Vasika Udurawane loves dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, he’s considered the subject of paleontology one of his strongest hobbies since the age of three!

Currently schooling at S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia, Vasika tells me he is studying Arts subjects for his AL exams set to take place in two years. He is sixteen going on seventeen and absolutely loves creating pieces of digital art, drawing none other than dinosaurs and other reptiles. The very first thing he drew was the head of a Giganotosaurus. “First of all, I sketched it on paper and then I started colouring it in. I saw the process on how to draw it in a book and I did my own reference and just got drawing.

Accurate details are very important to me which is the reason why I did my own reference. I continued to sketch that head until the middle of last year. My second drawing was a Thalassomedon, a marine reptile.” explains Vasika. He has attended art classes but somehow the idea of using water colours does not appeal to him. “I am not interested in drawing with water colours. You can make quick changes on Photoshop as opposed to drawing with water colours.”

Vasika can draw a whole scene (filled with dinosaurs of course!) in two weeks if he works at it continuously. He says that someday he would love to make a career out of his love for digital art but at the moment he is unsure.

He takes a particular fancy to drawing feathered dinosaurs and he has been drawing these dinosaurs since the age of fifteen. When Vasika isn’t busy drawing dinosaurs, he loves reading, especially on paleontology and swimming.

(By Sarah Kellapatha)

How to make digital art (courtesy eHow.com)

1. Draw images with pixel art. This is very type of digital art that was used to make the first video games and computer animations. An artist creates a graphic pixel by pixel using Microsoft Paint, Photoshop or other simple drawing programs. Remember you cannot get frustrated as pixel art requires patience, since every tiny block builds upon the next one to create an image.

2. Create a blinkie. Instead of grabbing icons from websites and posting them to your emails and websites (that my friends is plagiarism), so therefore create your own works of art. When creating Blinkies use the same technique as pixel art, and add flashing text using a variety of software programs. Animate the blinkie to make it wink wave or dance using Flash or other animation processes.

3. Fashion a digital scrapbook. Instead of using paper and physical photographs to make a scrapbook, digi-scrapbooking involves replicating a scrapbook page on the computer and inserting digital photos. With the advent of digital art, scrap booking gives the artist more choices when creating a page. Use Clipart and special text fonts to add glamour to the photo presentation in Photoshop, MS Paint or with a digital scrap booking program.

4. Master vector drawing. Vector graphics contain many objects and follow a mathematical equation to connects lines, curves and of the shape to form a digital picture. Vector graphic software allows the artist to move, rotate or align objects in a certain way to achieve the desired result. Using these programs, the artist transforms curves and separate paths into a seamless image.

5. Advance to digital painting. Create rich, textured paintings without using messy brushes, oils or paints by using a digital art program. Corel, Studio Artist and Pixarra contain digital tools that allow artists to replicate pastel, watercolor or chalk drawing and paintings that look like the real ting. Some offer a freehand drawing based package while others offer a vector drawing program.