BENGALURU: In 1999, in a test match against Pakistan, Anil Kumble dismissed all the ten batsmen becoming the second cricketer, after Jim Laker of England, to achieve such a feat. Inspired by the sportsman, Varun N Rao drew his portrait on a notepad. He was just in class 9 then.“My teachers, parents and friends encouraged me to do more. And I started making portraits of celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Michael Jackson,” he says, adding why these celebrities deserve his artistic attention. “They have made their personal strengths their pillars of success, be it the calm demeanour of MS Dhoni, or the controlled aggression of Virat Kohli or the sheer commitment towards giving a stunning performance in Bajirao Mastani by Ranveer Singh or even the rib-tickling comical performance by Paresh Rawal in Hera Pheri, they have all inspired me to take a lesson out of their lives and apply it to mine,” he says.
Apart from celebrities, he has created portraits of family members, friends and has also taken up commissioned works. The artist, who doubles as a content specialist and digital marketer, is exhibiting 25 of his best works till December 30 at Art Blend Cafe. Besides portraits of celebrities, there are sketches of scientists, superheroes and gods.
Varun starts a sketch from the right side of a face, especially the right eyebrow, eyes, then move to the left -- eyebrow, eyes — then the nose, lips, chin, forehead and eventually cover the entire face.“Once I am satisfied with the initial sketch, I shade the base colour for the skin across the face. The colour is mostly chrome yellow as it gives a nice tinge of shine to the entire portrait. Then, I shade it with adjacent colours such as burnt sienna, walnut brown, umber and burnt ochre and sometimes even red and orange,” he explains adding that the detailing of hair, eyes and lips are kept for the last as he feels they are the hardest to tackle. “I spend lot of time detailing it to perfection,” he says.
The self-taught artist studies many works, especially of foreign artists, and dissects how they would have approached their portraits. “Apart from that, I refer books on drawing techniques across pencil, acrylic and oil media,” he adds.Varun works mostly with oil-based polychromos colour pencils. The oil-based pencils blend give a different shine and colour. “This makes the portrait livelier and gives an appearance similar to oil paint portraits. Other than that, I use micro-tip colour pens and colour brush pens (evolved from sketch pens) for creating caricatures and pop-art,” he adds.
He says that while doing commissioned work, he is often faced with clientele who bargain for the ‘best price’. “I get lot of queries for realistic color pencil portraits. I charge a nominal price of about `2,500 to `5,000 for an A3 size sketch. But most people do not get back to me or bargain the cost like they do in city markets,” he says adding that adhering to deadlines is also a challenge as he is used to create detailed works in his own leisure hours.
To break the monotony
Varun N Rao is hosting his first art exhibition to inspire more people, who are stuck in their monotonous lives, to bring out their creative artworks in public forums from their closets and inner circles.
Where: Art Blend Café
When: Till December 30.