What started off as a mere fan struck moment for Ashok Bhaduri has now turned into a full-blown passion. “I fell in love with Asha Parekh the very first time I saw her and I knew then that I had to sketch her,” says the 60 year old who was in Std VI back then. He recalls that he first started sketching on the reverse side of calendar pages. Initially sketching Asha Parekh, he slowly started making drawings of her co-actors and took an immense liking towards Dev Anand.
As he grew up, Bhaduri moved to a more intricate method of drawing called stippling. “Stippling is a concept that uses dotting technique to trace out designs and objects,” he says. This technique is similar to creating real-life pixels which is an interesting yet time-consuming type of drawing. He believes it takes long hours of practice, dedication and patience to perfect this rare art form.
Bhaduri mentions that initially he used pencils for stippling but then it would fade out easily since he used typing paper. He then made the switch to drawing sheets and rotring pen which is specifically used for precise technical drawing. “As a child, my mother was the only one who would appreciate my art and also give me a few tips on the areas I could work on,” he says. He then started working with a few rules of art that states the picture should have 50 per cent face and 50 per cent hair which brings out the best of a portrait.
Bhaduri says black and white represent sorrow and joy and these colours bring the pictures to life because they add shade and light which is very important in portraits. Talking about the method that he follows, he says he lightly sketches an outline of the face, giving emphasis to the areas that will remain white, and then starts with the dotting process with extreme precision. He says it is highly impossible to finish a single portrait within a day.
Bhaduri is a die-hard Dev Anand fan and had the privilege to meet him in 1992, when he also showed the late actor one of his masterpieces and Dev Anand happily signed an autograph on the very same portrait. “I was dumbstruck when I met him and could not even think of taking a photograph with him,” he recalls.
He claims that he has a collection of more than 300 portraits all in stippling technique of Bollywood actors. He has also started working on colour pencil sketches. He wishes to display all his Dev Anand portraits as an ode to the late actor at a gallery which will be dedicated to him.