Welcome to this week’s Gators Eye artist feature! Today’s spotlight student is Nithya Janapati. Nithya is a junior at Green Level. Although she’s a student here, she’s lived on the other side of the world. “I’ve lived in the States most of my life, but I also lived in India for a few years, and it’s where I’m from!” she says. When Nithya’s not drawing, she passes her time in other ways. She also loves to play the guitar, read her favorite books, sing, and bike.

Nithya’s been an artist for as long as she can remember. “Back then I used to just draw random shapes and objects on erasable boards, and trust me, even those didn’t look great,” she jokes. Since then, she’s practiced almost daily to improve. She started taking art seriously when she was twelve, when she decided to invest in supplies and start seriously practicing. “I slowly began to figure out what blending and shading techniques worked for me, making my pieces more realistic,” she explains.

Nithya’s art has come a long way from random shapes and objects–now her work is incredibly detailed and realistic. Recently, she’s been trying to experiment with different mediums, including markers, graphite, and paint. “For my favorite medium though, I’m going to have to stick with what I started with–and that’s color pencils,” she says. Her drawings use vibrant colors, detailed blending, and careful shading to look like they’re popping out of a photograph. Her skills with realism and semi-realism are incredibly impressive.

Nithya’s biggest piece of advice to other artists is to branch out and experiment. “It’s so important to improve and broaden your skillset,” she explains, “ You get exposed to a different variety of techniques and styles, and you can also incorporate those other mediums into your work, creating a different style that you end up loving!” 

Gallery • 3 Photos

N. Janapati

Thank you to Nithya Janapati for her interview! If you like her work, check out her art account–@nithyasart on Instagram. If you would like to recommend yourself or a student for our artist spotlight, please email [email protected]!