KOCHI: Scrolling through Orion Champadiyil’s Instagram feed, it is hard not to be impressed by the sheer variety and quantity of his work. With over 700 posts and counting, the artist has dabbled into almost every medium, style and genre. From creating mystifying, intricate and even surreal digital compositions to sketching simple line cartoons, Orion’s prolificity makes him stand apart from many others who seldom deviate from their distinct style. “The variety you see in my work comes from me wanting to experiment with different styles. I didn’t want to stick to one thing,” says Orion who currently works at an ad agency in Kochi.
Orion started drawing at a very young age when he was just two years old. “My first introduction was making figures on the sand, eventually I graduated to pen and paper. I did not have any formal training in art until I joined RLV College of Music and Fine Arts for my bachelors so most of my skill is self-taught. I would practice with different mediums. It involved a lot of trial and error,” he says.
However, it is his apparent love for letters that truly underscores his work. Orion not only renders words beautiful with his calligraphic strokes but also designs vibrant pop art like typefaces. “I have been practising calligraphy since 1998. I was first introduced to calligraphy when I was in school and attended a session by a nun who taught us to write in cursive. She had a pen with a flat nib, when I got home I cut the nib of an old pen and started practising. Gradually I got into typography and designing typefaces through a Facebook page I started with my friends,” says the 36-year-old.
While a lot of artists on social media have been preoccupied with capturing the mayhem of the pandemic, Orion has consciously decided not to make the coronavirus his muse. Covid-related works on his page are few and far between. “There was a time when I would regularly post on current affairs or the hottest topic on news but I realised that I was doing it just for likes. My art was not organic, I felt like I wasn’t doing justice to it. Hence I stopped being forcefully relevant. Now I only do something if I am truly inspired,” adds the Kochi-based artist who has participated in a few group exhibitions previously held in the city. Going forward, Orion hopes to create larger works in his favourite medium pen on paper or ink on canvas.
You can find his works on Instagram @orion_champadiyil.