We’ve seen artwork in the many countries abroad and they are just flawless and show skill and creativity thus presenting a challenge to some of our artists in Nigeria. Be that as it may, this is in no way saying that Nigerian artists lack skill or creativity, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Nigerian artists be they artists that make portraits with paintings or sketch artists have proven that they can produce brilliant work on many occasions. When we even talk of sculpture, we’ve seen artists who have been able to through their sculpture tell of the Nigerian history pictorially such that we can get a full glimpse of what life really was about for those who have gone before us in the country.
A lot of occasions have come up where Nigerians who are artistic upload some of their art works on social networks while hoping that someone important might see the work and be interested and by that invest in their talents or even purchase the work totally. This has been the practice that most talented artists have adopted for a while and as a result, we see a lot of sketch works online. Most of these artists spend their time making sketches of certain celebrities and post them on social media (facebook, twitter, snapchat or instagram).
The usual drawing of portraits of celebrities and posting on social media has made it so that a lot of these artists have received a fan club and become popular both in Nigeria and beyond, it has also provided a platform for these artists to become even better in their crafts. As of recent, we got reports from our sources that Hollywood comedian and actor Kevin Hart had guaranteed that he was going to be of assistance to a Nigerian artist who painted a portrait of him.
As a result, Nigerians shared their joy for the artist’s fortune and a lot of people also showed their appreciation to actor and comedian, Kevin Hart for his benevolence. As regards what happened with the artist whose luck seemed to have shined, it would not be going too far if we are to assume that what transpired between Kevin Hart and the artist was what motivated a lot of other sketch artists to follow in the same path and upload their sketches on social networks.
In another news reaching us from our sources, another sketch artist whose name we have come to know to be Arinze Stephen Ekwuide shared a portrait of Nigerian singer and rapper Phyno, which he made with his pencil on his Twitter account. Soon after this portrait was discovered on Twitter, it aroused a lot of reactions from very many people including the famous rapper himself. As a matter of fact, Nigerian indigenous Igbo rapper, Phyno acknowledged that the rapper had good skills and expressed that he made a very fine portrait. The portrait had an uncanny resemblance with the music artiste and from his remark, the rapper was impressed by the work done by the sketch artist.
On the other hand, Nigerians who saw the reply by the rapper were rather not too happy and/or satisfied with the fact that all the artist got from Phyno was just a remark as their reactions on Twitter showed that they expected a lot more from the Nigerian musician. To be more specific and forthright, a whole lot of them were of the opinion that the rapper should help the sketch artist in the same way as Kevin Hart did with the other artist. Whereas some other people made of the rapper on account of the reply and another Twitter user stated that not everybody can respond in the same manner as the Hollywood comedian and actor.
Our sources also said that a Twitter user whom they recognize as @Iam_KingBuchi had made an attempt to trigger the guilty complex of the rapper so that he (the rapper) would buy the artwork. Despite this, the rapper made a very clear point that he is not Kevin Hart and there was no way anyone was going to push him to do what he didn’t initially plan to do. Phyno then expressed how grateful he was to the artist for the time he took to make the gorgeous portrait.
