Here's why you should follow a young Instagrammer who makes highly detailed water colour miniatures that are no bigger than a coin
Miniature drawings of a Rajasthani dancer
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When Ritesh Bagai posts his drawings on Instagram, there is a reason why he chooses to embellish his posts with art stationery such as pencils, brushes and sharpeners. Dainty pencil shavings also make a frequent appearance. The paraphernalia's presence is more practical than art directed, says Bagai. "If I don't keep anything around my drawings, you won't realise how tiny they are," he explains.
Meet An Indian Miniaturist on Instagram. Bagai, a 19-year-old from New Delhi, makes exquisite drawings that are no bigger than a the new one-rupee coin. And, within these miniscule wonders, Bagai manages to pack in as many details as possible — Kalam's curls, the wispy mane of a stallion or the nose-ring of a Rajasthani dancer. With over 150 miniature drawings in his repertoire, Bagai says, "I know I am doing something different. People don't see enough of this kind of miniature work anymore.
Everyone just wants to make huge canvases."
Miniature drawings of a Sachin Tendulkar
Defeating the contemporary obsession with scale, Bagai uses water colours and colour pencils for this craft. While the term 'miniature' should point to the age-old established Indian tradition, Bagai says that his inspiration is more contemporary. He points to Lorraine Loots, a South African artist noted for her extreme miniatures. Drawing under the label, Painting for Ants, Loots became an Instagram sensation currently with 298K followers. That Bagai has found inspiration in her is rather obvious. "I wanted to make an Indian version of her phenomenal miniatures and I hope I can be as good as her," he says.
The intricacy of his Lilliputian art belies the fact that Bagai is a self-taught artist. "My mother, Tanu Bagai, is a commercial artist who specialises in cartoons. So, I could say I have it in my genes," he says. Bagai started his series in 2015, around the same time he joined a Bachelor of Fine Arts programme at College of Art, New Delhi. Specialising in the applied arts, Bagai says that working entirely on digital platforms can do only so much for him. He prefers to carry his handy Mont Marte stationery kit even on treks, as he did recently at Triund, Himachal Pradesh, and make miniature sketches.
Ritesh Bagai
It's a painstaking process — if your watercolours go awry, it means you start from scratch — but Bagai says that he can finish works in three hours or less with triple zero brushes. Now, he is on the hunt for a single-hair brush, hard to source in the country, to render the finer details of his works. These days, the young artist also makes pint-sized caricatures for clients, for rates that range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000.
Given the level of detailing, you'd think Bagai would need a magnifying glass to pore into his work. That's hardly the case, he laughs, adding that he did, however, make a miniature drawing of a magnifying glass. Zoom in to his posts and you will spot it on the bottom left as a neat and clever watermark.
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