Tuesday 6 August 2013

Size does matter!


The Godzillas of work for our artists have been the tiniest of the lot.
The invertebrates. 
For one, its next to impossible of get a real life study and second, a single photograph is difficult to get them right. To get a realistic illustration of any species, especially insects require going through multiple images and watching videos to understand their physiology, explains our artist Usha. After finalizing the image, comes the play of light and shade, and on a colourful insect it is trickier owing to their body texture. Most emphasis is on getting the shimmer on the them right, for which a lot of techniques are applied. Manipulating the strokes of pencil colour from extremely soft on highlights to pressured on the depths, and so on.













Along with invertebrates are series of illustrated mammals, birds and amphibians translated into a set of collectible playing cards that have a definitive collection of the fauna of the Western Ghats.

These cards are available for sale in Viakerala Thekkady, Viakerala Cochin, NCF Valparai & Periyar Tiger Reserve Bookshop, Thekkady.