About the Artist

My name is Emmanuel Nwankwo. I'm from Abia State but reside in Imo State, Nigeria. Growing up as a kid, all I ever wanted to be was an artist. I can remember my parents asking me what I wanted to become in future, alongside my siblings, and I told them I wanted to become an artist.  They smiled at me and told me to choose something else, believing that I could never make a good living with art (understandably so) and convincing me to go for architecture.

Along the way, I lost interest in drawing but everything changed when I went into higher education as an aspiring architect, hoping to graduate as an architect. In 2019, in my second year being in the architecture department, I met my coursemate making a portrait drawing on a cool day.  Watching him draw at that moment made me want to pick up my pencil again.  Eventually, I asked him if he could teach me how to draw portraits, but he wanted me to pay him to teach me how to make a good portrait drawing. 

Perhaps I was (definitely) broke, but I couldn't afford to pay him, so I had no other option than to pick up a pencil and see what I could do on my own.  I went on internet in search of the world's best pencil artists and I started following them on social media, which inspired me. Since then, I have been doing my best to be successful as a pencil artist. 

I finally decided to quit architecture to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. And here we are.  This is a self-portrait of me.