Art Divine: Hindu Mythologies in Pop Art style illustrations by Sanjay Patel of Pixar Studio

Art Divine

Hindu Mythologies in Pop Art style illustrations by Sanjay Patel of Pixar Studio

If Pixar decides to make a movie based on Indian Mythologies, probably this is how people outside India   or people less familiar with Indian mythologies & Hindu religion will visualize the Indian God & Goddess.

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Vishnu, Ganesha, Kali, Shiva, Durga, Krishna, Surya, Laxmi, Buddha, Saraswati…  These are just some Hindu God & Goddess created by Sanjay Patel in his amazing style, based on Indian or  Hindu mythological characters http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/sanjay/index.html#

The impact of Animation movies, comic books is very strong among the kids & grown-ups alike. The audience for a well made animation movie or an interestingly designed comic book would be huge and hence they would have a bigger impact on the  awareness level of people and not the religious books which are actually restricted to a very specific set of people. The new-age tools of entertaining & engagement have the power to bring together people from across the world cutting across religious & geographical boundaries.

Stumbled upon a blog (http://www.chethstudios.net/2011/02/gorgeous-illustrations-of-hindu-gods-by.html) and saw interesting pop art version illustration of Indian Gods/ Goddess  by Sanjay Patel.

Sanjay Patel is an animator & storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios (http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/sanjay/index.html#), where he has worked on features that include Monsters, Inc., A Bugs Life; Toy Story 2; and The Incredibles. He has also worked on The Simpsons for Fox & with legendary cartoonist John K., creator of Ren and Stimpy. His website (http://www.gheehappy.com/ ) gives more detail about his three books published so far.

All three are available at Flipkart (http://www.flipkart.com/little-book-hindu-deities-0452287758/p/itmczz95zgdfavy6?pid=9780452287754&_l=rNOfRA_2s1pRNn46QI4BxA–&_r=9jMjam7Xhti4cD_DQauQzw–&ref=4569454c-bd7f-4dc9-aa64-b838fb07bd4d as well as  at Amazon and other online shopping portals.

 

The illustration are truly stunning, I got the books from Flipkart &  not just me & wife, but our young kids as well as their Grandpa (who is an artist himself) just loved the breathtakingly beautiful illustration.

• Illustrations from Sanjay Patel’s book ‘The Little Book of Hindu Deities‘

• Ramayana: Divine Loophole

Every Night, we read out  different stories to our kids before they go to sleep. We were able to completed this version of Ramayana in just a week, one chapter a night! They loved it so much, looking at the illustration for a long time and discussion each and every detail from it. Reading the book with the illustrations was like watching a movie on Ramayana.

Kabir & Meera recognize the character as they are so nicely illustrated with finer details by Sanjay & they could easily related the pictures with the story. It also helped them in remember this remarkable Epic story, which is such an integral part of Indian culture. It is after all our history, for others it may be just a story or mythology.

Call it mythology or religious story, kids just love Ramayana & the character depicted in such a unique style by Sanjay. 

Sita looks such a lovely combination of beauty & grace. Always smiling face of Hanuman (the most favorite god-cum-action hero for my son Kabir) and the other positive characters in the book. The use of different eye color to depict Good Vs Evil. Attention to detail to the character and the surrounding environment brings alive all the action.

• Illustrations from Sanjay Patel’s book ‘The Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities’

Related articles

• Once upon a goddess (rakstagemom.wordpress.com)
• The Art of Sanjay Patel (demonstrate.wordpress.com)
• The art of Sanjay Patel (cloudandmountain.com)
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• Pixar Summer Movie Art: ‘Brave,’ ‘Toy Story’ and More Take Over ‘Magic Mike,’ ‘Dark Knight’ (PHOTOS) (news.moviefone.com)
• Pixar animates the Hindu Pantheon (fernexpress.wordpress.com)
• Cafe Where Pixar Came Up With ‘A Bug’s Life,’ ‘Monsters, Inc.,’ ‘Finding Nemo,’ and ‘WALL-E’ Shuts Down (pixartimes.com)
• Brave Director Talks About the Pixar Process (wired.com)