I am a multifaceted artist who enjoys pursuing various creative interests such as writing, songwriting, crafts and visual art. My passion for the latter was sparked by watching animated cartoons as a child. Watching these animations left me with a deep fascination for the combination of art and writing to tell beautiful stories, and made me curious about the creative process which, I realised, involves an intense observation of the real world.
As I began to draw, I realised that my work was not as good as I had hoped. I believed that art was a practice reserved for the innately talented. Frustrated, I then quit. Between 2016 and 2017, my mother encouraged me to pick up drawing again. I saw that as a big push and dedicated myself to learning more so I could draw better. Before I knew it, drawing had become a skill that needed constant sharpening.
01 02 03 04 05
pg. 1 - SKETCHBOOK
pg. 4 - PORTRAITURE
pg. 9 - ARCHITECTURE
pg. 12 - COLOURS
pg. 15 - FINAL PIECES
01 MY SKETCHBOOK
Material: Pencil
Date: 2020
Size: 148.5 x 210 mm
Description: detail of a white birch trunk observed in Kent, United Kingdom, showing the rough texture of the wood.
Of all the visual art forms I have experimented with over the years, pencil drawing is the one I have practised the most. Overtime drawing became a studying tool, a way to observe reality, break it down and analyse it on paper to better understand shapes and forms in my surroundings.
After discovering sketching during the pandemic, this practice played a pivotal role in my artistic development and my sketchbooks are collections of experiments, studies, annotations, outlines and doodles I can always refer back to. Sketching has improved my observation skills and eye-hand coordination and my understanding of proportions.
I am very curious so my sketches reflect my interest for various subjects with emphasis on textures, chiaroscuro and lined. These two pages show a collection of sketches from observing my immediate reality, nature, materials, texture, human anatomy and movement.
Material: Pencil
Date: 2020
Size: 148.5 x 210 mm
Description: Portrait sketch of Levi and Erwin fron the Attack on Titan anime series.
Faces were the first thing I always tried to draw whenever I picked up a pencil and portraiture was particularly hard to master. After experimenting with simple outlines and fully completed photorealistic drawings, I settled on the sketch as it was the right balance between the two extremes with the addition of expressive flair. While I carry out expression studies to learn to convey emotions, I am mostly attracted to neutral faces and peculiar features and the way the contrast between light and shadow brings out the form. In fact, I have recently begun focusing on intensifying the chiaroscuro effect to make it a defining feature of my portraits and bring out their form, much like sculptures.
I draw whatever captures my curiosity and what fascinates me to the point of putting it on paper. Every sketch comes out different, in texture and shading technique, but with a consistent use of lines.
I believe that drawings are constructed from the inside out, with the initial lines being the skeleton and the final shading the skin. Every stage of the process is layered over the previous one to the arrive to the final drawing. Because the process is just as important as the final product, I never erase the intial lines but instead let them seep through the finished drawing.
Material: Pencil
Date: 2022
Size: 148.5 x 210 mm
Description: A combination of sketches of the Experimental House by Alvar Aalto, showing the site plan, axonometric view, a a few perspectives and views with surrounding context.
The following pages present a selection of sketches and drawings carried out during the recent years to develop projects, study existing buildings and improve my skills.
Sketching is a crucial aspect of my learning as it improves my observational and analytical skills. Although traditional drawing and sketching are not given as much importance as digital skills, this practice has revealed itself to be extremely helpful in thinking visually, developing concepts, understanding volumes, studying structures and precedents. I am very proud to have committed to honing this skill to this level and I am looking forward to finding new ways to incorporate it in my work.
Studying architecture made me particularly sensitive to the built environment propting me to use drawing as a tool to capture what interest me and understand its form and structure. Furthermore, because I travel often I also use drawing as a tool to document places I have visited and recording strinking aspects of the cities I have been to.
I have recently started studying the works of artists such as Jean-Claude Golvin and Hiroshi Yoshida who explore buildings and urbanscapes. Although they work with different materials, their art is characterised by a strong use of line to define shape and shading to define volume; this helps achieve a level of clarity that I would like to incorporate in my drawings.
PAINTINGS AND COLOUR
Material: Acrylic
Date: 2020
Size: 297 x 210 mm
Description: Painted woman portrai
Although pencil is my preferred medium and I mostly complete monochrome drawings, I have a great appreaciation for colours becuase they allow for a stronger, more convincing and emotional representation of a given subject or a given place. In these pages, I have collected my favourite coloured portraits made with pastels and landscapes studies made from a combination of watercolours and pastels, which I found very pleasurable to carry out.
While working with pencil allows you to focus on the quality of your shading through layering, tones and volumes, working with colours is more complex. It requires a certain level of understanding of the colours while taking into account the aim to achieve a realistic result.
I have recently been experimenting with using colour as an accent to draw the eye to a particular aspect fo the drawing, like the object that stands out from the whole.
1. Ojuelegba, Lagos
2. Eros and Psyche
3. Pensive Woman
4. A Man’s Journey
5. The Headwrap
6. Continuos line portrait
7. It is All Grasping of the Wind
8. Boy with the Hoodie
9. Lost Traditions
At the point where observation meets need for expression, that is when I create final pieces. This is a chance for me to merge my drive for understanding with a pressing desire to put into paper something I have been feeling or thinking for a long time. And this is where I am the most versatile and experimentative, testing different materials, techniques and surfaces.
