The Pink Rooster

Morning everyone! The weather here in Philly has been incredible lately. I'm talking low 80's, delicious warm breeze, sunny skies and tiny shorts. You can imagine the upbeat mood I've been in lately.

April is also the month to get my home organized, purge closets and de-clutter my work desk. After spring cleaning my iMac and discovering a few forgotten works that I created a while back, I’m now ready to share them here.

To brighten up this Tuesday, here is an illustration of The Pink Rooster. With a bird as beautiful as this one, I have kept the surroundings simple with just a few leaves. The green plays against the rooster's red and delicately emphasizes the flamboyance of this creature.

Wish you all a great week, see you next time !

The pink Rooster, available for purchase here. 

Riding the waves

Today lets peek into the enchanting laboratory of Kluto - a 60 year old accomplished Zoopian scientist. Today Kluto is unveiling his snazzy new invention - 'The Jarzole'. All you have to do is step into the Jarzole and say something like 'take me to the beach' and bam you are there, or more like beach is there for you!

Last week I grudgingly recycled a bunch of jam & pasta sauce jars. I save them hoping to put them to some stylish use later on. But a practical, non-carcinogenic and easy-to-do project remained elusive. And jars were just sitting around cluttering up my cupboards and taking up premium pantry space, so they had to go. This 'Riding the waves' illustration is a digital tribute to those Jars. May they have a more fulfilling next life as a Jarzole :)

Any other Jar Junkie out there?

Riding the waves, available for purchase here. 

Mr. Beel

If you go to The Cafe Rint this lovely morning (and every other morning) you will see Mr. Beel sipping Iced-tea with Melma and Joz. (The couple is at present standing next to the juke box picking a song.)

Regarding Iced-tea, the other day I came across this home brewed Mango Iced-tea recipe. The hint of ginger totally seals the deal for me! While I was reading the recipe my mind wandered to a year spent in San Diego. Back then, we were having an Iced-tea phase. We always had a pitcher full of green or lemon Iced-tea ready in our fridge. I drew today's 'Mr. Beel' illustration to commemorate those days.

Now we are more calorie conscious and Iced-tea has become an occasional indulgence.

Mr Beel, available for purchase here

Let it snow

Too early to be thinking about snow? I know! For the past few days I have been working on some holiday themed illustrations and thus the festive mood! It all stared with the Santa Claus illustration (I talked about it here) and now I have ornaments, cardinals, sledges and snowmen occupying my mind. 

Believe it or not, Christmas is lurking round the corner :)

Let it snow, available for purchase here.

Trust the wisdom of the heart

Sorry for the prolonged absence. It's been a busy week! Every spare moment was spent doing -back from vacation stuff-  cleaning, laundry, ironing, restocking the fridge & pantry. 

Now to today's illustration - As you can see, I love incorporating positive and encouraging messages in my illustrations. This wisdom of the heart message came from a Yogi Tea bag - all yogi teas comes with little nuggets of wisdom (See another related illustration I did a while back here). I think we all could use a gentle reminder to listen to our hearts.  

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! We are going to stay in as much as we can, enjoy the rain and relax.

Trust the wisdom of the heart, available for purchase here.

6 Lotuses

Aloha! I'm back from Hawaii and super tanned! 

We were in Hawaii for the last 2 weeks and it was fantastic. It has to be the most beautiful and happy place on earth. And the people are so nice and friendly.  

We went to 3 islands : Ohau, Maui and Big Island and did a range of activities from deep sea dives (scuba), hiking on a volcanic crater, admiring the acres and acres of lava fields,  snuba (Like scuba but with a hose instead of tank), snorkeling at the gorgeous hanauma bay, getting kissed on the lips by a beautiful macaw (really!), midnight strolls on the beach, drinking lots of Mai Tai's & passion fruit drink and of course eating really sweet tropical fruits - pink guava, mangoes, apple bananas (my now favorite fruit), pineapple and papaya... YUM!!

The best part was swimming with the giant sea turtles and not so good part was missing the lava flow. 

