We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chandana Ramesh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chandana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have been into art and have loved to draw ever since I was a kid and I’ve been told that whenever I was given some paper and coloured pencils, I would be engaged for hours on end. Initially, it started off as just a fun hobby with me half joking around that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. It was around my late middle school or early high school years that I started to take art more seriously and started looking into ways that I could turn it into a career and the different options that were available to me in this field. My parents were really supportive of my interest in this area and that was around the time I received my first tablet and began to experiment with digital art/illustration and various drawing softwares. I have always been fond of animated films since I can remember as I loved that it was a medium that could convey so many stories and emotions in unique ways through just an image, but my passion for it solidified even more as I grew older and I knew I wanted to eventually work in the animation industry.

Chandana, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Chandana Ramesh and I’m a visual development artist. Growing up, I remember going to the theatre to watch every animated film that would come out and I have been fascinated by them ever since, which is where my love for creating backstories for characters and building worlds for them stems from. I would often draw characters inspired by stories or people I saw in real life and make up my own backstories of them. This eventually led me to look more into artists who were behind the storytelling, environment, and character designs in all the films I watched and I started to gain a deep appreciation for visual development and story. Animation is such a versatile medium and I love the idea that a series of drawings can covey such a plethora of emotions and stories.

Having spent most of my school years in India, my early childhood in Singapore, and college years in the US, I’ve always been surrounded by vastly different cultures. Hearing about stories and reading about folklore from various cultures and backgrounds has acted as a huge source of inspiration for me. This has also ignited a passion in me to share stories that are underrepresented, particularly those from my culture. When I start working on something new, I love to think about the elaborate and intricate world that the character comes from and how they fit within it. Colour and lighting are some things that I focus on a lot of my work and enjoy creating pieces that exude a feeling of warmth and ones that capture short, fleeting moments.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Something I had to unlearn was my perfectionist tendencies. While striving towards perfection can initially seem like it is allowing you to strengthen your work, I find that it can also have a negative impact as it leads to overthinking and being increasingly dissatisfied with the work you create. This can also lead to burnout which in turn can affect the quality of your work. Sometimes it’s great to just mindlessly doodle away without worrying about what the result may be. I would even say that at times, your best work comes when you just enjoy the process and go in without expecting the ‘perfect’ outcome.

Another thing I had to unlearn was feeling guilty about taking breaks from creating as it made me feel like I wasn’t constantly improving. It can feel exhausting to think of ideas all the time, so I think it’s important to take breaks from creating art and use it as a chance to pursue other hobbies you’ve been meaning to do. When I feel like I’m not advancing forward or frustrated with a project I’m working on, I often find that relaxing or doing one of my hobbies helps me return to my work with a more imaginative and fresh perspective.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is being able to see your work come to life after all the hard work. Being able to take a loose initial idea and then successfully be able to bring it to life as you envisioned is such a fulfilling feeling. Whether it’s personal work or professional work, I thoroughly enjoy the process from start to finish, but I must say that seeing the end result and how far an idea has come reminds you that all the work you put in was extremely worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chandanaramesh.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pistachi0milk/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandana-ramesh-29993a205/