Sudarshan Varadhan
First Published : 07 Jul 2010 11:08:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 07 Jul 2010 01:24:15 AM IST
CHENNAI: Digital artists are a perplexing lot. They’re known to be quiet. So as I was waiting to meet Sudarshan, a 14-year old digital artist, I was pondering over a lot of issues. I wasn’t sure if he would talk and even if he did, I wasn’t sure if he’d be mature enough to express his thoughts without painting them with exaggeration.
But meeting this wonder kid proved to be a luminous experience. I sparked off the conversation by asking him to describe himself and tell me something about his beginnings. “I go by the creative identity of Suddu,” he said, as he noisily sipped his grape juice. “I first got to know about Adobe Photoshop back in the summer of 2008 at a gaming forum. The photo manipulations impressed me greatly and made me curious as well,” he said and added, “I was really passionate about learning Photoshop and thanks to the level of interest, I was getting a grasp on the basics at an almost impossible pace. Soon, I started posting my works on the Internet and the encouragement I was getting via positive comments from legendary artists helped my cause.”
So how exactly did he elevate himself to the next level? “I sent one of my works to Advanced Photoshop international magazine. It got published and to add to my joy, they also selected it as the “Picture of the week”. I’m also a proud registered member of Deviantart, a world renowned art portal where artists separated by barriers of distance and language get together to share their thoughts on each others’ works.”
What exactly do you work on? “Typography, vector and abstract. I work on Photoshop, Illustrator and Wacom bamboo tablet.” When asked about his clients and mentors, his eyes lit up. “A professional DJ from Greece was the first one to approach me with a project. But it soon fizzled out as he could not understand English,” he rues. “Ever since, there has been no looking back though. I was then asked by Lewis McAdam, the owner of the site called fanglewurzle.com to create some promotional work for his site. I am currently collaborating with Gianluigi Di Giacomo and Anthony Giacomino who’ve worked for Rafael Nadal and Alan Iverson. I also did some promotional work for the band OmegaCode.”
His influences? “My inspirations are music, movies, art, philosophy. Work of artists like Anthony Giacomino, David Waters, Alex Lataille and Erik Sumacher, also inspire me. The works of Salvador Dali have also influenced me.”
His experiences and views about the world of art.“ I have learnt that if you want to stick out of the group then you must not follow trends and that my strength lies in the fact I am not afraid to experiment and can handle criticism pretty well. I am still trying to learn more about composition, blending, shadows, lighting and colour. Digital art will still take some time to get recognised as a creative outlet. People generally assume that digital art is just by a few clicks. I normally work on a single piece for about 20-25 hours.” Don’t you think your works have an air of negativity surrounding them? “ I don’t want my gallery to be made out of negative or positive pieces. Art is an expression of opinion. There’s nothing positive or negative about it,” he signs off.
Websites: www.suddu.net
www.suddu001.deviantart.com
Contact number: 9443713220
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