Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s style of art, N Lanutemjen Longkumer of Waromung village, currently residing in Kumlong ward, identifies himself as an amateur artist.
A present student of B.A 6th Semester in Jubilee Memorial College, Mokokchung, majoring in sociology, Temjen is a contributor to Mokokchung Times as a cartoonist under the pen name ‘Jackfruit’ for our newspaper column, ‘Half-full’. Half-full is a commentary on local, national and international socio-political issues through cartoons.
In a response to how he usually draws his inspiration for his art and concepts, he explained how he needs to keep updated with the current affairs and various socio-political issues that play out.
“Usually I keep myself updated and also check out professional caricature artists since I’m new to cartoons and mostly draw based on local social and political issues. Of course, it varies from time to time. Sometimes it can be international as well as national issues,” he said.
Temjen believes in keeping the style minimal for now and focuses more on the idea for his objective is to portray the message to the readers through the art and not the style.
“I usually write essays and from those essays I draw scenes and put it down on paper and sometimes even draw inspirations from classical poems,” he said, while explaining his process of creation.
Apart from the cartoons, Temjen is more inclined towards painting and has been declared as a national level emerging artist once, a onetime district level champion and two times in their college competitions.
“I do painting more often than cartoons as a hobby. I started painting back in my 6th standard and am still continuing to this day,” he said.
On being asked whether he has plans to improve on cartoons or would rather pursue a path in painting, he reasoned that painting gives him the freedom to play with colors which he loves; however, he remained positive about cartoons in the future.
“The cartoons I make for the paper are usually black and white so, it’ll be difficult for cartoons to be at par with paintings because painting gives you the freedom to play with colors. However, given the opportunity it’s been a worthwhile experience and yes, I am positive about making cartoons in the future as well,” he said.
According to Temjen, for cartoons, he requires a pencil, mechanical pencil, eraser, micron pens and drawing books while for paintings, acrylic paints, oil paints, canvas, painting paper, varnish, easel and clipboards are his requirements as tools.
Speaking about a career in painting and art, he remained optimistic in considering it for the future but preferred to keep painting and art as a hobby for now.