Personal Projects - Vidya Gopal's Illustration Portfolio

PERSONAL PROJECTS, WATERCOLORS

A few of the chronicles of 'Girls Doing Things' -from my book of the same name. Will be in my store shortly.

Mrs Pushpa and her two best friends Pankaja and Sudha are the most notorious flower smugglers in TT Nagar.
They embark on an early morning walk before sunrise every morning and meticulously pluck every flower peeping outside compounds of homes.
Not that most people have the courage to come in the path of three feral grandmothers- but the occasional protester is threatened with divine retribution for coming in between the lord and these flowers.

Miss Chandni all of 9, owns ‘Snow Mahal (that’s the Hindi text on the tub in the image if you can’t read - Mahal means palace ).
Her Abbu has a bean bag business - which means she has access to a lot of surplus thermocol balls. Enterprising upcycler that she is - she has a tub filled with them , and an ancient rusty but trusty pedestal fan - that combine to give you a beautiful little snow storm experience.
You can rent it- in exchange for a Pani Puri plate from the corner stall - she won’t eat it until you leave . She is nice that way :)

Lakshmi’ A 1960 Morris Minor is the most prized treasure of sisters Rajeshwari and Malleshwari . An inheritance from their grandfather - it has proved indispensable in their training for the state level weight lifting championship.

Every morning they drop a flock of children to the local school .’Lakshmi’ though only runs on first gear and the floor at the driver’s seat has caved in- which has worked out perfectly for the duo’s daily workout needs.
Rocky the resident stray doesn’t appreciate all the huffing and puffing and the giggly kids waking him up from his slumber though!

Miss Sweetie sole proprietor, cinematographer, choreographer and make-up artist of Enchanted Dreamzz productions, Gurdaspur makes dreamzz come true.
Couples of all ages around Gurdaspur book her to recreate their favorite Bollywood number - starring themselves.
Unlike her name - she is anything but sweet when her clients miss a step, or don a wrong expression.

Mrs. Dhingra makes the most tasty Paranthas, and she loves to feed them to her visiting pet crows -Amar, Akbar and Anthony. Aerial creatures that they are, she whirls them into the air and they field them. of course a few Paranthas succumb to gravity.
Now the apartment association is outraged and emails in full capital letters are going about. Meanwhile Pooja from the 2nd floor has figured a way to intercept the falling Paranthas and polish them off.

Like I said 'Intense Window Seat Person' - Some illustrations from my 'People I see' series - for more- wait for my book :).

I saw this little tomato, waiting under a dusty bustling flyover for her school bus on a very sunny morning - Looking very boss like, in her blistering redness.

One humid Chennai evening, I saw this little lady take in all she could of a whiff of sea breeze cutting through the humid air .

i saw this man- sprawled across the seat at the bus stop- in his floral print blue Lungi, the scowl on his face also sprawled much like himself- unapologetically expansively on his face :).

Solemn looking little boy at the temple assigned bell-ringing duties .

On a train ride this gangly teenage boy sat next to me. Neon Skully pyjamas and bright green crocs. He'd unwittingly claimed my sparse middle seat elbow space. After a lot of grumbling to myself when I finally asked him for some space- He gave the sweetest, most apologetic goofy smile and yielded some space .

lady cops at the signal wearing jasmine flowers and kanakambara (cassandra).

.This man, selling cut fruits, sitting in a peaceful huddle with his bronze companions right outside an antique shop that had spilled over into the pavement.

I saw this lady at the local park -- she had brought a book along and earphones - she had a cautious hand on her yellow handbag, but was nevertheless so at peace with herself reading contently.

So this elderly man, and his gang of friends were buying Softies. After buying his Softy-black currant-He carefully took off his glasses, placed it in his pocket, (slight hindrance to peaceful softy consumption- I can say with my bespectacled experience) and took a languorous, meditative lick of ice cream all by himself before joining his friends in a car playing loud rap music (Yo Yo Honey Singh).

Early morning flower picker.

A friend and I saw this groovy fruit seller across the road, enjoying her music in her bright and blingy outfit (she had a blingy red clutch too).

Morning Blues -Kids scooped up to be deposited in school.

Grandpa dropping his grandkid to the bus stop- A quick run through of morning prayers.

This bus stand next to my house has always seemed to me like a worm hole into a parallel, slower, unambitious universe. There is a lovely patch of green alongside. I have stood there a couple of times and i can assure you no one who pointedly wants to get anywhere waits there. One in 4/5 buses grudgingly stop here. These school girls ) device-less, in their own day dreams- sitting in a companionable silence without a hint of urgency- clearly crawled out of that wormhole :).