Ritesh Mohapatra is a self-taught artist and a true one at that. No YouTube or formal training in art facilitated his growth as a sketcher. There was just one factor involved, practice. And you really have to see it to believe the magic that the 25-year-old casts on paper, the portraits are life-like and replicas of the public figures he draws in more ways than one. "I fell like this is the only thing I am good at, so I would never like to give up on it," says the youngster.
There was a time when Ritesh, who was born in Bhubaneswar, used to sketch portraits every day, but since he started working as a Business Technology Analyst at Deloitte, Hyderabad, the frequency might have gone down, but the skill has only sharpened. And how do we know this for sure? Recently, when the head of Deloitte Digital, Andy Main visited their office, Ritesh was asked to sketch a portrait for him. And when he did, we are told that Main loved it. So clearly, Ritesh's still got it.
Today, this alumnus of ITER takes orders to make portraits and has been doing so for quite some time. Till date, he has taken 70 orders and lucky for us, he still actively takes up orders though he is not as active as he used to be on social media due to his job.
Talking about how sketching might take a backseat, but will never be forgotten, Ritesh says, "I want to draw colourful sketches, so I am trying to get in touch with other artists on Instagram who can help me out," he says. And, what next? "If India wins the World Cup, I might just do a series on the most favouite player of the tournament or something along those lines," he tells us. We can't wait!
