2012, Oh 2012?

Hi all!

Is it just me who can't remember how this year started? Because it is getting over pretty soon and if someone asked me what I did the whole of 2012, I WOULD HAVE NO CLUE!

I'm updating after a long, long, long time I admit. There's so much that has happened & so much to share it might even be difficult to put it in a post! Though I'm away from friends and family, I do look forward to December which is when I... CONVOCATE :D Yes, I'll finally be a graduate! Wow, it's crazy to think I'm not going to be a student anymore. All them student discounts :[

Ha! On the 31st October, my niece turned two! So I wanted to do something fun for her, and with help from some awesome friends I was able to work on a mug illo for her. Thankfully, she likes it. Yuss, she does!


There's a one page comic I did with Pratheek Thomas aka Manta Ray mastermind :) We had had a conversation about this the last time we met, so I was really glad he wanted to team up on the artwork!
It was part of The Small Picture in print in the Mint daily on 12th September 2012.


 Then for the one I teamed up with the ever-so-clever Arjun Kolady. The script is pretty loaded (and I was severely intimidated when I gave it the first read) and it took us a good while to figure visuals to work with the comic; something that would make clear what the text was about, yet didn't become too obvious.

Also, Manta Ray is going to be out with Mixtape & you reeeally don't want to miss this. You can keep yourself updated with Mixtape by subscribing to Telex, right here. I'm teaming up with  Tina Thomas on one of the stories! A HUGE SHOUTOUT TO MANTA RAY + MIXTAPE COMICS :) Sneak-peaks, HERE.

Cover artwork by Prabha Mallya.

There's been a lot out for them loverrly folks at Chumbak too!

Firstly, ze BOBBLEHEAD! It was so crazy to work on this design and seeing it translate from 2D to 3D. I loved every bit of those back & forth discussions (At one point, I thought this would never get done) & design+redesign. So here she is, Bobby Aunty in all her bobbing glory. Get one, here!


There's the Hindi Alphabet series, which was mad fun to work on! Mugs and tees and boxers and notebooks galore :)
There's अ for Auto tee+ mug,

य for Yoga (if you can't do it, might as well wear this!) tee+ mug,

न for Nostalgia, an ode to the Doordarshan days :) Tee+ mug.

Then, there's the द for Daaru boxers, ideal for party innerwear ;) They're also available for ड for Drunk Scribbling, on a notebook.


This was a fun design, the idea was to show different moustaches men in India flaunt, so here it is mug + notebook. Also, someone was sweet enough to send a picture of themselves with it :) There's a boxer too, and it looks super smashingly yellow in reality :D

Then, there's some handsome Pehelwaans flexing and strutting on a coffee mug, get it here :)


Some cute keychains: The Kohlapuri (who doesn't love Kohlapuris? They were even all over Michael Bastian's SS13 show, amongst other lust-worthy footwear) & the Nazar Nimboo.

Chumbak product images courtesy Chumbak ©.

Obscenities 1, the sketchbook. A sad, tattered sketchbook I found in a tiny shop in the by-lanes of Kolkata that was crying for adoption. It was so much fun filling it up with pervy sketchery while listening to some fun, new music! More to come :)

Open publication - Free publishing - More body

And fiiinally , time for cheap self publicity! Maa, I got featured! On the god-of-everything-you-need-to-know-about-comics website, Comics Alliance! My rendition of Craig McCracken's Him was a part of the Best Art Ever (This Week) Halloween 2012 & I couldn't be happier!


Also, print feature! In Grazia India November 2012 issue! I'm featured next to biggies like Prabha & The Vigil Idiot! (Thanks, Pratheek! :D)


Feedback, critique & suggestions of any shape or size welcome :)
Have a great day :D

O_O

You have NOT been forgotten.
An update to follow super-soon! :)

Shame Shame

HI ALL!
Before I even wrote out this entry, I knew the title was going to be this. Because of my lack of shame for not having updated blog dearest in the longest time. ALSO MY BLOG TURNED FOUR YEARS ON MAY 4th! So, good news time *drumroll*:

'I GOT A JOB!'

So the illustrations I did in collaboration with ze loverrly Surabhi Chauhan, got noticed by none other than Sabyasachi himself! And I joined in as an illustrator + Web designer! Part of me is still getting over how this all happened. But so far so fucking good :) I'd be able to share some stuff real soon hopefully, but there's lots brewing.
P.S. - For those in India, get hold of this month's Vogue, there's a little something on page 136 that I whipped up :)

This month end I'll get my diploma jury out of ze way, so I can finally call myself A GRADUATE! :) Wish me luck!

