Interview with Adesugba Adedapo, interview by email March 2015:
1. Tell us more about your background and how/when you started creative work?
I was born on the 22nd of October 1987. Both of my parents were hotel and catering managers in the hospitality business, as my father became a clergyman (later on in life). I grew up with my grandmother on the mother’s side and she was and still is very fond of me. Growing up as kids in my compound I had some very good childhood friends and we were all exposed to cartoon network and action movies on tapes so it was just natural for us to scribble on anything that had a surface, walls, school note books and my grandfather’s letter headed papers. After we watched, we doodled and sketched characters we watched. From ninja turtles to johnny quest and voltron then off course so many others.. we tried to see how we could replicate these colorful characters on paper and show off in school as the cool kids.
The best times were when we decided to make our own characters with super powers. Aesthetically they were terrible. But who cared. We were kids and we felt we were cool cause we could draw.
16 years up the road when I was admitted into the university of Lagos was when I started proper creative work. I was fresh young and eager to explore the world of arts, music and theatre. For five years I would study and then proceed to work in an advertising agency, quit and join Nigeria’s first gaming outfit and then back to advertising as I am in now presently. All together, with over 7 years doing illustration, cartooning and graphic design professionally.
2. Describe your studio practice.
Studio work for me is mixed with serious work and fun. I use two major devices for illustration and design. My imac and a Wacom cintiq. I also use PC’s but prefer apple products because of the sharp colors. The cintiq is flexible. I do all my doodles and sketches without having to worry about the hassles of pencil shavings and scanning. The software is uses are mainly Adobe made. I have always thought that any other program was irrelevant to me except Toon Boom for animation. I work with briefs which is a properly documentation of what I am supposed to do and the deliverables expected from me. After which I brainstorm and bounce ideas of people I work with before starting my illustration or design.
As for the fun part I like to play loud rap music when I am working. Keeps the tempo going. I also love to walk around and play pranks on people too. Joke and laugh and mimic our boss when he’s not around.
3. Tell us a bit about your community and country. What are some of your favorite memories?/Influences?/How has this played into your character today?
My community and country
My community and country as a whole is very unique. Every one knows Nigeria. You all watch the news and see all the negative stuff about us. We are poor, fraudulent and corrupt. But people fail to throw in the spotlight on us positively. I can begin to pull up Nigerians who have contributed immensely to development of Africa as a continent. There are hardworking creative Nigerians but it’s a pity that the negative has overshadowed the positive. As not to digress I would say the hardship and economic instabilities we face has made us stronger. I personally have heard people tell me that why don’t I seek opportunities outside the country especially in this line of work I chose to practice and I simply tell them that hope is what keeps me here. I believe that we can have our own cartoons and heroes. We too have stories to tell. The Americans have Thor son of odin..we have sango son of oduduwa. Both gods of thunder, with similar powers but different backgrounds. Nigeria is very rich culturally. Unfortunately we’ve allowed the religious bias suppress us creatively. I believe this generation of mine has a lot of work to do.
Apart from all the uneasiness Nigerians are fun loving people even amongst the bad leaders and bad environment. We love music. We’ve had some of the best musicians to come out Africa. We rhythm and we love to dance. Life is hard already so we unwind with art and music.
My favorite memories are much. But I would be fair to mention a few. When I was employed at kuluya.com Nigeria’s first online gaming platform. I finally was illustrating with a Wacom cintiq. It was exiting because I had craved for the device for years. Another good memory was when I had to see my dad after he had been away in the United states for so many years. I just froze. Took me a minute to realize he was the one.
My influences.
Growing up on samurai x and ninja turtle helped us believe that turtles liked pizza and a samurai with the chest of a mosquito could actually defeat 20 hefty looking villains. The power of the impossibility in this cartoons and comic is what actually shapes my imagination and influenced me. Look lets call a spade a spade. As artist you need to have the imagination of a child which knows no boundaries..
So my first major influence was cartoons.
Another was music. My teenage years were shaped majorly by rap music. I didn’t love rap. I was obsessed by it. I would not lie I was a pretty timid kid. So I loved music that made feel better than anyone else. The braggadocio nature of rap music gave me confidence. And also consciousness because I listen to Nas a lot. Off course I listened to everyone from the greats like KRS one, kool g rap, ice cube to the very controversial Dr dre, Eminem, Pac, jay z down to the cool and bouncy new guys around the block..the dj khaleeds and rick ross of our days.
I followed hiphop religiously so it affected my talk, walk and dressing. My mom kept complaining about the over sized pants and timbarland boots. People made fun of me sometimes telling me I wasn’t supposed to be born here.
