Week

I once met an illustrator some years ago who said that he never used a camera and that he 'draws everyday'. I remember being mighty impressed. These days, thanks to regular sketching, I use my camera less, and while I may not draw everyday, the days I don't draw I am usually thinking of a drawing or preparing one.

So here are a few glimpses of the week that went by - the first one, a lovely Italian dinner made in front of me, complete with freshly baked bread, goat cheese, grilled prawns, roast potatoes...and some very charming and intelligent company. The second pic is a beautiful banyan tree at Madhavan Park and the third picture is a preliminary sketch of the trainer at my gym who wanted me to do a picture of him and his girlie from two hazy photographs taken on his cell phone. 'You do this for me, I take care of your phitness' said he. So much for ranting about fees in an earlier post, I did this and gave it to him. I think the way he blushed  when he saw himself and his girl in the drawing was thanks enough.

Here are some stunning photographs of one of the Pencil Jam sessions taken by Archana >>

Chez Moi

Your life is your practise

                    ~ John Cage

Val Day Smoothie

Dear Readers, to celebrate this day of Love, I have for you a recipe - a Valentine’s day Smoothie all pink in colour. It was whacked from Megha’s old blog ages ago and I’ve made it a dozen times since the beginning of the watermelon season. I’ve modified the ingredients to suit myself and adjusted proportions until I think it tastes fine. You can do so too. C’est super. 

Here it is:

1 small watermelon (or half a large one)

An entire carton of strawberries

A smash of ginger (increase of decrease according to taste)

Yoghurt in a small bowl

A glug or two of milk

Sugar if needed

Perhaps some water if you want your smoothie a bit thinner

Now just throw everything into the blender and whizz.

When you drink this, the ginger will give you a kick which will send you flying and land you on a soft pink cloud made up of all the other nice things you drank up. You’ll keep floating somewhere near the ceiling for  the rest of the day thinking of all that you love. 

Frilly Pink Summer

Encounter among the Melons and some Thoughts Regarding Fees

Sometime last year, while buying Melons, I had an encounter with a man wearing many colourful rings.
The story of the encounter can be found in an older post by clicking here>> 
I'd always wanted to redraw the Ring man with his glorious rings and finally managed to do so only yesterday. Here he is in improved Black and White - dark, shiny and magnificently South Indian, buying melons and wearing his rings.

Regarding Fees for Illustrations:

Some editors and publishers have approached me from magazines to do illustrations for their publications. Unfortunately they are willing to pay me only the same amount of money that I used to ask for my illustrations 6 years ago. A double spread for a magazine = Rs.3000, perhaps with great difficulty and after much debate, a grudging Rs.4000 because they have magnanimously decided that they ‘like’ my style enough to want ‘illustrations’ for their articles and stories rather than photographs. Well, then how about paying me a price I like and how about giving me a ‘decent’ fee for my efforts? Anyone trying to run a basic household will know that Rs.3000 is but small change these days. Unfortunately this is the price that illustrators get paid to have their work printed and reproduced thousands of times over and for which they’ve honed their skills for dozens of years.  Strangely the price never increases over the years. Try reasoning with the editors and they will tell you that they are a small publication and they are working on a limited budget, blah, blah etc.etc…and then finally, if you refuse to feel guilty at the fee you've stated and insist at your amount, they will tell you your work is ‘not good enough’ and then they will get some newbie illustrator eager and willing to take on the work to enhance his portfolio for probably half the amount you asked for. How many countless times have I heard your same excuses as a chorus over the years?  One would think these editors were buying vegetables at a marketplace rather than a work of art which I’d like to point out, is what an illustration is by the way.

Some weeks ago, an American illustrator friend of mine, who has been an illustrator for about as long as I have, wanted to know what I would charge for a full-page illustration. I stated the present rate that most Indian illustrators charge for their work (very good work mind you) to which the American illustrator was shocked speechless. She stated her fees for different page sizes to me, of which $800 was the fee for a full spread. While the American life is way more expensive than here and while one simply cannot ask that equivalent in rupees in India, at least those American illustrators are not insulted by the fee that is offered to them. At least they aren't being exploited. The illustration world in America is a competitive environment no doubt, but it is worth bettering your skills for if one at least has a chance of making a living out of the fees.

 I don't charge an exorbitant fee for my work but I'm tired of being exploited by the pittance given to me and for what I've had to offer up my illustrations for.  To all you editors, publishers and those of you who have so kindly offered me Rs.1000 for my illustrations and drawings, may I politely and respectfully ask you to please go to a good stationery store and enquire the price of a box of imported pastels or a pad of imported paper.One of the reasons you ‘like’ my work is because I have spent a lifetime honing my skills and applying my intelligence to my work. I don’t whip up my work the way you’d make an omelette in the kitchen. A hell of a lot of preparation and time is involved before arriving at and finishing the final illustration. The other reason my work is of a certain standard and quality is that I use good imported material and that quality shows. It is not enough to decide that you ‘appreciate’ work and therefore you’d like to have it in your publication or on your wall. When you decide on a budget for artwork it is also important for you to know what goes into a work of art, so that you know its worth and so that you don’t cheapen it yet again with your ‘fee’.


10/02/12: So it happens in America too. but at least, AT LEAST in this particular case, the cartoonists got pissed enough to show NYT the finger. Read about it here >>

Pulchritude

Naagalingam

Design for a Special Book

Cover - Reworked a week ago

Some time ago last year, I took a series of workshops for the children of Shishu Mandir. The purpose of those workshops was to incorporate the illustrations made by the children into the design of a book about the institution. The book in this post is my design, created around the children's pictures. 

These are the endpapers for the book

Above and below are portraits of Hella Mundhra the inspiring founder of Shishu Mandir.

Both paintings were done by Varalakshmi, one of the students in the workshop.

Here below, is a picture of  the superstar of my workshop, Varalakshmi

She was a quiet, dignified little girl who produced bold and striking drawings

Right at the end of the last workshop, I told her I wanted a large dark green background for the cover.'Yes Ma'am' said Varalakshmi calmly. She then look a large sheet of paper and full tubes of green and black paint. As we stood around her and watched, she held both the tubes mouth down above a plate and squeezed  with both hands. Pachakk! We gasped as the entire contents of the green and black tubes landed on the plate. Then Varalakshmi calmly took a large brush, mixed the colours and started painting.

Varalakshmi painting a tree

which I incorporated into the design below.

 In the picture below is Bhuvaneshwari, another hugely talented painter.

Do you remember her beautiful tree from a previous post? 

I've used it below and the picture above is one of her painting it.

Bhuvaneshwari also created the stunning picture below.

Here are some of the other pages in the book with paintings done by different children at the workshop.

 Naagaveni has a distinct and unique style.

This is her tree from one of the exercises in the workshop.

And this is her fantastic deer below

More pages with paintings.

Since each of the stories had a unique and distinct identity, I used a separate colour for each story dictated by the story itself as well as the illustration that was used.

As you can see, the design is built around the paintings and the colours of the pages partner them.

Designing the book was fun, but it also involved a lot of thinking and a great deal of hard work (12 hours a day for a month). A project which started with workshops sometime in the middle of last year for me, ended now. This book is the result of it, inspired by the beautiful painting done by these children and it is my applause to the absolutely amazing children of Shishu Mandir.

You can read more about the workshop here>>

and here>>