Digital artist rediscovers the city with a goofy gorilla illustration

“The 100dayproject is a popular hashtag on Instagram. Artists taking on the challenge have to create 100 unique works over a period of time and I wanted to do my own version — that’s how I started #gorillagirlathon. I felt it was a good way to become consistent on social media. I had an Instagram account where I would post work on and off and a Facebook page for my art, but I never really utilised these properly. I wanted to reach  out to more people with my art and create work that reflected my artistic style and personality -- it had to be fun, light-hearted and very colourful, so I thought, why not do a whole bunch of illustrations showing a gorilla interacting with everyday things in Chennai,” she says.

Jemma has created the illustrations in such a way that the viewers could see the goofy gorilla in almost every relatable situation — the gorilla appears near a duo playing chess on a footpath or taking an evening stroll on the beach and stuffing its face with beach nibbles. “I created the gorilla character while studying at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. It was the main character of my animated short film called The Guest and I had spent a lot of time developing her design. So, I was already familiar with how to draw this gorilla and since I needed something simple that I could create a hundred times it felt like the best fit for the project,” says Jemma, who did the animation title sequence for the movie Vikram Vedha.

So, how did she develop the illustrations with the photographs? “Actually, I kept it quite random. I put together a folder of photos I had taken in Chennai and other places I had visited. The Chennai photos were of places I visited regularly — my neighbourhood and corners I found interesting. I haven’t included any major landmarks. I numbered the photos randomly, so, I didn’t know what photo I was working with until I opened it that day. No illustration was pre-planned, I let the photos inspire me. These illustrations were meant to be fun…like, imagine a gorilla eating ice cream in Besant Nagar. I had fun creating each illustration and I wanted the viewer to share my sense of fun as well. I wouldn’t have been able to do that had I planned everything beforehand. Also, this was one fun way of discovering the city, with the gorilla,” the animator shares.