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

Alright, Raman thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I am a full-time independent artist earning my livelihood by painting murals, creating book illustrations, selling fine art paintings, creating commissioned portraits, airbrush art, logo designs, animations et al. I have been in this profession since last 20 years.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born in Chandigarh, a city in India, and was always interested in drawing as a child. As I grew up, I did a Bachelor of Fine Art and a master’s in history of art degrees. My parents always supported and encouraged me to be an artist, which is not easily appreciated in the society as many people still see it as a hobby.’ But I believed in myself as much as my parents in me. While I was still in the college, I won a national award for illustrating a children’s book in New Delhi, India, so that boosted my confidence much in my art and later even helped me come to the US as a professional artist.

I started my career as a newspaper illustrator in a leading English daily (The Indian Express) and continued to create urban life illustrations for a decade. Those illustrations made me famous in a couple of northern states in India, and people connected with my illustrations. Besides this, I was working on my fine art side creating paintings and holding solo shows, and participating in group shows. After a decade, I left my nice job (Chief Designer at the Times of India) to become an independent commercial artist. It was 2010, internet was opening ways for people to connect and work globally when I became self-employed and started creating illustrations, animations, and designs for various clients all over the globe.

The fine art paintings continued, and by that time, I have had some solo shows in various cities of India and one in Norway as well. In 2018, I moved to Greensboro, NC as a self-employed artist working with my clients located in various states in America.

I noticed the culture of street art here, and I felt a strong urge to do it. In the part of India where I come from, streetart was not such a thing. Anyway, I started painting murals soon, and it exploded in 2019 for me as I started working with Kotis Street Art in Greensboro who have several buildings like the Red Cinemas, Lakeside restaurant, and Shopping Center at the Lees Chapel St. As more and more people started seeing my murals popping up in the city, they would reach out to commission me murals, and I started painting murals in the Triad area which includes cities of Greensboro, Winston Salem, and High Point. I was getting noticed and was interviewed in leading magazines and several times on various TV news channels like Spectrum, Fox TV, WFMY and WXii news.

Murals became my major occupation, though I continued illustrating children’s books and creating a lot of Fine art paintings. I have been exhibiting my artwork at local galleries, bars and selling art through social media. But it all took some time to gain a momentum.

I have painted over 50 murals by now for various clients, including the City of Greensboro, Red Cinemas, the Charlotte Hornets, Junior Achievements in Charlotte.

I work in various styles which helps me provide different solutions for my clients in various techniques, media and styles.
I am good at photorealism as well as other styles, something that has always helped me as a commercial artist since I can switch hats easily for any kind of client requirements. I started painting murals with oils and acrylics as those were the only medium I knew at that time besides airbrushing. But soon, I picked up the spray paint cans and self-taught myself quickly to stay abreast in the field.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I started my career as a newspaper illustrator in India which required a fast output and a deep study of urban characters and their problems and issues. Being an observant person helped me constantly study people around me, on the street and in the city.

However, after a decade the popularity of print media declined and new modes of communications i.e., websites started becoming popular for which I had to update my skills and learnt digital art and animation, started illustrating and animating for websites and blogs. That helped me do well in the business. Learning new digital techniques opened new channels of income for me and I started creating animations, editorial illustrations and connected to many clients outside my country. When I started my career I was painting illustrations with pen and ink. But soon digital illustrations became popular and I had to adapt myself to learn what was relevant globally i.e. learn vector illustrations and Adobe photoshop and Maya.

I started offering 3D illustration and explainer video animation services. The goal was to keep earning through my art and not sit back idle. I was still creating fine art paintings via traditional media which helped me have additional income to support myself as an artist. Being a commercial artist sharpened my sensibilities to adapt, learn and update my aesthetics and approach towards visuals. When I moved to USA I started painting murals which was a totally new field for me. I had to put my fears aside and learn new spray painting methods and learn new methods of scaling my art to very large scale. I had to learn using lifts and get on scaffolds and ladders to create these large scale murals. It is a physically challenging task and for many years I have been only working on a desk creating digital art or small canvas paintings inside my comfortable studio. Painting large murals outside in various weather conditions, amidst public eye was a challenging task.

But I knew I had to do this to sustain my career and expand my income and once again I apapted to the new professional demands to which I proved my mettle by becoming a successful muralist besides being an illustrator and a fine artist.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The society can support artists and creatives by commissioning artworks for various needs. I think people should try to support local artists rather than buying mass produced cheap printed art. Buying original art not only supports the artist but also makes the buyer own a unique handcrafted piece, and increases awareness among the next generation about the value of humanmade hand crafted artworks.

Another practice that people should shun is asking for spec work or free work from artists and respect their craft and time. Corporates, Government bodies should think of involving artists in decorating their buildings.

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