4. How is your art related to the community and its challenges? How did the outbreak impact your work?
If you look at my art it is pretty easy to see my style. I was use the funniest and the most playful means to communicate serious issues because I believe you need to use that as a weapon to catch the young audience. Especially on social media where the average kid is on 9gag trying to get a laugh. Serious stuff like the ebola outbreak looked scary and boring so I decided to create something different from what had been going around as information.
When the international community flagged Nigerians as Ebola affected, we were furious as a people. This is because even amongst the problems we’ve had to deal with over the years to some great extent we take health seriously. And there were these bogus stories about people turning into zombies and bleeding out of their anus so I decided to address the issue using ebola man. I completed the comic in 3 days as I had to do my 9-5, which was designing characters for android games.
When I dropped it online the followership was pretty surprising. People started sharing it. Nigerians had already understood the nature of the epidemic and we were very careful. We should also commend our health ministries and government for doing their best to contain the situation.
Before you knew it we had successfully contained it within four to five months if I am correct.
I learnt form the outbreak that I could use my art to impact society..it didn’t matter how the story was told ..What mattered was if the message was delivered. So I started more conscious cartoons addressing some issues in my society like fuel scarcity and the corruption of elections.
5. What, in your opinion is needed now for your community?
A lot is needed b. we need good leadership. We need a change in mentality. everyman here is living selfishly instead for the common good of the community. We need to change that. We need an industrial revolution were organized systems of professionals governed by certain rules of global best practices. We have the land. We have the resources..both human and natural
We need education. Proper orientation in different disciplines of life. There is a lot we need. We need better health care systems. What people don’t know is that Patrick sawyer the first Ebola victim who brought it from Liberia was admitted into a private hospital. That was how it was contained.
There is lot we need b. son, the list is endless.
6. What are your future plans? Hopes for your country?
My plans for the future are very secret to me but I shall reveal an idea of what its going to be like. Think of it as me creating a hub for creativity where people can come and promote ideas that would solve problems majorly in art, infrastructure and aesthetics.
My hope is that Nigeria has better leaders who are ready to collaborate with idealistic people to build a society that would be more conducive for it’s citizens on a large scale. Where we would forget our religious bias and start to see the next man from a different tribe as a bother or a sister.
7. If there is one thing you would like the international community to know about ebola and/or your country, what would it be?
If there is anything I’d like the international community to know about ebola in Nigeria is that it has been contained.
There no zombies or people bleeding out of their anus.
8. Anything else you would like to share?
Thank You.
1. Tell us more about your background and how/when you started creative work?
I was born on the 22nd of October 1987. Both of my parents were hotel and catering managers in the hospitality business, as my father became a clergyman (later on in life). I grew up with my grandmother on the mother’s side and she was and still is very fond of me. Growing up as kids in my compound I had some very good childhood friends and we were all exposed to cartoon network and action movies on tapes so it was just natural for us to scribble on anything that had a surface, walls, school note books and my grandfather’s letter headed papers. After we watched, we doodled and sketched characters we watched. From ninja turtles to johnny quest and voltron then off course so many others.. we tried to see how we could replicate these colorful characters on paper and show off in school as the cool kids.
The best times were when we decided to make our own characters with super powers. Aesthetically they were terrible. But who cared. We were kids and we felt we were cool cause we could draw.
16 years up the road when I was admitted into the university of Lagos was when I started proper creative work. I was fresh young and eager to explore the world of arts, music and theatre. For five years I would study and then proceed to work in an advertising agency, quit and join Nigeria’s first gaming outfit and then back to advertising as I am in now presently. All together, with over 7 years doing illustration, cartooning and graphic design professionally.
2. Describe your studio practice.
Studio work for me is mixed with serious work and fun. I use two major devices for illustration and design. My imac and a Wacom cintiq. I also use PC’s but prefer apple products because of the sharp colors. The cintiq is flexible. I do all my doodles and sketches without having to worry about the hassles of pencil shavings and scanning. The software is uses are mainly Adobe made. I have always thought that any other program was irrelevant to me except Toon Boom for animation. I work with briefs which is a properly documentation of what I am supposed to do and the deliverables expected from me. After which I brainstorm and bounce ideas of people I work with before starting my illustration or design.
As for the fun part I like to play loud rap music when I am working. Keeps the tempo going. I also love to walk around and play pranks on people too. Joke and laugh and mimic our boss when he’s not around.
3. Tell us a bit about your community and country. What are some of your favorite memories?/Influences?/How has this played into your character today?
