A painting a day by Mandakini Rao

Hyderabad: Around mid-February this year, 24-year-old Mandakini Rao quit her job to immerse herself in the practise of art. So much was her conviction that she put herself through a grueling test, an exercise that she called the 48-day project.

The project involved her painting one full work every day. And while this might be considered ambitious even by senior artists, at her show last week, her works were not only appreciated, they also sold.

“It was just a random idea at first. But then slowly I began to understand that this was important for me as an artist,” she says, adding, “Around the fourth day, I was so tired that whatever I painted wasn’t good. I was scared that I would not be able to finish my project.”

But her calling kept her going. Mandakini’s body of art reflects a wide range of subjects from city life to the sculptures of Ajanta, portraits of people like M.S. Subbulakshmi and even wildlife. “I want people to connect with my art immediately,” says the Hyderabadi.

Speaking of connecting with people, the artist is also an expert in 3D art, which has been increasingly taking off across the globe in the form of street art.

“It’s an illusion and to create that, one needs to understand perspectives, and execute the work with precision,” says Mandakini, who had earlier quit her studies and taken a course in Visual FX and Graphic Designing in 2012.

Since then she had been worked as a creative head and UI designer with an iOS, Android apps company and also in an advertisement agency. Her salaries and savings from these jobs went into buying art material, she says.

With enough supplies and enough inspiration, she quit her job to be a full time artist. For sustenance, she is now working as a freelance graphic designer.