Happy Shark celebration Day!

 

I updated an old comic for Valentine's Day, sorry - Shark celebration Day, this year. 

Good Vibrations

I really do enjoy these takes on the ampullae of Lorenzini. "A shark's hearing is adapted to detecting very low-frequency vibrations such as those made by a struggling fish"*. But I bet they pick up happy things too.

P.S. - In case you haven't picked up on it, this is a tribute to the Beach Boys as well.

*http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/hearing.htm

May your year be filled with sharks!

How many sharks can you count?

A Shark Lover's Life

Don't get me wrong - I love it when people tag me in or send me shark videos and pictures. I do feel like I've reached some sort of life goal when that happens. For those of you who don't know Phil Watson, check out Shaaark!
I only realised after I drew the Fox that Pink Fong's Baby Shark version has a fox as their mascot. I first heard the Baby Shark song at a camp about 15 years ago. It was just as cool then as it is now. I still get asked why sharks every now and then. I'm working on the perfect response.

Shark Week 2017

Last year I attempted to draw a bunch of cartoons inspired by the episode titles and that was kind of fun. Even though they don't air here at the same time nor do I have a bunch of shark freaks to shark it out, I thought I'd do another series of episode themed cartoons. Even though the Michael Phelps one is probably the most talked about, I thought I'd start with Great White Shark Serial Killer lives.

#1
It seems as if they continue to believe/hope that such titles captivate more people than one simply capturing the beauty and splendour of the Great White. It's stuff like this that creates headlines describing the basking shark as "terrifying". So here's my cartoon. Don't miss the eye roll.

#2 - Shark-Croc showdown
My favourite part of this is the "leather cleaner". It's those little things that make a difference.

#3 - Alien Sharks
Like how I made the space ships look like skates and rays? It's things like this that make me such an awesome cartoonist.

#4 - Sharks in the city
The episodes focus on NYC and LA but the title obviously is meant to remind you of "Sex and the city" right? So, voila! This was probably my favourite one to draw and I loved how it turned out.

#5 - The Lost Cage
They did make it sound like mysterious lost treasure, after all.

#6 - African Shark Safari
See how I "subtly" do a Madagascar reference?
(This is actually meant to be #7 but there's a slight glitch with the original #6. I'll explain later, perhaps.)

That's armour!

I suppose the first official strip of 2017 had to include some bragging about how awesome sharks are. Then again, these other annoying creatures don't let us bask in that glory.

Why Sharks?

This is probably the question I get asked the most at any exhibit or event. I should probably stick to events like Shark-Con or Shark Fest but then who would I be able to convince that sharks are awesome?
It's the fact that they don't get it that makes me want them to know.

Shark Week 2016

It's Shark Week again. And again it is not being aired in India at the same time as the rest of the world. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying the week and all things Shark. This year, I thought I'd do something Sharktacular and try and "paint" what out my take on the episode titles. I'm not doing all of them but I'll pick a few that seem exciting (or easy enough) to draw.

 

#1 - Tiger Beach

#2 - Monster Mako

#3 - Jaws of the deep

That big shark is supposed to represent "Deep Blue" (not a Megalodon)

#4 - Air Jaws: Night Stalker (was very excited that there's a team in the US military called Night Stalkers and that they use these Little Bird helicopters. See how much sense it all makes)

#5- Sharks vs Dolphins: Smile off Face off

#6 - Jungle Shark

A to Z of Sharks!

Some website suggested making an A to Z poster as a self-entertaining project. I thought it would be fun to try it out with sharks, of course. The Shark Trust already has a really cool one so I've tried to use different sharks where possible. I chose a shark based on how little is known about it, how endangered they are and/or just how much I like a particular species. The number of sharks per alphabet varies depending on how many unique ones I can find.
I hope this will help people know more about sharks especially the rarer ones.

For now I'm putting them up alphabet by alphabet - one a day on Facebook for now and I'll put up the consolidated one here eventually. Here's the first one.

I'm wondering if I ought to include the names right away or allow people to guess. Also if the names ought to appear next to the shark or at the bottom. Suggestions welcome!

