by Anna Randal

Krishna “Nanu” Chavda is an illustrator with a very, very vivid imagination!

Chavda’s imagination is so wild, she sees famous artists in animals. She has created a series of 10 illustrations based on either a self-portrait of an artist, one of their artworks, or the artists’ art-making techniques. From Frida Kahlo to Leonardo, these artists get their animal match in the eyes of cows and leopards.

“I absolutely, positively love puns and word-play. As does one of my illustrator friends, Catherine. One day Catherine sent me a text saying “Vincent van Gopher. Make it happen.” I could not refuse this order. Catherine later told me that she got the idea from an art history student of hers who misspelled Vincent van Gogh as Vincent van Goph. As I sketched ideas on how to go about drawing van Gopher, many more artist-animal pun combinations came to mind. I decided to make the illustrations  Each illustration is hand-drawn with pen and ink on paper, which is then scanned and digitally colored,” explains Nanu.

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