Illustrator Nipen Bhuyan expresses his love for cute illustrations. He takes us through his personal journey as an artist and the approach he chooses along the way.

“I just liked drawing things around me,” says Nipen Bhuyan, leading to how his tryst with cute illustrations began. Professionally, he started illustrating only while interning with a creative studio. In doing so, he began to like what he was doing. Interactions and feedback from clients, along with inputs from colleagues, ultimately led to his growth.

Belonging to Arunachal Pradesh, Nipen has always been surrounded by natural scenic beauty. Constantly observing his surroundings has majorly influenced his art and sensibility. “I try to depict everything in the simplest way possible,” the illustrator points out.

Working mainly on Photoshop, Nipen is equally comfortable working on Illustrator and has an affinity for depicting cute illustrations through emotions, whether it’s happiness or sadness.

Meanwhile, there have been quite a few interesting projects to his name – recently, for a book on the holocaust. The subject was grim and he had to do some research on it, too, but the client found the outcome satisfactory.

On the contrary, the brief for the sticker project for Hike was very simple. Being given the creative freedom to work, as also relevant feedback, was an encouraging sign. “The inputs from the creative team at Hike always helped improve the final outcome,” he asserts.

Speaking about maintaining a balance between his own personal cute illustrations apart from commissioned work, Nipen says, “I constantly strive to improve my personal work. Between all the commissioned work, I do take out time to sketch and create something that inspires me. I don’t make any specific effort to commercialise them. If, however, someone likes a particular artwork, I quote an amount.

Coming to his pick of clients, the artist reveals, “There are no best qualities. Some of the clients are always positive and happy with whatever you do and that is, of course, a very pleasant experience.

Some who are slightly critical or like giving their inputs are also fine. I do like to let them know if I disagree with an edit and, more often than not, they go along with my advice.”

Finally, his two cents for new illustrators out there? “You have to be open to criticism or feedback. There is always room for improvement, so be flexible. If your work is good, good projects follow.”