Aarti Karwayun Chawda

Stumbled onto Aarti's work via Artnlight: an incredible design blog, loved these collage/decoupage pieces by the artist. Aarti created these works from a vintage photography book that belonged to her grandfather.

"This series of mix media illustration is my way to connect things of the past and share love for "all things vintage" with the world. Old stories of simple, joyous things like Bicycles, Typewriters, Vespa, Cassettes find new expressions on my grandfathers old books from 1940s.

I have tried to bring these old things to life by adding real 2D elements like dried flowers, an unfinished poem on a real paper stuck to the typewriter, an old cassette tape with the reel pulled."

Jessica Singh

This interview was due years ago. It's been sitting in my inbox for the past three years gathering dust. 

Jessica Singh's work is part whimsy , part anime-like, part dreamy and all round beautiful. Her surreal little details add to the imaginative quality of her works. Her subjects are often coy and lost in a wonderland of their own. She is most definitely on my lust list!

one of the most interesting things about your work is all the little details that you layer, could you explain your process? how much of it is digital/handmade?

I find that I always tend to start with the eyes. If they don't work out, then the drawing never does. The entirety of the image is formed in Photoshop, with the drawing and coloring created with a pen tablet. I guess I find this a really great medium because it's easy to edit, quickly get ideas down, change colors and helps me achieve the things I see in my minds eye.

I tend to be a layer-o-holic. My more detailed drawings end up having about 120 layers. I also never label the layers, which is pretty counter intuitive when I'm trying to find a specific thing. In terms of what is handmade, alot of texture, patterns and collage is. For my Celestial Cocoon and Arkhana series I did hand cut the papers (indian comic books, japanese chiyogami paper), glue and collage them by hand, and then scan them in, and arrange the collage into the drawing.

I rely pretty heavily on my scanner. Sometimes I spend a day hunched over the scanner on the floor, scanning things I've collected, like alfoil, joss paper, fabric scraps and odds and ends. Scanners amaze me! I love textures and patterns and I find it pretty important to somehow bring a sense of texture into a digital format which can be a little 2D sometimes. 

what do you do to get your creative juices flowing? music/pop culture/books/magazines/tv shows

Music is a huge one. I guess I have to admit that I go into a kind of trance when I draw, and most of the time each drawing relates to a song I've just discovered and played on repeat. I'm usually inspired by the lyrics of the song at the time, I find they speak to my soul. Sometimes I dance while drawing - somewhat sad, but true! That's why I find it hard to draw when people are around. As if their aura disrupts me, and the freedom to feeling. 

A big inspiration to me creatively is Bjork - I admire her boldness, it's as if she's made from fire. I think when I draw I hope to express my inner flame too.

how would you describe your work? I see a lot of asian/mystical influences , what draws you to them?

Describing your own work is so difficult. Whenever I look at my work I can only see it in sections, not as a whole. But I'm digressing. I guess I would say bold, colorful, feminine, a bit strange. But these are all fairly obvious. What I would prefer to say is esoteric, mystical and powerful. Powerful in the sense that the characters I draw are powerful, maybe even super heroines! I would also say that in some ways I see each one as a self portrait, either as a section of my personality that lives within, or just as characters that float around my head.

Yes, there tend to be alot of asian and mystical influences. What first got me into drawing was my obsession with japanese culture and subsequently, anime and manga. As I grew older and currently I've really taken a love for all cultures, in terms of folk lore. I'm really inspired by colorful headdresses and textiles, traditional ceremonies and so on. My mother is quite an esoteric character, and she did kind of introduce me to a mystical world of crystals and spirits and things like that, and my father being indian is a pretty spiritual dude himself. 

who are your favourite artists/designers

The first that always comes to my mind is Japanese illustrator Minchi. Actually there are so many illustrators I love I can hardly keep track. But at the moment I am really admiring Nathalie Lete. Really inspired by more hands on painters, and I'm hoping to bring a more painterly quality to new artwork.

how does your south asian-ness influence you/ at what moments does it peek in?

As I kid growing up I think I really rejected my Indian heritage (My father is Punjabi). But I recognise that as pretty normal for those crucial years. I think living in an isolated city (Perth, Western Australia) can really contribute to that. After having lived in London for 2 years I came to really appreciate my Indian heritage. Just after I graduated, I created the Arkhana! series which was pretty carthatic. I suppose it was coming back to my roots. I used to be obsessed with the comic books my father bought back from India, and am only realising now that their levels of fantasy and mysticism, strange colorings has really filtered into my drawing style now.

Whats your current colour palette?

Good Question! I love stealing paint sample cards from hardware stores - sorry! At the moment it's kind of a vivid blue, pale pink/peach, pale violet, bright orange - taken from a new drawing I'm working on. 

