Illustrations for Childhood Week 2023

•

Childhood week is an art event conducted by Beatrice Blue every summer which aims to bring our best childhood memories to life through art and cherish them. This is my second year of taking part in this event and here are my illustrations for each day's prompt.

Day 1 : "Precious"

This illustration was inspired from my childhood memory of listening to stories from my Grandpa. The story time involved long hours of narration of short stories from the Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata which I loved listening to in his modulated voice. These moments were really precious to me and I have tried to illustrate one such scene from my childhood through this prompt.

Day 2 : "Mask"

I loved the 'art and craft' classes I had at school. I sometimes would enthusiastically take it a notch higher by trying my own DIYs at home. One such crafty time that I remember from my childhood was making masks out of colored paper with various embellishments. I remember making a tribal themed mask and a tiger mask during one such session. I have tried to capture that memory through this prompt.

Day 3 : "Colors"

If you are from India, then your first thought as soon as you listen to the word 'colors' would be the festival of Holi. Holi is a festival of colors that is celebrated by applying colors to family and friends and enjoying great food to celebrate friendship, love and mostly to let go of any resentment that one might have had with another by applying colors. I love a memory of this festival from my childhood where for the first time I got to play with water colors and I have captured the excitement and fun I had with that experience here.

Day 4 : "Birthday"

Needless to say this was one of my earliest memories of having celebrated my birthday with my family and a large bunch of friends. I remember every detail of that celebration even today and this prompt was a great opportunity for me to bring forth that cherished memory with every possible detail that I can recall through this illustration.

Day 5 : "Tower"

This illustration has a funny story behind it. As a kid, I had invented this weird but fun game where I would take all the pillows in the house and stack 'em up on the bed and try to hop on top if it. The wobble would finally end up in crumbling of the soft pillow tower with me plopping on the bed. I used to really enjoy this game as a kid and with this prompt I could recall this fond memory of the game.

Day 6 : "Dark"

Who wouldn't remember the nightmares one had as a kid. This prompt challenged me as I had to turn a scary memory to look good and cute through my illustration. I pondered over the ways I could show and talk about creatures in my nightmare and finally came up with this concept for the prompt.