Yusuf Arakkal’s art focuses primarily with touching the chords of lives of those who live on the fringes of society. His earlier paintings were abstract studies of the lives of city dwellers usually in bright colours. Later his art works reflected his concern with social issues – with dark oppressive backgrounds and the faceless figures of ordinary people expressing loneliness and despair in a material world where ordinary people had no place. He started using somber earthy shades with the occasional yellow or crimson and the texture of his canvases became grainy and rough.