My community and country
My community and country as a whole is very unique. Every one knows Nigeria. You all watch the news and see all the negative stuff about us. We are poor, fraudulent and corrupt. But people fail to throw in the spotlight on us positively. I can begin to pull up Nigerians who have contributed immensely to development of Africa as a continent. There are hardworking creative Nigerians but it’s a pity that the negative has overshadowed the positive. As not to digress I would say the hardship and economic instabilities we face has made us stronger. I personally have heard people tell me that why don’t I seek opportunities outside the country especially in this line of work I chose to practice and I simply tell them that hope is what keeps me here. I believe that we can have our own cartoons and heroes. We too have stories to tell. The Americans have Thor son of odin..we have sango son of oduduwa. Both gods of thunder, with similar powers but different backgrounds. Nigeria is very rich culturally. Unfortunately we’ve allowed the religious bias suppress us creatively. I believe this generation of mine has a lot of work to do.
Apart from all the uneasiness Nigerians are fun loving people even amongst the bad leaders and bad environment. We love music. We’ve had some of the best musicians to come out Africa. We rhythm and we love to dance. Life is hard already so we unwind with art and music.
My favorite memories are much. But I would be fair to mention a few. When I was employed at kuluya.com Nigeria’s first online gaming platform. I finally was illustrating with a Wacom cintiq. It was exiting because I had craved for the device for years. Another good memory was when I had to see my dad after he had been away in the United states for so many years. I just froze. Took me a minute to realize he was the one.
My influences.
Growing up on samurai x and ninja turtle helped us believe that turtles liked pizza and a samurai with the chest of a mosquito could actually defeat 20 hefty looking villains. The power of the impossibility in this cartoons and comic is what actually shapes my imagination and influenced me. Look lets call a spade a spade. As artist you need to have the imagination of a child which knows no boundaries..
So my first major influence was cartoons.
Another was music. My teenage years were shaped majorly by rap music. I didn’t love rap. I was obsessed by it. I would not lie I was a pretty timid kid. So I loved music that made feel better than anyone else. The braggadocio nature of rap music gave me confidence. And also consciousness because I listen to Nas a lot. Off course I listened to everyone from the greats like KRS one, kool g rap, ice cube to the very controversial Dr dre, Eminem, Pac, jay z down to the cool and bouncy new guys around the block..the dj khaleeds and rick ross of our days.
I followed hiphop religiously so it affected my talk, walk and dressing. My mom kept complaining about the over sized pants and timbarland boots. People made fun of me sometimes telling me I wasn’t supposed to be born here.
4. How is your art related to the community and its challenges? How did the outbreak impact your work?
If you look at my art it is pretty easy to see my style. I was use the funniest and the most playful means to communicate serious issues because I believe you need to use that as a weapon to catch the young audience. Especially on social media where the average kid is on 9gag trying to get a laugh. Serious stuff like the ebola outbreak looked scary and boring so I decided to create something different from what had been going around as information.
When the international community flagged Nigerians as Ebola affected, we were furious as a people. This is because even amongst the problems we’ve had to deal with over the years to some great extent we take health seriously. And there were these bogus stories about people turning into zombies and bleeding out of their anus so I decided to address the issue using ebola man. I completed the comic in 3 days as I had to do my 9-5, which was designing characters for android games.
When I dropped it online the followership was pretty surprising. People started sharing it. Nigerians had already understood the nature of the epidemic and we were very careful. We should also commend our health ministries and government for doing their best to contain the situation.
Before you knew it we had successfully contained it within four to five months if I am correct.
I learnt form the outbreak that I could use my art to impact society..it didn’t matter how the story was told ..What mattered was if the message was delivered. So I started more conscious cartoons addressing some issues in my society like fuel scarcity and the corruption of elections.
5. What, in your opinion is needed now for your community?
A lot is needed b. we need good leadership. We need a change in mentality. everyman here is living selfishly instead for the common good of the community. We need to change that. We need an industrial revolution were organized systems of professionals governed by certain rules of global best practices. We have the land. We have the resources..both human and natural
We need education. Proper orientation in different disciplines of life. There is a lot we need. We need better health care systems. What people don’t know is that Patrick sawyer the first Ebola victim who brought it from Liberia was admitted into a private hospital. That was how it was contained.
There is lot we need b. son, the list is endless.
6. What are your future plans? Hopes for your country?
My plans for the future are very secret to me but I shall reveal an idea of what its going to be like. Think of it as me creating a hub for creativity where people can come and promote ideas that would solve problems majorly in art, infrastructure and aesthetics.
My hope is that Nigeria has better leaders who are ready to collaborate with idealistic people to build a society that would be more conducive for it’s citizens on a large scale. Where we would forget our religious bias and start to see the next man from a different tribe as a bother or a sister.
7. If there is one thing you would like the international community to know about ebola and/or your country, what would it be?
If there is anything I’d like the international community to know about ebola in Nigeria is that it has been contained.
There no zombies or people bleeding out of their anus.
8. Anything else you would like to share?
Thank You.
***Please contact Adesugba Adedapo at: [email protected] for more information and Art Prices***