A life story in sketches
Luish Lokothwayo, also known as Rose Sarah to his social network friends, is a sketch artist who creates art with emotion and feeling.
His work draws the attention of its viewer’s, from his portraits to symbols as well as other kinds of graphics. Having no formal training in his trade Luish tells us how he came to being an artist, both sketch and tattoos.
“I found drawing interesting as a kid, but I never really thought of it as something that I can do later in life,” he said. He mentions in a whisper that all kids are artists so it’s a different kind of talent now as compared to then. Luish pulls out some drawings and takes us on a journey to his sketches. He says he draws according to how he sees things happening around where he lives, especially in his neighbourhood. “I see a lot of things going on in the location; it’s a mixture of emotions that people go through each time. My art is about that capturing that feeling or trying to construct a thought from a person’s facial expression.”
Luish shows us a drawing of a boy with his hands over his head; he said he titled that one ‘Trauma’. He explains it that it’s a young boy who has suffered a lot from any experience. “Kids should not have to feel pain,” he added. The emotion in the sketch of the boy’s picture tells a story in itself. His hands are over his head and his eyes are sad, it’s a very emotional picture indeed. He continues paging through his sketch book explainin each drawing, pausing in between with dabbles of previous questions.
“As I was telling you, I did electrical engineering after matriculating and I loved the architectural subjects such as engineering drawing and design,” said Luish. He continues to tell of how he stumbled across art. He said after his first sketch that he completed solely, he started practising more often and eventually became used to drawing, then he went and had a tattoo.
Although he is not a professional tattooist yet, he says he does ‘practice’ that too as he does get clients in the form of people willing to be models. He said after his first tattoo he saw that if he fused being able to draw with needles with drawing with other medium then the forms of tattoos could be changed. He admits that having to draw some designs free hand does become tricky, but it is the best form of drawing that one can do as it allows a person to become creative. As he goes on how he ended up with so much ink on his body, Luish shows a sketch of a womin with child, “that’s titled ‘giving birth to the future’, he mentions; the sketch says a lot of things just by looking at it and the meaning relative.
Luish closes his book as the sketches have reached the last page and he says that some the other sketch book is not ready for display, as he points to the framed art work on the walls of his home, all drawn by him. ‘I am my favourite artist, I hang on my own walls”, he said with laughter.
