thoughts n scribbles

Calcutta Caricatures

2011-08-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

Caricatures of famous personalities from Calcutta.

Kishore Kumar..... Man with a golden voice.

Satyajit Ray..... One of the best directors from India.

Mrinal Sen.... Another acclaimed director from Calcutta.

Rituparno Ghosh...... Upcoming director from India.

Prosenjit Chatterjee....... Famous actor of Bengali cinema.

Usha Uthup...... Singer....One of the biggest crow-pullers of her time.

Paper cut Portrait 1

2011-07-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

Uttam Kumar (3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980) is one of the most famous names of Indian Bengali Cinema.... widely known as 'Mahanayak'.

Bad Moon Rising: a mystery anthology cover

2011-07-16T00:54:00.001-07:00

Book cover illustration for 'Bad Moon Rising: a mystery anthology', for Penguin, India.

Swayamvara cover

2011-07-16T00:51:00.000-07:00

Book cover illustration for NZ author David Hair's 'Ravana series, Book 2, Swayamvara', for Penguin, India.

Pyre of Queens cover

2011-07-16T00:50:00.001-07:00

Book cover illustration for NZ author David Hair's 'Ravana series, Book 1, Pyre of Queens', for Penguin, India.

Rolling Stone, India cover

2011-07-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone, India had invited me for their 'Cover as Art' project. This was my piece.

A sketch from a trip, painted later

2011-07-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

A friend in deep thought

2011-07-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Style Shrink

2011-07-16T00:37:00.001-07:00

Illustration for GQ, India for an article on style advice.

Boman Irani on Verve

2011-07-16T00:27:00.000-07:00

Illustration for Verve, for an article on Bollywood actor Boman Irani.

Salman Khan on Verve

2011-07-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

Illustrations for Verve, for an article on Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

No Show at Osho!

2011-07-16T00:21:00.001-07:00

Illustration for Man's World, for an article on Osho.

B/W illos for Scholastic cont.

2010-07-27T22:41:00.001-07:00

B/W illos for Scholastic

2010-07-27T22:33:00.001-07:00

Some ink n wash illos for Scholastic Elementary English books.
Ink n wash sure is tough!

Fashion Ad pitch

2010-07-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

These are very hurriedly done illos for a fashion ad pitch..... the catchline goes something like, "you don't mind committing a crime for these...."

GQ: June 2010

2010-07-27T22:09:00.001-07:00

This is for an article talking about print goof-ups in newspapers.

GQ: May'10: Interview Column

2010-05-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Barkha Dutt in newspaper model.

GQ: April'10: Interview Column

2010-04-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Balki post 'Paa'.......

GQ: March'10: Interview Column

2010-03-10T05:37:00.002-08:00

Anil Kapoor going global post Slumdog!

Book Cover

2010-01-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

This is one option for a book cover for Scholastic, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. But this isn't getting published.... the other option (which I didn't like!) is...... It turns out to be this way most of the time. Whatever I like, the clients don't like..... whatever the clients like, I don't!
I don't bother much these days......

GQ: January'10: Interview Column

2010-01-25T12:05:00.001-08:00

Illustrations for a Mahesh Bhupathi Interview.

GQ: December'09: Interview Column

2010-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for a Boman Irani interview.

GQ: November'09: Interview Column

2010-01-25T11:55:00.001-08:00

Illustrations for an Ashutosh Gowariker interview.

GQ: October'09: Interview Column

2010-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for an Arnab Goswami Interview.

Scholastic: Elementary English

2010-01-25T11:45:00.001-08:00

Illustrations for an Elementary English book published by Scholastic Publishers.

Offisial Atyachaar!!

2010-01-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Illustration for Make My Trip's 'Offisial Atyachaar' campaign. You can check their website here: www.offisialatyachaar.com/

GQ: October'09: Winners and Losers

2010-01-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

Caricatures for the Winners and Losers of GQ's first year. The board has been done by fellow artist Saumin Patel. You can see his work here: http://pictorialcinema.blogspot.com/

GQ: September'09: Goodlife

2010-01-25T11:23:00.001-08:00

Illustrations for an article on Cuba.

GQ: May'09: Sex

2010-01-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Illustration for an article on Sex about women having younger partners.

