WilderIndia- A journey through the animal world of India!

        About two years ago, I saw an post on a yahoo group that I am a member of, for a requirement of an illustration artist to work on some children's books. Now those of you who are regular readers here, will know that I am not an illustration artist and my media are oil paints and of course my beloved metal work, so I would be the last person to be considered for the job. But it sounded like an interesting idea especially since working with children is something that I truly love so I decided why not? So, I emailed the person and boy am I glad I did!

©'Wild States of India'  Pic ©Sinu Kumar
'Sekhroo' ( The Great Indian Malabar Squirrel)

        Sharmila the lady behind 'WilderIndia' was just starting out with her innovative concept of writing original stories with specially created characters based on the state animal from each of the28 states of India. We fixed up an appointment and met up and she told me she wanted me to work with her character 'Shekhroo' which happened to be the state animal of 'Maharashtra' .

         Now Shekhroo or The Great Indian Malabar Squirrel is no ordinary squirrel, I was astounded when I realized that these particular squirrels grow to a gigantic 3 feet!! (well gigantic for a squirrel at the very least!)

         Stunningly beautiful creatures that have a really long tail (which actually makes up most of the three feet length) and two tone fur, their dorsal bodies range from a deep maroon to a dark brown tone with and underbelly of light tan going to a deep gold. These adorable creatures call the 'Sahyadri' range of hills in the state of Maharashtra their home, residing on the tall trees in the forest surrounding the 'Bhimashankar' temple. Highly elusive, most often the only proof of their presence is sight of their messy 'ball of twigs' nest high up in the trees.

In the coming posts I shall be talking about the unique style in which I did the illustrations. Unique because, not only are the characters based on the state, but each book is illustrated in a different style and the set that I worked on has a folk art style unique to that particular state!

So read on in my next post I will be talking of the style of tribal painting called 'Warli' where the people and animals have a really special look !! Stay tuned!