Artists and Architects don't make it in Nigeria - Self-taught Comics Animator laid it bare
Ivie dreams to dominate the animation industry, but a dream as high like that always gets a beat down. Still, Ivie's mind is made up.
As with any child, Ivie grew up watching cartoons; and like most kids, she had dreams of fame and someday having her own animated series on Cartoon Network. As usual, life however dealt her a harsh hand: artists don't flourish in Nigeria, according to her father, neither do architects have good jobs - do geology! For that very reason, and to avoid troubles with her father, she went ahead studying rocks, she says, while simultaneously learning from the technical aspects the course entails; hand movements and some anatomy.
“I put in for geology at college for the sake of my parents pushing me to study geology, but I also studied art because I wanted to do art,” says Ivie, who is now a top graduate of Geology from the University of Ibadan.
In that time, she made short comics animations for her YouTube channel, expressing how she felt about the course. One deep shot like that was Pensive, of which she wrote in the description, “I am tired of this course!”
And also the invigorating animation short, Deadlines, another of her imaginative prowess born out of pure frustrations.
Ivie describes herself as an enigma; but kind and funny. On a norm, she jokes, she is the weirdest person I will ever meet. Studying geology however had its perks. It is strange to say that it made her funnier, yet true. In school, she illustrated geology jokes which were based on her experiences; and with time, her comics were noticed and featured regularly on the Department's editorial board. This, she says, was very exciting - seeing students read them and burst into laughter; forgetting about the day's work: like sudden tests or drilling a borehole!
“I am always sketching. If I am not sketching physically, I am sketching in my mind. Ivie says during a chat on Telegram, ‘And I've been doing that since secondary school. It actually got so bad that sometimes the teachers wouldn't collect my notes because I've ruined the pages with sketches.”
Ivie tells me that she was starting to make some serious life decisions about animations now having been done with university; intending to look farther, improve her drawing skill and have a professional portfolio ready for the big catch.
Nowadays, the 22-year-old self-taught comics artist and animator spends her day creating comic strips and animations for practice and fun, and for clients. Ivie's work space can set any artist into the mood for creative work; a brown-wooden but comfy desk strategically placed at one side of her room softly lit by a table lamp, a Sony laptop, an external computer keyboard, and a Huion H640P drawing tablet, neatly arranged on it. While staying at home, this is where she invests most of her time creating new comics animations and likely bingeing on French toast. One of which was her recent and longest-running comics animation yet, titled Pageant Queen, which she completed during the first two weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos.
“Pageant Queen” is a 7 minutes comics animation; and so far, Ivie’s longest-running animated video. It is based on an awkward moment in the life of Ivie herself, about a beauty pageant she participated in as a fresher, which ultimately preyed upon her remaining years in school.
“You see, I didn't win the pageant. I came last, which hurt so much! I sang Grenade by Bruno Mars. I can recollect that when it got to the climax of the song, I wanted to kick the chair but the chair did not go down… That was very embarrassing for me and I thought this would make a really good video.
‘When I was animating each scene, I tried my best to incorporate all the emotions I felt, and my friend, Rhoda in the video, was very supportive of me during the pageant.”
It takes about two hours to get this interview done. Ivie talks with a great sense of humour. It is lucidly clear that she has a firm grip on her future. No other opportunities, no destiny nor fate can snatch it from her! Here is someone with very clear knowledge of where she is going in life and the correct chart to navigate her way there.
But an irony Ivie tells me was that her father, an engineer, and her uncle who works as a cartoonist for a newspaper, have her started on drawing. The two inspired her, and ever since she has never stopped drawing.
Her advice: since you're an artist and you're looking for fame and money, it will come! But just keep being you.
As we talked more into the conversation, the more I perceived Ivie's interesting self which she had earlier mentioned, too. Artists that inspire her are weird in their creation like Tim Burton, and a few others, including Pendleton Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Justin Roiland, and Nigerian comics artist, Justin Irabor. Ivie was very expressive, she spoke extensively and as free as a bird could fly; her words were endless. And I, a fellow with a curious mind, listened carefully to this quite resourceful soul.
Yeah! Ivie is very talented.i knw you wil go places.
Lovely. Go achieve girl, you are a born winner.