Sudeepti Tucker’s art demands your attention. It’s vivid, vibrant, and impossible to ignore.
Whether illustrations of mythical monsters or her P R O W L series, featuring vivacious and wild women, each piece created by this artist from Delhi packs a powerful visual punch. Each also seems to suggest a moment from an untold story, prompting viewers to ruminate about and create their own narrative about the piece. But their impact goes beyond aesthetic, Sudeepti uses her art to express, explore, and question ideas about identity.
Read our exclusive interview with Sudeepti below:
1) Let’s start at the beginning: what got you into illustration/art?
I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. It is surely thanks to my parents’ interest in the arts that I found encouragement early on to pursue it.
2) What is the most important aspect for you when you draw a new piece? What is the one thing you care about, the most?
It is important to me that there is emotive value to the piece that is the only time people truly respond with something more than a like. When an idea resonates with you at a personal level more likely than not it resonates with others too. We are all moved by the same things.
3) Who or what are your main sources of inspiration? Clearly, nature plays a big part in your artwork. Flowers, fruits, and wild animals are regular features in your portfolio.
Colours in nature amaze me. So many of them work together seamlessly. I have been exploring different palettes.
Usually there’s a theme I find fascinating and decide to run with. Plants, animals, people, feelings, moods are ideas that recur – they never get old.
4) Women feature often in your work as well. What themes do you like to explore by illustrating them?
We forget how it wasn’t so long ago things worked very differently for women. Now we are in a place that we can identify as powerful, confident, free and unapologetically female. My work explores these ideas, these identities. And I hope to find them within the women I know and meet.
5) You’ve also mentioned elsewhere that music plays an important role in your creative process. How does it feed/bleed into your work? What’s your current playlist while you’re in the studio?
My journey with music started out as a means to concentrate better while I work but it has evolved into something much bigger for me. I thoroughly enjoy listening to music, it helps me channel my creativity, and it is therapeutic and energising all at once.
My current playlist is called EZ and has a variety of mellow mixes from Sure Sure, Alex Ebert, FKJ + Masego, NoMBe amongst others. You can find me on Spotify here – https://open.spotify.com/user/sudeepti
6) What’s next for you?
Freelance work has picked up quite a bit this year and I am excited about all the projects in the works! It is great to be getting good illustration work, although of course the dream is to get a pay that matches the effort 🙂
I am also looking at doing more pop ups going further, with some zines and other exciting products on the agenda. Keep an eye out!
Head over to Sudeepti’s Behance and Instagram pages to see more of her art and to stay updated on exhibitions. Her prints are currently on sale; write to her at sudeepti.tucker@gmail.com for details.
All images credit: Sudeepti Tucker