Well, I'll put up some of the work I've been doing in the recent past, fun stuff. Although I hardly get to do any personal illo work, but here goes.
I was a part of Cocaine's 54 project, where 54 illustrators got to do their take on a playing card. I got 3 of diamonds. I wanted to put in three completely different contexts of diamonds, and was itching for a style tweak in terms of the work that I had been doing and came up with this.

Lots of mad Chumbak work! I had such a gala time working on all of it :D

First up, their collaboration with Samosapedia! With all the 'shit' that people were saying, we figured it was high time what Indians say gets documented. And we did this this! This goes on a mug, tin, tiny notebook, poster & a tee (coming soon!). So keep up with the lingo and enjvaai!

MUGS! I was asked to work on a Chennai mug, and I was frankly trying to push it as much as possible, because I knew I wouldn't be able to represent the city too well considering I have been there only twice, all for some two- three weeks. What I feared most was to give a shallow Delhi-person view of the lovely place, and come across as just plain blah! But with help from some Chennai friends and my sister (who was there for one whole year!), I was able to deliver, and was SO happy with the way it turned out! Also, turns out a lot of Tamilians love it! WIN :)

For Father's Day, I turned around a design the quickest in the history of me working (the folks at Chumbak still joke about this everytime I'm late)! Maybe it was because of the unconditional love I have for my daddy, or just that I blurted it out when I was given a chance. But I loved every single bit of working on this, and it hopefully comes across. I LOVE YOU PAPA! Mug, here. 

KEYCHAINS! I worked on this bike keychain based on many a guys hopelessly obsessed with their bikes :)I wanted to do a big, ferocious tiger keychain but then we settled for something peaceful and cute. They came out beautifully after production in splendid bendy rubber, the details look great!

 

Annnd, the Bollywood Kiss keyring! Shadylove forever :)

Some magnets for your fridge/ almirahs. The mango magnet & what I call 'the Gau mata' AKA Nirvana Cow magnet .

All Chumbak™ images courtesy, well, Chumbak.

Lots more happening, waiting to come out!
Also, I got a Russian shoutout on a blog for my Dress A Day sketches! :D
P.S. - I miiiiight start a Dress A Day II, which means another month of more fashion and many new designers' spankin' new collections! JOY!

Do leave feedback and have a great, happy & prolific day :D

Post-it Pandemonium + Gaga This Way

Hallo!
I've been looking forward to this update for AGES now!
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. Though you might need to open them in a new tab to see them in the resolution I put.
I'm obsessed with Lady Gaga, and feel very strongly about bullying as an issue, having experienced my share throughout my school life. With the Born This Way foundation launching and brand Gaga emerging generally all over the world, I was more than glad to have been asked by them folks at Manta Ray Comics to work on a comic on Gaga. And to think it got printed in the newspaper exactly a week before her 26th birthday! First seen printed on 21st of March in Mint daily.

So this is basically what delayed my blog entry, I've spent way too long cropping these and putting them together in more or less the same order as they were drawn! Either way, I've clearly dirtied way too many post its! And here they are :D I think all of them have been done while listening to music, which would explain lyrics that might make no sense.

I couldn't help but work on this illustration after reading Daniel Garofali's 'We're Human Too' Huffington Post feature. Yo can read the article here.

I think these conical bra-ed women are more Jeremy Scott inspired than Gaultier, after his almost catastrophic Fall 2010 attempt at them that Rihanna wore too. I got some gorgeous 300 gsm watercolor sheets, and filled them up with all the fluorescent I had. It's a pity the fluoro yellow looks plain yellow though :(

Me and my parents recently went to gurudwara Hazoor Sahib, Nanded and I won't exaggerate when I say it has got to be the most amazing place I've been to. That one space's mood changes with each passing hour, all hours of the day. So the little time that I got when I was not putting my jaw back in place, I sketched. I put it together horribly, though. There was too much compiling to do!

Sigh. I just realized I put up a lot o hand-done work after a really long time. I'm glad I got to 'Digital Detox', only to realize nothing can imitate the feeling of pen rubbing against some lovely paper.


Do leave feedback and have a happy day! :)