In less than a year, Antonius Junior has perfected drawing canvass portraits, creating a business for himself that now has a strong demand
countrywide. Antonius draws almost lifelike paintings of celebrities and real-life Namibians, and considering this is something he wasn’t doing
this time last year, that is quite impressive. To date, he has gotten over 50 orders for portraits from people around the country and he takes up to two days to complete one, for which he charges between N$300
to N$500.
“I used to draw comics when I was a kid but I never really took it serious. After I completed my Electrician course at the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT), I started working as self-employed.
I do installations and repairs mainly so to keep myself creative I started picking up drawing again. I started doing it after being inspired by Nigerian artist Oresegun Olumide who I follow on Instagram.”
Olumide draws inspiration from his community, creating pieces that reflect the lives of those around him. Antonius mostly gets requests through social media and recommendations, and he plans his portraits while doing electrical work.
His profits are shared between electrical equipment and pencils
and canvas, although one of his biggest challenges is that some of the particular painting instruments, he needs are not available in Namibia. “The best piece of advice I heard last was that everything is possible if you put your mind to it, and I saw how true this was only after I got
started. In 2019 I want to work on more local celebrities.”
