Jeyaraj

Who is Jeyaraj?

Thomas Jeyaraj Fernando, aka Jeyaraj, Jayaraj, or simply, J., is an illustrator for Tamil periodicals and magazines. He is especially known for his depictions of attractive, young women, which have earned him a fan following among readers of Tamil magazines as well as criticism.

Jeyaraj, who is from Tuticorin, has no formal training in art, but nevertheless won prizes in school and college for his sketches. He studied for a bachelor's degree in economics, but when he could not find any employment in his chosen field, he decided to try his luck with illustration. This was in Chennai in the late 1950s. His first assignment in 1958 was for a short story by Ra. Ki. Rangarajan in Kumudam magazine, fetched him Rs. 10.

Since then, Jeyaraj has illustrated hundreds of Tamil short stories, jokes and serials, and is known for his versatility, handling everything from line-drawing, wash drawing, colour drawing, perspective drawing to cartoons. He is also very quick and prolific as an illustrator: according to Jeyaraj, in the 1970s, he used to make 40 illustrations a day. A biographical note in The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol.