Illustration for Grazia August 2012 issue

This month I got a chance to illustrate the experiences of 4 different people from the 4 metros of India into this consolidated Map for Grazia's August issue. 

Experience the food, shopping and lifestyle of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Bengalooru under 1000 ruppees.

Map Illustration for a budget tour for the 4 metro cities of India.

xoxo
RV

Food Food Food

The Stella pastry from L'opera, Delhi, Ghee Dosa and Vada Pav from Mumbai and Sandesh from Kolkatta.
An extract from the artwork for Grazia.

A Couple Caricature

S celebrates her first 'married' birthday today. Therefore I decided to make her a special birthday present..a couple caricature of  her sweetheart and herself.

I have around 1000 pictures of the couple from their wedding ceremonies, and I chose to portray them adorning their engagement attires. S looked gorgeous and wore a rich - bright- heavily embroidered lehenga that day which I would love to render and R looked sharp in a black-grey suit.

quick rough sketch

After a few rough posture sketches, I zeroed on this one. I wanted it to be simple, classic and romantic :o)

And after considerable refinement and digitization we have the finished artwork below...

©Ritu

And here is S, soooooper happy!

much love

rv

Dreaming with your feet...

©Ritu 

...that is dance :o)

much love
rv

Jump (Illustration Friday)

©Ritu 

“Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall”  

It is a Ray Bradbury quote but a mantra in life I firmly believe in.

And it is good to be back to IF after a long jump time  ;o)

xx

Ritu

Celebrating with Pani puri

PANI PURI aka GOL GAPPA
©Ritu  

It has been a ritual since we were 14, me and my bestie would head straight to the golgappa ( aka panipuri ) vendor after every end-term exam, start of every vacation or whenever we felt like it! These tantalizing little things were, are and always will be our mode of celebrating the little joys of our life! (and yes now that we are no longer teenagers we can surely graduate to vodka golgappas ;D )
I am finally finished with my third illustrated children's book. So I did up these 'cuteys' as a symbolic mode of celebration! YAYEEEEEEE

Cheers to This!

Rohit Bal poses with my invite design- Kimaya Crest Key

I am home..YAY!! and while going through some of my old folders I came across this picture which was taken in 2008 during the launch of the Kimaya Avenue Stores in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. I did the invite design for them.
It was a luxurious black leather box  containing 3 customized swaroswski (well fake ones!) studded key, with the Kimaya logo crest. Each key had the details for the 3 exquisite store openings. And the guests were meant to carry the respective keys along with them for the opening event! Well most of the social butterflies didn't bother much, but it was really very sweet of Rohit Bal  (India's ace fashion designer) to be so sporty and actually bring it along AND also pose for a picture with it... He is one cool guy!


xx
rv

Rang Barse

©Ritu 

...I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.


A very Happy HOLI to everybody...

Garnish

THE GIANT Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake
©Ritu 

xoxo

rv

Capable (Illustration Friday)

©Ritu 

You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give. 
Edward O. Wilson

Tart Art

Tart
©Ritu 

Ok! I admit, I am addicted! Can't help myself from drawing these 'sweet' art pieces.
Apart from making me feel good, these don't add up to my calorie intake too! ;)


xoxo
rv

Pink Cupcake

©Ritu 

I did up yet another cupcake art-piece.
Just can't get enough of these pretty little joyful things!

xoxo
rv

Cupcake Culture- Come Soon

Cupcake
©Ritu 

Tiny as it sounds, tiny it is. But the joy it carries is immense!

Being a cupcake enthusiast I am always drooling at the various food blogs showcasing lovely li'l cupcakes presented on oh! so very beautiful cake stands. I love the thematic cupcake displays!
But the cupcake culture is yet to gain some more momentum here in India.
Yesterday I had  this meeting with two lovely ladies who are into customized baking (I have to do a cupcake themed brand design for them..YAY! ). And the first question I asked them was (after exchanging pleasantries of-course ) 'Where do you source those beautiful cupcake liners?!!!'  I was hoping to finally end my quest for those lovely patterned liners on Indian shopping websites and local bakeries.These two baking professionals would definitely know the right place to get it.
AH! but they told me what I feared most, that you don't get those lovely ones in India (and who wants those plain butter paper ones! ). They buy theirs from the U.S (in bulk). :o(

Although amazon.com has got loads of these, I am still a bit wary about plunging into international online retail sites. So meanwhile I shall simply droooooool at the images I get to see online......

still drooling......


xx
rv

A Sweet-Surprise Win

Wow!! I almost fell off my chair (out of joy ofcourse) when I got to know my Illustrated Map of Mumbai has made it to the winners list of  TheyDrawandTravel.com's Youtopia Map Contest.

Thousands of  brilliant artists from around the world illustrate such beautiful maps of their favourite places here. It is a pool of amazing illustrations of varied styles and techniques and I am happy to make my contribution.

 :D :D :D

Click here to view my map.

Nate's Email which made my day!!!
BIG hug and Many thanks to Nate and Sally

much love
rv

Aam Abhi Kache Hain

©Ritu 

There is yet some more time to go before it arrives. And then it is 'AamRas' every morning for breakfast for V and me till the 'Aam' season ends...

