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Harini Chandrasekar is an Industrial Designer with a specialization in textiles from India’s premier design school, The National Institute of Design. The prestigious Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Sweden as well as the Politechnico Di Milano in Italy added to her education and international perspective. She then went on to teach courses such as design concepts and concerns, print-making, sustainability and craft and strategic design thinking while working with several global clients across Sweden, Italy, Finland and India. She is currently enrolled in the Global Marketing Communication & Advertising program at Emerson College to add a new dimension to her skills. Harini hopes to integrate creativity with management to create new and engaging ideas in the field of marketing communication.
Thoughts and Illustrations from my daily blog
A while ago, I designed these coaster sets as gifts for the guests at my nephew's religious ceremony in India. Each coaster represents a temple that has special significance to his family with details of the story printed behind. Enjoy!
Do you want to hear a cat joke?? Just Kitten!!:) Pawsitively catastrophic! Apologies.
Below is an alligator inspired by an age-old South Indian tradition called "Kolam" which always reminds me of home! A Kolam (also known as Alpana, Rangoli, Muggulu across India) is generally a pattern guided by dots drawn at the entrance of a house with rice flour powder. These designs are made with bare fingers and the dots connect to form shapes or loops are drawn encircling the dots to complete a motif. The rice powder is said to invite small birds and ants into one's every day life symbolic of harmonious co-existence. Occasionally, cow dung, believed to have antiseptic properties is also used to wax the floor and provide some protection. Kolam's are associated with ritual value and special occasions call for limestone and red brick powder to afford greater contrast and a celebratory flavor.
Enjoy the kolam-gator basking in a summer swamp!:)
Many sources of natural dyes can be found in our own backyard. Today's post is of a beetroot sketched against a watercolor sheet layered in beet juice. Such a vivid and simply gorgeous natural color makes me want to stay true to my roots !:)
Before I break into more un-bear-able puns, lemme leave you with today's illustration:) Two origami inspired explorations. Which one do you prefer?
Normally, I do not blog about books but this time I simply could not resist!:) Over a short trip out-of-town, I stumbled upon the most gorgeous book filled with large format highly detailed watercolors of animals by Walton Ford. On first glance, it is an irresistible production of rich, beautiful and utterly captivating images. A closer look reveals glorious animals with a murderous intent in Ford's world of splendidly savage birds and beasts. This book is worth every penny and more!
Earlier this week, I helped create a "Pin the Monkey's Tail" for the sweetest and happiest baby boy's first birthday bash. Just received this image from the party and looks like the kids had a wild time pinning everything from his eye to his most delicate behind:)
I introduce to you Bat-cat, bat-cow and bat-deer. Have you ever felt as if the world were upside down, and you needed to stand on your head to make sense of it all?:) Topsy Turvy World by William Brighty Rands
IF the butterfly courted the bee, And the owl the porcupine; If churches were built in the sea, And three times one was nine; If the pony rode his master, If the buttercups ate the cows, If the cats had the dire disaster To be worried, sir, by the mouse; If mamma, sir, sold the baby To a gypsy for half a crown; If a gentleman, sir, was a lady,— The world would be Upside-down! If any or all of these wonders Should ever come about, I should not consider them blunders, For I should be Inside-out!
"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."- Hans Christian Andersen
Last week I had gone to watch the "The Amazing Spiderman" with some friends. After sitting through forty minutes of avoidable trailers, the fire alarm in the theater went off and we were all asked to leave 10 minutes into the start of the movie. Of course, there was no re-entering the place...not even to use the restrooms! Today's illustration is of a city maze cause everyone, even Spiderman, needs to answer nature's call. Please help him get to the restroom in time.
"Sunrise, sunsetSunrise, sunset Swiftly flow the days Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset Swiftly fly the years One season following another Laden with happiness and tears"- Fiddler on the Roof
Below is a hand painted wax resist silk stole of the fiery forest sun cause I guess everything else in life can wait but the sunrise never will!:)
A friend recently asked me " Why are all your illustrations predominantly black and white with such excruciating detail?" I couldn't come up with a convincing answer. I did ponder about this later though and wonder if there is any truth to an article I came across in this search. Apparently, huge canvasses or papers filled with bright colors and bold strokes are usually associated with confident, expressive, extroverted individuals while detailed small pen strokes is more representative of a slightly reserved, introverted, contemplative nature. I suppose that this is a sweeping generalization but it does largely hold true in my case. Does anyone else believe in this theory? Based on your art/ painting how would you describe yourself?:) At a pub quiz my husband and I frequent with some friends, we were recently asked to fill in the blanks of Joyce Kilmer's poem-" I think that I shall never see... A poem as lovely as a --------." The correct answer ( which we obviously didn't get in time) was tree. Today's illustration is in memory of that quiz we miserably failed:)
After an action packed, fun weekend I now have so many new ideas racing through my head. Looking forward to all the new illustrations the week ahead brings!
The wittiest one will win a print of an illustration of choice from the blog (11x16"). Think. Write. Win. Receive. Gloat. Enjoy!
And finally its complete! A flock of 3D flapping birds now decorate our wall. This artwork is the culmination of my previous two posts.
"Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings."- Victor Hugo
Can you guess what's coming?
Excerpt from "Of being woven by Jalaluddin Rumi" "When ink joins with a pen, then the blank paper can say something. Rushes and reeds must be woven to be useful as a mat. If they weren't interlaced; the wind would blow them away. Like that, God paired up creatures, and gave them friendship."
"Do you think God gets stoned? I think so ... look at the platypus!" - Robin Williams When we need to name some animals, the platypus is probably not the first to strike anyone’s mind. Eighteenth century scientists didn’t believe platypuses existed even as they examined one. When a platypus skin arrived in England in 1798, biologists thought some prankster had sewn a duck's bill, a beaver's tail and four webbed feet onto a rabbit's body and that the entire animal was a hoax. Darwin even went on several exhibitions to hunt this creature so that he could study it. In his words, the platypus was "wonderful."
Platypuses are now regarded as the nearest thing biologists have to a missing link between the earliest reptiles and mammals. All this brings to mind an old joke about a zookeeper who wanted to order two of these animals but didn’t know how to express the plural form in his request. So he sent out a note which stated: “Please send me a platypus. And by the way, send me another.”
Kite Days by Tom Sawyer "A kite, a sky, and a good firm breeze, And acres of ground away from trees, And one hundred yards of clean, strong string- O boy, O boy! I call that spring!"
It's all about some colorful pops of Pantone love in my new home office space.
