Drawn and quartered

A first look at some of the characters from the upcoming Puffin title The Magic Store of Nu Cham Vu by Shreekumar Varma.

This is the first time I'm illustrating one of my father's books and it's been a strange and interesting experience. I've finally got the style about right -- the rest of the illustrations will be done in a similar vein -- so here's a fairly indicative preview (Disclaimer: the pics have been taken using a very low-res phone cam, as I'm having Linux compatibility issues with my scanner. Also, only the Nu Cham Vu drawing's been shaded in. The rest will be rendered once I'm done with all the drawing and the inking.) :

















(above) Anchanbey, a sort of patriarch and founding figure of the small coastal village of Anchan Bay.

















Nu Cham Vu, misanthropic son of a volcano, who runs the magic store. In my head he's a hybrid of Joe Viterelli, Prostnic Vogon Jeltz, Janagaraj and a hydrophobic bulldog.















A pichuaha, a timid sheeplike creature with large ears and an innate kindness. I conceived it to look vaguely idiotic and potentially clumsy, not unlike the soon-to-be-ex-president of the USA.


© copyright Vinayak Varma 2004-2009
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Ten minutes ago

Irate-sounding man on phone: Hallo! Haaallo! Hallo!
Me: Yes? YES?? HULLO!
ISMOP: Hallo... sir? Hallo!
Me: Yes, what is it?
ISMOP: Hallo! Er...
Me: Go on.
ISMOP: I would like to speak to Manjula.
Me: I beg your pardon?
ISMOP: I received your number from Bharat Matrimony dot com. Is Manjula there?
Me: You've got the wrong number, buddy.
ISMOP: But they said Manjula would be there!
Me (hanging up): So sue them.

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And speaking of spurious products: http://chinagrabber.com/
I have a particular craving for the 8GB Hamburger-Inspired USB Pendrive.

Duality: we two, ours one

Some kind of koozhness

idle: how was theinterview? i missed it cos i couldn find a radio... but im tryi to get hold of it

16:11 me: achan recorded a copy... it was horrible... the woman kept cutting me off, and i kept stammering and stuttering as a result... i'm not a very good public speaker

idle: lol

16:12 gotta hear it

now i gotta

me: it's better if you don't, frankly

16:13 it was okay before the interview started... then they made me wait on hold for 2 minutes while the ads were playing in the bg, and i started getting nervous... then, to make matters worse, that thing happened when you can hear yourself speak a split second after you've said something.... it's highly distracting and disconcerting when you get that kind of instant playback...

16:16 idle: hahaha........ thought u'd have had enough background calling up fm with love

me: fm with love?

idle: that times fm or watever it was called...

with morpheus, freddy and whoever els

16:17 me: ah... damn, that was aaages ago... i just had a picture of me whispering sweet nothings into p.chidambaram's ear, when you said calling fm with love

16:18 idle: pm with love!

heehe

16:19 me: that would be manmohan singh... i'll probably get a bunch of hairs in my mouth, and the smell of drying curd, if i try to whisper in his ear

16:20 idle: i mean hm with hosp.... with love

innee home?

me: oh god.. this gets worse and worse

innee home?

what's that

?

16:21 idle: aint he home monister, p chid?

p chiddi

me: home and finance... he's handling two portfolios

p chiddi, haha

that's good

i must remember that

idle: and i must read the papers

16:22 me: did you read insects are like you and me except they have wings?

16:23 idle: not yet

still fiishing rant and my names red

me: read it... it's awesome

i found kuzhali manickavel on facebook... very nice woman, quick to reply

16:24

idle: kuzhali

koo zhaaaaa li

16:25 me: it's a cool name

idle: yea its koozh

me: haha

2009

I began mine with dislocated breakfast plans, peanut candy and a nosebleed. It can only get better.