The sketch above was my 2023 new year challenge to sketch my son. I did it with a HB and 4B pencil.
Art was my first love and I loved drawing on any surface I found. I started drawing when I could hold a pencil. I remember in primary school, we were two artists in the class. The other guy was called Sammy, we used to compete and challenge each other while the class cheered us on.
My parents were very supportive and bought us paintbrushes, calligraphy pens, comic books, and paint books. My brother was better at painting but I was better at sketching. Art is a gift and most of the time it is inherited. I believe it can also be learned if you have a keen interest.
I inherited my skill from my dad since he was also an artist in his youthful years, but stopped drawing. I lost concentration in class many times sketching at the back of my exercise books. In high school, I thought I was really good at art until a new student reported to my school.
All my friends told me I should check out the new guy’s sketch pad. He was really good, his sketching was perfect, and he was like 10 times better than me. He had done art as a subject while attending a ‘group of schools in Nairobi’.
For the next two terms, he mentored me, though he was a class behind me. My sketching and shading improved, and by the time he transferred to another school I had improved at least 10 times.
I was inspired by art from Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and others. I used to study their painting, sculptures, and other artwork religiously. I believed my skills would become as good as this renowned artist’s.
Fast forward, I went to University and I stopped drawing completely due to the demands of my course plus I did not see a future earning potential with art.
I have gone more than a decade without drawing much except showing my daughter how to draw once in a while since she has a keen interest in art. In recent years I have taken an interest in graphic design, designing on Corel, and now with new tools like Canva.
At the beginning of 2023, I got inspired and I decided to revisit my art and continuously improve myself and make my children 10 times better than me.
If you have a gift and you do not use it, you will lose it.
USE IT OR LOSE IT
Maasai Painting
