Kannagi - Tamil: கண்ணகி. For the Cheltenham Competition.

From the South Indian 1^st century AD epic, Silapathikaram.

A woman Kannagi marries Kovalan who falls for a courtesan and lavishes all his wealth on her and she leaves him. He goes back to Kannagi who takes him back and they go to the city of Madurai with their only assets, a pair of anklets filled with diamonds to earn back a living. The Queen’s anklets (filled with pearls) had just been stolen and they wrongly behead Kovalan who tries to sell his wife’s anklets. In rage, Kannagi goes to the king’s court and proves her husband’s innocence by breaking her remaining anklet. The king and queen die of shame but Kannagi who’s fury could still not be quenched, rips her breast out and curses the city, burning it down.

Adultery, injustice and vengeance are still enemies of mankind bringing destruction and war. 

Those were the initial experiments. I decided against flat application and did the next in photo ink and it worked well.

First children's book story I wrote and illustrated.

I did my research, read as many children's books as I could get my hands on. But it was hard to write the random ideas that float in my head. So , I decided on a bedtime story. And made added a lot of blue! 

Sneak-Peek into my pocket sketchbook

What do drawings mean to me? I really don't know. The activity absorbs me. I forget everything else in a way that I don't think happens with any other activity.

The process of drawing is, before all else, the process of putting the visual intelligence into action, the very mechanics of visual thought. Unlike painting and sculpture it is the process by which the artist makes clear to himself, and not to the spectator, what he is doing. It is a soliloquy before it becomes communication. (Michael Ayerton)

Some ideas I scrapped recently.

I wanted to do a story on a an ancient Egyptian and worked on many characters, out of which I've posted 3. I scrapped it for lack of a good story. But I like the feel of these characters. Might resurrect them later! 

I got excited seeing the red paper and sketched it out few months ago. This gave me an idea for my newest attempt at writing and illustrating a children's book. Lets see how it goes! 

On books becoming ebooks

Good or bad, its happening. Ebooks are taking over. For those of us who love sitting in libraries, who love the smell of new and old books, for those of us who have held books and laughed or cried hugging them, we are going to miss the good old days. Until now, the world has seen just a few new technologies/inventions/discoveries per century. But this century is building up the stack so quickly that one can only imagine what comes next. Whatever happens, we must treasure the few precious things from the last century. I know I will. Starting with my 12yr old Bible, my grandmother's loving handmade birthday cards, my diaries which still have tear stains, letters from my friends, my first story books with lovely illustrations that inspired me even before I discovered Michelangelo and Bernini.
A toast to the wonderful, almost magical, fire-lit world of the past, looking forward to the future.

Goodbye. Hope we never lose the best of you. 

Murder of crows

Crows are fascinating birds. They can be annoying. Stealing things, cawing to no end, and quite often, they are not scared of us, humans. I have been wanting to write a good story on them or atleast illustrate one. Hence the experiments.

What's in your nose? ;)

Funny or not, this thought made me curious and I ended up with these possibilities. Creatures, aliens, snowscapes(during a cold), a pond(runny nose). You never know ;)