Arinze Stanley is an amazing artist whose art works speaks volumes. His drawings look so real you would think it was a photograph. Stanley’s drawings are so real one would find it hard to believe that they are just pencil drawings Born on November 20, 1993, Stanley has been drawing for as long as he can remember.
He is a pencil artist working in the genre of Hyperrealism. Speaking with Legit.ng, the engineering graduate from Imo state University said: “I have been drawing virtually for as long as I can remember but everything changed when I decided to go the extra mile by taking my art career as a full time career in 2012 after coming across some artists on social media like Kelvin Okafor, Joel Rea and Emmanuele Descanio.
I got really inspired so I picked up my pencils and started to train myself.” This self-taught artist has always expressed himself through drawings for as long as he can remember The Imo state indigene who resides in Lagos never had any training in the art of drawing. He trained himself to become the amazing artist that he is today.
“I took a while to discipline myself in the craft as I spent sleepless nights training myself to become better at what I do. I never had any form of training from anyone.” Stanley draws close-up portraits of human faces using both charcoal and graphite pencils.
He also experiments with other techniques like cross hatching and scribbling. Stanley experiments with so many techniques like cross hatching and scribbling On how he gets the inspiration for his drawings, he said: “I draw inspiration from life experiences and basically everything that sparks a feeling of necessity, I also love to express deep and strong emotions as I find them most attractive.”
According to him, it just flows through him into the paper like energy transfer. It has not been an easy route as he has had several challenges especially trying to convince his family that art is profitable.
Also challenging are the sleepless nights which sometimes leaves him with serious headaches. Following his passion has also affected his relationship with his friends because he has to work all day and night. According to Stanley, a work takes between 200 to 300 hours for him to finish If you are thinking these drawing are a piece of cake, think again. These drawings take a lot of time. According to him, he spends like 200 to 350 hours working on a piece. Do the mathematics. It is quite profitable as this talented young man made his first million from selling his art.
