I get inspired by my day to day activities and everything around me. Washing utensils and swatting mosquitoes give me way more ideas than looking at Pinterest or Instagram.
1. Tell us more about your background and journey.
I was passionate about drawing and painting when I was a kid but never really thought about making it my career. So, I took the safer path and did bachelors in Instrumentation & Control engineering. Even though I was good at studies but I never really cared about control systems and transducers.
I finally finished engineering and got selected in the National Institute of Design (NID) for my masters in graphic design. I was happy because I felt I was a bit closer to what I always wanted to do.
Being at NID makes you question yourself and your existence and that was the moment when Beaku came to life again. (Yes, I said again because when I was a kid my sister used to draw Beaku just for fun). I have always been a person full of weird ideas and Beaku gave me a chance to communicate my ideas to a larger audience.
2. When did you decide you wanted to be an Illustrator?
I was surrounded by so many great illustrators in my college and I don’t feel like I fit in the illustrator category. So, I don’t call myself an illustrator. I actually don’t care how my comics look visually unless and until the story is being communicated. (Being a visual designer I shouldn’t be saying this though :p )
I think of myself as more of a storyteller and I always was one. It's just that I started telling my stories to the world through Beaktales in 2017 when I was all alone in Mumbai during Diwali and had no one to talk to.
3. Is it a financially stable career?
I am currently working as a full-time UX designer for a company and make Beaktales just as a hobby. When it comes to freelancing, I guess it can be a financially stable career for someone who has good networking skills, time management skills, multi-tasking skills, marketing skills and illustrating skills.
There are illustrators who work for big companies and earn well but the competition is really high as far as I understand. Also, I feel I am not the right person to answer this question since I haven’t explored it as a career yet.
4. Who is your favourite illustrator and why?
As mentioned before I don’t follow illustrators. I follow comic accounts and in that my favourite is Poorly drawn lines and Nathan Pyle. I like them because they are so different from anything which I see on the internet.
5. Where do you get inspired from to create art?
I get inspired by my day to day activities and everything around me. Washing utensils and swatting mosquitoes give me way more ideas than looking at Pinterest or Instagram.
6. What does your typical day look like?
I like doing everything on my own and that results in a crazy schedule. I usually wake up, exercise, finish some house chores, get ready and make breakfast. Then I start my office work (which means a lot of meetings and designing work) which ends in 7-8 hours. In between I also make lunch. After office, I make a post or a reel every day and respond to my followers.
7. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring illustrators?
Draw every day. Consistency is the key. You will be surprised how far you have come in a year or two if you are consistent.
8. Which is your favourite book and why?
I like non-fiction books. I don’t have any favourites as such but I found a book called ‘5am club’ by Robin Sharma and I tried following it. I realised waking up at 5 am is a little extreme for me and I only followed it for 2-3 months but I have definitely become more disciplined and productive after those 3 months.
Beaku
Brief Bio:
Hello, I am Vartika. I am a user experience and visual designer and I have an Instagram page called ‘Beaktales’ where I make comics based on a character 'Beaku'. I am from Jamshedpur and I am currently living in Delhi.
Interviewed by - Vanshika Jain
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