KOCHI: Kerala Blasters Football Club has been winning the heart of many sporty Malayalis over the years. One of the team’s pillars of strength, is Hidayath Razi, a Malappuram native and senior team manager of The Blasters since 2018. Adept at guiding the team and managing its players, Razi also has a hidden talent that keeps him grounded and helps him keep the stress at bay - sketching. He loves to draw buildings and structures he comes across during his journeys. It is more like a meditation for Razi.
According to him, buildings make up for the aesthetic beauty of any place. This is why he likes to focus on architecture more than people portraits. He makes both coloured and monochrome frames using colour pens and even a simple ball pen featuring popular monuments, roads, and street life. Gwalior fort, Mattanchery Jew Street, Tehri dam, Madikeri fort, Imphal sights, Dharmapuri, Thalashery Fort - Razi’s collection offers a peek into the past, present and future of our country.
“I did my college education at Mysore University. The city is home to many historical structures including those built by Tipu Sultan during his rule. Buildings always appealed to me. Though I draw caricatures of people, I feel more comfortable and confident drawing buildings. I have loved sketching and football equally for as long as I can remember. Wherever I travel, windows, doors and arches catch my eye. I have been sketching them since 2012,” adds Razi.
Razi completed 400 days of drawing and plans to complete 1,000 days very soon, just out of passion. The travel enthusiasts explored his art more during his quarantine days at Goa last year.
“Since last October, we are at Goa as part of the Indian Super League. This whole time, I have been challenging myself to sketch at least one frame every day, as part of the 1,000 days of sketching challenge. I devote one two two hours daily towards this. I got infected by Covid too, and the isolation period especially helped me brush up my sketching skills. Goa, with its pre-independent buildings and quaint streets, also helped bring out the artist in me. The buildings here are also full of colour unlike in Kerala - red, yellow, blue and whatnot. Traditional red houses may have green windows, a kind of architecture influenced by Portuguese culture. Painting them also helps me learn about their history. While posting my artworks on social media, I also make it a point to narrate the history behind them,” says Razi, who adds his favourite colour is Yellow.
Razi wishes to explore more parts of the country and abroad and capture them in his drawings. “It helps me free my mind. My dream is to visit Chile and South America and sketch the buildings there,” he adds.
Did you know?
The Gwalior Fort (Gwaliyar Qila) is a hill fort in Madhya Pradesh that has been around since at least the 10th century. Inscriptions and monuments discovered within suggest it may have been around as early as the sixth century.
@razi023 on Instagram