KOCHI: To celebrate Independence Day on August 15, two friends Tarun Srinivasan and Vishnu S H of Class VIII at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Attukal, plans to showcase the portraits of some prominent freedom fighters in the country. The eminent personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose, Kelappan, etc. have taken birth on canvases of the young artists.
The duo has been guided by Arun Vijay, who is the art teacher at Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir, Thiruvananthapuram. “Vishnu’s mother is my colleague. So, I started giving private drawing classes for him and his friend Tarun last year. Though very new to the art, they were talented and started to perform portraits within two months after joining. Recently, they came up with the idea of drawing freedom fighters prior to Independence Day. They also have plans to portray life-size drawings of a few of these freedom fighters on canvas,” says Arun.
The realistic portraits made using graphite pencil are a tribute to the freedom fighters, says Vishnu S H. “Tarun and I are best friends since pre-school. We both love drawing realistic portraits, especially capturing one’s face as it is. I felt happy and proud while drawing portraits of prolific heroes we studied on history books”.
The rich composition of the portraits on the canvas by Tarun and Vishnu resembles that of real photographs of the freedom fighters. The artists had to balance their online classes to find time to complete their art projects. “Portraying Nehru was more time-consuming than others. I try to complete one portrait at a go and only takes a few minutes break in between. We also plan to create life-size drawings of at least two freedom fighters in the coming days. The freedom fighter series also help us learn the facial structures. Apart from pencil medium, I also love to draw sceneries using acrylic,” Tarun says.