The Maharaja of Patiala

What a beautiful face -- more beautiful than my drawing. And dripping with jewels. The way one imagines a Maharaja should be.

Two Hands

Drawn from a very moving photograph in Time -- from a piece on China's earthquake, showing a living hand clasping a dead one.

Frank O'Hara

Fashion Photo

Dilip Kumar

We watched an old movie of Dilip Kumar's on TV last night -- Deedar. He was the ultimate tragic hero in Hindi films when my husband was a boy.

A Girl

I drew this child from the newspaper. The more I tried to get the values and contours right, the less childish she became, in spite of her looped-up pigtails.

One More

Another one from my black, white, red book.

Kishore Kumar

Late great popular singer in Hindi and Bengali. (I got tired of cross-hatching.)

Jadugar Anand

Jadugar is Hindi for magician. Drawn from a newspaper ad. In the heavily airbrushed photograph, Anand is as pink and white as a porcelain doll. But I have missed his expression, which is meant, I think, to express wonder at his own abilities. I must do this again, and try to get it to look more like a living person. The text reads:

Departing Moments (i.e., the end of the run) are coming closer

Watch the world's fastest magician in action Jadugar Anand with his colourful mayalok (world of illusion) ... Latest sensation from the world of miracles with royal setup. Characters of running movie coming out alive and re-entering the screen. Watch the Statue of Liberty disappears (sic) in slowmotion. A huge live elephant appears from nowhere, touch and feel.

A New Sketchbook

I bought a sketchbook made in Auroville, with alternating gray and white pages, and a dark red cover embedded with leaves -- all handmade paper. I decided to draw in the book using only black, white and red. And I plan primarily to draw faces from photographs, including the newspaper (I realised that my title, "Black and White and Red All Over" was unintentionally appropriate for that meaning too). And I would use some rubber stamps, which I generally do not. Here's the beginning:



This was drawn from a photograph of a Chinese artist, who invited 3 poets to write on his face. The series of photographs was remarkable -- by the end his face was completely blackened with ink. Since I unfortunately don't know how to write in Chinese, I put a few rubber stamps to suggest the process.


The Saudi delegation at an OPEC meeting, from the newspaper.