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        Music maestros, cricket heroes, brave soldiers and human beings from all walks of life come alive through the pencil sketches of Sainath.

        A student of the Ramakrishna High School, T Nagar, he was neither a born artist nor passionate about art from childhood. It was a casual perusal of a book of cartoons by famous cartoonist Ranu that kindled him to try his hand at drawing.

        'In the year 2000, my father handed me a book of cartoon drawings by artist Ranu. I tried to draw a few of them offhand and they were good.

        This induced me to try drawing several more and soon I became very interested in drawing', revealed Sainath.

        'His maternal uncle and mine are also were good artistes and so he had an innate talent for it but it surfaced only at that moment, when he saw the book of cartoons', chipped in his father S Balakrishnan, a painter of sign boards.

        Once Balakrishnan observed his son's interest and talents he decided to encourage him and sent him to hone his skills under artist SS Mani.

        'My master stays at Coutrallam and visits Chennai periodically.

        So there are no regular classes but only instructions and tips from him when he is down here. I show him the pictures I have drawn and he corrects them and guides me on various aspects like shading, fineness etc', said Sainath.

        Sainath initial inspirations were pictures from paper-cutting and newpapers but later on shifted to human models.

        'I like sketching live human models. However I need their presence in front of me to draw. I am unable to sketch even using a little of my imagination', he confessed.

        Once he has obtained finesse in his pencil sketches Sainath will begin handling the paints. 'My master has advised me to begin painting pictures after attaining a certain level of perfection in pencil sketches as it will bring finesse to the art', says the lad.

        Sainath plans to concentrate later in the field of animation where he can put his drawing talents to maximum use.

        The Nandalala Siruvar Sangam has honoured Sainath with the title of Chitra Bhushan in recognition of his talents.