Portraits come to life with pencil
Sandile Kgophola brings portraits to life using his pencil.
The portrait artist has always been creative, something that he inherited from his mother. He grew up watching her making art and it inspired him to also do the same. He started drawing at a young age and had a desire to make portraits, however, he wasn’t confident in his abilities. During the lockdown, with a lot of time on his hands, he worked on perfecting his art.
“I had always wanted to do portraits but I didn’t know how to draw them properly. During the lockdown I did my research and watched tutorials which really helped me,” he explained.
He added that he is adamant in ensuring that he becomes the best at what he does; so much so that he has no qualms about sacrificing sleep. “I don’t sleep when I don’t have school the next day because I am constantly working on improving my work,” he said.
The 19-year-old first year software development student shared that he is self-taught and the money to buy equipment comes from his own pocket. He has had to be resourceful to be able to afford equipment to create his portraits, he makes sure that he finds the best deal. “I use the money from selling portraits to buy the equipment I need,” he explained.
Sandile hopes to one day use his IT qualification to develop an application which will give artists a platform to display their work, and also link the local and international market.
One of the hardest things about being a portrait artist is getting the shading right. He added that sometimes two sides don’t match when shaded and it can be a problem. “Shading is the main thing and hardest part of a portrait as well as drawing the hair. The longer you do it, the better you get. If I had started sooner, my portraits would be more realistic,” he added.
As a student juggling school and drawing portraits, he has to make sure that he does his schoolwork in advance to make time to work on his portraits. He advises against short notice portrait orders as he is strict on ensuring that the art does not affect his performance at school.
Sandile is grateful for the support from his clients, it by far exceeds the expectations he had when he started making portraits.
