Storytelling often comes naturally to artists. They can weave narratives on a single canvas or sheet of paper or through a series of comic strips. Thiruvananthapuram-based Nithin Prasad is an artist who makes portraits using oil paints, watercolours and pencil colours.
Nithin who goes by the name ‘Knitart’ on Instagram is famous for his mixed-media portraits. Although this 19-year-old has been sketching from his childhood, it was only after he passed out of school he thought of getting back to painting and started experimenting posting his work on social media.
“I used to go for painting classes to a nearby art school near my house in Attingal during vacations. I started with pencil drawings, it has been only a few months since I started doing portraits using mixed mediums. Like any other form of art, drawing needs practice,” said Nithin. He is presently doing his Bachelors in Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
From making realistic portraits of superheroes to recreating classic paintings such as the Monalisa which he made using colour pencils, and watercolours, Nithin always has an eye for detail. Out of all the mediums, watercolour is the artist’s favourite but he says that it also one of the most challenging mediums. “It is different from others as there is no redo option after a piece is completed. No changes can be made and the paper should also be of good quality.” Nithin has completed over 300 portrait paintings so far.
Besides making portrait paintings using oil and watercolours, Nithin also creates comic strips. Recently, he made a comic strip titled ‘LOST’ is inspired by an incident from his childhood when he lost his way back home. He says, “I used to do comic strips about my past but now I am focusing more on the events in my everyday life.” He has also been approached by one of the publications in Ahmedabad to do a comic strip.