30 Icons

Going to School, a Delhi Based NGO asked me to do a set of 30 icons for one of their story. The icons had to have the pencil sketch quality. I scanned textures created with a range of pencil shades and then treated it in simple shapes in photoshop. I had to work with given storyboards for each icon but had the liberty to simplify and modify it. The character driven icons were the most fun to work on and I managed to get a mix of Indian looking faces with a restricted use of medium.

+1 up!

Yesterday, I finished another book for 'Going to School'. This book has a mixed use of mediums - pencils, acrylics and photographs. Earlier, I was quite skeptical of playing with different mediums in one graphic novel, but it turned out better than I expected.  Here is a sneak peek on what I did in this book. 

The cover and chapter openers borrow its inspirations from the Bollywood posters to highlight the dramatic tension in between characters. Apart from working with varied mediums cohesively, I enjoyed doing the hand drawn type for the titles. It feels good to be analogous with the rendering process of the letters and appreciating the human error. 

Here is a little souvenir - the tissue paper on which I wiped my brushes clean while colouring the pages.

There are more things to come on the blog but for now this +1 up on my to do list is a relief. 

New Book

The character intro pages from the new book I am doing for Going to School. The style requires me to use photographs and paint over them. I carefully choose the area to be covered with soft tones to highlight the important aspects of the images. Using brush to draw is a meditative process. It brings a great relief from the guarded use of my other drawing techniques. Lots more to do in the coming days. The negatives from the Jaipur trip have gone for a wash. So, an update will follow soon.

Almost there

After many months of rendering and staring at the computer screen, I printed the final dummy of the book. It looks good and needs a few corrections. Thats why I am in Delhi, editing for the final print file. Its freezing here but winters are always welcome. The work and few sessions of illness has kept me off from uploading new sketches and photographs. But, this month is full of travel and uploads will follow soon. By the way, the hand model in the picture is my friend Jyoti Somani.

Render farm

68 spreads = 136 pages rendered. The last 34 pages need to be digitised now. Then some correction, editing and the book will be ready for print :) My digital slr is not with me anymore so, forgive the quality of pictures.

Wallposter comics day at GTS

The day held a surprise while we were waiting at the table. Sharad Sharma from World Comics India walks in the office and lifts the veil off the waiting moment. We all were going to make Wallposter comics. Every working member was at the table ready to try their hand at Simple 4 panel storytelling technique.














We drew the face of the person sitting opposite to us. Once done with a few brushing up of drawing skills, we understood the facial features and its role in creating mood and expressions.



































































































We all came up with an issue that we will like to make a wallposter comics on. Once, the issue was there, we thought of the question area, message and target audience. After that, we wrote a ten line story that later on was put in four frames. Keeping the story equally informative throughout the four frames is a crucial aspect.




























Once ready with the ingredients, we all started drawing the final version of our comics. We also went through basic communicative glitches that should be avoided.




































Jeevan - Problems for pedestrians due to traffic.




































Lisa - Communication difficulties in day to day life.




































Shayamli - Eve teasing.




































Maha - Littering waste around.
































Anand - Save the trees.
































Mithun - Mobile phone radiation.
































Somesh - Honour Killings.
































Jyot - Giving recognition to the labours of Delhi Metro.




































Aditi - Being responsible on the job.
































Jyoti - Eveteasing.


















Mohit - Following Traffic rules and sticking to the lane.
Sorry Mohit, You finished late. So, your picture isn't there. Don't cry.
Photographs : Sarad Sharma and myself.