Brush strokes reimagined: Derek Dominic D’Souza shares his journey and the love for Bengaluru

BENGALURU:  In late 2014, renowned American physicist and author Alan Lightman received an email from a young art student in India. The student illustrated a few verses from Lightman’s book Song of Two Worlds for an academic project and at his professor’s insistence, he mailed them to Lightman. 

Lightman was so impressed with the illustrations that he released a special illustrated edition of his book and asked if the 18-year-old would illustrate the entire book. Bengaluru’s Derek Dominic D’Souza, then just 18 was taken aback by the offer. Just in his first year of art school, D’Souza had not expected something like this.

“I had never illustrated a book before. So, for them to ask me to create this was huge. I felt like an imposter while working on it. But my professor was supportive of me, and the whole experience was uplifting,” he shares. 

Now a successful and highly regarded digital illustrator, Derek hosted a free-for-all digital art workshop in the city on Sunday ahead of the 2022 Bengaluru Comic Con. “It’s always been one of my goals, to be at a Comic Con event and also host a workshop like this,” he says. 

Born and brought up in the city, D’Souza says having his workshop in his own town was an honour that he didn’t expect. D’Souza expressed admiration for the city, sharing that he quit his previous job just to be able to stay in his hometown. “I have lived in other places while working for Disney. In the pandemic, I came back to Bengaluru, and I have never been able to go back. I left that job and started a new one here, because this city is my home and it’s perfect. I love the cafes, the weather and everything about this city,” he says.

Having developed an interest in art from a very early age, D’Souza says he only discovered digital art in recent years. “My interests with digital art started after I joined art college. Prior to joining art school, I didn’t know much about digital art. I always knew that I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t know what kind of artist. Only when I went to college, did I realise that such a thing exists, and that there might be a future in it,” he says. D’Souza has since experimented with his art style, now settling on a distinct style that has helped him rack up hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

Despite his successes, D’Souza believes that digital art landscape in the country hasn’t been very supportive to aspiring artists. “Most view art as a hobby rather than a career in this country. So, making a career out of art is anything but straightforward. If you look at serious opportunities for artists, it’s mostly in advertisements, or sometimes you get music videos.

But there’s not large-scale industry that can support artists. This is very different compared to countries in the west,” he explains. But the advent of work-from-home culture, D’Souza feels, has tremendously helped artists find opportunities. “You no longer have to limit yourself to opportunities in a single city or place, you can work anywhere in the world,” concludes D’Souza.