Benode Behari Mukherjee was a visionary Indian artist who is known as the 'Father of Indian Murals'. He was a man of many talents, producing artworks in mediums ranging from watercolors, tempera on wood, Chinese ink on paper to etchings, block prints and paper collages.
Blind in one eye and myopic in the other since childhood, he lost his sight completely by the age of 53. However, this did not stop him from realizing his creative vision and took to paper collages as a medium of expression. Art historians have noted that his collage works have the echoes of the French artist Henri Matisse.
To celebrate the artist on his birth anniversary, I did a collaboration with The Heritage Lab to create an interactive game where players can create their own digital artworks inspired by the collages of Benode Behari Mukherjee.
This game is a part of an article (which you should definitely read) on the life of the artist.
The main objective was to create a game that works on the web browsers so that it could be played by the users after reading article on the website.
Another challenge was the limited coding experience I had while creating the interactive.
It took a lot of research and a number of trials and errors to decide the appropriate game engine.
The conclusion was to use GDevelop, an open-source, cross-platform game engine which uses drag-and-drop interface to create a game.
I received immense support from the GDevelop forum on this topic for which I'm grateful.
Now, let's dive right into it!
Left: Actual collage by Benode Behari Mukherjee (Image courtesy - Tate UK)
Right: Collage I created using the game interactive.
Below is a glimpse of the creation in process.
The game in action.
Excited to create you own artwork? :D
Get inspired by Mukherjee's collages or make something of your own!
Here are the instructions to help you out, followed by the game window.
(Alternative link: BBM Collage Maker)
To enter full screen, toggle the button on the lower right.
Share your creations on Instagram or Twitter and tag us @theheritagelab
If you have any queries or suggestions, feel free to drop a comment.
Hope you enjoyed this fun little collage maker! :)