GQ: April'09: Feature: IPL

2010-01-25T08:58:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for a feature article on IPL: Indian Premier League.

QG: April'09: Movies

2010-01-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

Illustration for an article about cricketers falling for film personalities and the often tragic outcome of it.

Untitled

2009-12-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Ancient Mariner's Friend

2009-11-08T23:12:00.000-08:00

Red Sky with Funny Trees.....

2009-10-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

A lazy evening, a willing student (read wife), and an excellent teacher, though a bit strict and impatient (read I) resulted in this during a very exciting Flash tutorial!

Just......

2009-08-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

After a Long Time....

2009-08-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Flash characters

2009-03-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

These are some character design drafts for an AV film. I kind of like these more than the fine tuned ones!

GQ: March '09

2009-03-19T01:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Bollywood actors tend to have a fling on the side on their foreign visits..... keeping their wives, girlfriends and just-good-friends clueless!... Well, mostly!

This is for a men's fashion column where one style guru suggests how many pair of shoes should a man have. I figured I need to take some suggestions as well!

GQ: February '09: IPL

2009-01-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

GQ: January Issue

2009-01-07T05:07:00.001-08:00

The article makes a dig at the lovey-dovey Bollywood star couples who eventually split in most cases!

GQ: December issue

2008-12-02T05:56:00.001-08:00

This is for an article in the December issue of GQ-India. The article talks about the year end parties that happen in Delhi and other places in India... mostly talking about the over-amorous feelings of middle-aged men towards nubile beings, under the haze of alcohol!

Joint Venture!

2008-12-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

Some of us have started a Saturday Night sketch group, where we all gather to do whatever we feel like doing. Some people sketch, some pose, some drink, some play music.... etc.
This is one of those sketches coloured in Photoshop.... very random... very mood based. The model for this pose is one of our friends, Bapi.... most probably rolling a J!

GABBAR SINGH!

2008-11-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

I did this as character design for an animation promo....
Some days I look and feel like this, though!

Storyboard for Dettol

2008-11-03T21:18:00.001-08:00

On Anonymous Demand!

2008-11-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

'Being busy' has now become such a lame excuse that I will just try otherwise this time. 'Being lazy' sounds more acceptable!
Will start by posting some illos that I did for GQ magazine which just launched its Indian edition from October, 2008. It's a fun ongoing project.... with client (surprisingly) open to new exciting ideas.

October issue:

November issue:

Fantastic timepass!!

2008-09-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Was fooling around here.
This was the result.... wasn't planning to save it in the first place... but then the playback option was so much fun, I did otherwise!

Check the playback here.

Unfinished sketch

2008-09-24T13:58:00.001-07:00

Shepherd Boy...

2008-07-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

.... finds a ruby. Looks at it for a while,throws it away and goes about his work....

A few Good Words!

2008-07-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Scholastic for sending these to me. Sure feels much better than the paycheck! Though not sure if ".... executed with childlike sense of humour" means a good thing! : )

Concept sketches

2008-07-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

These are some of the concept sketches that I did for an animation film project.

Face

2008-03-27T08:18:00.001-07:00

Smile

2008-03-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is a work in progress.... right now just trying to get the mood right!

Cover for Numbers...

2008-02-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

Cover options for the numbers book; I prefer the blue one.

Speedpainting+Caricature!

2008-02-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

Someone needed a quick caricature... and I needed to see if I can still make funny faces!

Halfbook fun!

2008-02-02T07:13:00.001-08:00

These are for a children's book where each page has a character doing something. But the pages will be cut from the middle to make lots of mismatched funny characters until kids finally find the actual character. 10 characters will have some 90 funny combinations; and though it looks simple, it was actually quite a task doing these!
Hope kids enjoy the book!

Fireman as a baby!!

2008-02-02T05:37:00.000-08:00

Fireman as baby and any such nonsense are just bluffs; this is general timepass in Flash and Photoshop!

Breaking a hiatus!

2008-01-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

This is a draft illustration for a children's book originally done for Penguin publishers. Penguin rejected this as the writer feels it to be too gothic for a children's book. Point taken and discarded immediately..... not doing anything for Penguin ever..... they need many more years to think out of the box! And personally I feel writers should stick to writing; or I do have a feeling upon reading the book that it's not so child like as the writer thinks it to be! But I would refrain from making such stupid comments... I would stick to art.

