Samar Khan reveals his love for cartoon characters, and how it has inspired his doodles inside the Delhi Metro.
While I take plenty of inspiration from popular culture, a lot of my characters are ideas that I have conjured up at that given moment, depending on the scene in front of me.
My Assignment
- Description
To shoot photographs in the Delhi metro and add mystical characters in the picture with his artwork.
- Duration
It’s an ongoing series that began on November 2016.
- Notes
The banality of everyday travel made interesting by surreal doodle characters.
While growing up, I was a big fan of Cartoon Network. In school, I would doodle a variety of characters, like Dexter, Pokemon, and other superheroes and villains. Eventually, when I started working, I had to commute everyday between Saket and Noida. With nothing to do, I decided to revive my hobby, and began doodling in the metro.
I also find a lot of ideas and inspiration from the Instagram page @subwaydoodle, where similar fictional characters make an appearance as well.
My Perspective
It began on a day when I forgot my earphones at home. Devoid of my only source of entertainment, I shot a photograph of the man sitting opposite me. Then I made a quick freehand doodle on the image and uploaded it on Instagram. It was very well received, and garnered a lot of attention, as I continued posting. I feel that my work is very relatable, as a lot of people identify the various spaces at the metro, irrespective of the city they’re in. So when they see the colourful characters set against the mundanity of the metro, it is not only suprising, but also humourous.
Editing softwares like Photoshop and After Effects, are extremely effective in bringing your ideas to life. The possibilities are limitless.
This image is a freeze frame from an animated video that I made over the weekend.
The Process
Each doodle takes about 2-3 hours to complete, depending on how intricate it is. In the span of a week, I create at least two doodles, and sometimes, over the weekend, I try to bring them to life through animation. While quite a few of the characters in the doodles are inspired from popular culture, the rest of them are figures that I have imagined. I begin by drawing a rough sketch, and then I continue to improve on it, till I am satisfied. The idea is to transform the dullest moments in the metro into stories that make people curious and happy.
My Equipment
I used a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for shooting the pictures. The animations were created on various softwares like Sketchbook, Artflow and Picsart on my phone itself.
How to Create Similar Doodles
- Finding Connections: I like to observe people and see how they interact with the elements around them. There are times when I shoot first and then develop my story around it. At other times, I make a picture to bring an idea to life.
- Keeping it Simple: You don’t have to invest a lot in editing tools or softwares. The best tool is the one that’s in your pocket—Your phone. All you need is a stylus.
- Less is More: A photograph, enhanced with a single interesting character can say a lot more than adding several characters or objects.
—As told to Vedika Singhania
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of Better Photography.
