For Shillong-bred, now based in Bangalore artist Robina Dey, digital art is her space of calm.Following her graduation in 3D animation and VFX from Pune, she now works as a website designer.
An avid animal lover, she mentions how she has always been interested in different art forms, be it dance, painting and embroidery, among others. With time, it was painting/sketching that remained integral to her journey from Shillong to Bangalore.
She says, “As a child, I had started with pencils, colours and sketch pens. I used to take part in various state and inter-state competitions throughout the year.”
Between 2001 and 2002, Robina came first in the all-India Camlin art contest, making the state proud.
Credit goes to her father for encouraging her to pursue art. She states how she could never remain in an art school for over two weeks. Later, the internet became a goldmine as she continued to research artists. Being self-taught has been an important learning curve so far.
Towards Digital Art
She left for Pune for her graduation and then shifted to Bangalore to carve a career. Back at home, her artworks were getting damaged. To protect them, she started learning software, pertaining to digital art.
“I figured it is a better way to protect my creations. That I can make as many edits as I want to, make it even more meaningful,” she says.
Rather than going the conventional way, Robina put up exhibitions in flea markets to meet fellow artists.
She says how digital art is an emerging art form at the moment.
Here, the traditional techniques – oils, watercolours, pencil or charcoal – are applied using digital tools.All one needs is a computer, a graphics tablet, a stylus and knowledge of the software.
On her journey, she says how she started first with ‘Photoshop’, then moved to ‘Illustrator’ once she won a Wacom in college. Now, she has upgraded and uses an iPad and has shifted to ‘Procreate’, which according to her, is “easy, efficient and works wonders.”
On her method to digital madness, she says “Toggling between your imagination and putting it down to reality is another story. Sometimes there is so much running in my head – the picture looks beautiful in my imagination but I end up drawing something else.”
Robina chuckles as she mentions how sleep becomes elusive when an idea or an inspiration strikes her, adding that she has to finish an art project.
For her, art is like meditation. She devotes an hour to it despite her busy schedule.
Plan Ahead!
For Robina, digital art is a hobby and not a full-time profession. Perhaps this is the reason she has not faced the challenges many professional artistsface.
That said she says, “I have observed a lack of appreciation for an artist’s work. I see concern with the finished art, but no one is witness to the effort that goes into making anything artistic. Art is not free.”
She plans to open a small business someday. On whether she wants to turn her hobby into a profession, she adds how she does not want to get tired of doing something that she loves.
Her message for aspiring digital artists, “There is an immense demand for illustrators nowadays. With the country going towards the digital there are a lot of career options for digital artists too, unlike the olden days. To mention a few, Comic Book Illustrator, Film Storyboarding, Fashion Illustrator and a lot of technology companies hire Illustrators.”