Now I'm all charged up and ready to get back to work. Let's talk about today's illustration. This lotus illustration was created before I left for my vacation.  The inspiration came from one of my favorite quotes from Bhagavad Gita - "One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water." I'm not a very spiritual person but, I think it's a beautiful way to live and possibly one of the few ways to a contented life. 

What do you think? Do you have favorite quotes that you live (or try to live) your life by?

6 Lotuses, available for purchase here

PS : Guess what? Turning 30 = Piece of cake!

Sing from your heart

On this fine day, I'm day dreaming of all things musical. It's incredibly quiet in here now (Bunny bee is taking a nap) and this illustration on my wall looks like the most appealing thing ever. I first read this 'sing from your heart' phrase on a Yogi tea bag (they have these inspiring messages - a unique one with every tea bag) and drew the illustration as a reminder to sing my heart out (in the privacy of home, when I'm alone) and not worry if I got the tune wrong. It is truly liberating.

What about you? Do you need a reminder to sing from your heart too?

I hope your day is amazing in every way!

Sing from your heart, available for purchase here.

Amour

Hi there! I hope the beginning of this week is treating you well so far :)

I completed this illustration at the start of the month and I see my style shifting once again - I'm using words more frequently in my illustrations. This is something I began doing after working with words for some round  MOO stickers (Bunch of colorful stickers with one/ two word messages on them that turned out nice).  I have quiet a few word (and love!) illustrations lined up in the next few weeks. I'm going to try and space them out as much as I can. 

Sometimes it's more fun communicating through written words, than drawings :)

I hope you all have a good week!

Amour, available for purchase here. 

Bird with antlers

It’s hard to believe, but another week is over! With the end of summer fast approaching (Just a couple of weeks left to enjoy the warm weather!) time has been flying for me.  This weekend we are heading down to Lake george with a bunch of friends and spending an exciting day at Adirondack Extreme! I'm hoping to sketch a lot, take plenty of pictures and gather material for my next series of illustrations  on extreme adventures.

The past few weeks have been super productive. I have been illustrating a lot of glass objects, some flowers and a bunch of antlers (on snails, a wee little tomato and birds of course). Today's illustration is from the antler experiments.  I think the bird looks pretty cute with antlers. Don't you think?

Bird with antlers, available for purchase here.

Paper boat

We have been having lots of rain! It has cooled things off and that's been great! The not-so-good part has been Bunny Bee running scared to hide under the couch every time it thunders. To distract her I have been making lots of paper boats for her to nibble on. 

Paper boats, rain and I go a long way back. When I was little I found it impossible to concentrate on what was happening in the class during monsoons. I coped by tearing sheets of paper from the note books and making lots and lots of paper boats, all the while desperately waiting for the lunch bell to ring. With the first ring of the bell I would run out with the boats stuffed in my skirt pockets to look for flowing rivulets of water. I thought paper boats sailing on rain water rivulet was the coolest things ever!

Paper boat, available for purchase here. 

LOVE

Since, my sister and brother-in-law are visting us for a couple of days (yay!) I was looking at fun things to do/ see in and around Philly. The LOVE statue caught my attention. We have lived here for over a year and yet, I haven't gotten around to visting it or drawing it!

So what better time than now? As you can see I took some artistic liberties (read making it girly) with the letters and its color. A girl's gotta do what  a girl's gotta do :)

Trombone

When I shared the Cornet illustration last time I asked for suggestions for the next musical instrument. Maggierossetti, a Trombonist herself, suggested a Trombone. So there you go Maggie!

I loved drawing this one. Listening to I'm Getting Sentimental over You and swaying with the music. Talking about music, we have tickets to 'Kiss Me, Kate' a musical comedy by Cole Porter. It's been performed on the stage of Longwood's picturesque outdoor Open Air Theatre. 'Kiss Me, Kate' under the stars in the outdoor theatre! Can't wait! 

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend! 

Trombone, available for purchase here.

ArtOcrat's "Flights of Fancy" series of bird prints

For the past few months I have been working on my "Flights of Fancy" series of bird prints . This series is going to have 20 really colorful and vibrant bird prints. Below you can see the 6 I have completed already.

More prints will follow soon!!

2 Flamingos

Blue Bird


Bird On a Branch

Summers Bird

Early Bird

Monday Morning Blues