MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM ARTicle
PREETHAM
GUNALAN
Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and music?
Hello! I am Preetham Gunalan. I am an
animator and illustrator, graduated from Srishti
institute of art, design and technology.
At this point in your career, what role did music have
to play in you getting to where you are?
Professionally, music is a constant source of inspiration.
Music stimulates imagination, right? And creates a
mood and feel. For animation especially, the flow of
music can really help you guide the flow of visuals.
Personally, I grew up feeling the hype of Anime soundtracks
or yelling out Linkin Park lyrics in my room, and then
developed an interest in Tamil music and local and
street performances and the stories they have to say.
No matter what music it is and who it is by, there is
always visuals and emotions that come to mind.
Tell us about your collaboration with Easy Wanderlings
from conception to creation and the end product.
Easy Wanderlings, Sailesh Gopalan (fellow artist
and Srishti alumni) and I began a collaboration to
produce the music video for 'My Place to You'.
Sanyanth Naroth (from the band) told us the inspiration
for the music and the kind of story he wanted to tell.
Then Sailesh and I, scripted and storyboarded a story
inspired by that, that taps into our mutual love for
fantasy, magic and grand breathtaking worlds.
So, towards the end of this collaboration, I began
working on the album art. In this case, it was a
continuation of that video and I was making sure
the album art captures the larger story and feel.
What are your thoughts on how other art apart from music is perceived in
our music scene? (Like visual arts, album arts, photographers and the likes)
I don't think I can truly speak for the
music scene, or the perception.
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I think it's a great time right now, because there is
a meaningful union of artists of all kinds under the
banner of 'storytellers'. I mean artists, musicians,
filmmakers, photographers, chefs and archivists, the
list goes on! So, in terms of perception, we have moved
on from appreciation and are truly understanding
and seeing the value in active collaboration.
I can only speak from my experience, but it's a
delight to talk art with musicians or those in the
field of music because it's a common language.
Whether we are talking about expression, or creative
vision, or the mood or emotion. I can relax knowing that
the other person understands exactly what I am talking
about. The artistic struggle, and thus connect, is universal.
Tell us a little bit about the process that is involved
in making a piece by Preetham.
Haha, there is a fair share of procrastination and confusion
in the beginning until the idea clicks and falls into place.
For that, it helps to listen to music, see what other artists
are doing (in any field), revisit your inspirations, discuss
with friends, and sometimes to just sit and do nothing, but
mostly, I just draw, and draw more, hoping eventually an
idea will come that just makes sense, and usually it does.
After that the process is fairly technical, of
just drawing and details and painting.
Sometimes I deliberately break this process and
draw directly with no expectations or idea, and the
whimsy that comes through is quite rewarding.
Tell us about your art style and the concepts behind your artworks.
I have to admit; my art style isn't very consciously developed
but just an accumulation of the styles of artists I was inspired
by and really wanted to draw like. Now it's a weird mix of all
these styles, but not as impressive as any of them.Some of
these artists are Jean Girault, Eiichiro Oda, Mike Mignola etc.