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Ray's Illustrations
Introduction
Satyajit Ray, a name that many would easily associate with cinema but not many know the man as an illustrator. Ray in fact, was a master visualizer and illustration was just a language he used and used pretty well. This site analyzes Satyajit Ray's illustrations. It is an attempt to reason out Ray's illustration by providing proper arguments and evidences. It also discusses various influences that had influenced and played a role in shaping up his thought process and visualization skills that reflects in his works.
About Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray is globally renowned as a Bengali Indian filmmaker and regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Apart from film maker Ray was a writer as well as an illustrator.
Before becoming a film maker Ray was a cover designer and did illustrations for books and worked in a british owned advertising firm as a visualiser. Pather Panchali was Ray's first film and was released in 1955 to great critical and popular success. From here on began his long and illustrious career in film making throughout which he made a number of films that went on to become greatest films ever made in the history of Indian cinema and established him as a world-class director.
Numerous awards were bestowed on Ray throughout his lifetime, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement.
Satyajit Ray died on April 23, 1992 in Calcutta after having some 36 films and documentaries and numerous books and articles to his credit.
Days at Shantiniketan
Satyajit Ray went to study arts at Kala Bhavan, the art school at the Vishva Bharti University founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan in year 1940. During his stay at Shantiniketan, Ray got exposure to oriental art forms, culture and tradition. He developed a liking for illustrations and calligraphy and got influenced by famous painters Nandlal Bose and Binode Bihari Mukherjee.
In December 1942, Ray left Shantiniketan.
Advertising, Cover Designing and IllustrationIn April 1943, Satyajit Ray joined a British-run advertising agency, D. J. Keymer, as a junior visualizer. Ray soon made a mark as a designer who evolved an indigenous style of graphic design. Ray's senior colleague at D.J. Keymer, D. K. Gupta started a publishing house 'Signet Press' and Ray was roped in to do the cover jackets and illustrations for books. Thus began a parallel profession for Ray as a book cover designer and illustrator. His work in advertising, cover designing and illustration provided Ray with an excellent ground to test and experiment with his learning at Shantiniketan.
Ray's artistic training at Shantiniketan was manifest in most of his designs whether its an ad campaign, a cover jacket or an illustration in a book. At a time when more often than not the graphic designs in Indian Market were straight lifts from those in English magazines and newspapers, Ray's innovative designs were greatly liked and appreciated for their Indian nature. The local masses could associate themselves with Ray's designs. Ray achieved this Indian essence in his designs by incorporating Indian motifs and calligraphic elements into his works. His exposure to Indian art forms and love for calligraphy that developed while training under Binode Bihari Mukherjee during his days at Shantiniketan, reflects in designs made by him.
Ray was very particular about the typographical selections in his designs. His pursuit to use the most appropriate type was so intense that he would create new types with his pen or brush whenever he felt constrained by the existing types. While making advertisements for printing in newspapers, Ray often faced constraints in terms of colors and space. Working within these constraints Ray evolved the skill of creating graphics that attracted attention of viewers while staying within the constraints of space and color. Later, his skill of creating impacting graphic works would often surface in the credits and the publicity posters of his films.
A very important learning that Ray took from his experience in advertising and designing book covers is the art of narration through a single frame. Each element in his graphic work communicates a message that blends together to communicate a narrative. With each design that he made, Ray's narrative and composition reached new levels of maturity. Ray's job at D. J. Keymer saw Ray blossom into a great graphic artist, typographer, book-jacket designer and illustrator.
Ray spent 13 years in advertising and cover designing, until he became a full-time filmmaker after success of Pather Panchali in year 1955.
Foray into Cinema
Ray forayed into the world of cinema with his first film called Pather Panchali in year 1955. Ray made this film while he was still working for D. J. Keymer, the English owned advertising agency. Ray was passionate about films and music from quite an early age but thought of making a film never occurred to him until 1950 when his employer sent him for summer training to London at D. J. Keymer's head office. On his way back from London, with little to do on a two-week boat journey, Ray ended up sketching the entire children's edition of Pather Panchali, Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee's semi-autobiographical novel. Many of these sketches later found place in his final storyboard for his film Pather Panchali.
Being extremely good with illustrations Ray found it convenient to sketch out scenes of his films for planning and visualization purpose. This also helped the crew members in understanding the scenes. His sketching style for storyboards and other planning purposes are quite different from what he used in illustrating for books. He kept the sketches small in dimension and drew them with rough and swift strokes. This enabled him in putting down his ideas in a visual form in least possible time. In spite of being rough and untidy his sketches clearly conveyed the body-language and facial gesture of characters along with their spatial arrangement in the scene. He refrained from spending time in adding unnecessary details in his sketches. These rough swift sketches were powerful enough to capture the facial features and physique to an extent that it clearly defined the appearance of a person who would be most appropriate to play the role of the character depicted in the sketch. Along with the sketches Ray also put down written notes as descriptions for the shots when and where ever necessary.
