KOCHI: It is quite exciting to watch Ananthu Sugathan work on his portraits. The upside-down artist likes to lend mystery to his art with his work with his innovative styles.
“Upside-down art is quite unique. I focus on doing portraits of people using sand on paper. The difference with this art is people won’t be able to guess the kind of image I am drawing until the final stage when I turn the portrait upside-down. I have been getting good feedback from art enthusiasts,” he said.
He is also buoyed by the response he is getting from the public. “It is nice to see the way people react when their final image is done,” said Ananthu, who is probably one among the first few artists to introduce such inverted art. For his work, he first sticks glue on his canvas before spreading it with sand.
Initially, he started off working on flood-based themes.
“I learned the artwork following grids and lines. Usually, in vector art, monochrome lines are created and done using a single marker on white paper. Inverted art is different and is more popular in foreign countries. I wanted to introduce it in the city, and to make it more unique, I have tried merging both vector and inverted art,” the artist said.
A second-year aeronautical engineering student at ACE College, Ananthu has been popularising this art at college events. “My first inverted art attempt was on the character of Stan Lee from the Marvel movies. I garnered a lot of attention from Summer of 19, another event held in the city. I have so far done five live upside-down portraits till now,” he said.