In the age of technology, digital art and its creators are making a surefire stronghold in the art community. One such creator, Naina Hussain, a brilliant illustrator and the co-founder of Turn Up PR, is making waves all over town. Armed with a mighty iPad and a stylus, this illustrator does not require a traditional studio space for her art, but rather has the freedom to work from anywhere, anytime. Naina divides her time as the co-founder of her public relations venture, as a director at Robin Printing and Packages Ltd, and as an illustrator on Instagram as @bynainah.
‘Art does not always have to be on a canvas’
is an epiphany Naina had when her art teacher at school would make them draw to music. That activity made her realize that art is entirely subjective, you draw what you feel, what you think and see. Naina never considered pursuing art as a career as she studied economics at Emory University. She always intended to keep her art as a hobby. Naina, when she first started delving into the digital art world, would try to draw on her computer using the mouse and wondered why her lines were not straight!
It wasn’t until she was in college that she came to know about the drawing tablet Wacom, which her parents had gifted for her birthday.
Naina started off with doing fashion illustrations and during one Lakme Fashion Week, she decided to recreate some of the designs in her own style and upload them to Instagram and tagged the designers, the Lakme Fashion Week official Instagram account and all the relevant entities. And within two days Naina started getting inquiries about her artwork, which gave her the boost of confidence to pursue this line. The kind of artwork she produces now as to when she first started out is clearly telling the story of her artistic growth and journey. Initially, her artworks were mostly layered works, with one layer for the skin, one for clothes and two for highlights and shadows respectively. Now, Naina likes to incorporate more sketching in her drawings which gives them more depth and character. Her usage of a neutral colour palette and pastels have almost become like a signature. Naina was greatly inspired by the refinery29 style of pop culture, relating artwork with the story.
Naina’s artworks are very popular among couples getting married, who wish to commemorate their nuptials by immortalizing themselves in art. From portraits to wedding invitations, her entrance into the wedding industry has left a mark. She wishes to expand this line towards personalized stationery someday. She ponders frequently where her artwork will take her, a stationary line is probably in the pipeline, born of a childhood hobby of collecting stationary. Naina still wishes for this line of work to be more of a hobby and have fun with it.
