovely tamil stainless-steel coffee filters. 
I even got his initials inscribed on it. 
He seemed pretty pleased with my gift! :)

Thursday 22 September 2011

postcard 5: de-moustaching

There is a woman in chennai whose hands are like magic with those nerve-wrecking parlour-processes. So when i know there's a visit coming up i let my moustache build to record breaking lengths in the comfortable knowledge that she's going to make me look beautiful again.  
Painlessly.

a hop, skip and jump

I've always wanted long hair to play with.


Wednesday 21 September 2011

Monday 19 September 2011

postcard 2: library madness

If Baroda has one flaw, it's the lack of a good library. Which is why i broke into a spontaneous jig of joy and skipped around like a lunatic in my chennai library (stunning the other innocent and rather apprehensive customers).
The librarian didn't even blink though. He's gotten used to it.
*sigh. Books are delicious!


postcard 1: the heat was hot

Recently, i got the chance to spend a few days in my hometown, Chennai. 
Chennai is hot, humid, eternally muggy and my favourite city in the world! However, after my family moved away, opportunities to visit have become precious and far between. :(
While i was there this time, i decided to document my trip by creating, at the end of each day, a postcard of the event that stuck out most in my mind.
I am now left with 10 postcards summing up my trip (that i shall now put up in order received).

The heat in Chennai was very hot. :I

Saturday 27 August 2011

cookies are meant for seeing

After the long spell of collecting cobwebs that my blog has been forced to endure i've decided to start with something sweet. And edible.
I'd been doodling and eating an awful lot lately so i struck inspiration one day and decided to combine the two into one pastime.
The following (with generous help from my mum in the baking process) is what resulted.

The type cookies are with the help of typogeek Kalapi (by 'help of' i mean i started making a few letters, gave up half way and let him convert the wrecks into pretty type)
We then had a complete ball icing the cookies and messing up my table. 



After several hours of applying and eating colourful icing though i couldnt look at my finished cookies in the eye let alone eat them so they were duly munched up by my brother. :(