MUMBAI: While discovering new activities during lockdown, actress Sonal Chauhan decided to try her hand at sketching.

She had posted her first sketch, titled "Maa", on Mother's Day, dedicating it to all the mothers in the world.

Then she decided to sketch something close to her heart: Lord Shiva.

"This is actually the first time I tried my hand at sketching and I never really believed that I had it in me to be able to sketch. I used to see other people's sketches and always wonder how talented they were and how they did what they did," Sonal told IANS.

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"However, in the last one year many a times when I looked at people or objects, and if i saw shadow on them or some kind of reflection I'd wonder that if I were to paint or sketch them, what could I do to differentiate the shadow from the other part, with the use of pencil shading or use of different colours. Or how I could highlight facial features," she added.

When she looks back at it now, she thinks that she "always had an inclination to sketch".

"But I never really had the time to sit down and do it. This lockdown, since we all have so much time at hand and there's nothing for us to rush back to, it's given me that push to sit down and just go for it," said Sonal.

"All our lives we've always been busy. Even on our off days, our minds were always occupied with things like what we're going to do the next day or what happened the previous day. Now, we're completely free and have all the time," she added.

Now she has started to believe that art is something you need to completely surrender to and give your whole self to.

"There's no other way. I've finally been able to do that during this lockdown. It started from there and then naturally when you see good results, you get encouraged and that's what happened with my first sketch, it was a very big surprise for me because I didn't think I could sketch at all. Now, people are asking me things like what kind of pencils I'm using and I don't even know what that means because I'm not a professional. I just use the pencils I've had lying around the house for many years and I've finally started making use of them," said the "Skyfire" actress.

"I'm very happy that I discovered this about myself, it gives me immense happiness and satisfaction to make something from scratch and it's extremely therapeutic," she added.

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