Cyrus Nganga Kabiru and his eclectic eyewear, oil painting, Lioda Conrad

South African artist Lioda Conrad’s expressive oil painting of Cyrus Nganga Kabiru, a Kenyan artist and his eclectic eyewear, began as a drawing–shown below–with the first oil paint and medium the artist added to start her painting.

Ghana artist, Enam Bosokah uses his trademark blue ink ballpoint pen technique to systematically build up layers of line to develop a three-dimensionality in his portraits. It becomes easier to understand his technique by view images of various stages of completion, like in this early stage example–

Early stage of Enam Bosokah blue ballpoint ink pen portrait

Here is another stage in the development of his portrait–

Enam Bosokah portrait in progress

Final stage in the development of the portrait–

Enam Bosokah portrait

Five stages of development in Cameroon artist Tangwan Elice’s portrait of a young woman–

Tangwan Elice portrait stage 1

Tangwan uses both graphite and charcoal in rendering the skin and hair textures in his portrait–

Tangwan Elice portrait stage 2

Here are three more stages of the portrait drawing–

Tangwan Elice portrait stage 3

Tangwan Elice portrait stage 4

Tangwan Elice portrait step 5

Tangwan Elice, Enam Bosokah, and Lioda Conrad are three of nearly 30 Africa artists represented by the African Portraiture Service. This service connects you with portrait artists in Africa who are experts at creating original art working from your photo selfies. You can work directly with there artists who live in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, and South Africa, with the assistance and guarantees of the African Portraiture Service.