An Interview with The Fatoonist – Part 1
Tell me about yourself and your title – Fatoonist 
(Sajjive bubbling with that once-in-a-while vital statistics …..)
45, 5’ 6”, 120kg, 136-224-136. Appear in orkut as the Heaviest cartoonist in India and by the by, this FATOONIST is
Sajjiv BalaKrishnan- The Fatoonist
a multiple pun on FAT, TOON & my eternal and elemental joy – the Kerala Vegetarian Sadhya (OONU). The title was adopted in 2007 at the time of initiation into blogging. I regularly blog in Malayalam at www.keralahahaha.blogspot.com & www.ooneswarampo.blogspot.com . English, it is www.fatcartoonist.blogspot.com .
Regarding cartooning, fell for it through my mom who, after keeping me waiting for 3 hell of days, finally presented me with a breathtaking trace on the sparrow on the back cover of my IIIrd std notebook. My wonderful father blew the smoldering traces of my skill in doodling by allowing to go on a binge with stubs of kitchen firewood charcoal on the long damp yellowed drawing room walls of my 130 year old ancestral home at Chalakkudy. Gandhiji, Akbar and the then ubiquitous Air India Maharaja along with dozens of ancient others (all humans, black & beaming on the wall) received the grim faced relatives and the curious servants alike for years thereafter till the seasons snuffed out the traces bit by bit.
Later, prompted by my father, enrolled under my Guru SHANTHANU of the famous Santhanu’s Chitra Vidyalayam, Singanna Chetty Street, Chintadripet, Madras as student no. 1883-ES in 1976 for a 6 month postal course in cartooning. ( Please contact me if you are an alumnus)
Now, years later, am taken for occasional surprises in the otherwise drab sarkari office by letters addressed to ‘the CARTOONIST & PRO, Income Tax Department, Kochi-18’ . Perhaps the least travelled govt. servant in India, my only jaunt was to Calcutta 20 years back to see my birth place, hospital and the obstetrician and the head nurse there to pass a quick caricature each.
How long have you been drawing cartoons? Have you done any formal training? If so, what and where?
Cartoons from 1976 and caricatures from 1978. I dearly fondle the twin memories of seeing my first cartoon published in ‘kuttikalute Deepika’ and the encouraging letter received from the resident editor of Indian express, Kochi that same year !
During my years at Christ College, Irinjalakkuda fro 1978-83, I delved into experimenting with rugged and contrived drawing styles based on printed faces in the newspapers. After College, I was busy sending cartoons to all magazines of all colour recklessly and instantly became the most rejected cartoonist in the fastest time ever ! Since joining the Income Tax Department in 1988, I have been doting on only one thing – that quickie, whacky 2 minute stuff of SPEED CARICATURING !
Till now, I must have done about 11000 caricatures including those done for shows.
On training, pl. see my earlier answer.
From where so you draw your inspiration?
From you & all others. For instance, I can finish you off in just inside a minute. You are simply a cartoonists’ delight my Dear Anand
How long does it generally take to create one toon?
As I said, I have been a labourer bonded to Caricaturing rather than tooning per se. I always see to foisting in that quickie number during gatherings at the slightest provocation. 2 minute is the standard. The difficult kind might stretch me to 3/4 sweaty minutes. The punch lies in that flash finish. The quick & customary curious guys milling around the spot caricaturist would simply excuse any mismatch in resemblance if the speed bowls them over.
What materials do you use to create your work?
Each has his trademarks, me with the chiseled black marker and thick white 300GSM card. The lucky ones can always show the doodle to others supported by just one pinch at the bottom corner . So stiff that paper !
What impact has technology had on your work?
It is only 10 years since the PC began making things easier for me, taking over the scanning and picture editing parts. I feel, for any artist the alienation swarms him once the machine touches his creation. However, my online caricaturing works now get finished and fly through the web in a flurry , thanks these things. My DIGITAL CARICATURES are meant for eternal keep and celebration.
What do you find the hardest to draw?
Drawing from bottom right to top left. I do this vice versa, like most of you. Ideally, the artist should be able to complete a work starting from any part of the canvas/paper.
to be continued…(the second part of this interview will be published in cochinsquare soon)
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