Colour scratchiness!

2007-08-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

A few artworks for the 'Koel learns to Sing' book. I have been tripping on a scratchy style and experimented with colour this time. Since all the illos have a major portion of sky, I wanted to give different colour palette to it in each illo for different mood and ambience.
Someday would like to make green sky and still get away with it! : )

Another Cover Draft

2007-07-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is for a book published by Penguin Books India.....

Cover artist!

2007-07-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is for the cover of the 'Koel learns to sing' book..... not very bright and happy as a lot of people would like it to be... but I prefer it this way!

Ghastly Tales -2

2007-07-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Another stab at the cover for Classic Ghost Stories collection..... the earlier one was rejected for being too gory..... I have a feeling even this will be rejected for reasons not comprehended by me! Oh... this is a concept draft between.... though would like to keep the looseness in the final artwork also.

B/W scratchiness!

2007-07-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

Some of the inside illustrations for a children's ghost/adventure/comedy book published by Penguin Books, India. (I'm not a kid anymore, but the story by Sonja Chandrachud is quite a treat!) It's titled 'Potion of Eternity: A Hilarious Hauntings Adventure'.

Birdie!

2007-06-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Concept draft of a character and style for a book illustration project.

Ghastly Tales!

2007-06-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

This is a concept draft for a book cover; the book is a compilation of classic ghost stories.

Poster: Concept 2

2007-06-14T09:24:00.001-07:00

A different concept for the same poster for Scholastic.

What's Cooking?!

2007-06-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

This is a rough concept draft for a poster promoting Scholastic's new book releases. Though this got rejected, I somehow like it and wanted to share it here.

The Life of Mann: Chapter 4

2007-05-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Life Of Mann is a collaborative online graphic novel project initiated by The Museum of Modern Fiction, led by Josef Lee, a designer / illustrator from Singapore. I was invited to do chapter 4, and after a lot of delay due to my regular job ( which I have quit incidentally), I finally managed to finish off the chapter. It was an enjoyable experience and reminded me again that graphic novels are not so easy to make!!
These are a few panels from the chapter. You can see the pages here: http://lifeofmann.com/story04.html

Vector Art

2007-05-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is a style option for a commissioned ad film that I and my friend are doing right now.

Few more from the Opposites book.

2007-04-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

I find these irritatingly cute... but what to do... kids are not convinced otherwise!!

Evolution!

2007-04-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

This is a colour test for an online graphic novel that I'm doing. Will post details when I'm through with it.

Hello!

2007-04-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have been very very busy to post anything in a long time! So thought of saying a quick hello by posting this new illo from the 'opposites' book which is taking too long to wrap up.....

Tall n Short!

2007-03-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

One page from the Opposites book that I'm illustrating presently. It's still a work in progress...... not really happy with the BG yet. But I'm sure I'll get it right in the final stages...

No scribble tonight!

2007-03-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I was telling my friend in office that I’m very happy! I know not a path breaking event that was, but since I was quite broody the whole day; the sudden spurt of happiness which was written all over my face surely conjured up a very valid ‘why’ on her face!
When she succumbed to the persistent query I couldn’t help her much when I replied that “Yes, I’m very happy….. that too all of a sudden, but the reason behind this I can’t tell you as you won’t understand it at all!” Now before she could take it as an offence I had to pacify her by telling that, her not understanding doesn’t have anything to do with her intellect as it might sound at the first utterance. It’s just that I figured that she won’t get it, because the reason that makes me really happy might not seem like a reason at all to her! It’s just a change in the way you look at things… the way you learned to look at things……
On a different note, (may be on the same context, but somehow distant), it never ceases to make me wonder how people judge others even without knowing the truth!
May be the truth is too far fetched to be understood with all your life’s education…..
I myself have done the same fallacy of judging people with limited knowledge…. but I’m in all earnest when I say that I know I’m mistaken…….. each and every time!

My Deer!

2007-02-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

I think I drew this back in 1996, when I wanted to prove everyone including myself that Maths, Physics, Chemistry wasn't really my ballgame...... drawing was most certainly a better subject to hang around with! Those days I believed computers were for rocket science ( trust me, I was certain on that till 2002!)....... Got hold of my bro's water colour pencils and copied it from an animal encyclopedia without much hangups about copyright issues! : )

Elephants for the new book!

