Meet Ssebanakita Calvin of AvantInkUG, our Man Crush Monday today.
AvantInkUG is an artist who is very Ugandan by nationality, and an artist by profession. He does a lot of work, some of which you might have stumbled upon on the streets of the internet. He describes himself as “a cartoonist, portrait artist, comic artist, illustrator, painter name it.”
I was inspired by none other than Supa Strikaz. I cannot deny that Supa Strikaz got me into this business. It was one of those comics I’d read and get entertained more than watching TV. That comic really did it for me; the first time I read it, I knew that I wanted to be an artist, a comic illustrator, and I never looked back. I would buy the issues and try to mimic or redraw the panels, and through that I started to fall in love with art. For animations, it was Tom and Jerry. It is very weird for a cartoon to have no voice overs and still have the message across. That’s one of a kind, it’s very interesting. That cartoon inspires my animation to this day, I try to mimic dynamic poses from the show, it’s really inspiring!
I studied at Makerere University where I did Industrial Fine Art.
As an artist, I’ve got some breakthrough works, work that reached many people and even I was amazed at how people enjoyed it. I have had several works that have gone viral and people don’t even know the artist behind the work. This is because people don’t credit work they share. It’s really demoralising and unpleasant for someone to come to my page, take my work, repost it or use it for their commercial benefits without tagging or crediting me at all.
Initially I was guarded by passion, that was throughout school. Of course, when I wanted to continue with something like this, I had to make it commercial. This motivated me to continue pursuing my art.
You can find my page on Avantinkug on Instagram or Facebook, or you can connect with me on Twitter @darkerskin. Or on my personal number which is +256784690161.
satisfashionug@gmail.com
