Karthik Abhiram: Life in a sketch

Techie Karthik Abhiram relives iconic film moments through his sketches

May 25, 2017 04:17 pm | Updated 04:17 pm IST

Techie Karthik Abhiram in his childhood had divided his time between watching slick Hollywood actioners and sketching his heart out. As he presents an exhibition of his movie sketches alongside Parul Verma’s works for The Art Conf Hyd 2017 at Collab House, Jubilee Hills this weekend, he’s happy that all the hours he dedicated to sketching beyond office, his ‘Daily Movie Sketch Challenge’ on Instagram are finally paying off. Besides art works from comic books, his inclination to draw and sketch came from the highly-detailed painted posters of American artist Drew Struzan, credited to have worked for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series in the 70s and 80s. “It’s a standard I would like to reach some day,” Karthik reveals.

“I have always been a fan of action, sci-fi and horror movies. Everytime I found something remarkable in what I watched, I relived those moments through my sketches. Being a keen observer of filmmaking as a craft and with my liking for photography, sketching was a natural progression,” the artist adds. Although he admits sketching is a stress buster and that his involvement makes him forget the world for a while, his hobby is a good way to network with people, thanks to his efforts on Instagram, where he sketched everyday for four months and his work enjoyed widespread attention. “Every time I sketch something, I look forward to interacting about it to improve,” he adds.

He discovered Instagram in 2012, realised its potential to organise meetups from diverse communities. His everyday sketching challenge was inspired from Jake Parker’s initiative Inktober, where people would sketch everyday only with ink in the month of October. “It’s always good to meet other artists who share similar vibes.” All this eventually led him to an Indian Artist Meetup in the city, where amateur artists came together to discuss art in weekly sessions. “That’s where we discussed where artists could exhibit their original works.”

Art Conf will feature his 15 movie-related sketches, including the iconic sequences in Baahubali where Kattappa places the foot of baby Amarendra Baahubali on his head, besides Devasena’s intro shot as a warrior. Some of his other sketches come from the movie Dhruva and an Alia Bhatt starrer too. Meanwhile, artist Parul Verma will showcase her series of landscape paintings done on water colour too. “I’m happy that sketching continues to be my hobby and not my mainstream job where I may have to associate it with money. Freedom is something I value the most and I wouldn’t want to compromise on that,” Karthik signs off.

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