A win for the dark arts

Rupam works primarily in the dark sci-fi genre, which he describes as science fiction with a touch of horror, and a pulpy look

Rupam Grimoeuvre says that he has always been interested in art, in faces and shapes, light and shadow. But like most children from Indian middle-class families, he was encouraged to get a "real" job, and went through much of his school life yearning for guidance in art and yet, receiving none. Rebelling against the pressure to become an engineer, he found himself doing odd jobs until one day when, he recalls, he just couldn't do it anymore. "I think that life experience helped me grow as an artist later. The time I spent not working on my skills, made me realise how much I wanted to do that. And so, when I actually made time to learn to draw and paint, my interests changed from just drawing portraits to telling stories through my work," he says in an email conversation with mid-day.

Grimoeuvre is one of 12 winners of this year's Illustrators of the Future contest and the only one from India. The annual competition is a companion event to the Writers of the Future contest initiated by L Ron Hubbard in 1983. John Goodwin, president of Galaxy Press, which publishes the annual L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future anthology, where Grimoeuvre's work will be featured this year, informs that the contest's first judges were well-known artists who had even illustrated Hubbard's pulp fiction works of the 1930s and '40s. This year, the panel included accomplished names from the world of speculative art like Echo Chernik, Ciruelo Cabral, Bob Eggleton, Craig Elliott and Larry Elmore. "What they looked for [in the contestants] was the ability to illustrate as compared to creating art. An illustration must tell a story, meaning a viewer is able to get the story, or a piece of it, through their illustration," says Goodwin.

Grimoeuvre who works in the dark sci-fi genre, which he describes as science fiction with a touch of horror and a pulpy look, says that while superheroes helped establish his early love for science fiction, finding his own style, motivations and interests as an artist, took a while. He now illustrates covers for books and albums alongside projects for private clients and businesses, and speaks of finding inspiration in the works of artists and illustrators like John Harris, Ralph McQuairre, Jim Burns, Donato Giancola and Gregory Manchess.

His own process of illustrating cover starts with familiarising himself with the subject of a book and then creating thumbnail sketches focused on visually interpreting the story's impact, without giving away anything important. Those concept sketches are then sent to the art director or the writer, and once chosen, he does a detailed sketch using key visual elements and colours, which is then completed upon approval. Grimoeuvre also writes horror short stories infused with sci-fi elements and is presently working on an encyclopaedia on Indian ghosts in which he hopes to introduce a sci-fi twist.

Rupam Grimoeuvre

As one of the winners of the contest, Grimoeuvre will receive a cash prize and is set to travel to Hollywood to attend a week-long workshop conducted by the
judges, along with a gala event attended by authors, artists and actors. Although admitting to finding out about the competition accidentally during an online search, he now encourages fellow artists to apply, as this is one of the very few international competitions for sci-fi and fantasy art, and accepts submissions every three months at no additional fee. "It provides a vote of confidence in a world where this is frequently lacking," says Goodwin, of the contest whose past winners
include the likes of Oscar winner Shaun Tan and artist Sergey Poyarkov.