We partnered with WACOM India for an interview series calledCreative Conversations to tell the stories of three people from completely different fields using the WACOM tablet.
Mayank Kumar
Our first #WACOMSpotlight is Mayank Kumar, a 29-year-old freelance artist based out of Almora, Uttrakhand. Mayank started his artistic journey at six, doodling and experimenting with colors. Comic books were and continue to be his main source of inspiration, and he found himself heavily influenced by Asian and Western art and pop culture, Manga and Anime. His love for art was further cultivated by parents who were good at painting and crafts.
Mayank pursued animation at 19, and has been working actively as a freelance artist since 2014. “I love the visual art of storytelling, whether in movie posters or comics. I use digital art to express my skills and stories through this medium. I have a hunger to work in the comics/graphic novel industry and tell stories through art.”
A WACOM user since 2016, he finds the tablet to be an extension of his creativity. He currently uses the Intuos Pro for working on Clip Studio Paint, Illustrator and Procreate. “The best part is the Freedom that it comes with. Any artist can feel the joy of using a pen digitally, the same as using a pencil on a paper and carrying your skills from traditional to digital.”
Making ends meet has been his biggest challenge as a freelance artist. But Mayank has slowly created a set of loyal clients through freelance websites and social media. “Freelancing taught me to be the jack-of-all-trades, so I do everything from comics and cartoons to digital painting and conceptual works.”
To learn more about Mayank’s work, follow him on @_mayankkumarr_
Haashika Shah
Our second #WACOMSpotlight is Mumbai-based 19-year-old graphic designer Haashika Shah. Currently a third year student at NMIMS , Haashika is constantly learning and getting a deeper understanding of art, design and the softwares she dabbles with.
She finds ideas and inspiration in everyday observations. If something catches her interest, she deep dives and reads about it extensively. She likes to explore new methods and techniques and keeps her eyes open for people and projects that spark ideas on Behance, Pinterest and Instagram.
Haashika has interned at Base501 by Shefali Desai and worked on several interesting projects spanning graphic design, illustration and animation. She believes in following her multiple interests instead of narrowing down the possibilities. “I’ve expanded my interests to new areas like UI, Coding and Data Visualisation, Photography, and Animation. I’m also learning about sculpture and knife painting.”
As a student, making the switch from offline to online classrooms wasn’t easy. But the WACOM tablet has made the transition easier because she doesn’t need a desk or pen and paper. All she needs for her online classroom is a laptop and my tablet.
“During the pandemic, we’ve had to move around the house a lot for the classes. I like that I can move around for the WACOM. It’s also very intuitive to use because I have a comfortable hand operating it. I use it for note taking and working on illustrations. I’ve also made two websites using WACOM and Adobe XD.”
Haashika is currently completing her third year at college and focusing on college projects and building her portfolio as a designer. Follow her work on @itsmehaashi
Pritesh Joshi
Our final #WACOMSpotlight is Pritesh Joshi, a Bangalore-based master teacher at the online tutoring platform Vedantu. Pritesh’s journey as a teacher began at 15 helping the kids in his neighbourhood. He then gained experience teaching in a coaching institute, a school, a publishing house and finally, reaching thousands of young minds through online learning.
Pritesh believes that every day is a new learning experience. “I am a proud ‘teacher by choice’ because I made the wise decision to follow this noble profession, which brings me sheer contentment. It makes me proud knowing I am contributing towards society by creating assets for the future. Teaching is my grit, my passion and something that makes me smile daily towards the rising sun!”
After 6+ years in traditional teaching that included the chalk and talk method, he decided to transition to online teaching to explore the possibilities. While he initially skeptical about the digital shift, he realised that he had to change the modus operandi to reach his full potential. “A little bit of technical knowledge, being open to learn and unlearn, and the grit to make a difference is all that it needs.”
At Vedantu, WACOM tablets have been complementing the online education experience since its start as a prerequisite for all our teachers. Since COVID-19 struck and online teaching has become the new norm, the value of the graphic tablet has found new contexts. “In a pandemic setting, every teacher should really explore this tool that helps take the classes to the next level. Even if there is course material on screen, teachers like to add their own notes, make bullet points or simply mark important words and points. Being a biology teacher, I love drawing diagrams for my students on my tablet,” says Pritesh, who has been working with the tablet for the past three years.
Follow Pritesh on @pritesh_vedantu.