Feluda, Fountain Pen and a flight of imagination

I am Karishma Siddique Roy. My arty alter ego is Karie Potter. I specialize in portraits and have a page on Instagram called Potteraits.

I took up sketching with fountain pens a year ago and have been using and experimenting with a wide variety of pens and inks. Some of my favourite pens include, Pilot Namiki Falcon, Waterman Hemisphere, Lotus Shikhar, Pilot Metropolitan, Conklin Duragraph and the Ranga 8b. I love using Iroshizuku and J. Herbin inks and have also been an avid user of our very own Sulekha inks.

It was a Facebook post by Sulekha that sparked the idea for my ongoing series titled, #fountainpenfeluda.

They had shared a photograph of a scene from Satyajit Ray’s Joy Baba Felunath, where Jatayu, a writer, is sitting on a bed with a bottle of Sulekha ink lying next to him. I was really excited to see all my favourites coming together in this manner: the eternally inspiring Ray, the Feluda characters in this iconic film and Sulekha itself.

Most of us have our own favourite childhood memories of Feluda and I cannot even begin to explain my fascination with the unbelievable genius of Ray, seen through his illustrations, stories, films, music and so much more. Art doesn’t just delight, it also has the power to heal and Ray’s films and stories helped me cope with personal losses, particularly in the pandemic.

My Feluda series is thus a labour of love, a ‘thank you’ letter to Mr Ray and my favourite goenda, Feluda aka Soumitra Chatterjee, (whom we lost in 2020) along with my father-in-law, Partha Roy, with whom I had endless adda sessions on favourite books, literary characters, authors, and of course, Mr. Ray.

Sulekha’s own historic legacy amidst the Swadeshi movement served as another starting point for the project. I am a sustainability practitioner and encourage supporting local brands and I too wanted it to be a wholly swadeshi exercise. Hence, the sketches are made using the Ranga 8b handmade ebonite pen manufactured in South India and the journal used is made by a Kolkata-based collective, Kaagazi. The ink of course had to be Sulekha, namely the Swadeshi black, whose faded matte, almost graphite black hue lends an old-world charm to the portraits.

When I sketch a portrait, I attempt to delineate the lived reality of the person behind the face. Every line on a face tells me a story.

So, the Feluda series is exciting to me on multiple levels; an attempt to portray my favourite characters and scenes from the two Feluda films by Ray. But these aren’t just any films. Every scene, every dialogue, every expression is deeply embedded in the collective Bengali consciousness and my goal is also to invoke certain specific moments and scenes and that certain “feeling” when we engage with iconic films. My starting point is usually a favourite scene, a particularly expressive reaction of a character or even a funny dialogue.

Every sketch has been very personal and sometimes I go back to watching the films again and reliving those emotions which then inspires another sketch.

When I shared the first few sketches in the fountain pen forums, the response was immediate and people started sharing their favourite dialogues and memories of the scenes and characters. And this has been my greatest reward. The joy of watching my artwork create a community of engaged consumers and strangers who write to me and thank me for evoking their often times, forgotten childhood memories.

The series was picked up by prestigious media like The Telegraph in Kolkata and Mid-Day in Mumbai among others.

September, 2021

https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/people/self-taught-artist-brings-satyajit-rays-feluda-films-alive/cid/1832406

October 2021

https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/a-fountain-of-art-23194824

I am making some of my pieces from the #fountainpenfeluda series available for purchase.

They will be available in three formats

Original: freehand fountain pen sketches on Kaagazi paper made using Ranga fountain pen and Sulekha black ink. 

Print: Signed, numbered (6 each) limited edition prints on acid free paper. 

Hi-Resolution digital files: which will be emailed to the buyer

Photos in order:

“dushtu lok”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“badnaam bolun” 
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“Telepathy ache”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“mogojostro”
Original: On A4 paper
Print: A4
Hi-Res:

“bemanan ulki”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“17&1/2 inchi”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“shob shotti”
Original: On A4 paper
Print: A4
Hi-Res:

“uncle”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“ruku”
Original: On A5 paper
Print: A5
Hi-Res:

“Phaank”

Original: On A5 paper

Print: A5

Hi-Res:


Price on request