Narration through a single frame was an important skill that Ray acquired during his 13 year stint as an art visualizer in the advertising industry. Ray exercised this skill to its fullest in taking cinematic decisions for his films. As a result the cinematography of his films exhibited substantial maturity right from his first film. Ray is known for shot selection and scene details that are highly communicative to its audience. For example a scene from one of the Ray's films The Chess Players that takes place between General Outram (Sir Richard Attenborough) and Captain Weston (Tom Alter) prompted V. S. Naipaul to comment, "It's like a Shakespeare scene. Only three hundred words (actually over 500 words) are spoken but goodness! - terrific things happen."
Coming from an advertisement industry Ray himself designed and supervised the publicity material for his films. Apart from illustration skills Ray's understanding about color, graphics and composition played a major role in creation of the impacting posters and banners for his films. At Ray's time a large (typically 30" X 40") panel, poster or banner would require a large illustration which is quite unlike todays scenario where a small digital illustration can be blown up to create a large panel. To create illustrations of such a huge dimension Ray had to meticulously plan the layout, then get papers of size 30" X 40" and stick it on to a wall or lay it on the floor and do the illustrations using charcoal, pastels, ink, what ever suited the requirement. Once the illustration was ready Ray had to send it to a printing press to get the final material. Printed banners were then put up at strategic locations. Ray's designs were strong bold and unconventional. They revolutionized the bengali publicity design.
Influences in Ray's Life
Satyajit Ray was born into a family of creative giants. His grandfather, Upendrakishore was a writer, painter, musician, and scientist. Ray's father, Sakumar Ray, was a bengali humorous poet, story writer, playwrite and illustrator. It was natural for Ray to get exposed to art and develop a keen interest for it. Rabindranath Tagore was a close friend of Ray's family. Later at Tagore's persuasion Ray joined Kala Bhavan the art school of Tagore's Vishwa Bharti university at Shantiniketan. Ray's training under masters like Binode Bihari Mukherjee and Nandlal Bose proved to be a turning point in his life. Before coming to Shantiniketan Ray's eposure and admiration were limited only to western art forms. At Shantiniketan Ray got exposed to Indian art forms and developed his own indegenous style that later became the strength of his creativity. His job in advertising agency and as a book cover designer provided him with an excellent testing ground to experiment with his learning at Shantiniketan. These circumstances coupled with Ray's diehard passion for cinema and music brought instant success on Ray's first attempt at film making itself and established Ray as a world class film maker.
Satyajit Ray, a name that many would easily associate with cinema but not many know the man as an illustrator. Ray in fact, was a master visualizer and illustration was just a language he used and used pretty well. This site analyzes Satyajit Ray's illustrations. It is an attempt to reason out Ray's illustration by providing proper arguments and evidences. It also discusses various influences that had influenced and played a role in shaping up his thought process and visualization skills that reflects in his works.
About Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray is globally renowned as a Bengali Indian filmmaker and regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Apart from film maker Ray was a writer as well as an illustrator.Before becoming a film maker Ray was a cover designer and did illustrations for books and worked in a british owned advertising firm as a visualiser. Pather Panchali was Ray's first film and was released in 1955 to great critical and popular success. From here on began his long and illustrious career in film making throughout which he made a number of films that went on to become greatest films ever made in the history of Indian cinema and established him as a world-class director.
Numerous awards were bestowed on Ray throughout his lifetime, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement.
Satyajit Ray died on April 23, 1992 in Calcutta after having some 36 films and documentaries and numerous books and articles to his credit.
Days at Shantiniketan
Satyajit Ray went to study arts at Kala Bhavan, the art school at the Vishva Bharti University founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan in year 1940. During his stay at Shantiniketan, Ray got exposure to oriental art forms, culture and tradition. He developed a liking for illustrations and calligraphy and got influenced by famous painters Nandlal Bose and Binode Bihari Mukherjee.In December 1942, Ray left Shantiniketan.
Advertising, Cover Designing and Illustration
Ray's artistic training at Shantiniketan was manifest in most of his designs whether its an ad campaign, a cover jacket or an illustration in a book. At a time when more often than not the graphic designs in Indian Market were straight lifts from those in English magazines and newspapers, Ray's innovative designs were greatly liked and appreciated for their Indian nature. The local masses could associate themselves with Ray's designs. Ray achieved this Indian essence in his designs by incorporating Indian motifs and calligraphic elements into his works. His exposure to Indian art forms and love for calligraphy that developed while training under Binode Bihari Mukherjee during his days at Shantiniketan, reflects in designs made by him.
