Ninja Turtles Tribute updated

 

A quick sketch to commemorate today's date - 22.2.22

I didn't really want to make Leo a blue shark but then again I did't want a bunch of messages asking why Leo isn't a blue shark.

Invasive siblings

My sister will tell you that this isn't just a thing of the past but a regular occurrence even today. This simply means that we aren't done growing up.

 

Sharktivity #24: Atlantic Weasel Shark finds its View-Master 3D (Couch series #2)

I have now enough sharktivities to fill calendars for the next two years (provided we all survive until then)! Now, how many of you have seen a View-Master? Millennials and later gens please don't answer. I've been showing my little nephew my old View-Master and he finds it as fascinating as his iPad so that gives me some hope. My parents got me several "knowledge building" reels and a couple of cartoon ones. Guess which ones are the most worn out?
The Atlantic Weasel shark (Paragaleus pectoralis) is one that I hardly find pictures of - I keep wanting to see photos of those amazing yellow streaks. There isn't much data on them either so they are listed as "data deficient" on the IUCN red list.

Sharktivity #12: Wobbegong plays a board game

I now have enough drawings to make a calendar for this year!
The Wobbegong is my least favourite shark to draw. They never turn out right but at least I got it done.
That Teddy bear you see is called a heart-to-heart bear and I got one around my 4th Birthday/ Christmas. It is my favourite and I still have him.
I drew a totally unheard of board game but it looks like fun with all those sea creatures. Look at me behaving as if I invented quidditch.

Six Fan Arts #1

This is a trend on Instagram at the moment and I thought it would be fun to try out. While I'm waiting on suggestions from others, I thought I'd do some characters I've wanted to do. I absolutely loved "Top Cat" growing up. Harry Potter, who didn't go through that phase? Raphael was my favourite Ninja Turtle. I thought a blue shark as a smurf might be fun. I was a huge fan of Jim Carrey around the Mask/ Ace Ventura/ Liar Liar time.
I've been wanting to do a shark version of Jem and the Holograms but thought all that hair might look weird. It does. But this Jem turned out alright. What a great show!

Sharktivity #7: Smoothhound feels nostalgic about music

Wow, I made it to 7 days! The Smoothhound (Mustelus mustelus) is one of the many species of smoothhound sharks in the Mustelus genus. I think I drew a mishmash of them again. They're really cute sharks and they seem like the kind who probably love music from the good ol' days.

The CDs I've labeled are some of my first CDs. I bought them at a time when I'd buy a CD only if I absolutely loved the cassette. They're still my favourites.
I used to love watching the graphic equaliser bars move on the stereo. It was very soothing. I'm nostalgic about that too.

Happy New Hope!

After Carrie Fisher was critically ill, I came across quite a few tweets about how 2016 is the worst and that 2016 must not claim Princess Leia too. Well, the world had just lost George Michael and that reminded us of the dozens of other celebrities who died this year. Sadly, not only did Carrie Fisher pass away but so did her mother Debbie Reynolds. And needless to say, twitter was not feeling the holiday spirit.
But celebrities dying were not and could not be the worst about this year. Terrible things happened all around. Some accidentally but many deliberately. It's not okay to terrorise people and it certainly isn't okay to kill innocent children. What is the point of destroying someone else just because you are miserable? What gives someone the right to exploit a helpless person just so that they can gain pleasure or profit? Who says that being tolerant of their own beliefs but not those of others, gives them the right to dictate what prejudice is? We have become self-involved and impatient and intolerant to the point of misplaced fury. Our children are becoming insolent, uninvolved and unmotivated. And then we say that it's been a bad year. It's only going to get worse. If we think we can fix it, we're bound for disappointment. Millions of people thinking they are right isn't going to set things right.  But let us start with the basics like honesty, moderation, wonder, respect and then we will know what it means to hope.

Lunch atop a Skyscraper with The Sharks

The first time I came across the famous "Lunch atop a skyscraper" photo was in university when my friend had it in her room. Since then I had seen the Friends cast, Muppets, Hollywood leading men and other versions. So I asked myself, why not a 'Sharks' version?

To Kill a rocking-horse: Happy birthday to my dad!

It's my dad's birthday today so I drew (pen & pencil not tablet! :D) him this card. I have to explain the concept behind this. When my dad and his brother were kids (probably between 5 & 7 years old), they were apparently very naughty (and brave) - they'd run off into the garden to explore and claim they saw lions and tigers. 

One day, their grandfather bought them a brand new rocking-horse. Shortly after that, his parents left them at home for a little while and when they came back, they found the rocking horse missing its head and tail. The boys had used a blunt knife someone had given them (they needed weapons for their expeditions) to kill the "beast". 

These days, kids don't get such "dangerous weapons". Those days, it wasn't such a big deal and kids were disciplined if they behaved badly. The boys grew up to be surgeons not axe-murderers. 

