The Fuschia Tree

My friend Sanjana Kapur recently did an interview on me for an online magazine called The Fuschia Tree. She asked me some very interesting questions about my childhood and the sketchcrawls that I go for. You can read the interview over here - Drawing through life, it's archived under their new issue - Inertia, Being both Twice. Thank you, Sana.

Brainwave, February 2013

The year 2013 started with a lot of tasks unchecked on the to-do list. I had sketches to finish for an Amar Chitra Katha project, posts for Perch Project, and printing the first 25 pages of my graphic novel. All this had to be done before I began my one month travel, but by mid January I managed to put a tick on all of the above. With my planner scribbled with all the work and chores, the small illustration work for Brainwave took a back seat. It seemed difficult to be doing everything, and in the process being all over the place with watered down work. I doubt if there would be any Brainwave illustrations for the coming months, but February has two of my small artworks in the issue. 

The above artwork is for an article on Arvind Gupta, the toy maker who helps make Science a whole lot of fun with putting up scraps and wastes together as playful instruments. You can check out his DIY toys on - Arvind Gupta Toys. I used Uniball 'Posca' pens for this artwork, the marker has pigment based ink which comes out as thick fat coating on paper giving it a screen print quality. The patters are derived from some of his toys like kaleidoscope, origami paper crafts, and toys made of matchboxes, straws etc. 

This artwork is for a fan fiction section written by a young reader. This piece describes a perfectly balanced  eco-system where humans are more empathetic, which I believe must have left whales, crocodiles and tigers very relieved. The dolphins are not bothered about this, they will scoot away anyway before Vogons take notice. 

I am putting this post up in the middle of my travelling using a borrowed computer. There is plenty of work grumbling up at my desk awaiting my return. But for now, I am hopping trains and smelling new landscapes. Some photos should be up soon when I return, although the woes of developing film rolls await me too. 

Brainwave. Issue 25. Doomsday Alerts

Apart from being a hermit, and working on my graphic novel, I have been doing occasional freelance work for Brainwave. The next issue's theme was decided long time ago by the Mayans when they ran out of wall space to extend the calendar dates. Which has over the years helped a lot of production houses and news channels in killing air time with their Nostradamus gymnastics. Leaving the horrendously looped conspiracy videos aside, here's my take on the cover - 

I also did a spot illustration for the 'Geek Speak' section. 

Brainwave. Issue 22. Windy World

While putting the title up for this post I realised that I started blogging about Brainwave from Issue 7. It has been 15 issues old on my blog. Looking back at the past issues, I can see I have grown a lot working with each issue. But every time I have to sit with the work for new issue, it's a struggle to not do what has been done before. 
This issue has only three of my artworks and each done in different style. I have used digital, pencils and inks respectively for the three artworks. I have been trying to integrate type where ever I can in my artworks and the splash page works with that intention. 

Brainwave. Issue 20. Movie Magic

I remember very clearly how ET was like a dream come true for me as a kid. The VHS of that movie played very often for the time it was rented. The iconic scene of bicycle flying in the backdrop of a giant silhouette of moon is ingrained in my memory. I am sure like me many will have similar memories of particular movies that spun the magical web for them. Being a kid of late eighties, movies with visual effects was still growing and being fed on a very selective few was like being drenched in good rain after a long dry spell.

In this issue of Brainwave, we have looked back at some of the milestones of visual effects usage in movies and the pioneers who worked around with creative ideas and technology to make the audience jump out of their seats leaving them in an awe holding on to their 3D glasses. This issue covers the theme through timeline, 'Top Ten' monsters, 'Here's How' sections and talking about a few highlighted movies. This structure came as a bit of strain because it required plenty of artworks and then putting it all together as one cover story. But we managed pretty well as a team. Here are my artworks for this issue.

Splash Page for cover story

Top Ten Monsters 

Godzilla

Hulk

The Mummy

Highlighted Movies

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Star Wars episode 4: A new hope

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  

Tron

A preview spread. 

King Kong, illustrated by Vinayak Varma and Avatar, illustrated by Anuranjini Singh.

I believe this issue is worth preserving for the future generations. I have my two copies well stacked in. 

I just got back to Bangalore after a short holiday from home. Finally, the work on my graphic novel has started again. One frame a day is what I am aiming for now. Hoping to take it ahead from there.

Brainwave. Issue 19. Paleo Planet

Although this issue came to the stands before the first week of June but the blog update of it got delayed due to the production week for the July Issue. The work has been running tight and it the middle of all the last minute chaos I ended up doing the cover for the June issue along with the layouts and spot illustrations for inside pages. The theme for it is crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds and the cover turned out to be alright for a last minute job. But, before everything else, here's a comic strip on why a few dinosaurs have been upset with what the paleontologist did to them.

