This Bengaluru artist is teaching pencil sculpting, clay modelling through his live classes on Instagram

For someone who had started painting in class III and had became engrossed in sculpting by class VIII, it was high time that artist Chetan S Murthy started conducting live classes. And what better time than now, we think, when live sessions are the norm owing to the lockdown. Feeling the same way, this Bengaluru-based artist, with over 5,000 followers on Instagram @murthychetan, is now practicing his teaching chops and how. Pencil sculpting, pencil colour work, clay modelling, watercolour painting and sketching — there's a lot you can learn if you follow him. "Another reason why I wanted to host live sessions was that till date, people have only seen my final product. Now, they get to see the process," says the 24-year-old. 

These sessions are as organic as they can be as the self-taught artist posts the time of his online session in the morning and they can range for anywhere between 45 minutes to two and a half hours long. He started with teaching how to draw dainty flowers, to Pikachu to fictional character Tokyo from the Netflix series Money Heist. He even did an Irrfan Khan special when the actor passed away, where he taught followers how to draw his caricature. "The best feeling is when people send me pictures of their work," says the artist, who has gotten used to being distracted by the many doubts people post while he is mid-session. He has been conducting these sessions since April 22 and each session is attended by 160 to 200 people, he tells us.      

Chetan S Murthy | (Pic: Chetan S Murthy)

Chetan is a final-year Mechanical Engineering student from SJB Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, and yes, while he is another engineer-turned-artist, he genuinely assumed that he would be taught to design in this course. But does he know better now? "I do," laughs the artist as he adds, "I am planning to pursue a course in Product Design, this time I have done my research," he says sheepishly.  

Some of his artwork

Chetan's simple advice to master art:
-  Don't give up in the beginning, be patient
- Keep practising
- Allow yourself to make mistakes
- Don't stress on perfection, just enjoy the process

For more on him, check out instagram.com/murthychetan