Mumbai Map Madness

I am soo happy to have finished my Illustrated map of Mumbai bang on time. Phew!

It feels good since I managed it through a considerably busy week (and the extension of the deadline by the organizers also helped :oD)!

(please view it on the TDAT website here.)

Mumbai is one of the most addictive places I have ever lived in.Therefore it had to be my choice of place to be illustrated for this task.

A walk down the memory lane and lot of awesome suggestions from friends still living there helped me prepare a long list of things which could make its way into the map.

But since it was a 'YOU-topia' map, I had to funnel all the options to the 'most' favourite.

And oh boy, what a difficult task it was to do just that, since Mumbai has an infinite number of places to visit and things to do, to fit into one map. Maybe I should consider doing mumbai 'zonal' maps sometime...

The top 10 Star Attractions of My Map include:

1. A walk from from VT station to Crawford Market (I am a sucker for Victorian Era Architecture) and I have done this a zillion times -never tire of it!

2.Shop-Shop-Shop at Colaba Causeway. After every trip to Mumbai, I become the proud owner of the handcrafted Kohlapuri footwear in all colours (they are so damn inexpensive that I can buy loads of them).

3.Chowpatty Beach Street Food and the Chilli flavoured Icecream !!!

4. Vada Pav and Masala Tea -official Mumbai Snack

5.Leather Stuff (boots- I love footwear) from Dharavi.

6. Fabindia, Mumbai (although they have outlets all around India, but I think Mumbai one has the best collection)

7. Sharing Hookah with friends at MOCHA

8. Horse Cart Ride or just even a walk along the Marine Drive is the Best!

9. Bade Miyan and its Chicken Rolls.

10. Finally relax and unwind by the sea with a cup of cappuchino at Banstand.

View Larger Size

Wohoooo! my very first entry for TDAT! :D :D :D

A Good Loud Scream

©Ritu

Don't you need it sometimes for that release!

Alone



 

©Ritu

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.

Illustrated Recipe (tandoori Chicken)

Check it out on the TDAC website here

Draw and Cook.Cook and Draw.Yes its addictive.

A good thing Vinit is sucha sucker for new and tasty dishes, he made me try out this one at home. It became one of  his absolute  favourite 'The Great Indian Tandoori Chicken'. It is soooo easy to make yet looks so exotic and delicious.

Wohhooo!! My very first submission to TDAC. :D :D





My Illustrated Tandoori Chicken Recipe
(Click to Enlarge)



Bon Apetit!

xx

rv



Twirl (Illustration Friday)





©Ritu

I am not a Kathak Dancer, but when I wear one my Anarkali dress, I do feel like one.

I twirl, twist and turn around letting the heavy gathers of the dress dance along with me :D

xx

rv

Tea-Tea-Tea

©Ritu

This post is dedicated to the good old days in Mumbai. The iconic tea glass and the aluminium tea kettle is sooo MUMBAI.

There are numerous such imagery which makes me nostalgic about the 'City of dreams' (and I do intend to post them in the near future)

The 'always-on-the-go' city dwellers here swear by it. Even the Biggest Star of  Bollywood- Shahrukh Khan is addicted to it. Yes, we are talking about the Cutting Chai.

The experience of sipping the special Mumbai cutting chai from a local tea vendor is unbeatable, especially during the monsoons.


xx
rv

Prepare (Illustration Friday)





©Ritu



On Friday, Vinit spotted this little boy with his father on a two-wheeler carrying home a pile of kites. It reminded him of his own childhood days of kite shopping with his father preparing for Uttrayan.

Have a look at my last year's Uttrayan Post here

The Kite Flying Festival aka Uttrayan is such a craze here in Baroda. People buy Kites in such large quantities and keep flying them for 2 whole days, dawn till dusk.

And the eve of Uttrayan is even more crazier. The prices of the kites drop to almost half. And everybody is rushing to the city to add on more to their already piled up stock of kites.

Much Love

rv

Blue Eyed Indian Damsel

©Ritu


My hands were craving to do a digital portrait. So I went about creating this!

©Ritu

After I completed this illustration and added that filigree nose ring it somehow made me think of a demure Indian princess. Therefore I quickly added a backdrop of the pink City Palace of Jaipur, India (which I clicked in 2010).
xx
rv




 



Highlight (Illustration Friday)



Let's Highlight GLobal Love
©Ritu




As a newbie to Illustration Friday (this is my second submission) I am quite excited.

Infact I am more excited about the whole idea mainly coz I get to participate with so many brilliant illustrators here. Its soo good to see each one's unique idea and story behind the topics given each week.

This week's topic being Highlight has resulted in such a wide array of interpretations.

Mine is quite simple.  In a time marked with unfortuanate calamilities, the world economic melt-down, corruption, crimes and other such events, I am HIGHLIGHTING the need of the hour, i.e. GLobaL PeaCe & Love.. (hope I am not sounding like a beauty pageant contestant  :O )



Highlight
©Ritu





Much love

rv