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A quick short interview with Bala Murugan –Pre Production Artist & Creator
Can you give us a brief about the work you do?
My prime interest is in comics. From comics I spread my interest to story board and concept art.
How did you come up with the idea of sketching?
My main inspiration is the people and their behavior and activities around me which affects me in someway and gives me an idea for my sketches.
In which projects have you worked so far?
I have worked at Gotham comics, Bangalore for their Indian version of super character. I have even worked on many local characters like Tennali Raman ,Birbal and Panchatantra stories .Lately I worked for “Bommi and Friends” an animation TV serials which was televised in Kidsco TV ,Australia.
Have you done any specific course related to this field?
I am a graduate in bachelors of Fine Arts from College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai.
Do you teach this art as well?
I used to teach in Bimbaa Animation Academy, Chennai and taught students with online modules as well.
Which is your favorite sketch and why?
One of my favorite sketches is “A Student and Teacher sketch”. The expressions when a teacher threatens a student, is portrayed beautifully. Both the characters look amazing.
Which was the most challenging sketch and why?
To me each and every sketch is challenging. However, it is better to mention a character named ‘Lady Rapfish’ in the animation movie-The wish Fish. The company had already designed the character in a western style and wanted me to design it in the Indian style. The conversion of the character was a little tricky but my international collaborated and I worked together to the great satisfaction of the whole team.
Who has been your inspiration for your art?
A comic book in Tamil which I used to read during my school days named’ Thanga Kallarai’ is my inspiration. The artist was Jean Giraud. Since then I started to draw characters in the book. My next inspiration is Hayao Miyazaki,a Japanese artist. Gopulu, a tamil magazine story illustration artist need to be mentioned.
What is your working process to sketch?
I do the rough sketch when I have a concept in mind, and then I improve it with more details step by step.
What advice would you like to give the upcoming artists?
You have to watch everything around you very keenly. You will get ideas and concepts from them/ from the incidents. I would suggest if you’re are beginner and have a concept in mind you can work on open source software like My Paint, Gimp Etc and practice on the same. And once you maser it, you can use costlier software like Photoshop, Painter etc.