Amitabh Bachchan: a 'pencil perception' by Sadashiv Sawant!

Pencil Perceptions, the studio established by Sadashiv Sawant encompasses the wide world of pencil drawings. The artist, passionate about the sketching skills he has developed with years of practice – is equally passionate about teaching others the art of sketching with graphite and charcoal. So, he conducts workshops, and now even offers regular coaching in classes of varied durations for aspiring artists. Landscapes, fruits, flowers, and animals – all are a part of Sawant’s portfolio. 

Sawant’s forte, though, is portraits. He is enthralled by faces – and the plethora of emotions conveyed by them. It could be eyes filled with tears of joy, a tender look, a naughty smile – capturing the right emotion is the biggest challenge that any artist doing portraits, faces. In black and white rendering, with no colours to support the art-work, the challenge quotient increases multi-fold. This becomes particularly critical when the artist prefers the style of photo-realistic renderings. 

“Photo-realism is not about drawing a portrait picture or capturing an image, it is about noticing the variation in tonal values, gradation and highlights. It is about capturing a particular type of feeling, emotion or mood of a character or a particular characteristic of a picture that is recreated,” says artist Sadashiv Sawant. 

“For the last 30 years I have been working on architectural visualizations bringing real life to the architectural presentations. While doing these architectural presentations on board as well as on computers my eyes got accustomed to analyze lights, shades, shadows and contrast. To bring reality to the images I realized that the tonal play is a vital part of rendering. It is these highlights, shadows and secondary shadows that play a vital role in bringing images to life. My passion to capture moods and feelings in a portrait brought about the thought to use the same technology to bring liveliness and depth in the area of pencil drawing. It is this thought that lead me to photorealism,” he explains.

Sawant’s forte, though, is portraits. He is enthralled by faces – and the plethora of emotions conveyed by them. It could be eyes filled with tears of joy, a tender look, a naughty smile – capturing the right emotion is the biggest challenge that any artist doing portraits, faces. In black and white renderings, with no colours to support the art-work, the challenge quotient increases multi-fold. 

“Every stroke of the pencil is a line in a story that is ready to be read,” elucidates the artist. And when Amitabh Bachchan is the subject of the portrait – expectations go skyrocketing, the pressure is enormous. He has been captured in varied moods and styles, over the last five decades. His face is known to the tiniest toddler and the oldest granny; his popularity scales across urban and rural India; and it sells products ranging from hair-oil to jewellery, and from paav-bhaaji masala to high-end men’s suiting.

Besides the legendary Indian superstar, the artist has a collection of some other celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, too! Also through TFOD - The Future Of Design, the artist was commissioned by IIID (Institute of Indian Interior Designers) to do a sketch of famous architect Hafeez Contractor - also seen here! 

So, enjoy the ‘pencil perceptions’ of artist Sadashiv Sawant!! And join us in wishing Amitabh Bachchan a very happy birthday!!