I owe a lot to the Sharks of the World book, of course.

I thought I'd post updates and names of the sharks each day. Someone suggested that I add lowercase letters too.

Answers: Angel Shark and Atlantic Weasel Shark. I really liked the yellow stripes on this one and was surprised at how little information was available on it and so wanted to draw it.

Answers: Bull Shark, Blacktip reef shark, Blue Shark. Some asked me why I don't have a Basking Shark. I suppose I could only fit in these three and the shark trust alphabet poster has a Basking shark so I wanted to do other options if I had the choice.

Answers: Copper shark (aka Bronze whaler) and Crocodile shark. Before you ask me about cookiecutter sharks, I decided against it because it's too similar to another shark I'll be drawing shortly and I want to try and have as much variety as possible.
You may have noticed by now that I'm also including other ocean-related objects beginning with the respective alphabets. If you can think of more such words, please let me know. Items so far: Anemone, algae, anchor, barnacles, buoy, bottle, clams, crab, coral.

Answers: Daggernose Shark, Dusky Shark and Dogfish. There are sub varieties of dogfish that I wanted to add instead under other alphabet but I liked the idea of the dogfish on top of the red structure. Non-Shark answers: Diatoms, dory, driftwood.

Answers: Epaulette Shark and Eastern Spotted Gummy Shark! Non-Shark answers: Eel.

And here is 'F' - Frilled Shark, Flapnose Houndshark, Floral banded Wobbegong.  Non-shark object: Flounder.

Answers: Greenland Shark, Gulper Shark (endangered) and Grey Bamboo Shark. Bet you thought you'd see the Great White Shark here, huh? Patience.  
Non-Shark objects: Grooved brain coral and Giant Clam

17th February 2016

Okay, so technically that's a Great Hammerhead but I just might add the scalloped one also because they're both endangered. The other three sharks are: Hardnose Shark (near threatened), Harlequin Catshark and Horn Shark.  There are several other varieties of Horn Sharks aka Bullhead Sharks of which the Port Jackson Shark is one. I wasn't really planning on adding the Harlequin Catshark because there are quite a few catsharks coming up but I quite like the colouration of this one.
Non-shark objects: Herring and what is supposed to be the hull of a boat.

18th February 2016

Answers: Irrawady River Shark, Indian Swellshark and Iceland Catshark. There are quite a few catsharks coming up but they're each quite unique. I don't know if you can tell but that's an Iceberg. 

22nd February 2016

Answers: Jaguar Catshark, Japanese Roughshark and Japanese Shortnose Spurdog. And of course, a jellyfish.

23rd February 2016

I know, the two look almost alike. At least colour-wise. But they're not! The one below is a Knifetooth Dogfish and the other is a Kitefin Shark. The non-shark objects are: Krill and Kelp. (sounds like a folk band!)

24th February 2016

Answers: Lemon Shark, Leopard Shark, Lined Lanternshark and Longsnout dogfish. There are actually two different Lined Lanternsharks (Etmopterus bullisi and Etmopterus dislineatus). This one (Etmopterus dislineatus) isn't threatened but looked quite unique. I know I've done a couple of dogfish already but this one has a funny nose! Now that I think about it, I probably should add the Basking Shark under 'B' because it's quite unique too.
Non-shark creatures/objects: Lionfish, Leafy sea dragon and limpets.

25th February 2016

Answers: Megamouth Shark and Mako Shark.  Yes, technically there's the longfin and shortfin Mako. This one is the average fin one. Hehe. Non-shark ojects/creatures: Mackerel, Manta Ray and Mollusk.

26th February 2016

Answers: Nurse Shark, Natal Shyshark and Night Shark. Floating around is a Nautilus.

'O', it's February 29th! Here's an Oceanic whitetip Shark and an Ornate Wobbegong. I confess that I "borrowed" the Octopus  from my Seascapes drawing.

Answers: Porbeagle Shark and Pyjama Shark.  Non-Shark objects/creatures: Pufferfish, Pilot fish and propeller. I'm quite proud of how my propeller turned out. It even looks a bit rusted!