These pages are a collection of drawings and paintings that explore and express my reflections on life, discovery, balance and afrocentricsm. Out of these works, I have picked out four to look at in more depth and detail.
Material: Pencil
Date: June 2022
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Description: Psyche reaches up to Eros/Cupid, who in turn holds her gently.
This pencil drawing was inspired by a sculpure by Antonio Canova called “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss”, first commissioned in 1787 by Colonel John Campbell.
Canova’s sculpture, inspired by the famous classic myth of Psyche and Cupid, captures the dramatic moment where Psyche, seconds from dying, is revived by Cupid. The emotional weight of this piece is in total accordance with the Romantic movement began in the late 1700s, which placed high importance on emotions and the free expression of sentiments and ideas.
The sculpture allows for a well-rounded visual experience of the scene captured by Canova; but this drawing zooms in what I saw as the focal point of the piece. The almost contact between Psyche and Cupid carries such passion and intentisity all contantained in a coreography of delicated momevent and touches that it could not remain unexplored. The piece also resonated with some events and developments in my personal life.
In this drawing, my shading style was highly influenced by the reference image and I aimed replicate and convey with the pencil the illusion of delicacy and softness Canova conveys through impressive stonecraft. This is shown in the deatil of Cupid’s hand touching Psyche’s face, where is fingers seems to almost sink into her perfectly levigated and smooth skin.
OJUELEGBA, LAGOS
Material: Pencil and acrylic
Date: July 2022
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Description: Yellow Danfo busses on a busy street surrounded by building and electric poles
This drawing was inspired by the song “Ojuelegba” by WizKid, a prominent Nigerian, Afrobeat artist. Ojuelegba is a suburb in Lagos State known for its crowded setting and busy atmosphere.
This drawing is a rendition of a photography found online that captured a typical busy street in Lagos, Nigeria, bringing the viewer’s attention to the iconic yellow busses called “Danfo” with which the country is strongly associated. This image was of great inspiration because, at time, I had begun thinking more deeply about my roots and origins, trying to find ways to reconnect with them. I recollected the sensations I had from my visit to Nigeria, story told by parents and friends, journalists and activists, and turned it into something I could see, touch and feel.
So in this drawing, the Danfos occupy a centre stage in the foreground with a backdrop of rundown buildings and electric poles. Their bright yellow colour makes them standout from the grey environment, just like they standout from their overcrowded surroundings in real life. The people from the reference image have been omitted to maintain the focus on the busses and highlight this strong chromatic contrast.
The background, however, presents a very interesting feature: a plethora of electric wires. This is paradox as Nigeria currently lacks stable lighting and I wanted to emphasise this current and urgent problem, which is just at the tip of the social and politicalm issues ravaging the country.
LOST TRADITIONS
Material: Pencil and acrylic
Date: July 2022
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Description: An Ethiopian young girl gettingh prepared with traditional face painting for the evening dance
This pencil drawing was also inspired by an online image of an Arbore boy getting his face dotted with paint over a white powder coatinng. On the picture, his expression was so strikingly neutral that I had sketched it time before I decided to elabourate it on a finished piece.
My rendition shows a short-haired, young girl who seems to be sat down, her head held in place by one hand and another holding a painted stick to her face. Her eyes seem to be softly set on something in the distance or perhaps vaguely staring at the void. Similarly to the busses, I have used yellow paint to highlight the practice of face painting to stimulate a reflection on traditions across Africa and on cultural identity.
Africa displays a rich variety of cultures, traditions, languages and perceptions of beauty, where beauty trends and ideals vary.Tribal make-up plays a key role in many cultures and signifies many things such as cerimonies, hunting, distinguising boys from men, girls from women or identifying members of the tribe and outsiders. Face painting indicates status and they convey a strong cultural meaning, hence warranting a thoughts and reflections on how many african traditions where lost in the wake of colonialism and westernation that would have otherwise defined stronger cultural and national identies across the African continent.
In my quest to reconnect with my roots, working on this piece was a tiny glimps into a much richer and interesting ancestral culture.
THE HEADWRAP
Material: Acrylic
Date: June 2020
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Description: A series of paintings showing women wearing colourful headwraps decorated with motives and patterns and a landscape painting of an African sunset.
Differently from the previous pieces, this sequence of paintings were a fruit of my own creativity looking to express the beauty of Africa in colours and patterns. These paintings hence present faceless women wearing brightly coloured headwraps decorated with intricate tribal motifs, with matching jewellery and accessories which is characteristic of traditional African attire. The two paintings have been digitally merged to form a unique image to illustrate the striking beauty of diversity.
In pre-colonial Africa, headwraps were iconic piece of Sub-Saharan attire used as symbols of status, marriage, and family lineage; it also symbolised honor, respect and spirituality that embodied cultural identies across the continent.
During slavery, the headwrap was one of the few cultural pieces enslaved Africans managed to bring to the Americas. Further down the line, in the 1960s and 70s, it became a symbol of rebellion with which African-Americans and the African diaspora began to reclaim and embrace their identity and culture which was so brutally took from them by slave masters. The head wrap was embraced, worn as a sign of rebellion and celebrated for its cultural significance, reclaiming the power former slave owners so brutally took from the people they enslaved. These pieces speak to the experience of Africans and their troubled relationship with their identity; it echoes the call for repossession of identity and pride.
