story within a story - The Storyteller

Story within a story narrative technique has its ancient roots and One Thousand and One Nights is one of the examples of such narrative techniques. Puffin - Penguin approached me with their interpretation of the Arabian Nights written by Anushka Ravishankar. The story was divided in a few chapters and the editor had picked up some key visuals for interior illustrations but i still had freedom to pick up other scenarios to depict. as the title said the storyteller i wanted to show the Queen indulged in telling the story to her King so she can live for another day and another night she would continue the incomplete tale. Such a beautiful plot and so on the cover it is Scheherazade telling a tale to ME. another fantasy lived, isnt that the best part of this profession!! you can project yourself wherever you want to.
The original tales are quiet erotic and since this version is meant for kids, the eroticism was edited and simplified for their primary audiences, otherwise every illustration would have had me as the central idea living the arabian fantasies till the book runs out of editions... eternity in a way!
The interior illustrations are purely Black&White for a simple reason that there are infinite tales happening in one tale so to keep the simplicity and depth in the visuals, this technique was chosen.
They have a little seriousness but also are witty and make your eyes travel to catch the details quiet similar to the words written in the book.
click on the images for a hires view and you can buy a copy from FLIPKART and here is the Link

Moon, Ramu and I - children's book for Katha

Moon, Ramu and I, a book recently completed by Therefore Design for Katha. They comissioned me to visualize and illustrate the story in most interesting way possible. Elements in this story were unusual and so is their expedition to reach the moon. An adventure led by a dog [ramu] and a cranky little girl [i] who talks to ramu, later joined by her grandpa and amma.
Initially the main character was designed as a mouse keeping a back story of mice's fascination for the moon as it looks like cheese to him, thanks to Tom&Jerry. The plot was not approved by the client. i still feel mouse would hv been an interesting element in the story as it brings a lot of possibilities in which he could have performed throughout the book. We tried hard to convince publisher to make Ramu a mouse but that did not work out, the rough sketches have Ramu as a mouse! you can see the difference. 

Also 'i' was a boy first. I am sharing with you guys a small part of the process, the initial doodles done as i read the story and the way characters came to me, a lot of alterations happened as we brainstormed further.

I wanted kids to interact with this book, rotate, explore details, travel inside the story as they would dream, which have no logics or science applied! So began the explorations and layouts. Layouts are always stimulating as you see a story progression getting another dimension, a visual delivery, after a major visual pregnancy of thoughts and brainstormed ideas! Deciding on a color palette was little dicy as events in the story happen at night, so the moon was shown a full moon balancing the darkness and giving it a fun look. I wanted to use Idli texture for the moon but didnt work all that powerful and then Van Gogh happened. :D

Click on the images for a hi-res experience!!

love - inkbrushnme

Linkin Park Tour Visuals - Narrative Progression

i was blown away when i read the subject of an email, i was contacted by the studio which was handling projection narratives for Linkin Park for their forthcoming tour during the launch of their new album - a thousand suns. the brief was to come up with a new illustrative style which signifies their music and since this album included a major heavy metal integration, the art needed to be grunge and dark. i choose to keep the illustrations abstract to a good extent and intuitively drew all that came to me, chester benningtons portrait, beatmixing, vocals, i let myself become a visualization equalizer. I did not get to listen to the new tracks although i asked for, but legal obligations.., so went ahead with their old hits and later on i got a seq of the songs they were playing and the tracks i was asked to work on.

this was the list:

1. Given Up

2. No More Sorrow

3. Crawling + In The End

4. One Step Closer [climax track]

these five tracks were spread in four acts during the show, there were many more guys who collaborated for the event aswell, so of their 22 tracks, i was able to work on 5! YAY!

and so i am sharing some of the work i created for Linkin Park almost six months after completion as my contract got over. I hvnt got to see any of their concerts neither any documentation of where and how the illustrations were used. these are just a few of them.