The Artist
Taarini Ravjit, is a visual artist who dabbles in illustration, animation, stop motion, photography and sculpting. She revels in experimenting and growing and thus, her sources of inspiration are varied and her work isn’t marked by a common theme. She stepped into the world of art when she was very young, as she began to draw. Design, however, came much later. It was when her brother went to college to study product design that she began to give it some serious thought.
The Work
After taking a look at her work and conversing with her, one would be able to tell that her work is vivid, playful and spontaneous.
Character Design, which is a very essential part of stop motion and animation, has subtle roots to her childhood. Taarini reveals that when she was young she would devour a show called ‘Samurai Jack’ and it was the character design and the visual treatment of the show that greatly struck her. She further adds that the backgrounds of the show designed by the Art Director, Scott Wills forms one of the largest sources of her inspiration. She also draws inspiration from Artists such as Jean Giraud, Quentin Blake and Kristina Micotti and Directors such as Wong Kar Wai, Michel Gondry and Wes Anderson. Apart from some of the renowned creatives she looks up to in the world of Cinema and Art, she also believes in the simplicity of taking inspiration from her travels and from the good old ways of drawing something she sees.
When it comes down to Stop Motion, she looks up to Chris Sickles, whose work she was introduced to by a friend after joining NID. ‘Chris Sickles, as always been a huge inspiration to me since I started studying Animation Film Design in the National Institute of Design. Chris is the force behind Red Nose Studio, located in Greenfield, Indiana USA where he creates eccentric and inviting miniature worlds with puppets, textures and light. Having followed his work for a long long time and looking up to him all these years, I got even more interested in stop motion as a medium. I always thought of it as it as a really good opportunity to be able to create something with the same amount of attention to detail, precision as his puppets, but in my own style and using my own design sensibilities.’ Taarini confesses.
The Creative Process
The creative process for her illustrations and her stop motion work and sculptures vary greatly. While for her illustrations, her work starts with small, squiggly thumbnails that she later works on and enlarges. The process here on too depends on the medium she chooses to take her work forward. ‘Depending on, if I’m treating it digitally or by-hand, I usually scan my rough sketches and work my way up from these. I end most of my illustrations with textures and overlays I create using real textures, patches or colour and paint I create.’ Taarini reveals. While for stop motion and sculptures, she says that her process is usually way more arduous.
The Visual Style
Taarini doesn’t have a defined visual style, owing to her love for experimentation. She also loves looking outwards for inspiration amongst things, places and people, which keep the novelty in her work intact.
The Future
When I ask Taarini about her future plans, she replies with the same playfulness that endows her work, ‘Making art during the week and climbing a mountain on the weekends with my multiple doggies!’
Text Supriya Jain