Think of line drawing, the first illustration which comes to one's mind is probably that of K.K. Hebbar.
It is the birth centenary year of Hebbar (1911-1996) who hailed from Udupi and lived in Mumbai.
Expressions
A close associate of Hebbar and founder of Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village in Manipal, Vijaynath Shenoy said that Hebbar used minimum simple lines without shade to convey more. Facial expressions of his line drawing works were not static but lively.
Hasta Shilpa museum had a gallery displaying Hebbar's works.
It had his artworks, including line drawings, books on him and media reviews, Mr. Shenoy said.
Contemporary line drawing artist and writer Dinesh Holla said Hebbar mostly chose Yakshagana, Kambla, bhoota kola, cock fight and other rural sports and folk arts in his line drawings.
Born gift
He said that line drawing was a born gift to Hebbar. Line drawing was synonym with his name and “it was his brand”.
Mr. Holla said that “one side drawing” was a unique style of Hebbar.
For example, to draw hands, he just sketched a line without drawing two lines to show a hand.
“Many artists, who tried to imitate it, have failed,'' he said.
Artist Purushotham Adve said Hebbar was an internationally acclaimed artist whose birth centenary should be celebrated at the international-level in the Mangalore region.
Hebbar depicted Tulasi Ramayana through line drawings.
Mr. Holla said that inspired by Hebbar he took to line drawing.
Whenever he visited abroad as part of Team Mangalore, a hobby group of kite flyers, he drew line drawings at kite festival stalls.
He said that he had visited Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, England, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and South Korea for kite festivals.
People there bought on the spot line drawing works, he said.
Manual line drawings
“People abroad like manual line drawings on different arts and cultures of India. People buy works on Yakshagana, bhoota kola, Kambala, Tulu folk dances within no time of completing them,'' he said.
“I tried drawing monuments of their respective countries. There was less demand for such line works,” he said.
He said in domestic market and abroad, there was demand for abstract line drawing works as there was no boundary for imaginations unlike in realistic works.
Challenge
He said that the challenge in line drawing was the artist would have to convey more in minimum simple lines. More lines would lead to complexity.
Mr. Holla said that there was more demand for line drawing works as there were not many artists who had taken up this work.
