Happy X-Mas

E for Elephant

Illustration for a rhyme

Dragonfly! Dragonfly!!

Illustration for a rhyme.

Run Bunny Run!

Story Illustration

The Deer and The Tiger

Illustrations for a Thai story

Krishna & Bakasura

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

Kansa, the wicked maternal uncle of Krishna, knew that Krishna was in Gokul and feared that one day, Krishna would kill him. Kansa wanted to kill Krishna and spent all his time, thinking of devious plans for doing so. One day, he called the demon BakasuraLord Krishna killing Bakasura and asked him to go and kill the infant Krishna. Bakasura, decided to take the form of a huge bird to frighten young Krishna.

One day Krishna was playing with his friends in the forests of Gokul, when he saw a giant bird swooping down on them. Krishna at once understood that a demon sent by Kansa to kill him.

As the bird came closer, the brave Krishna caught its beak and quickly got inside it. Inside the beak, Krishna wriggled around so much that Bakasura's beak was broken. Exhausted, Bakasura died after some time and fell to the ground.


Krishna's friends hugged him in joy.

(courtesy:/www.kidsgen.com/)

The birth of Urvashi

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

Once the revered sage Narnarayan was meditating in the holy shrine of Badrinath situated in the Himalayas. Indra, the king of the demi-Gods, did not want the sage to acquire divine powers through the meditation and sent two apsaras to distract him. The sage struck his thigh and created a woman so beautiful that Indra’s apsaras were left matchless. This was Urvashi, named from ur, the Sanskrit word for thigh. After his meditation was complete the sage gifted Urvashi to Indra, and she occupied the pride of place in Indra’s court.

The end of Valsasura, the demon calf

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

"Once, when Krsna and Balarama were playing on the bank of the Yamuna, a demon of the name Vatsasura assumed the shape of a calf and came there intending to kill the brothers. By taking the shape of a calf, the demon could mingle with the other calves. Krsna, however, specifically noticed this, and He immediately told Balarama about the entrance of the demon. Both brothers then followed him and sneaked up upon him. Krsna caught hold of the demon-calf by the two hind legs and tail, whipped him around very forcibly and threw him up into a tree. The demon lost his life and fell down from the top of the tree to the ground. When the demon lay dead on the ground, all the playmates of Krsna congratulated Him, "Well done, well done," and the demigods in the sky began to shower flowers with great satisfaction. In this way, the maintainers of the complete creation, Krsna and Balarama, used to take care of the calves in the morning every day, and thus They enjoyed Their childhood pastimes as cowherd boys in Vrndavana." (courtesy:http://www.harekrsna.com/) 

Mummy 'n' Me

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

Rooster!!

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

Paper Boats

Illustration published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni

Children's Stories from Soviet Russia

I have illustrated Leo Tolstoy's 'Three Bears' for designing this brochure. This is a promotional material for Mathrubhumi Books' children's book, "Soviet naattile balakathakalum nadodikkathakalum" (Children’s stories from Soviet Union). This is the first time I am illustrating a story for a brochure. The book contains two volumes with more than 200 stories. The illustrations of this book are also done by me. I will post few samples later. The brochure contains 12 pages in 20 cm x 20 cm size. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Mr. Georgy Thomas, Assistant Manager Mathrubhumi Books, for his support on conceiving this idea.

Rising

Faces in the crowd

Character design sketches :)

The Sheikh's Trick

Illustration for an Arabian folktale 
Published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Here comes the Elephant!

Illustration done for a rhyme by Sippy Pallippuram. 

Published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Pussy Cat; Pussy Cat!

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

The Emperors Nightingale

This is one of my favorite Andersen's fairy tale.
Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

The Lazy Fire

Story Illustration. Published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni 

Uncle Moon

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

The Foolish Cloud

Story Illustration. Published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni 

Little Brother and Little Sister

Illustration for a russian folktale. Published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Candy Palace

Illustration done for a rhyme by Sippy Pallippuram. 

Published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Time Table Design

Illustration for a timetable design

Singer Bunny and Dancer Duckling

Dear readers,

 I would like to share my method of coloring children’s illustrations using Photoshop. I have tried more coloring methods, and found this as the easiest way. We can draw a singer bunny and a dancing duckling. 

You should do a pencil sketch first. If you are comfortable with pen tablet, you can sketch directly in Photoshop. 

Erase the unwanted pencil lines and make the subject clear. Scan the pencil sketch in 300 dpi resolution.

Open the illustration in Photoshop. Increasing contrast & brightness (Image menu->Adjustments->Brightness and contrast) and applying threshold (Image menu->Adjustments->Threshold) will make your illustration sharper.

Convert the illustration to a layer (Double click on the layer panel). We can use this layer as a reference layer, so please lock it (Layer panel->lock icon). You can hide this later.

Now insert a new layer and name it as bunny’s head. Using direct selection tool, draw a path by tracing bunny’s head from the reference layer. Convert the path to selection and fill the color you want. The same process can be done for drawing each object, such as bunny’s body, legs, hands, guitar, duckling head, duckling body, duckling wings, and duckling feet. Objects can be easily edited when they are in different layers. 

You should be more conscious while selecting background color. Using cool colors (VIOLET-BLUE-GREEN) for background and hot colors (RED-ORANGE-YELLOW) for subjects will look better. Hence I have used green for background and hot colors for bunny and duckling. Now hide the reference layer

Adding light and shade will make your illustration more attractive. Select each layer and color them with appropriate light and dark tones. 

Adding action lines to your illustration will look your illustrations live. Put some action lines. 

The Elephant Rock

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Please Come Home, Birdie

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

My Little Lamb

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Furry's Jungle

Illustration for a wonderful story. Published in Minnaminni
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Minnaminni 

Vishu has arrived

Vishu is traditionally celebrated in the Indian state of Kerala, as the New Year in Malayalam Calendar.Usually in the second week of April in the Gregorian calendar. The yellow Cassia flowers, which blooms in vishu time, has an important role in 'vishukani'. [More]

Illustration published in Balabhumi. Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

Rainbow

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

I love pumpkins

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

My little princess has arrived!!!

Dear Friends,This 'Vishu' was very special to me. In the evening on 14th April 2013, I have become a proud father, blessed with a baby girl.

Goal!!!!

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi

The Wind

Illustration published in Balabhumi
Done with photoshop. © Mathrubhumi Balabhumi