Meet Apeksha Lal

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Apeksha Lal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Apeksha below.

Apeksha, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I’m very fortunate to live in a time and a place where inspiration surrounds me constantly. I love consuming other art, whether that’s going to an art museum, watching a movie or show, reading a book or even watching a YouTube video. I find it really insightful to see inside the minds of other artists, and learn something from their process. When I watch a movie or TV show with a strong plot and well-developed characters that I really like, I always have the desire to make art about it in my own style. Fanart often carries a negative connotation of being lowbrow or unoriginal, but I find that drawing fanart doesn’t just keep my creativity alive, but also allows me to bring my own interpretation of a story and simultaneously hones my technical skills, and expresses my admiration for a piece of media that really inspired me. After all, the art we consider fine art, Renaissance-era paintings for example, are very similar to fanart, inspired by religious texts instead of movies or shows. I believe that as artists we are constantly meant to inspire and be inspired by each other.

Sometimes keeping my creativity alive can be a challenge for me because I deal with artist’s block very frequently. It’s very easy to lose motivation when you feel like you can’t come up with good enough ideas, or if something is taking longer and is more challenging than you had anticipated. A lot of times that block stems from a place of stress and exhaustion, so I combat that by taking a small break from whatever I’m working on and work on something else for a bit, maybe something that I feel more passionate about at the moment or feels more “easy” or enjoyable. What helps me a lot is taking a break from the canvas and going back to my sketchbook and just playing around without putting pressure on myself to create something perfect. I also really enjoy doing drawing from life and going to figure drawing sessions around the city, because I get to practice the art of observation, which is probably the most important skill I have as an illustrator.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a South Asian illustrator based in New York City. My practice involves acrylic and oil painting, relief printmaking, and digital illustration. Born in India, and raised in the US, I draw a lot of inspiration from my experiences as a first-generation immigrant and my cultural heritage, and combining that with elements of Indian mythology as well as gothic horror, vampires and fantasy.

When I first decided to go to art school and pursue a degree in this field, I was unsure about whether I wanted to pursue fine art or illustration, and even after getting a degree in illustration, I feel drawn to the fine art world. This led to my interest in creating art that combines elements of illustration and fine art together. When I do digital illustration on a screen, I love incorporating elements of traditional art into my work, especially with textures and making it look like paper or canvas. When I paint, I tend to use less abstract imagery and follow a more narrative structure in my work, the kind you’d expect to see more of in digital illustration. I love bouncing between these two mediums and I intend to continue experimenting with making digital look traditional and vice versa.

My most recent painting project was featured in No Shoes Allowed, a pop-up art showcase at Gallery MC in Manhattan, which was curated by Sona Selvamani (@sona_film.bw on Instagram!) and comprised of South Asian artists and vendors. I felt so honored and proud to be a part of a group of so many talented creatives coming from different backgrounds and fields, but also really excited that we all come from a culture where being an artist isn’t always encouraged. I got to meet so many new people and it was so heartwarming to watch people take in my work and tell me how much they loved it. My hope is that others in my community will be inspired by what I do and the stories I tell and want to pursue creative careers themselves.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Love and passion for your work and your craft is the most important quality you can possess. You have to love what you do, because that’s what is going to make it great. If you look at any piece of art or media you admire, you can see the love and labor the creator has put into it. Any good performer is good because they love being on that stage. Any artist who creates beautiful paintings loves how their brush glides across the canvas and watching their vision come to life, even if they’re stuck in a cramped studio all day. That’s what keeps me going! Even when I’m facing an obstacle or challenge, I remember how much I love creating and how excited I am about the final product, and how much I want to show it to the world. Creating is and will always be my favorite thing to do.

Passion keeps you excited about working, but it’s also important to have the skill to manage time and work under pressure. In order to create work with consistent quality and collaborate with others, organization is really important and prioritizing your tasks is a must. And yes, sometimes you might not have the time! We all run out of time, whether it’s because you’re overwhelmed with tasks or just procrastinating (we ALL do it!), but what matters most is that you can still work under pressure and deliver your best work with tight deadlines, and know when to say no to something because it doesn’t fit in your schedule. In the illustration world, where so much of our work is freelance and routines are more flexible, it’s really important to manage your time, and figure out what kind of organizational methods work best for you in order to do that. From my experience, in order to maintain good professional relationships, it’s always good to communicate, and let someone know you need extra time rather than submit something late and rushed.

With any field you choose to work in, it’s important to develop your technical skillset and always be willing to learn more. As an illustrator, I have to make sure I am taking breaks once in a while to practice, whether it’s studying anatomy, researching new painting styles, subject matter or new software, creating still life or master studies, and live drawing. I’ve been in art classes all my life, but I still have a lot to learn, and I love learning! There are always new developments to any tools or software that you may use for your craft, and trends are always changing and it’s important to keep yourself up-to-date and keep learning new skills and methods. Even when I have finished working on something, I love reaching out to former teachers and peers and even non-artist friends for feedback. It’s important to challenge yourself. I always like to remember that I am a great illustrator, but I can always be better and I should always strive for improvement. The journey of learning is a never-ending journey.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

At the beginning of this year, I put a lot of pressure on myself trying to make my projects “perfect,” and it would often result in a lot of frustration and would slow down my process. Even when projects were almost at the finish line, I felt that I had to keep going to make it exactly like I had envisioned. What I’ve learned is that part of being a good artist and illustrator is knowing when to put the paintbrush down. Sometimes projects transform as you are working on them, and that is okay!

Like I previously mentioned, I am an avid movie watcher, and one of my favorite movies is Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky). I see a lot of myself in the main character of the movie, Nina, who is a ballerina trying to strive for perfection, so much that she loses her mind in the process. I realized then that I should always strive for improvement and always try to be better, but perfection is unattainable. There is always room for improvement. Art is always a work in progress. Since then, I’ve tried to lessen the pressure on myself by creating work with a different mindset, that it doesn’t have to be perfect, and I am human and allowed to make mistakes. Sometimes I make bad art on purpose, and build up from it and shape it into something better. When I see my work from earlier and compare it to now, I already see how much I’ve improved and how far I’ve come, and it’s because I keep going. What matters most is I keep creating, even when I don’t think something is perfect, in the pursuit of an upward journey towards the artist that I want to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://apekshalal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apxksha/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apeksha-lal-628487201/

Image Credits

Apeksha Lal