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Art of Karthik

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Ever since I saw the Three Musketeers by Disney, featuring Donald, Micky and Goofy as the titular characters, I was imagining Ganesha as a swashbuckling adventuring Musketeer himself. The characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan are uniqu…

Ever since I saw the Three Musketeers by Disney, featuring Donald, Micky and Goofy as the titular characters, I was imagining Ganesha as a swashbuckling adventuring Musketeer himself. 

The characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan are uniquely identified by their colors in a variety of popular media with Blue, Green, Yellow and Red respectively. 

I decided to keep this design fairly simple, with an off-white shirt and black pants and vest with black boots to match. Topping it off was a bright red plume on his hat (for d'Artagnan), a bright red fleur-de-lis on his vest pocket and a golden mouse relief on his belt buckle. In his sword hand, he brandishes a fine rapier, ready to challenge his enemies to a duel. 

tags: illustration, ganesha, musketeers, swashbuckler, cosplay
Sunday 02.15.15
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
Admiral GaneshaHaving Ganesha incarnate as a friendly neighbourhood pirate, it only seemed appropriate to have him also suit up as a powerful Admiral of a vast naval fleet, ever-vigilant and ready for action.  I couldn’t think of an appropriat…

Admiral Ganesha

Having Ganesha incarnate as a friendly neighbourhood pirate, it only seemed appropriate to have him also suit up as a powerful Admiral of a vast naval fleet, ever-vigilant and ready for action. 

I couldn’t think of an appropriate place for his rat, so I just made it an embossed motif on his belt. 

Perhaps I’ll add a large sailing vessel in the background at another time?

tags: illustration, ganesha, cosplay
Thursday 12.25.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
Having drawn Ganesha as a Viking, it seemed natural that I should extend the trend just a little further and draw him as my favourite childhood cartoon character, He-Man! He-Man was a timeless classic from the 80’s, with its titular hero alway…

Having drawn Ganesha as a Viking, it seemed natural that I should extend the trend just a little further and draw him as my favourite childhood cartoon character, He-Man! 

He-Man was a timeless classic from the 80’s, with its titular hero always fighting to protect the good people of Eternia against evil forces. He-Man always had a good nature, willing to give anyone a second chance and believing that everyone had good in them that just needed to be felt and expressed. In addition, he’d end every episode with some words of wisdom to build the character of the impressionable young children watching the show. All of these were definitely characteristics worth looking up to. 

This made me believe that it was quite appropriate to have a crossover/homage between Ganesha and He-Man, both living up to the name ‘Masters of the Universe’. 

Here he stands before Castle Grayskull, magic sword held aloft, chanting “I have the power” as the lightning transforms him. And of course, his little rodent sidekick was a natural cringer about to be transformed into Battle-Rat :-)

tags: illustration, ganesha, heman, mastersoftheuniverse, cosplay
Thursday 11.20.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
As christmas approaches, I started seeing a lot of drawings of Santa Claus as a Norse Viking warrior. Also, I was reminded of the story of Ganesha’s creation, when he fiercely guarded his mother with a battle-axe/mace in hand against any intru…

As christmas approaches, I started seeing a lot of drawings of Santa Claus as a Norse Viking warrior. Also, I was reminded of the story of Ganesha’s creation, when he fiercely guarded his mother with a battle-axe/mace in hand against any intruders, even his own father Shiva. 

It was this fierce and battle-ready quality that set me thinking that in that moment, Ganesha had shown qualities equivalent to that of a Viking warrior, for whom the highest honor was death in combat which made they worthy of entering Valhalla. Also, the cold of Mount Kailash where Ganesha lives easily rivals that of the wintery arctic waters where the Vikings sailed. 

Decked out in furs and leathers, with an enormous battle-axe swung across his shoulder, I wanted him to look imposing and menacing, while retaining his poise and grace. If you can’t see his smile, it’s possibly because his face is covered by that braided ginger beard :-)

And to finish the piece, I took inspiration from some celtic knot designs of rats and put one on his axe. (Yes yes, no connection between the Celts and the Nords, but it’s just cool)

I did think, should I add a fur cloak or a Viking boat behind? Perhaps next time. 

tags: illustration, ganesha, cosplay, viking, nordic
Saturday 11.15.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
We’ve always had a very romanticized vision of pirates, like they were the rebels of the seas, with images of Errol Flynn’s Captain Blood being the charismatic swashbuckler or Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow being the playful tr…

We’ve always had a very romanticized vision of pirates, like they were the rebels of the seas, with images of Errol Flynn’s Captain Blood being the charismatic swashbuckler or Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow being the playful trickster.

Being a fan of both characters, I thought to myself, who’s the most playful and charismatic character in Indian mythology who could best fit the regal, adventurous and playful image of a pirate? Of course, it ended up being Ganesha, with a little mouse on his shoulder instead of a parrot.

tags: illustration, ganesha, cosplay, swashbuckler, piratesofthecaribbean, buriedtreasure
Sunday 08.31.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
While his brother Karthikeya is often shown in full battle armor, Ganesha is usually never shown in armor even though he’s shown holding multiple weapons with his many arms at times. And then this crazy thought struck me, what would Ganesha lo…

While his brother Karthikeya is often shown in full battle armor, Ganesha is usually never shown in armor even though he’s shown holding multiple weapons with his many arms at times.

And then this crazy thought struck me, what would Ganesha look like in Iron Man’s armor?

This is what came out of that.

tags: illustration, ganesha, ironman, cosplay, iamironman, avengers
Saturday 08.30.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 
This is one of those pieces that sprung out of the wackiest parts of my imagination, Ganesha as a Samurai Shogun! After I thought of this I just had to get this out of my head, hence the result.

This is one of those pieces that sprung out of the wackiest parts of my imagination, Ganesha as a Samurai Shogun! After I thought of this I just had to get this out of my head, hence the result.

tags: illustration, ganesha, samurai, shogun, cosplay
Friday 08.29.14
Posted by Karthik Nagarajan
 

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