All the sketchy details

Insta is full of street photography. Meet three illustrators whose works pack in more than the viewfinder can see

- Karishma Kuenzang

Aditya Raj, Delhi @Adirajart

Aditya Raj's policeman father was typically posted in small towns, where there wasn't much to do. So growing up, Raj doodled cartoon characters on scraps of paper, and stuck them on the walls. By 2016, after he finished law school and was living in Delhi, he knew art was his calling.

"I wanted to paint the mundane. Things one overlooks. We keep going to the same bookstore or kachoriwala, but rarely stop and look at it for its beauty," says Raj. "Delhi gave me my politics, and understanding of so many things. It's no surprise that I wanted to paint it."

In Raj's watercolour works, the city seems chaotic, but also calm. A hawker's cart full of mangoes provides a pop of yellow against a grey landscape. Generations-old shopfronts huddle companionably, overwhelming the senses just as they do when you navigate old Delhi.

Raj paints from reality, only changing the scale for effect. He captured 4S, an old queer-friendly pub in Defence Colony, which he visited through law school. "When I finally decided to paint it, I gathered all my own stories and experiences and put them in," he says. "The work is a moment in time and I like to keep it like that. It's like a small little private story."

Raj's prints start at ₹3,000 for an A4 piece.

Paul Fernandes, Bengaluru @apaulogy_gallery