When you scroll through Taarika John’s illustrations, what particularly stays with you is the calmness that they carry. And that aspect has a great deal to do with her inclination to observe people in situations, doing their own thing. Her work on “The Moody Girl” was the first thing that caught my attention, a series that captures the small, everyday moments of rest by women. The mundanity felt so familiar that I knew immediately that I wanted to speak to the artist who had drawn them.
Taarika John & Her Love for Narrative Illustration
Taarika John splits her time between Kochi and New York, working as a freelance illustrator while moving between two places she calls home. “I used to read a lot as a kid, and I still do,” she says. “Storytelling was always very important to me. In fact, I first wanted to be a writer.” Illustration, for her, became a way to combine both words and images. “Narrative illustration felt like the best of both worlds. I could write stories and draw them at the same time.”
She began her formal journey into the creative field in 2010, studying Visual Communication for her undergraduate degree. At the time, she says, creative careers were not clearly defined. “I don’t think I even knew what an illustrator was back then,” she admits. “Even though I had been consuming illustration my whole life, I didn’t realise it was something you could actually do as a job.” Like many students then, she thought advertising was the most obvious path and spent time exploring design and advertising roles.
But no matter what she worked on, she found herself returning to drawing. “Whatever job I was doing, I was always trying to bring drawing into it. I was always trying to bring writing into it,” she says. Over time, mentors and teachers began pointing out the same pattern. One of them even told her bluntly, “You’re wasting your time. Just be an illustrator.”
Still, illustration as a career felt risky for her. There was no guarantee of stability, and Taarika knew she needed to support herself. For several years, she worked in design and advertising while freelancing as an illustrator on the side. By 2017, she had built enough of a safety net to commit fully. “I decided I wasn’t going to moonlight anymore. Since then, I’ve been doing illustration full-time.”
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A Slice of Taarika John’s Work
Much of her work today is client-based, but it often goes beyond single illustrations. One of her recent projects was Naatil Evidya, a set of Malayalam-to-English flashcards created for Malayali NRI families. The idea came from parents who struggled to communicate in Malayalam with their children. “They wanted something that could help families like theirs,” she explains. For Taarika, projects like this allow her to use everything she has learned over the years. “I’m doing research, branding, illustration, and world-building. I really enjoy a lot of things at the same time. I get bored doing just one thing.”
Her latest and most personal work is a self-published book titled Sacred Rhythm, Painted Faces, which documents Kerala’s traditional art forms. The project took nearly two years to complete and was created largely while she was living in the United States.“Ironically, I started learning more about Kerala’s art forms after I left Kerala,” she says. It was her mother who pushed her to do this project. Most of the research involved watching performances online, speaking to former dancers in her family circle, and verifying details carefully. “I wanted the book to be accessible, so it isn’t academic at all. Something anyone could pick up and feel curious about.”
The book is aimed at readers of all ages, especially younger audiences. “I wanted kids to be able to read it, or have an adult read it to them,” she says. “The idea was not to teach everything, but to make people interested enough to want to learn more.” In fact, at the book’s launch in Fort Kochi, she invited a Kathakali artist to demonstrate the makeup process live. “People had never seen that before. Watching it made them realise how much skill and time goes into it, and that itself made people so curious about the art form.”
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A Note to Budding Artists
Alongside personal work, Taarika John has also illustrated for international publications, including The New York Times. Yet she is open about how much rejection still exists in the industry. “I’ve been writing to the New York Times for five years,” she says. “Even now, projects can come and disappear within half an hour.” She believes persistence and research matter more than confidence.“I still cold email. I still reach out. You have to take your pride out of it.” Her advice to younger artists is, “If there’s a project you dream of doing, make it yourself and send it to them. Don’t wait for permission.” She believes rejection is inevitable and not a reflection of worth. “There are still days I wonder if I know what I’m doing,” she admits. “But you keep going.”
If you’d like to check out and perhaps own your own Taarika John artwork, head over here: https://www.taarikajohn.com/.
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