Etching it out

Unique hobbies

Every new year countless resolutions and wishes are made but most of them never materialise. Even the grandest of plans fall flat on their face when it comes to implementation. But Sheetal R, a business operations and project manager at Epsilon, has stuck to hers with grit.

And once she got used to making artwork every week, she fell in love with it and now finds doodling addictive. “I made a pact with a few of my friends in January; we decided to doodle every week as we love art and craft,” she says. It started out as a way to indulge a childhood hobby but turned into a passion soon enough. So far she has made 11 doodles, some of which resemble Zentangles or are inspired by them.

With intricate designs and patterns, Sheetal doodles whenever she gets free time. This includes when she’s at work. “It’s therapeutic and keeps me engaged,” she explains. Black and white swirls, twirls, curves, hoops and layers dominate her work, though she has used colour in some pieces. “But I prefer drawing black and white pieces because they have more depth to them, despite the lack of colours.” She can’t place the feeling but finds these drawings more aesthetically pleasing and fun to work with when compared to others.

“I use water colour paper, which doesn’t hold colour very well. If I use sketch pens on it, it’ll run colour. This is why I use colour pencils and darken them as much I want.” But mostly, Sheetal uses black gel pens or permanent markers with slim nibs to etch her sketch.

She started with Zentangles but branched out to other types of doodles including caricatures and unstructured patterns. “Zentangle is a type of doodle that is very structured — every pattern and design has its place in the drawing. I never formally learnt the art of drawing Zentangles from anyone, I just picked it up on the internet, but I branched out soon, to a more unstructured form,” she says. Words, letters and numbers can be found in her work.

While doodles take up much of her time they aren’t her only interest. “I was cleaning my room one day when I realised how many items I have that aren’t being used. I found it a criminal waste for them to just sit around the house, which is why I decided to turn them into something else.” This led her to upcycling scrapbooks, albums and more. Talking about her childhood and love for art, she says, “I’ve loved sketching since I was a kid. I used to replicate images I liked; I’d either turn them into miniatures or enlarge them to my liking. Although I’ve always loved working on art there hasn’t been much time. It happens in phases, which is why I decided to take it more seriously now,” she says.

With all the artwork she has been doing, Sheetal says she might just take it more seriously and give it more time. Since doodling doesn’t need much preparation, she let’s her thoughts and hands ‘flow’ and waits with baited breath for the result.

     On some days she is inspired by patterns around her, on others she just doodles without thinking. But there’s one thing she is sure of — “Art is a long-term project, not something I’m going to give up after a while,” she says.