Jagesh Edakkad’s graphite-black chisel marker flashes across the drawing paper held firm by a metal easel. Curious kids in party wear gather around him for their turn as the artist effortlessly puts the finishing touches to a portrait of a six-year-old girl posing on a chair at a wedding reception. In a jiffy, the portraitist hands out the completed sketch and smilingly asks another boy to take the seat.
ADVERTISEMENT
Whether it’s private wedding ceremonies, corporate events or celebrity-driven gatherings, spot portraitures and caricatures have caught on with event managers to engage people. With sketch pens in hand, rising to the occasion are ‘instant artists’ with their quick, deft strokes.
“I often take up live portraiture work on weekends and on holidays, mainly for that extra income,” says Jagesh. The professional painter, whose forte is quick, realistic sketches, says he takes about four minutes for a drawing.
ADVERTISEMENT
Artist Rethish Ravi, however, finds it’s quicker to do a pencil caricature than a portrait sketch. Rethish, who counts cartoonist and caricaturist Prakash Shetty as an influence, says he now focusses more on business and corporate events where caricatures done on papers with pre-printed company logos are presented to delegates as gifts.
“It takes me about three minutes to produce a live caricature. Portraits sometimes take longer as capturing an exact copy has to be as punctilious as possible. For caricatures, by its very nature, geometric perfection is not necessary,” he says, pointing out that the culture of street caricaturing is quite common in the European countries.
The Kochi native presented the renowned Vietnamese-American photographer Nick Ut with a colour caricature of the lensman during his visit to the State earlier this year.
There are other artists who love to embellish their portrait sketches with shades and details, like Ajin S, who teaches drawing at Tint Academy for Art in the city. “I use finger smudges for shades that help create a depth effect, apart from saving ink (laughs). So I sometimes take 7-8 minutes for a work on buff paper,” he says. Practice is of paramount importance to stay sharp with the strokes and Ajin, who prefers to use graphite pencils that facilitate shading, says he often draws sketches for friends for free “to not lose touch.” While chisel marker seems to be the most preferred, artists also use calligraphic pen, brush pen or direct ink brush for bold strokes.
For seasoned spot caricaturist like Ibrahim Badusha, known as the Cartoon Man, all it takes is less than a minute to capture an impression. So, what’s the secret? “Relentless practice,” he says with a laugh. Badusha feels that the mere picture of an artist at work turns heads. “What I have observed is that people’s attention span is going down and many are drawn to instant art these days. Caricatures are deemed ‘cute’ and people of all ages easily take a liking to it,” he explains. He recounts how celebrated Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk bowled him over by drawing a caricature of his after the artist did a live sketch of the auteur who was in town during the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2013.
Several fine arts students too take to spot portraiture “for pocket money” as well as to hone drawing skills. Like Drishwin N V from the College of Fine Arts who hits the Shanghumugham beach with his painter-friends on Sunday nights with easels in hand. “Since there’s a picturesque backdrop and play of light and shadow, I often draw detailed sketches of beach-goers that take about 15-20 minutes,” says Drishwin, who also does sketch work in his free time on orders from a city-based service that connects buyers and sellers. Picture perfect!