Forest meditation
A Brahmin boy meditating in the forest. Painted in Sketchbook on my iPad.
Woman in traditional saree
Another portrait painted from imagination. On iPad Sketchbook with Apple Pencil.
The Detective
Heavily inspired by Jeremy Brett’s definitive portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. I didn’t set out to get Jeremy Brett’s likeness, but simply wanted to capture the spirit of Sherlock Holmes. Painted in MyPaint (after a long time) with my XP-Pen Artist 10S.
Rashmika Mandanna portrait
Portrait of Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna. Painted in Sketchbook on my iPad.
Woman with flowing hair
Portrait after a very long time. Painted from imagination on my iPad with the Sketchbook app.
Just a random portrait
Just a random portrait after a long time painted fully from imagination. Painted in Sketchbook on my iPad.
Portrait of late actor “Major” Sundarrajan
A portrait of late Tamil actor “Major” Sundarrajan. Painted using Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10S.
For those who are not aware, “Major” Sundarrajan was a distinctive actor in his time, holding his own again giants like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan with excellent character roles. The “Major” sobriquet is from his iconic role in the play, later adapted as a movie, Major Chandrakanth in which he played the titular role of a retired, blind major and shot into fame.
This is one of those portraits that I didn’t struggle with to get the likeness. Getting a likeness is still magic to me – it sometimes works almost effortlessly and at other times, I struggle and struggle till I give up and use a different reference image. I guess the trick is not relying on a single image but using multiple references, because a single photo doesn’t convey a person’s distinct personality. I chose to go with colour with this one, because it’s been a long time since I’ve painted a portrait in this style.
Portrait of Vijay Sethupathi (Master)
A portrait of tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi from the movie “Master”. Drawn using Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10s.
Yet another portrait. This time, I’ve gone back to my trusty XP-Pen Artist 10s with Krita. Vijay Sethupathi was a challenging one to get right. I had multiple attempts from different photos, until I chose this one from the movie “Master” as a reference. Part of the problem with likeness of certain actors is capturing their personality. The other one I drew on the iPad was a poor likeness which I struggled with for hours before I discarded it. However, nothing is wasted, and I think after studying his face, I kind of got it right this time. It is a big relief, because every time I struggle with a particular portrait, I keep thinking that I’ve lost my touch.
I wanted to make a smooth portrait after the rough pencilwork, but I chose to publish this, as I think this style looks a bit different from my usual stuff.
Portrait caricature of Actor Politician Vijaykanth
A portrait caricature of Tamil actor-political leader “Captain” Vijaykanth. Painted on iPad using Sketchbook and Adobe Fresco.
Adobe Fresco is a decent ipad painting app with enough free features and good brushes to get along. Yes, you can also export as PSD which is very useful. It does use cloud storage though1 , so if you want a local copy of your creation it is better to export as a PSD file and store it somewhere.
I am also getting used to the Apple Pencil (1st gen) and feeling less rusty than before. I hope to continue drawing and painting more regularly now.
- There doesn’t seem a way to turn off cloud storage and use local storage exclusively. Yes I am a bit old school. [↩]