Sleep tonight

Here's the finished piece of the the little 'sneak-peek' I gave you all a while back. Been completing it during my down time in office.

Don't you just want to float away in a bit of space-jaziness sometimes? :)

Sneak peek and then some

Look above. I'm working on some new art. It's been a terribly long time since I did anything creative and S has been super supportive by believing in me to make more art. So, the upcoming piece is dedicated to S.

On another note - One of my favourite colleague's at R+K left today, it was her last day. And yes, it has made me quite sad. I honestly wish I could have worked with her more and not having known her well enough and still being this sad is a very odd feeling. It's not a happy one. I only hope I will keep in touch with her more in the future. I will miss you very much Shilpy. Much luff to you, Daniel and your loverly cats and wishing you a wonderful married life ahead.

<3

The Anthology Project

Collaborations are always an awesome idea and ' The Anthology Project' is no exception. Combining stories of artists from the US and Canada, it's a book I now desperately want on my bookshelf. Especially Volume 1.

One of the authors of the book also happens to be the artist behind that magnificent looking hard cover illustration. She goes by the name of Joy Ang, her name being a dead give away for the art she creates. After discovering her this morning I happily spent most of my day looking through her work on Deviant Art. You should too. Her comics are laugh out loud funny and her illustrations, simply wonderful. You can tell the amount of thought she put into each piece as they will make you go, "Oh yeah! That's an awesome idea." It's these ideas of hers, they go so well with each other. Things you might ordinarily never put together manage to find themselves looking pretty content in Joy's paintings.

The book throws together some of the most creative artists out there telling nothing more than stories. Stories of their own creation and the wealth of styles this book contains makes it a 'must have' for any illustration/comic junkie. I love it. As I looked through the project's blog, I came across some stunning examples of how the work was made and it also had a wonderful 'making-of' the book cover as well.

I bet it's a wonderful read. As the description on the website will tell you, the book's "humble intent is only to delight." So, anyone willing to pretty please buy Volume 1 for me :)

Sometimes

you need to see other people draw to get inspired to do it yourself.

LOTs to share with you

I've come across some wonderful links to artists whose websites are a must see for those seeking inspiration when low on supplies. All these links are given on the right in the 'Rat Recommends' section:

1. Marshall Vandruff, a freelance illustrator who has worked for Mad magazine, Dark Horse, WB and many others. He currently teaches animal anatomy at the Laguna College of Art & Design in California.

2. Lauren K Cannon, amazing artist who writes frequently for ImagineFX magazine. She dabbles in both digital and traditional art.

3. Joel Dos Reis Viegas, concept artist whose interests range from hip-hop to sci-fi to animation. His style is simply amazing!

4. Tom Nel, storyboard artist who has worked on projects spanning from low-budget animations to live-action blockbusters.

5. Darren Rawlings, a canadian-based illustrator who is now working on his own comic book/graphic novel called Agent Orange and the characters are really interesting. Check out his blog for more!

6. Jessica Gonacha, for all things wonderfully illustrated or animated in beautiful patterns, delicious colours in such simplicity that you WILL get hooked immediately.

Do check them out.

What's your flava? :D

So i found some old, old, OLD cd's lying around which had songs from my confused and rather trashy music phase in Abu Dhabi. And from the carnage I managed to find some passably good songs (that are now on my Ipod ---> HA HA! Sruti!!!).

Sigh! AUH memories...fun times with pointless songs ( like 'Little Miss Perfect' by this person called ABS feat. Nodesha) that made life one happy sing-along :)

so the piece below was made in I think 12-15 mins while listening to 'What's your Flava?' by Craig David.

THAT one train ride

I've been on Bombay locals before, lots of times. And almost all my experiences have been good. Waiting, ready like an Olympic runner about to go for the Gold, managing to get to the door when your stop comes and getting off without leaving a limb or two behind, yep! I've had it easy for the past 3 years of 'Bombay Local Train Travel.'

But this time! It was the first time I actually went through what Sanjyot had always warned me about...'THE bombay local train travel.' :O I make it sound, well, scary I guess, but for someone like me it was one of the most harrowing experiences of me life!!!

So Maya and I are waiting there on the platform for said local to come which will take us to Dadar and even she points out, "Shit! there are a lot of people here!" to which I reply with a nod. I mean, how bad can it really get? Like really?!?!?

I soon found out.

Said local stopped, we both positioned ourselves somewhere near the front and the madness began! God only knows, or I'm pretty sure He was scratching His head at this point, who-pushed-who-shoved-where-squeezed-how all the women got onto the train! See, I was always surprised at the capacity of these tin cans, but it's usually a kind of bewilderment that you don't pay much attention to. But at that time...my eyes were thrown open in wonder and it actually hit me, "SHIT! How did we manage to do this!?" And most of these women do this on a daily basis!

So we had to stand there for some 20 mins before our station arrived and it was 20 mins of standing in the weirdest fashion possible, something I didn't think my body was capable of ( see figure.01)

fig.01

We finally (FINALLY!) reached Dadar and our next mission: catch the train to Pune. 10 mins were spent trying to find the platform and during that time the memory of people and sweat and being jam-packed in a moving train was replaying in my head. So, by the time we reached platform 6 my face looked something like figure.02.

fig.02

It was hot and I felt like throwing up. The remainder of the journey was alright. Except for the unhappy realization that my tonsils had acted up(again) and I'd most probably be sick for the rest of the week.

Aaackh well!

new project

the main character for my new college project.

[oh and him made using the Intuos4 tablet :)]