Each illustration or work of design is a new process and a new insight. From the wide variety of design work that Creative Gaga feature each year, at the end of the year we take a moment to acknowledge all of them by highlighting top 10 featured Illustrators of 2017. Here we go.

1. Nithin Rao Kumblekar

Nithin Rao Kumblekar is not only an illustrator but also an Art Director and Concept Artist who has illustrated for and brands such as OLX, Century Ply, and the likes, apart from having worked on a vast range of projects. In this assignment, conceived and executed for AVP, a pet food company catering to the likes of household dogs and cats. He represents a direct connection between these adored domestic companions and their very beloved treats, thus portraying the animals directly interacting with AVP in a fun, colourful and real-like animated setting.

More Project Illustrations are here

Featured Article:

– Light and Witty View Of The Days Ahead

– How illustrations are finding their place in Indian advertising

– Magic Sparkle of Colours on the Cover!

2. Mukesh Singh

Khyber Nights is a life-like and realistic story of survival, love and loss. Based on the unruly frontier surrounding the Khyber Pass during the Soviet war with Afghanistan in the late 80’s. This cover art for the intense tale was created by Marvel artist, Mukesh Singh, in an effort to summarise a gripping narrative that is about sisterhood and brotherhood winning over the politics of war. Using a strong sense of lighting and character expressions, he does indeed capture the tale in the frame.

Mukesh’s more illustrations are here

Featured Article:

– The Mahabharata, Illustrated in a Whole New Light

3. Lavanya Naidu

A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Lavanya Naidu is an Animator and Illustrator. Her style of work is a representation and expression of focusing on producing work that is personally challenging and cherished, rather than just going about creating ‘what is required as per the brief’. She uses a very fun and lively colour scheme that is both vibrant and subtle, very much like the characters, environments, settings, and characters she chooses to portray.

Featured Article:

– Induce Happiness with Your Work!

4. Bhaskar Rac

Bhaskar Rac is a self-employed Concept and 3D artist. A graduate of Delhi College of Art (Applied Art), he works extensively in character development, 3D sculpting, and the likes. As someone who trusts in honing one’s own style, instead of trying to imitate fashionable cult or style, nurturing and developing refreshing ideas is his primary intention. Here, he simply starts off with initial sketches, further gathering all the related references, structuring, line drawings and then rendering. Likewise, he finds a balance between minimalism and amplification through colours, emotions, lines, contours and the likes in order to capture the main essence of the subject.

Featured Article:

– Having no Style Can be Your Own Style

5. Anna Dittmann

Graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Anna Dittmann is a freelance digital illustrator who tries to evoke different emotions through her portraits. Here, using subtle facets with natural fundamentals, she manages to capture the emotions of the viewer, thus mainly tapping into and drawing their attention to it. Gaining insight and motivation from movement and raw shapes by blending nonfigurative conceptual and innate elements, she created this soothing piece through an amalgamation of fictional and realistic elements. Using pastels, watercolours, and oils here, she tries to capture an impulsiveness in the artwork.

Featured Article:

– A Journey to the Enchanting Natural Portraits

6. Omar Gilani

From Peshawar, Pakistan, Omar Gilani is a Double-Masters in Robotics from Washington DC and has an eye for discovering the modern in the ancient, something that is purely a matter of enhanced or evolved vision. And, so, his desire to renew the old and transform what is considered obsolete or irrelevant into the opposition stems from his work, ‘Desret Warrior Aunty’. He predominantly uses lighting to determine the initial composition of a piece. Importantly, dividing the canvas into simple black and white shapes to see if all the various aspects are harmonious helps him achieve the final piece which is full of colour and life-like vibrancy.

Featured Article:

– Time Machine: Going into Ancient Future

7. Siddhi Ranade

With a Commercial Arts from L. S. Raheja School of Arts, Mumbai, Siddhi Ranade trusts that geometry, colour and the subject are crucial features. As someone who feels that design needs to be time relevant in constantly modifying times, he pays attention to every tool that he uses in the making of his work. Over here, for example, geometry, pattern, and proportion in symmetry are not just advantageous but the very fundamentals. ‘Line’, for example, is the primary factor to achieve without any compromise. Colours finally add a mood to it in a more theatrical and impressive way that further dictates or overpowers the final piece.

Featured Article:

– Learn The Art of Tale-telling with Siddhi Ranade

8. Juan Casini

Juan Casini is a designer of multiple disciplines who experiments and works through various mediums. He trusts that ‘nature is art in its purest form’, and thus takes a lot of inspiration from it, thereby representing elements of nature through a lot of his designs. For example, over here, he tries to create a powerful and stimulating experience for the audience. In an effort to keep the level of expression rather intense, he goes on to add multiple layers of detail while experimenting with the colour palette. What that helps him achieve is that, no matter what the product is about, the eyes of the viewer can be positively held by the artwork.

Featured Article:

– Living the Nomad life

9. Rohan Dahotre

Rohan Dahotre is an illustrator who feels strongly about nature and gains inspiration from the beauty of it. The core of his work lies in making the complexities of nature simple – for example, turning complex organic forms into simple shapes. Experimenting with pictures from the wild – mainly animals – and giving them a new visual representation and overall look, he tries to display the real beauty that resides within the amazing bounty of forest animals, all so that people learn to appreciate and better treat and respect them and their habitat.

Featured Article:

– Enhancing magnificence of the natural world!

10. Ranganath Krishnamani

Ranganath Krishnamani is a designer specialising in Illustration, User Experience and Art Direction. This piece of artwork is a personal or self-initiated project through which he finds connection with his own origin in the south Indian city of Bangalore in Karnataka, India. Through the means of this series, he intends to portray some of the most interesting and intriguing selling-carts from across the Indian subcontinent. The basic idea stems from his nostalgic memories of him running out onto the street upon recognising the arrival of assorted carts and their bearings, something commonly found through most of India.

Featured Article:

– The Thelas, a Nostalgic interpretation of Indian market’s lifeline