The journey of a sketch artist
PHOTOS: EXPRESS
In 2010 Ehsan Danish Yousafzai started fruit carving – making different designs on fruits and vegetables as a hobby – but soon abandoned it due to the temporary nature of the art form. His journey, however, with art didn’t end there. Today his work range from biographical sketching to oil paintings to spray painting to oil colour (painting on walls) as well as calligraphy and woodwork.
“I started from fruits and vegetables carving but my seniors advised me to abandon it and I didn’t like it too due to its temporary nature so I switched to other mediums and today I claim to be the first biographical sketch artist in Pakistan,” said Ehsan Danish Yousafzai while talking to The Express Tribune, adding that he recently started learning calligraphy too.
“From childhood I was interested in different arts so I started it on my own without learning from any one just as a hobby. I have no teachers but a lot of inspiration came from other artists whose work I really admire. Inspiration will always be there for an artist. But it is also true that I learned from my mistakes as I have no regular teacher,” he said.
Ehsan Danish Yousafzai is popularly known as Dani – his art name among his friends.
“I am the first one to work on biographical sketches in Pakistan and K-P. In biographical sketches the life details of a person are handwritten inside the sketch so that you know everything about him from the sketch,” said Dani, adding that it was not easy to work as a painter in Pakthun society.
“Today with the increasing number of visitors my father has finally started openly expressing his dislike for my work. There is no buyer around for our work and you know it is an expensive thing. A local tube of colours is available for Rs250 and a branded one for Rs2500. I bought a pencil made in Germany for Rs1400,” he said about the difficulties he encountered, adding that despite all these things he still loves his work.
“There is no buyer around. If anyone is interested he will pay Rs1000 for a painting which costs Rs2000,” he said about the general attitude of people in the K-P, adding that most of the time he gifts his sketches to people free of cost.
Ehsan said that painting was a time-consuming process physically and mentally.
“For a living I have a boutique in Abbotabad as I am basically from Swabi district but my family is settled in Abbotabad since 2002,” he said, adding that several exhibitions of his work have been held and he participated in several projects too.
As far as the future is concerned, I am learning Arabic calligraphy these days but still my main medium is biographical art and I have a collection of around 200 pieces with me, he said.
“With the passage of time my work is improving in quality and I am very happy with it. I want to earn my district and myself a good name internationally,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2021.