Shakthi Dass, also spelt as ShakthiDass or Shakthi Das, is an Indian painter, sketcher, and wrapper artist for children's magazines, comics and newspapers for the last four decades. He has been sketching nonstop professionally for the past 4 decades. He has freelanced for many Indian magazines like ''Bommarillu'', ''MVS Novels'', ''Balabharathi'', ''Rishi Peettam'', ''Bujjai'', ''Chinnari'', ''Balamitra'', ''Chandamama'', ''Rotary News'', ''Vijaya Publications'' and ''Oriya Vijay''. He has also done thousands of paintings for international publications and office and industrial settings. He started Chandrabala Publications. He is the founder of ''Aayurveda Sanjeevini'' and ''Chandrabala'' magazine in both English and Telugu versions. Shakthi Dass can draw 100 illustrations in six hours and is under consideration by the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

. His vivid paintings range from oil paintings, canvas, watercolor, acrylic, glass, and pencil covering abstract, figurative, cartoons, and realism arts. His unique skill is in sketching with pencil and then with brush or directly with brush without using a pencil sketch layout. He is known for conventional, unconventional and acrylic works in expressionist and cubist styles.

Early life and education

Career

Shakthi Dass showed interest in painting from his childhood when he was 14 years old. He earned is first income of 74 Indian rupees when he painted a picture of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

for a church in his village. During an interview with Telugu newspaper, Shakthi Dass discovered that this picture is currently in a church in Italy. He moved to

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, formerly

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

for employment in painting career and joined Ketha Cini Publicity studios in 1968 as a cini publicity designer in preparing sketches for film sets through his links from established hero Chalam cum relative, a film producers cum artists like Karri Apparao Babji and Karri Rangarao. Later he joined M.V.S Publishers to sketch wrappers for their novels. During 80's and 90's before the arrival of Disney World graphics and comics, there is no Telugu kid who were not enthralled with child magazine

Chandamama ''Chandamama'' was a classic Indian monthly magazine for children, known for its illustrations and long-running mythological and magical stories. Originally launched in Telugu language, Telugu by Aluri Chakrapani, Chakrapani and Nagi Reddi, ...

for which ShakthiDass did cover paintings with medieval Indian depictions covering kings, queens, and witchcrafts right from ancient, mythological and folklore. Shakthidass did cover paintings for

in various languages including

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, Telugu,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

and Oriya. He further fine tuned his skills while working with then famous Chandamama child magazine under the painter Late Vaddadi Pappayya who was instrumental in Chandamama's grand success in Telugu. There were several years where he enthralled the Tamil mythological movie and magazine industry to the extent of producers and publishers publicised and encashed their projects with ''ShakthiDass'' title in advertisements and cutouts. He later did innumerable wrappers, storyboard illustration, and sketches for various magazines and novels in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, English and Oriya including Bommarillu, Chandamama, Balamitra, Nandanam, Bujjayi, Balabharati, Kumkuma,

Dinakaran Dinakaran is a Tamil daily newspaper distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's Sun Network. ''Dinakaran'' is the second largest circulated Tamil dai ...

, Vasuki, Rishi Petam, Rotary News,Vijaya Publications, Oriya News, Chinnari, Kannada Chokkalingam. During an interview in a Telugu channel, he attributed his success to an opportunity to draw wrappers in the well known, then children magazine ''Bommarillu'' which brought name and fame to the extent of some magazines, films and publishers in Tamil deferring their release date till ShakthiDass wounds up his work. He also did and does innumerable paintings for international publications and industrial settings. He also does short writing, expresses the stories through his paintings, also runs a training institute in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

to impart the revolutionary techniques he mastered in his long career of more than four decades with an ultimate aim of using his Chandrabala as a platform to generate as many artists as possible.

Chandrabala

Shakthidass started his own children's magazine called ''Chandrabala'' in August 2009. It comes in Telugu and English languages. Chandrabala is the child magazine to widen the minds of children through stories coupled with graphics covering mythology, comics, history, culture, current events, ghost cum horror, inventions, discoveries, science and fiction to enable the kids experience thrill, excitement, wonder, fear, laughter, sadness, evil, compassion, sorrow and sympathy.

Aayurveda Sanjeevini

''Aayurveda Sajeevini'' is a monthly magazine about

Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...

, an Indian made medicine with articles about different ayurveda medicine related to health, hygiene, yoga and home made tips and remedies for common problems.

Behind ShakthiDass name

His name "ShakthiDass" where "Shakthi" stands for "Power" in Hindu mythology and Dass stands for "Dedicativeness" and started naming his paintings with name "ShakthiDass" which ultimately became his recognised and brand name.Article in Andhra Boomi Newspaper
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References

External links

* http://www.chandrabala.com * http://www.blogadda.com/blogs/chandrabala_Magazine-vallimathi/ * * http://www.indiaart.com/thumbs.asp?acode=918&name=Dass+Shakthi+&headerval=Artist&from=painting * http://www.fullhyderabad.com/profile/events/33928/2/stark-strokes-paintings-by-shakthidass-review * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shakthi Dass, Goud Living people Telugu people Indian illustrators Indian children's book illustrators 1948 births