My first wild one

Sounds funny the title eh!!

Well, the work I did a few months ago has been my first foray into the wild. To be precise, wildlife. I was waiting for some opportunity like this and it came in the form of a certain wildlife photography enthusiast by the name of Karthik Moorthy. Karthik happened to be Gautam's journalism days colleague and friend Lakshmy's friends husband. Yaa, long shot!! 

But take my word, this gentleman (by all means and in true sense) from down South has been the most dedicated and zero-fuss client I have ever met. He had an idea, left us to build on his idea, be liberal on how to turn his idea into a a book worthy design and the ultimate product was something that turned out to be pretty impressive, by the clients' admission.

Yes, we made our first wildlife photography coffee table book from our first client from down South. The book from being just raw pictures in Karthik's Canon EOS 7D and 60D to a 50-pager exhibit named 'Birding At Corbett' came into being in about 2 & 1/2 months.

It was not just my aesthetic sense which made the coffee table book possible but also Karthik's unflinching dedication to the project, which included flying down to Mumbai to just look at the final layout, and then not ask for any big changes. The book is Karthik's experience into Corbett National Park while going for a wildlife excursion, especially for photography. 

Not only that, Karthik also sent one of his men from Chennai to Bengaluru just to pick the first print of his book which was being processed there. This, only to ensure that the first copy reaches his mentor Ramashish Ray (also now happens to be my client, thanks to Karthik) before he left the country for a long period. 

Truly it was an experience to work with someone as dedicated as we were to the whole piece. Thanks for being my client Karthik, thanks for introducing me to Ramashish and more importantly thanks for coming back again to start your new book. 

The cover with the box designed like the cover too 

One of the inside pages

A double spread layout of Chestnut Headed Bee Eater

One of Karthik's best shot which recently got selected in a leading newspaper's FB page as picture of the day

A double spread which gave precise details on the birds Karthik shot in Corbett

My first fling with a sling

So as the title says, this is my first fling with a sling. After painting shoes, tees, bedsheets, pillow covers, walls, I picked up this new thing of painting sling bags & clutches. 

Yes, I get these bags custom made with a white cloth from a friend of mine who learnt how to make them. And then I paint them. Though its not as simple as I am saying it. But then just when I thought painting part is a tough job, making these slings and clutches was another task.

Luckily, I just had to paint them and not make them from scratch. But mind you to even paint a clutch/ sling isn't a cakewalk. These are specifically only for women and you cant paint them with superheroes and artists only.

The first order also happened pretty randomly. A friend of a friend asked me if I can do this and I said, yes why not. And then for a couple of days we brainstormed on what to paint and settled for a floral pattern which I had to create. She agreed to the third pattern I created and voilaa!!

The final result here for you'll to see and give feedback. Hope this is first of many. I'm lovin it!!

A calendar with a different thought

When this project first came to me, I struggled to come up with ideas for it. It was just not working out. Its normal for any creative to not come up with the best idea in the first instance. But I made over 25-30 trial and error attempts before zeroing on the final design.

What came out eventually was a very satisfactory outcome. The client here is Windsor, a plastics processing machinery manufacturing firm with a 50 years history. They have some cutting edge technology from around the world which makes their roster of clients what one would call as happy customers. And to make machines and their products talk for their calendar wasn't easy.

Fact of the matter is that their products effectively touched human lives. Through the 12 pages of the year’s calendar ultimately they wanted to show exemplary attributes that go into making up the most of it in everyday life.  

Pulp Fiction meets Scarface: Timeless work on these timeless flicks

Till I was asked to make these characters on pillow covers, my only connection to Pulp Fiction was through my husband Gautam. He had done a 20 minute documentary on Colaba Causeway and used the background score of Pulp Fiction in the same. Now after over 9 years since he made this documentary, one of my friend Nirja asked me to hand paint that sexy pose of Mia from Pulp Fiction and that epic dialogue from Tony Montana in Scarface.

The moment Nirja told me to do this, I knew I had this opportunity to create some classic here. I took a good 20 days to complete this, which included 15 days of holiday in Hongkong ;). Anyway the ultimate conclusion of the work was actually ultimate. When I shared this work with my friends and family, they were all stunned. I had stunned myself too.

This is my second pillow cover after making one with Bob Marley. And I have suddenly a new found affinity to these classic retro designs. Hope I get some more opportunities like these soon. Keep checking this space for more.

Last minute panic is called a creative mood

This time around my work on a shoe is so well defined by quotes of the characters I hand painted. Here is probably the story which says it all.

Calvin: "You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood."
Hobbes: "What mood is that?"
Calvin: "Last-minute panic."