Ray was very particular about the typographical selections in his designs. His pursuit to use the most appropriate type was so intense that he would create new types with his pen or brush whenever he felt constrained by the existing types. While making advertisements for printing in newspapers, Ray often faced constraints in terms of colors and space. Working within these constraints Ray evolved the skill of creating graphics that attracted attention of viewers while staying within the constraints of space and color. Later, his skill of creating impacting graphic works would often surface in the credits and the publicity posters of his films.
A very important learning that Ray took from his experience in advertising and designing book covers is the art of narration through a single frame. Each element in his graphic work communicates a message that blends together to communicate a narrative. With each design that he made, Ray's narrative and composition reached new levels of maturity. Ray's job at D. J. Keymer saw Ray blossom into a great graphic artist, typographer, book-jacket designer and illustrator.
Ray spent 13 years in advertising and cover designing, until he became a full-time filmmaker after success of Pather Panchali in year 1955.
Foray into Cinema
Ray forayed into the world of cinema with his first film called Pather Panchali in year 1955. Ray made this film while he was still working for D. J. Keymer, the English owned advertising agency. Ray was passionate about films and music from quite an early age but thought of making a film never occurred to him until 1950 when his employer sent him for summer training to London at D. J. Keymer's head office. On his way back from London, with little to do on a two-week boat journey, Ray ended up sketching the entire children's edition of Pather Panchali, Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee's semi-autobiographical novel. Many of these sketches later found place in his final storyboard for his film Pather Panchali.
Being extremely good with illustrations Ray found it convenient to sketch out scenes of his films for planning and visualization purpose. This also helped the crew members in understanding the scenes. His sketching style for storyboards and other planning purposes are quite different from what he used in illustrating for books. He kept the sketches small in dimension and drew them with rough and swift strokes. This enabled him in putting down his ideas in a visual form in least possible time. In spite of being rough and untidy his sketches clearly conveyed the body-language and facial gesture of characters along with their spatial arrangement in the scene. He refrained from spending time in adding unnecessary details in his sketches. These rough swift sketches were powerful enough to capture the facial features and physique to an extent that it clearly defined the appearance of a person who would be most appropriate to play the role of the character depicted in the sketch. Along with the sketches Ray also put down written notes as descriptions for the shots when and where ever necessary.
Narration through a single frame was an important skill that Ray acquired during his 13 year stint as an art visualizer in the advertising industry. Ray exercised this skill to its fullest in taking cinematic decisions for his films. As a result the cinematography of his films exhibited substantial maturity right from his first film. Ray is known for shot selection and scene details that are highly communicative to its audience. For example a scene from one of the Ray's films The Chess Players that takes place between General Outram (Sir Richard Attenborough) and Captain Weston (Tom Alter) prompted V. S. Naipaul to comment, "It's like a Shakespeare scene. Only three hundred words (actually over 500 words) are spoken but goodness! - terrific things happen."
Coming from an advertisement industry Ray himself designed and supervised the publicity material for his films. Apart from illustration skills Ray's understanding about color, graphics and composition played a major role in creation of the impacting posters and banners for his films. At Ray's time a large (typically 30" X 40") panel, poster or banner would require a large illustration which is quite unlike todays scenario where a small digital illustration can be blown up to create a large panel. To create illustrations of such a huge dimension Ray had to meticulously plan the layout, then get papers of size 30" X 40" and stick it on to a wall or lay it on the floor and do the illustrations using charcoal, pastels, ink, what ever suited the requirement. Once the illustration was ready Ray had to send it to a printing press to get the final material. Printed banners were then put up at strategic locations. Ray's designs were strong bold and unconventional. They revolutionized the bengali publicity design.
Influences in Ray's Life
Satyajit Ray was born into a family of creative giants. His grandfather, Upendrakishore was a writer, painter, musician, and scientist. Ray's father, Sakumar Ray, was a bengali humorous poet, story writer, playwrite and illustrator. It was natural for Ray to get exposed to art and develop a keen interest for it. Rabindranath Tagore was a close friend of Ray's family. Later at Tagore's persuasion Ray joined Kala Bhavan the art school of Tagore's Vishwa Bharti university at Shantiniketan. Ray's training under masters like Binode Bihari Mukherjee and Nandlal Bose proved to be a turning point in his life. Before coming to Shantiniketan Ray's eposure and admiration were limited only to western art forms. At Shantiniketan Ray got exposed to Indian art forms and developed his own indegenous style that later became the strength of his creativity. His job in advertising agency and as a book cover designer provided him with an excellent testing ground to experiment with his learning at Shantiniketan. These circumstances coupled with Ray's diehard passion for cinema and music brought instant success on Ray's first attempt at film making itself and established Ray as a world class film maker.
Latest page update: made by TuhinPaul
, Jul 27 2008, 12:07 PM EDT
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Edited by TuhinPaul
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Edited by TuhinPaul
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view changes
- complete history)
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