Right-click on the image and select 'open link in new tab' for larger view.

Here are a couple of spot illustrations for an article done on Gustave, one of the largest crocodile alive right now. His size and voracious appetite has given him a cult status in the neighbouring areas of Burundi. 

 

And lastly, here's the cover.

The next issue is about visual effects used in movies. So gear up with 3D glasses, modelling clay, flip-books and persistence of vision. The kids of 80's and 90's are going to have a good time.

Brainwave. Issue 18. Moving Around

The latest issue of Brainwave is on the wheels, literally. I spent a lot of time doing the splash page for this issue trying to mix illustration with typography. Although the style looks fairly quick-to-do in its nature but it's quite deceiving. Took me some time to finish it off. The Tour De France illustration is inspired from the artworks of Malcolm Farley. 

A spread on Tour De France

A spread on history of racing.

I just finished reading a compilation of Best American Comics 2007 put together by Chris Ware and it has given me all the more reason to step away from overtly decorative artworks for a while. To name a few of the inspiring artists - Anders Nilsen, Dan Zettwoch and Seth. I think I am going to try some minimal illustrations in coming issues.

Brainwave. Issue 17. All Fools

The month of fools has come and Brainwave has rewarded all of them with their new issue on Pseudoscience. If you think stars really pull your luck around then this issue would be a helpful read to you. No matter how bogus our beliefs are but a drop of scientific reasoning always does us good, like not eating during solar eclipse because the atmosphere is full of negative energy. In short, since you can't cook a fine dish with measured cups of water then why not half cook it with some holy water. 
With this issue, I tried using the learning from Typoday to make the layout more accommodating for the users (editors and copywriters) and weaving the whole magazine around the pixel look. Any magazine should maintain a common feel across it pages but in kid's magazine you can play that role on a very low level so that it doesn't render the pages as unexciting for the young eyes. Since I worked closely on the design and typesetting part of the magazine, I chose to do only a few illustrations this time. I am glad I didn't illustrate much otherwise my itch towards the blind believers would have led the magazine to a few lawsuits.
Here are my contributions for this issue and no lies, you can see the Robert Crumb influence bleeding out  -

Splash page artwork process and options.

Final artwork for the splash page.

Spot illustration for the 'Smarties' story.

Basava Premanand, the Guru Buster

A small comic strip on how to try the levitation trick.

Spot illustration for an article on 'Intelligent Design'.

Brainwave. Issue16. Gassing Around

The travel season has finally come to a halt with the Typoday conference at Bombay. The past month has provided me with inspiration in terms of drawing, comic art and typography. Now, all I have to is to put it in my work. So before the new changes show up in my work, I think it's time to look back at the work done before from the latest issue of Brainwave. The March issue is about Gasses. This omnipresent word that floats around everywhere has been similarly treated in the magazine. We looked at Gases in the planets, bellies, balloons, wars and in many more areas where it keeps popping. Here's my share of gassing around in the new issue. 

Splash page for the cover story

Spot Illustration for an article on Captcha.

Spot illustration for an article on Auto rickshaw.

Page design and illustration for an article on farts and burps.

Infographic on Gaseous Giants.

Comic strip done on the invention of ball pens. The Hindu - Young World.

I have tried to maintain a variety of illustration styles in the past issues of Brainwave but I think the next one will have a more uniform style of artworks. And sorry kids if it looks very Robert Crumbish in nature.

Brainwave. Issue 15. Survival Skills.

This has to be one of the most awaited issue of Brainwave for me. After all, it talks about evolution and what's evolution if we don't drop a cockroach saga in it. The old friend of our forefathers has taken the seat again and this time in the form of an infographic. Apart from that, there is a small informational comic on the trash trail (an initiative by Daily Dump, run by Poonam Bir Kastoori). 
There is so much to draw in a period of one month that I at times resort to other ways of illustrating where you cut, paste and mold stuff to create a visual. This intent is helping me to opens new doors of exploration. I am planning to try some collage for the coming issues. For this issue I just coloured my hands with rolling play-doh. 
So here is the new issue with some play-doh molded illustration, Roach Baba infographic and the adventures of Rack Rat through the lugubrious landfills. 

The coming issue is about smelly gaseous stuff and the work so far has been sailing well. But, today I got to know that Robert Crumb, Chris Oliveros (founder of Drawn & Quarterly) and Gary Groth (publisher and co-founder of Fantagraphics Books) are making a visit for the Comic Con in Delhi. Need to rush up a bit and make sure that I land up there too. Hopefully.