Vidhya Nagarajan

 Freelance illustrator Vidhya Nagarajan's rendition of Chennai warms my heart. These are sights we can all relate to.Visit her site for more .

Sameer Kulavoor

I found the most incredible goodies in my mail last week. Sameer Kulavoor, a friend and design god, had sent me The Ghoda Cycle project documented in a book , as well as two fun flip books , that I'm going to post a video of. I absolutely have one of his illustrations on my lust list , for my home. But that's for later. Take  a gander at his incredible exploration of the Ghoda cycle in all it's avatars .This is what Sameer has to say about his illustrations, "The Ghoda Cycle Project' is a visual document of the myriad avatars of bicycles in the rural and urban landscape of India.The linchpin of 'The Ghoda Cycle Project' is to lay emphasis on the framework, structure, decoration and design of the cycles ofIndia.Ergonomically these cycles may not be the best examples of bicycle design, but they have the strength to carry the hopes and aspirations of a big section of the Indian population". The illustrations have also been adapted into t shirts for fashion brand Paul Smith.

 
OH FLIP! - Ice Gola Flipbook from Sameer Kulavoor / BDD on Vimeo.

Mia Sandhu

  Mia Sandhu is   a Toronto based visual artist who explores personal and contemporary cross cultural narratives. "My work explores and expands on the tension I feel as a second generation daughter of Sikh and Canadian heritage."Her works evoke a heavy sense of nostalgia and visual imagery of sepia toned photographs from the 80's. Love her illustrative style.

Jasjyot Singh Hans

I've been a huge fan of Jasjyot's fashion illustrations. I particularly love this entry into the Air France+ Manish Arora contest, for aspiring fashion designers. Jasjyot's collection is inspired by the almost mundane and omnipresent starched white school uniforms that countless school girls wear . His structured silhouettes bring back some nostalgia. Vote for him here.

Meera Sethi

Foreign Returned explores South Asian identities through time and space while making specific references to Canada, India and Australia. Using vibrant colour and bold pattern, this new work offers a contemporary interpretation of iconography from 16th to 19th century Indian miniature paintings. Meera Sethi is an Indian born artist, based out of Toronto.

Taarika John

Cochin born Taarika John is a compulsive reader and artist, and has been one from a very young age. As a child , she often had her fingers covered in paint, or her nose buried in a book. As an adult, nothing has changed, she says. 

"I love illustration and I am a chatterbox. I like to make people laugh. In social situations, I am often identified as a "story teller." "

I absolutely love her 'Kerela Alphabet' , that hits home (with me being a Malayali). Pretty endearing.

Maheswari Janarthan

Take a gander at the whimsical renderings of the very talented, Chennai based Maheswari Janarthan. It will transport you to  the artists own little wonderland of myth and beauty. Janarthan's pieces explore  the grandiose of the cosmos and the introspective self while staying true to her simplistic and layered illustrative style. Explore more at Little one's doodles.

Rajni Perera

Rajini Perera's paintings focus intensely on the female body's form, drawing heavily from south asian miniature painting traditions and combining them with the strange and psychedelic. Her foray into visual psychotropia is embellished with indian goddesses eschewed from their ornate backdrops and pitted against stark white frames, while riding on dinosaurs. In another of her works, a voluptuous brown woman adorned in golden panties has her innards on display as her layers are literally peeled back like that of a Russian doll.

Sri lankan born Rajni Perera, is Toronto based. Her Art explores issues of hybridity, sacrilege, irreverence, Indexical sciences and ethnography, sexuality, popular culture, deities and monsters. She says they are, "Intensely labored and immaculately conceived. Spiritual and whimsical, a pooja and a porno at the same time." 

Anvita Jain

The incredible Anvita Jain is from Delhi . She is currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, USA. Her colourful chaos interlaced with stark , graphic piranhas, parrots with penile tails and phallic fish is all very interesting to me. So are ducks who's bodies are filled with gray matter.

Sofia Niazi

Love Sofia Niazi's quirky batik illustrations. London based Pakistani Niazi is also a comic book illustrator. "With my illustrations I normally limit myself to just using a black pen and I have a pretty clear idea of what image I’m going to make, but with painting it’s a completely different process. I don’t have anything to say when I start painting, my eyes and hands seem to have their own idea about what they’re going to show me. I’ve always had problems with using colour so batik is perfect for me; I treat the canvas like a massive colouring book. I draw outlines, with flour paste, of any images that pop into my head, then when its dry I just go for any colours I can mix, I have one rule though, no using the same colour twice, each one is different, even if only slightly. Once the painting in done then I can start thinking about what I can say with it, I find images which interact nicely with what’s on the canvas, this adds another meaning or builds on the mood of the painting." More at her website.