I was commissioned by Netflix India in association with Niti Aayog to create portraits of 6 inspiring women and their stories of empowerment prior to the worldwide release of Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl on Netflix. The artworks were shared to Netflix India's social channels via Instagram story format.
According to the brief, the illustrations were to capture the essence of these women, their struggles and the sheer strength and willpower they had to tackle anything that came their way. The first step was to research each of the women in order to collect visual data and elements which would then be visualised and collated into each artwork. I established a common layout for the series, highlighting the portrait of the woman surrounded by the work she's associated with.
The layout options were made keeping in mind the dimensions, viewing habits and viewing size of the artworks on Instagram stories.
Option 1 was chosen and the same layout was to be applied to the remaining 5 artworks.
After the final sketches were approved, I worked on establishing a colour palette that could commonly run across all the artworks. The colours used although subtle in application, were striking and attractive and a balanced mix of a warm and cool palette.
The creative brief was to maintain a raw, realistic look and feel throughout. I decided then to go with a rough pencil stroke for the final inking of all the portraits. This complimented the soft, layered application of colour and gave each artwork a sense of harmony despite being heavily detailed.
Final portraits shared to Netflix social channels.
