Same features, different people

CHENNAI: Some people require a wand to create magic, but for Sandhya Swaminathan, all she needs are pencils. Though it began as a hobby it took Sandhya some time to realise that sketching is her calling. “I have been sketching for more than a year.

When I posted my sketches on social media, I received a lot of encouragement from friends and even strangers; it motivated me to do more. I never knew I could make a career out of it,” recalls Sandhya. The Ooty-based artist will be in the city for a portrait workshop and talks to CE about the need to break myths about sketching.

“There is a small essence of art in everybody’s life and everyday activities; it inspires me to draw. I am also hugely inspired by works Samiahdahger, a Lebanese artist and Emanuele Dascanio, an Italian artist,” says Sandhya. Popular for her portrait sketches, Sandhya does them in both black & white and colour, and follows the concept of  ‘Photorealism’. “You have to bring some form of realism from a piece of art...it should look like a photograph and nobody should be able to differentiate it,” she adds.

Her Instagram handle is filled with sketches of characters and celebrities like Maisie Williams (Arya Stark on Game of Thrones), Hansika Motwani, Zayn Mallik, etc. However Sandhya says that her all-time favourite is her sketch of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean), as it was done within two-three hours with a basic 12-piece colour pencil set.

Sandhya uses pencils of all colours, or sometimes sticks to just black and white. “In a black and white sketch, I use  my hands to blend the shades. With colours, blending becomes a problem because of the wax in the pencils. So I either use a separate blender or a white colour pencil to reduce the tone of a shade, so that it looks like it has blended,” she explains.

Like many parents, Sandhya says that her parents too were initially sceptical about her making a career out of art, but then supported her when she began getting orders. “That was one of the challenges I had initially; Whenever I said I am an artist, people would be: ‘oh okay that’s nice, but what do you do for a living?’. I wanted to change that. I am making a living out of my passion and I love what I do, and that is what matters the most right?” she exclaims.

The artist takes orders from across the country and says that most of her Instagram followers are from Chennai. “I have never been to Chennai before, so I am really excited to meet my followers here,” smiles Sandhya, who takes anywhere between six hours to two days, depending on who or what she is sketching. “It is the same eyes, nose, and features that I sketch, but each portrait has a different person coming out of it and that’s actually very special and exciting.”

Sandhya Swaminathan will be conducting a pencil art workshop on November 5 from 9:30 am onwards at IITM Research Park. For details call: 9176808449.