Yes. This is my first Calvin & Hobbes shoe and I got really tied up while completing it. It became last minute thanks to my dear sister's last minute plans to travel abroad. I got this order from one of my most loyal clients named Anu. She ordered for this in size 38. Unfortunately I had size 39 and that would have been a bit bigger.

We had to wait till my vendor sent me a size 38 shoe. We ordered and the vendor said he will dispatch it. In fact after some digging, we found a size 38 in our stock itself. And then the next night my recently married, settled in Hongkong less-of-a-sister-more-of-a-friend asked me to join her in Hongkong for some fun.

I couldn't resist the temptation and I realised I just had 36 hours to complete the shoe. With a back spasm that has been irritating me for over 4 months, and an eye on Hongkong, I started the shoe just 36 hours before my flight. And trust me my last-minute panic work came out really well.

The pressure of finishing work before I leave made me more focused. And the final product is for all to see. I told my client to collect the shoes from my husband who wasn't joining the ladies party in Hongkong. Here is to Calvin and Hobbes and their inspirational quote.

Love the life you live, live the life you love

This one quote from Bob Marley defines each and every one's life so well. I could relate to it all the time I work on these hand-painted stuff. And co-incidentally, I read about this quote only when I got an order to make Bob Marley themed pillow covers.

As a matter of fact, I had got pillow covers stitched from my mom like a good 10 months ago and I was to hand paint them. But it never happened until an order came to me from a long lost friend. This friend wanted me to paint a shoe for someone, Bob Marley themed. But unfortunately I couldn't find the shoe size, then we thought of painting a tee. That sounded cliched.

Until we thought about the pillow cover, the chance to work on a colourful and enchanting character like Bob Marley was slipping out of my hand. But she agreed to the idea and soon I started on the same. When I saw what I had to make, I was like holy s*** how will I do this. Marley has a very regal look on his face and to top that I had to make something based on Pop Art.

Finally I found some reference and what I accomplished in flat four days' time was unbelievable. This is the first time where I felt wasn't handpainting something, but was experiencing something myself. Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who delivered the final funeral eulogy to Marley, had rightly said, "Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter."

This was my encounter with him, the first ever, hopefully not the last one. And what came out of the encounter is for you all to see. I really do love the life I live, and I also do live the life I love.

Diggy, your shoes are ready

Yes, this was important to say. This is the longest I have worked on hand painting a shoe. Longest ever. It took me four months to complete the shoe. Not because I didn't know what to do but because so many things cropped up in between that this shoe took a back seat.

Thanks to the fact that the client is a great guy and has shown tremendous patience. When I started seriously on the shoe, this looked to be one of the best shoe I have handpainted for sometime. I think I use this term very loosely, but trust me this was the best shoe I have made, bestest of the best. I rate these 'Jim Morrison shoes' above Breaking Bad I made for two other clients.

I was wrong to say that Heisenberg shoe was the toughest to make, this Jim Morrison was another level altogether. Finally so after going on with it for four months, I completed the shoe last weekend only to know that Digvijay, my client and my husband's former colleague is out of town. But he was super thrilled to see what we eventually made.

Hope you all guys too love it, and basis this please don't judge my work pace. This was totally one off. Honestly in between I did so many big projects that I was feeling lazy to even pick up the paint brush which was like labour work compared to working on my Mac for the other projects I worked on.

Enjoy this till you see the new hand paint work I finished just yesterday. That's even more epic. IT IS!

Pink Floyd No. 2

I realised that I had forgotten that I also was writing a blog regularly. But trust me, last three-four months have been hectic to say the least. New office, new work, some really satisfying, some maddening, some interesting.

Of all that, last week I finished handpainting a new pair of Pink Floyd shoes for Gautam. No, not for my husband Gautam, but for a new, enthu client named Shreya who wanted to gift her husband a Christmas surprise, and coincidentally her hubby's name happens to be Gautam too.

So she ordered the shoe a good week or even more before Christmas but my vendor didn't have the size she wanted. So we had to find alternatives. One fine day, like usual, we went for shopping. This time at Forever 21 where Gautam (my husband) found these super cool white canvas pair from men's section.

He immediately took a picture of the shoe, sent it to client, got approval. All this happened while I was in trial room and had no clue what he was upto. Anyway so yes, I started work and tried my best to finish it before Christmas, but finished only on Christmas day :P

But yes, the finished product was one of my better works. The design this time was different from the previous one. This was the first time I inserted a name to make it personalised. So yes, take a look at the my recent work. And yes, this came to us via Pratik who also had got a Pink Floyd shoe a few months ago from her friend Kritika who had ordered from us.