There's actually only one shark so far that begins with a 'Q' - the Quagga Catshark.  And that item next to it is a  Queen Conch.

Answers: Rusty Carpetshark, Reticulated Swellshark and Raggedtooth Shark. Okay, so I cheated a bit - The correct name is "Spotted Raggedtooth" but I have a lot of sharks for 'S' and I do like the Sandtiger/Raggedtooth/Grey nurse! The colourful mess is supposed to be a Reef. 

Answers: Striped Smoothhound (critically endangered), Speartooth Shark (endangered), Sixgill Sawshark and Scalloped Bonnethead Shark. I borrowed the Seahorse and Starfish from my Seascapes again. I wanted to includ the Speartooth shark because I saw a documentary on it recently and saw how it's quite rare.

Two in a day! I'm at that point where I want to wrap this project up quickly. Here are two easy sharks! The Thresher Shark and Tiger Shark. There are other 'T' Sharks but most are variants of other sharks I've done. Non-Shark objects/Creatures: Turtle and Treasure chest.

There aren't any Sharks (that we know of so far) that begin with 'U'. Perhaps the next one to be discovered will be named 'Umbrella Shark'.

Two of these are Velvet and two are dogfish - Velvet belly, Viper dogfish and Velvet dogfish.  Non-Shark creature: Velella.

A couple of popular species - White Shark or White Pointer, Whale Shark and Whitetip Reef Shark. Non-Shark object: Wreck.

Yes, I was trying to be funny. There aren't any Sharks that begin with 'X' (so far). The goblin shark could very well be an X-File. It's also the only one I've drawn so far that speaks! It made me consider making them all talk and say a bit more about themselves. Perhaps when a publisher wants to print this. What did amaze me was to find out how big Goblin Sharks are - they're almost as big as Great Whites!

Almost done! This is the only Shark under 'Y' - the Yellowspotted Catshark. Non-Shark creatures/objects: Yellow-fin tuna and Yellow tube sponge.

Finally at 'Z'! I'm a bit confused as to why the Zebra Shark is named so. It's only kind of striped as a baby and looks nothing zebra-ish. Oh well. The other shark there is the Zebra Bullhead Shark. Definitely looks more zebra-ish. I tried to draw some (zoomed in) zooplankton there - not sure if they look anything like it.

And we're done! I hope you all learnt a bit more about the wonderful world of Sharks and that you're inspired to learn a lot more.

ThunderCatsharks!

It's the 29th of February! Since it's a date that only comes around every four years, I wanted to do a special cartoon today. Drawing the Shark Alphabet allowed me to learn about many new shark species. There are quite a lot of unique sharks of which catsharks are several. That gave me the idea. I was also a big ThunderCats fan while growing up. This is actually my second tribute to them.

Catsharks used as reference: Leopard catshark, Graceful catshark, Crying Izak catshark, Tiger catshark, Dwarf catshark and Southern Sawtail catshark

Whale. Shark. Whale Shark.

This is for 'International Whale Shark Day'. I posted a couple of old whale shark ones and wanted to do a new one. I ended up drawing two and this is the first one I finished colouring. I couldn't decided which whale I wanted to draw in this but since killer whales are probably my favourite "whales" I chose them. I apologise because technically they're classified as "dolphins". It would have made more sense if I'd used one of those harmless whales.
I was also thinking that it would be nice if every day was an International Day for a different shark species. You know, each day gets its own shark. How special would that be?

ps - In case you didn't know, whale sharks are sharks. They are fish and whales are mammals. 

Let's Shark n' Roll!

This is my third in the shark band series, drawn on request. I was asked to draw a rock band. Like I've said, I'm no musician so if any of the instruments seem off... well, my bad.

Skate-boarding!

I bet this is what Sharks and Skates do when we aren't looking.
I'd done a "Skate boarder" for inktober last year and this is a follow-up to that one.

No strings attached.

It's best if our oceans are line-free. Even if you're "flying a kite".