Neha Sharma takes an artistic approach to mundane objects to create an uncanny graphic strip. By Jigyasu Joshi'
Drawing lines for a living, Neha Sharma is a Delhi girl with big dreams and a courageous mind. She is quirky and has a quick sense of humour, which is evident through her doodles on her photo-sharing handle. Her illustrations are no less than a desi dream — vibrant, kitschy and lively. “I was pursuing Chartered Accountancy before I realised that my interest lay in illustration and designing. Although I was always a doodler, I never really thought that one could make a career out of it. So I began with scribbling and scrawling at the back of my notebooks during boring lectures. later, I started posting them on Instagram. That’s when one of my “Honey Singh” doodles got viral and was published by a newspaper,” says she.
That was the first paid project which she was assigned though it paid her enough to buy a Starbucks coffee, she adds. “You could say Honey Singh led me to realise what my dream job was,” chuckles Neha.
Defining her style of doodling, she says that one can either love her work or hate it. It’s clear black or white for her, there is no grey shade to her art. “My style is very colourful and loud. You’ll either love it or hate it. Other than that I feel my style is always evolving. I don’t have a specific and set way of doing things. To be honest I use anything and everything I can lay my hands on. But my absolute favourites are alcohol markers and specifically copic and touch markers,” she explains.
Even after earning an early recognition for herself, Neha still encounters people who do not consider doodling a profession. “Twice every year, we have a family get-together at my house. Till date they do not take me seriously when I tell them I’m a professional doodler. People are like ‘yeah whatever,’” says Neha. However, this doesn’t affect her at all. “It is totally fine with me since I cross them off my Diwali gifting list.”
Neha wants to clarify one misconception that shadows her profession. “People believe that it cannot be a full-fledged means of a living — they treat doodling like a hobby which cannot be the founding base of a career option. Honestly, lesser competition in the field works tremendously in my favour,” she shares.
Neha has been following an artist called littleMissPaintbrush, whose works have inspired her to forge her own grammar and take up illustration as a career. “Other than that I follow the works of lunarBoon, OwlTurd, The Awkward Yeti, Garbage Bin and C&H religiously.”
She believes that an artist should find his/her own style and not even unconsciously imitate their mentors and masters. “Most beginners start by following the style of their favourite artists which is understandable as long as it is just a short-term practice. The real journey begins only when one realises his/her unique sense of style,” concludes the self-taught illustrator.