Anyway, my grandmother still can't figure out how a blunt knife was able to chop up a wooden horse. My dad says it was "persistence". 

In case some of you are wondering, my dad has never hunted or condoned hunting of real-life big cats or endangered animals. He loves wildlife and the forests - and he got his not-so-brave kids to love them too. Happy birthday to my dad! :)

ps - My dad carries a torchlight everywhere he goes which is why the shark is holding one.

Deep conversations #1.1 - Lessons in leaving

I'm trying to do a series of "conversations" strips and thought I'd start with a remake of the very first cartoon I did with the shark and the girl. The original (it's in the archive somewhere - but this is where it actually first appeared) looks quite different and I've wanted to update it for a while.
Sunsets do inspire deep conversations. I have a lot of them with myself (because no one else will listen).

Dear Penpal,remember me? muahahaha.

While visiting a friend recently, she showed me some old "Target" magazines and I remembered how much we enjoyed it back then when we didn't really have many young peoples' magazines to choose from. I also remember that they had penpal columns through which I had a few penpals from across the country. It was so exciting to get letters from friends even though you'd never met them.
Then we realised that there is NO way we'd give out our home addresses in a public forum like that these days. Somewhere between then and now, the world became less innocent & safe and more cynical and predatory. While human nature probably hasn't changed much, I see how much more widespread evil has become and thereby increasing paranoia everywhere! It's a shame that penpals have become obsolete or that e-pals/facebook pals isn't really a replacement.

ps - The human has shoes in frame 2 but not in frame one because this is happening later. That's why.

Let me play (with) some music

While it makes me feel old-ish, I consider myself quite lucky to have personally experienced all of the above music storage stuff. My grandpa had a record player which I loved using. Of course, all the record options I had were seemingly outdated (and now rare) such as Danny Kaye, Bill Haley, Mary Hopkin & Connie Francis. Then came the era of tapes (and mixed tapes and walkmans) which are now obsolete (thankfully CDs aren't completely extinct yet). I was reminded how much fun these different media were in their own way. Sure, mp3 players are a lot of fun because they do more than just play music and there's so much more choice, saving of space and costs but I couldn't help think that's there was some charm missing.

A little bit of History

I thought we could do with a tiny break from the regular strip and walk a little backwards. I've been feeling very nostalgic this week.
I don't have too many of my earliest doodles so I'll just jump about randomly, as always.
This tiger one is from 1993, I think. A friend of my dad had drawn it for a greeting card and I recreated it on a larger sheet of paper. I still like it enough not to notice any imperfections or errors. I figured I'd put it up since there are a lot of "Save the Tiger" messages going around. The Tiger is definitely in my top ten list of animals. And this was when I had the patience to ink out my drawings.

I went through this Disney mania phase when I drew everything Disney. I have an entire folder filled with scenes from almost every Disney movie ever made.You'll notice that I actually spent time shading the picture. I could have scanned more of my favourite ones but since my scanner's decided to behave badly, I decided to stick with as few as possible.

In school, I drew a lot of characters that I liked or came across. I even have one of that Cheetos character. I drew the Ninja Turtles a lot. A whole lot. I can't believe I even titled them all.

As most moody teenagers, I had my celebrity smitten phase. I was in love with Jim Carrey. And we couldn't even get posters of him in this Country. So I had to make my own. This was on my wall for a while and I suppose that's why it's turned brownish. No, let's call it sepia.

This was an attempt at Prince William (no comments, please). I think I gave up doing real people after these.

In fact, the moody teenage years left me so sullen and emo that I gave up sketching completely. Then I went to college and hated life more. That's when the gifts God gives you come back to smack you back to your senses and help pull you together. I'd been out of touch for a while so I didn't know what to draw. So I drew myself drawing.

Then I went on to draw more animals. Realistic ones. Here are my favourite subjects (I'll put up the horses next time). You'll notice a shark silently swim into my life. I drew this out of a Reader's digest book of Sharks that we have and I read almost everyday while growing up.

These inspired me to doodle during classes and in-between when I felt alone or confused. There were all these random characters, of God knows what species, that kept me company when I didn't want any.

The anthropomorphic shark looks so horribly primitive and undeveloped. When he wouldn't go away and I kept doodling him and thought I should maybe do a strip, the other character was originally a boy. You know, like Calvin, Charlie Brown, Christopher Robin, Rob Wilco... Exactly. Too many boys.

 

  

(Someone dropped my sketchbook into a bucket of water so the quality of these are not entirely because of the scanner.)

Anyway, you know the rest - shark character shows up on my regular blog everytime I don't have the words to write. It becomes more popular than me. Goes on to get its own blog. I decide to piggy-back for the fame. The end.  

ps - Yes, I do hold the pencil that way or in a way that the pencil is perpendicular to the paper. I get asked that a lot.