The solitary confinement during the pandemic made us all go inwards and spend time with ourselves. A lot of creators emerged during that period diving into their forms of self-expression. While many artists have been creating since before the pandemic, others found their inspiration during those times. Altogether, there has been a revolution in the digital space of illustrators exploring their styles and themes that turned it into a culture. With different forms of visual art taking over the internet, we thought we'd curate a list of some Homegrown illustrators for you.

I. Mahnoor Ahmad

Mahnoor Ahmad is a Pakistani illustrator. She takes inspiration from her home country which is culturally colourful. The colours she comes across everyday are employed in her artwork which focuses on themes of women and the struggles they go through in their daily lives.

You can check out her art here.

II. Sanskar Sawant

Sanskar Sawant is a visual/art director. His illustrations are modern and quirky and he collaborates with fashion brands as well, some of them being Urban Monkey and Fila India. His graffiti can be found in the streets of Mumbai as Sanskar loves creating art in Public. His biggest project is probably ‘Hype in the City’, a larger than life arcade themed skatepark by Bombay SB, an urban skateboarding community and Bandra Collective.

You can follow his work here.

III. Undertooth

Undertooth is a moniker this artist goes by on Instagram. His work is a dense collage of monster-like imagery and out-of-this-world creatures. The artist also creates unusual portraits and personifies concepts like time and death in his work. Apart from illustrations Undertooth also works with paper and oil on canvas.

You can follow his art here.

IV. Preran Rai

Preran Rai is a visual artist who works with surrealism. He also turns his art into NFTs on Open Sea, a popular marketplace for NFTs and crypto collectibles. Preran's mission is to try to understand the cosmos in all its existence before it is lost forever, or rather he loses it. He describes his work as 'parasitic visuals from another realm'.

Check out his artworks here.

V. Manasi Patankar

Manasi Patankar is a surrealist and concept artist based in Mumbai. She has a soft spot for loud colours that match the fantasy worlds she likes to build, when she wants to escape the dull tones of a mundane life. Her practice revolves around her life experiences and socio-personal themes. She uses common objects whilst changing their functional qualities for shock value. Manasi is also a designer at Homegrown.

Follow her work here.

VI. Darshini Chetty

Based in Durban, South Africa, Darshini is a South Asian artist and illustrator. She has a degree in architecture although her passion lies in all realms of art- architecture, illustration, fashion and animation to name a few. Darshini, through her art, brings awareness to the issues that are close to her heart like South Asian representation and intersectional feminism.

You can follow her work here.

VII. Rhea Iyer

Rhea Iyer is a Mumbai-based artist. Her background lies in various genres of illustration, graphic design, creative writing, narrative and publication design. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from California Institute of the Arts with an emphasis in image and text. In her research and practise, Rhea has cultivated interests in the fields of grief, mythology, inheritance of feminine identity in South-Asian diaspora, eco-fiction and other varied consequences of the human condition.

Follow her work here.

VIII. Hanifa Abdul Hameed

Hanifa is a South Asian artist who just started putting out her artwork during the Pandemic. She was raised in the US and her work revolves around the South Asian diaspora especially Muslim women of colour. Her artwork contains themes of intersectional feminism, the shame involving a woman's life and cultural/political issues that women of colour go through in America.

Check out her work here.

IX. Srishti Guptaroy

Srishti is a visual artist and illustrator based in Bangalore. Her style is maximal, colourful, witty and playful with an undeniable focus on details and intricacies. The aritst worked extensively in the retail and e-commerce space in India for brands like Ajio, Myntra and Peter England with a strong focus on womenswear trends and prints before she turned into a full-time illustrator in 2019. Her artworks has been featured in Vogue India, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and other publications.

Follow her work here.

X. Manal Mirza

Born in the United States to Pakistani parents, Manal Mirza is a freelance UI/UX designer and illustrator based in Chicago. Fuelled by a desire to take control over the narrative and push boundaries, Manal’s bold work showcases strong Muslim women. A lot of her work is inspired by the tiny yet highly detailed paintings she found hanging in her uncle’s home in Pakistan, which flourished during the 16th to 18th centuries, when the Mughals ruled over an empire extending through India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Check out her artwork here.

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