MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM ARTicle
PRADYUMNA
PANNIKER
Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and
music?
Hi, my name is Pradyumna Panikker. I'm a designer and
illustrator currently working as a 3D-Environment Artist in
Bangalore. I come from a family of artists and musicians so
I've been scribbling ever since I noticed how clean the walls
of my living room were. My taste in music is something that
has evolved over the years, having started with listening to
the greats such as Floyd, the Stones, the Cure, Bob Dylan etc.,
moving on to discovering metal for the first time and finally
Jazz, which is something that's now part of my everyday life.
At this point in your career, what role did music have to play in
you getting to where you are?
Personally, even when I was young(er), music has been part of
my everyday life. It's something that's always in the backdrop
even when I'm working. Jazz in particular has been a genre of
music that has shaped the kind of art I do which takes a lot of
inspiration from the psychedelia of Jazz.
Tell us about your collaboration with Trash Talk from conception to
creation and the end product.
I've known Malik for about 2 years now and ever since I heard
"Revenge of Meenakshi", I've been meaning to collaborate with
him and the band. So when I heard that the guys were working
on a new EP, I jumped at the opportunity. The brief was that
the songs of the EP were going to be named after 4 species of
birds, so my first idea was to make a grotesque, gory piece of
a bird (well, a rooster to be more specific). But during one of
our many discussions, it was suggested by the band that they
were looking for something more minimalistic and subtler.
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After a little research, looking at the work of various artists
for inspiration, I stumbled on the plague doctors i.e medical
physicians who treated the sick during the Bubonic plague
and was greatly inspired by the design of their masks which
resembled bird beaks. I was blown away by how sinister they
looked and designed the 4 entities (the 4th one is hidden) based
on their aesthetics. Also, the entire piece is a 3D composition
which is the most comfortable platform for me to create art.
As for the colour palette, I took a lot of inspiration from the
palettes of the Suprematist movement, adding a sense of
intensity and tension to the piece. Personally, my goal was to
create something sinister and ominous.
Tell us a little bit about the process that is involved in making a
piece by yourself.
So, the first thing I do is collect references. I spend a couple
of mins to hours (depending on the complexity of the project)
browsing the net, studying art, artists or real-life examples
depending on the subject. I then make a mood board of all
these selected references as a foundation and something to fall
back on should I lose my way during the design process. Once
I have my references for the mood, the colour palette etc., I
begin making mockups which are usually rough line drawings
on my sketch book, that solidify the ideas in my head. I spend
a little more time reiterating the design and once that's done,
I migrate the sketch on to a 2D or 3D platform on which I start
production. The production phase usually takes the most
amount of time and work as I often go back and forth with the
design, experimenting with various components such as the
colour, the lighting etc.