2007-02-12T00:10:00.000-08:00

Presently I'm doing a children's book on opposites. It features an elephant and a mouse. Was trying out something like this for the elephant.....

Caricatures -III

2007-02-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

Caricatures -II

2007-02-11T06:08:00.000-08:00

Caricatures -I

2007-02-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Published!

2007-01-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

The 'Selfish Giant' got published and its cool to look at my illustrations printed on a book! : )
Plz excuse the pic quality... my MAC can't do any better than this but i still love it!

Making Faces!

2007-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

My ongoing office project needs some stylised portraits....... so was busy making these. Quite Photoshop filter heavy..... but that was sort of deliberate!

New Year Gift!

2007-01-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

New Year gift from self! Essentially an aquarium, but works fine as a lampshade too! : )
Happy New Year to all...... have a great time ahead!

Treatment......

2006-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Similar matchbox model that i had done for my earlier film...... was thinking of a treatment like this.....

Frozen Stickies!

2006-12-16T23:49:00.000-08:00

Some explorations for refrigerator stickers.

Old book..... New illustrations!

2006-12-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

A few pages from the latest book that i illustrated..... Oscar Wilde's, The Selfish Giant. Couple of sleepless nights, but it was good fun!

Was hibernating.... like a bear!!

2006-12-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

A few pages from the earlier book that I had illustrated. Fun part of the whole deal is that these books can be personalized! Check more here: http://keenowl.com/

Okay! Style's fixed!

2006-10-31T23:48:00.000-08:00

Client likes this..... so do I...... but I know it's going to take a hell lot of time! (given that I'm so lazy usually and was thinking of taking it easy before joining new job in a few days!) Drat!!.........

Same thing... different approach!

2006-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to fix on a style for the book. This one is a bit too radical for a children's book.... but may be that's why I like it! : )

After a long break....

2006-10-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Dummy cover for a book that I'm illustrating presently.

Monsters!

2006-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

I had fun designing these cute monsters. These were for another Sesame Street film...... it was one of my friends' concept. The cuties were animated in Flash....... it was tough, time taking....... but nonetheless damn good fun!

I like tigers too!

2006-09-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

Last year I worked as a senior animator for Sesame Street India and was part of some really fun films where i could experiment as much in terms of medium. For one such film I came up with this idea of making characters out of matchboxes and backdrop using corrugated sheets.... and luckily my team members didn't think it as a bad idea at all! They helped me make all these characters. And i smoked a lot more then!! : ) ...... Some frames from the film.

An idle mind is the devil's workshop!

2006-08-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

I was getting pretty bored last night.... so decided to have some Photoshop fun with an old sketch! This came out as the result, and if anyone gets offended by this, please refer to the title; I'm not to be blamed..... it's the devil's handiwork!

Too much of reading!

2006-08-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends from Design school is an ardent reader. He pursued product design, but read more books on film than books on his chosen discipline! I have a feeling he'll end up making films later in his life rather than making what he's supposed to make!

Work from last year.......

2006-08-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

A Cowboy Hand, a bit of Kite Flying n some mundane Painting Class!!

Some Freestyle to chew on......

2006-08-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

I have been extremely busy with the illustration project to post anything new so far....... so thought i'll do some of my own freestyling in Photoshop on one of the many frames for the Levi's storyboard, just to take a 20 min break from the hectic schedule!..... Chew on it till i come back! : )

Storyboarding...

2006-08-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

One page from the Levi's ad that i'm storyboarding right now........

Some colour......

2006-07-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

One coloured page from the illustration project....... it's still a work in progress..... needs a lot of fine tuning to call it a finished piece!

I have been busy..... in my new house!

2006-07-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

Had designed this kid for a website.

One of the pages from the book that I'm illustrating....... will post some coloured ones when I'm done!

Brother bear!

2006-07-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

Few treatment options for the book illustration that i'm doing.

Song for the day!

2006-07-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Was listening to Kings of Convenience's 'I'd Rather Dance With You' and the lyrics seemed so familiar and nice that i had to make this!

Bear up!

2006-06-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

Was trying to simulate pastels in Photoshop.