"I've been doing art since childhood in all kinds of medium. Art is now more of a necessity, that I need to do everyday or else I don't feel happy with my self.
Tagthagata Paul
Art has definitely changed my life, more specifically Hyper-realism (the genre I prefer to work these days) has taught me patience. Some of the large art works like that featured here takes more or less 100 hours to complete. I feel this kind of art is kind of therapeutic.
I discovered Hyper-realism in the year 2013 when I saw a portrait drawn by Kelvin Okafor. I was blown away by the details and the level of dedication that Kelvin puts in each of his works. After a lot of researching and hard work I am able to create my version of hyper-realism.
Artists like Kelvin Okafor and Marco Grassi are my inspirations.
Serenity by Tathagata Paul
Graphite and Charcoal on paper
55 × 75 cm
My advice to young artist is that learn the basics and the building blocks of a medium you want work in. Keep developing your techniques, and more importantly PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
All my artworks starts with an idea. I like to make a rough sketch of the idea that's in my head in a small pad, then adjusting and refining it. Now as I'm working in hyper-realism I need to good reference photograph, so the next step to take the reference photo. Mostly I shoot the photograph myself using a DSLR and proper lighting. Now starts the actual drawing. I start by drawing the outlines ( to help with proportions with the large artworks I use the grid method). Now the shading. I'm use both graphite and charcoals for my artworks. It's now a matte of time and patience to achieve the proper value, tonal ranges, and finally the detailing."
You can follow Tathagata Paul on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/tathagatapaul_art/