All images via Arinze Stanley.
Nigerian hyper-realistic artist Arinze Stanley on creating out of this world masterpieces, dishes on the portrait of President Buhari that went viral.
Arinze Stanley is a sensational Nigerian artist known for his hyper realistic drawings.
Stanley draws close-up portraits of human faces that look truer to life than any black and white photograph, images that capture more detail than our very own eyes and that’s what makes his painting so hyper-realistic.
All images via Arinze Stanley.
Asides from his drawing and painting that were familiar with,the artist sat with Pulse Nigeria recently to chat about what inspires him to create those breathing drawings.
he started on how he started drawing with pencils; He said
I started drawing ever since I was a kid.i had this vibes going with me, my pencil, drawings. About five years ago, I think 2012, I started drawing professionally, I decided to take it as my full-time career to make it actually a job and it been pretty good till lately. I started getting a lot of support and yeah, I think it’s my full career.i’m a full-time artist, I never went for any training, I’ve always been working on my own. As a matter of fact, I’ve barely met any artists in Nigeria so I’ve been working with myself and by myself.”
On inspiration
”I got inspired to draw by a couple of artists and I really believe in inspiration. I want to work hard enough to be able to inspire others out there who haven’t really found their path yet.”
on how he works:
”I work with pencils, various types of pencils and some other things, like charcoal pencils, graphite pencils, I work with charcoal sticks. just mix it up with a little, you know, some creativity and content. About my subject, I draw people I know personally and even if I don’t know the person, I try to create this kind of connection between he/her and what I want to work with and bring that connection out on paper.that’s basically how I work.”
Challenges so far
Drawing so far has been really really,been a real challenge for me because I have to mix it with my other job that’s working with my family, the family business, trying to fix it.I’ve been having some sleepless night and I just feel like it been a challenge and by Gods grace, its all going to pass on.”
Advice to other artist
i wont really advise anyone not to do their art,i wont really,but i just know that whatever you are doing try to do it to the best of your ability and when you reach that level,its definitely going to be lucrative because they are so many people out there that don’t really know what they are doing,they don’t really know the part they are pursuing,but when you look inward and find that purpose that you came to this earth for,you’ll find out that when you do it to the best of your ability,you’ll become lucrative.”
