World Wildlife Day 2018

World Wildlife Day is March 3rd and this year's theme is "Big cats: predators under threat". I wanted to do a bunch of Big Cat drawings but couldn't finish them in time so I will hopefully post them over this week. 
I love the Big Cats - BBC's documentary on them in 2016 was one of the best I've seen. I'd like to say I'm partial towards Tigers and Leopards because I've actually seen those in the wild but I love them all. I saw a jaguar in the zoo and I was in love with it. Then I saw a caracal and clouded leopard and fell in love with those. They're amazing animals and it's so incredibly sad that we could have pushed them to the brink of extinction. All for what? Some trophies? Fear of being attacked in their own territory? 

Did we really want a world without these in it? 

Some kind of something: Earth Day 2017

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - which is why I have reused/recycled an old strip and made it a reduced version of what a good Earth Day cartoon should be.
In all seriousness, I do believe that one of Man's primary purposes was to care for this world. It is a good world. It's a beloved world. And we were entrusted with it. We had one job.
I went to an Earth day event today called the Reciprocity Fest - it was a bit enlightening. I'm not as green as I could be. My convenience comes first. That's not a good example for the next generation. I think every beverage joint in the world should offer discounts to anyone who takes in their own reusable mug/cup. Or at least not refuse them service.

The Real Jewels of India

I've been wanting to draw more of Indian animals for a while because a) they're spectacular, b) they're rare, c) they're fun to draw.
I pushed myself to attempt a collage of all the animals at once. After a month of prep, reading up on all the animals unique to India and studying various sources, I tried this. It came out better than I thought considering that I have no experience in this sort of art. It also inspired me to get a bit serious about wildlife and natural history illustration.
The animals focused on in this artwork are (see if you can spot them):
1. Nilgris Tahr
2. Indian Bison/ Gaur
3. Nilgai/ Blue Bull
4. Swamp deer/ Barasingha
5. Indian Rhino
6. Great Indian Hornbill
7. Lion-tailed Macaque
8. Malabar Squirrel
9. Indian Elephant (also found in other places but didn't want to leave it out)
10. Civet cat (I was going for the Malabar Civet which is believed to be extinct)
11. Malabar Whistling Thrush
12. Brown Palm Civet Cat
13. Nilgris Flycatcher
14. Indian Pangolin
15. Four-horned antelope
16. Spotted deer/ Chital
17. Black Ibis
18. Emerald Pigeon
19. Royal Bengal Tiger
20. Crimson-backed sunbird
21. Dhole/ Wild dog/ Chen nai
22. Indian Pitta
23. Nilgris Marten
24. Sloth Bear
25. Indian Peacock
26. Black Buck
27. Gharial
28. Great Indian Bustard
29. Asiatic Lion
30. Black langur
31. Hoolock Gibbon
32. Sambar deer
33. Ganges river dolphin
34. Malabar grey hornbill
35. Sparrow hawk

Global Tiger Day

I drew this in kind of a hurry so I apologise if my Tiger doesn't look real enough (either the Tiger Tiger or the Tiger Shark). Tigers are one of my favourite animals and it's simply amazing to see them in the wild. I really hope that people would do everything they can to make sure we keep seeing them in the wild for generations to come.
ps - In case you didn't notice, the Tiger couldn't help but roll its eyes.

#Penguinplunge

My friend at Sharktopia motivated me to draw one for the #Penguinplunge - an initiative by The Antarctic Ocean Alliance.  You're supposed to get a photo of yourself jumping into water but I thought Sharktopia's drawing idea was rather cool. So here are my characters dressed up as penguins taking the plunge.
Help protect the Antarctic wilderness!

Cetaceans are such show-offs!

I drew this as part of an "ocean mammals" themed submission for the OAS magazine. I'm not sure if it will ever get published - also because it practically shows a couple of sharks dissing on the cetaceans. Sharks can breach too, you know.
I must add that I do love dolphins, whales (especially orcas - they're fun to draw) and other ocean mammals. I love that the ocean has such diversity when it comes to life.  Let us continue to protect them.

Psycho Squirrels attack Shark.

