The Uncommon Box believes in encouraging the spirit of the artistes in whatever way they choose to express themselves.
It affirms that “Creativity is the way of connecting your soul to the world and is more than just being different”.
The Uncommon box is happy to be around such immensely talented artistes. The C3 Community project mainly focuses on the Collaborate, Create and Communicate theme among the artiste community. Meet our C3 Collaborators Nikkhath Thouseef (Nikki), an instrumentation engineer turned doodle-artist, from Muscat, Oman; and Meghna Bhattacharya, post graduate student from Kolkata.
The Uncommon Box gave her a challenge to recreate some of the national symbols of India in her Uncommon way and this is what she came up with – an absolutely stunning array oy symbolic doodles.
She has also explained her thoughts while creating each doodle specifically for the C3 project of The Uncommon Box, which Meghna has beautifully developed the content for.
So let us enter Doodle Heaven!
National Heritage animal of India – Indian Elephant
This was my first attempt to incorporate my style of art details into an animal. All I kept in mind was that the elephant should have a rich detail and look bold and powerful, as it was meant to symbolize Indian heritage and its grandeur. So I altered my style of doodling to flow along with the shape of the elephant. I included jewel like elements and flowers, as there is a tradition of decorating elephants with flowers and jewellery.
National Aquatic Animal of India – The Dolphin
For an artist, the first image that comes to the mind when we think of a particular subject forms the basis for our work. So when I picked dolphin, the national Aquatic animal of India, the first thing that struck me, was that anybody who sees a dolphin is happy. It’s instantaneous.
“When we imagine a dolphin, we feel it’s happy, positive and stress-relieving.”
So those made me include the sun, the clouds and the water, to show a dolphin taking a jump. The doodling pattern used in the dolphin is similar to that of the elephant, but with added elements of nature to complement it, to show the rich ecosystems prevalent in our country.
National Currency of India – Indian Rupee
Coming to the rupee symbol, we have recently had a new and prominent symbol for the currency, so I kept it simple and straight forward, with just a money bag, like in olden days, how people carried money. So if that were to have a label, then it would carry the rupee symbol. Just plain zentangle art on a sack of money; I used negative designing technique to highlight the symbol.
National flower of India – Indian Lotus
“With the lotus, I wanted to symbolize peace and tranquillity.”
As our country is known for meditation therapy for spiritual and mental well being, I wanted the audience to perceive the idea of peace and tranquillity through the Indian lotus, that’s why I intended to make it look simple and elongated, more like a logo, like something to reflect on, to calm our mind and relax.
National bird of India – Indian Peacock
The peacock is very different compared to my previous work. I wanted to show a single Majestic peacock. The main attraction of the national bird is its unique, long and prominent feathers. I wanted my art to highlight that. This art was done on A3 paper, and took the longest time compared to the rest. I did a lot of shading work in the feathers to show the beautiful flow of the feathers that would strike us if we were to see a real image of a peacock. Hope I have done justice to this beautiful, majestic bird.
When Passion and Purpose meet, some wonderful art is created, much like what we see here.The artiste has not only expressed her thoughts and emotions through her art but also displayed her understanding of the concept of nationality, and our rich culture and heritage.
The Uncommon Box combined the skills of these two artistes and created one more incredible project as a part of its C3 community initiative.
About our collaborators:
Nikkhath’s journey to her passion started 9 months ago when she found herself blank and lost. Art was the only way of bringing her back to life, a way of expressing herself. She’d like to teach young students who are interested, to get started with doodle-art. Her blog would also provide tutorial videos and also downloadable colouring pages for colouring page enthusiasts.
You can also follow her at various social medias:
Instagram | Facebook page | Red Bubble Shop
Meghna Bhattacharya : The writer Meghna Bhattacharya is from Kolkata, presently completing her Masters in English. She likes reading, watching movies and exploring new places. She says, ‘For me writing is empowering, a way of expressing my thoughts and emotions and not just because it’s fun to get into that creative vein but also be amazed by the richness of it.’
You can find her on : Instagram
Do you wish to collaborate with other artistes a similar journey to share? Write into us at theuncommonbox@gmail.com mentioning C3 COMMUNITY PROJECT in the subject line. You can also use the submission portal on our website www.theuncommmonbox.com
We encourage all kind of talented piece of work whether it’s a writeup’s, articles, poems, sketches, doodling, painting, food styling or about fashion or travelling or photography.
If you are on instagram follow us @TheUncommonBox and use our hashtag #TheUncommonBox for the same.
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