Talented Teens:
Fourteen-year-old Indian expat YASH KASHYAP lives in Singapore with his parents and younger sister. He studies at the Overseas Family School, where his favourite subjects are mathematics, science and – no surprise! – visual art.
Meet a 14-year-old drawing star
When did you start making art?
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. At a young age, my parents would show me picture books, and I would look at the illustrations. This led to me watching movies like Jurassic Park, and when we moved to Hong Kong, I constantly drew dinosaurs – not just T-Rexes and Stegosauruses, but even ones like Yangchaunosaurus and Archaeopteryx. I moved from drawing on walls to drawing on pieces of paper and everything seemed to fall into place after that!
Where do you get inspiration for your drawings?
My mom introduced me to drawing at a young age, which is what started my interest, but other forms of media like YouTube videos and movies really were what kept my interest going – especially with the different characters, creatures and personalities in the movies I watched, like Star Wars, and in games like Minecraft.
A lot of different things inspire me, including news and media, current trends, new movies, books and video games. Often, my drawings come from comic characters or movie characters, like Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Harry Potter and other recognisable franchises.
Tell us a bit about your process of creating an artwork.
The planning stage is extremely variable. Sometimes, I immediately can tell what I want to make – the size, references and medium all come instantly. But often, I have “art block”, and when that happens, it can take days, or sometimes even weeks to decide on a subject for drawings.
The drawings are done on heavy and smooth drawing paper, and are done by sketching, either with colour pencils, markers, Posca pens, Micron pens or charcoal. It takes many, many layers for drawings to look finished, and often, even in the late stages of the process, I will restart the entire drawing.
What would you like to do in the future?
Whatever field I pursue, even if it isn’t art-related, I’ll always keep on drawing. Art is one of my biggest interests, and something I take pride in. My permanent goal is to improve – improve realism, improve different art styles, improve my usage of different mediums, and many other things. I’m too pragmatic to focus on any other drastic goal!