I know what you're thinking - "Red pandas are not squirrels". Well, FYI, that's supposed to be a Giant Indian Squirrel or Malabar squirrel. They're really cute in reality and I doubt they'd attack sharks like that. I couldn't however say the same for the regular squirrel/chipmunk. They're nasty little creatures.
I've seen a Flying Squirrel but not in flight. And I've only seen them at night (meaning, I've only seen their eyes). So for all I know, they're probably just bats with geeky teeth.

Sea Scapes: Ocean Harmony

My sister asked me to paint her an "underwater" scene for her house. She gave me this rough doodle to describe what she wanted.

After much prayer that my sea creatures turn out alright, this here is my finished drawing.

I didn't add the "sea unicorns". I thought I'd save those for a less surreal drawing.

Orca rider

I was trying to teach myself how to draw and colour water and look what happened! There are orcas breaching out of it! I'm quite happy with the way this turned out.
I wanted to draw orcas ever since I watched Blackfish. My water art isn't great but hopefully I'll get better at drawing orcas - they're so amazing.

Hornbill if you love Sharks!

I wanted to draw cartoons with some of the endangered and/or interesting animals found in India and the Great Indian Hornbill was one of them. I was lucky enough to see one in flight recently and they are magnificent.

"Sharks of the World" book review!

I just got my copy of "Sharks of the World - A fully illustrated guide" and it is one of the best purchases I've made all year! It has details about more than 500 species of sharks and Marc Dando has done an unbelievably awesome job of illustrating them. He was very kind to sign my copy - that makes mine priceless! 

If you love sharks, this book is a must-have. It's fun, educational and beautiful.

Authors: David A. Ebert, Sarah Fowler and Leonard Compagno
Illustrator: Marc Dando

Also available from NHBS and Amazon UK.

Comic Con India - highlights

So, I had my first Comic Con experience at the Bangalore Comic Con. It was quite interesting. It was also really exhausting.
I had one of the smallest stalls there but had the most number of friends helping me which was such a blessing. We sold books, posters, art prints, mugs, t-shirts, badges and stickers. It struck me that the whole event was more commercial than comic art related. I expected to see more individual artists being showcased but there was only a handful of those and more of the bigger/famous comic/pop culture merchandise.
Here are some of the highlights from the event. I wish I could show my friends who helped but I don't even have comic characters for most of them. The best part of the event was that there were some people who really cared about individual comics and supported them. There were some people who'd actually heard about my comic (a big thank you to everyone who shared!) and others who asked really interesting questions and seemed genuinely interested in sharks. It was worth it just to meet all these people.
As much as I love tigers, I couldn't understand why everyone was more surprised at a cartoon shark than they are about cartoon tigers. I mean, the chances of us Indians being killed by tigers are probably higher than being killed by a shark, right? The villagers in the Sundarbans would probably ask the question "But why a tiger?", huh?
I bought a shark hat on ebay which was what everyone was interested in. Even the ones who were surprised at the shark theme or didn't even notice the shark theme.
Many people didn't know about shark finning at all. I hope we could get more people to see how amazing sharks are and how rare they're becoming.

Why we need Slow Lorises

Is this what mated with a dog to produce pugs? I probably should have drawn its eyes bigger. Anyway, my dad suggested that I draw some of the creatures native to India that are under being threatened without many being aware of them. Not all creatures can be born tigers. I thought it was a great idea. This was the first creature I chose for obvious reasons. 

I saw one in the wild a couple of months ago. They're quite cute. I hope there is a general increase in awareness to protect all endangered species.

You had me at first punch.

I was supposed to post this at least a month ago when I got back from my awesome Australian holiday. I had high hopes on being on time. I love Wallabies and Pademelons and Quolls and every other creature I saw in the wilderness. I did not, however, see sharks in the wild whilst snorkeling - although I saw plenty of those silly coloured fish that I had to keep shooing away. I would probably need to go back and spend days on a boat or under water and pray that I get lucky. But I did get to see some reef sharks and nurse ones (not so cute) in the Aquariums. They. Were. Amazing.