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Phillipa Mukome-Chinhoi

Youth Interactive Writer

Anesuishe Hanyire is a 12-year-old budding artist, who is in Grade 7 at Masaisai Primary School. 

He started showing interest in drawing at the age of five. 

He would draw anywhere, on the walls, the precast wall and any paper he could find until his dad bought a drawing book and some pencil colours for him. 

One can imagine walls full of scribbled pictures everywhere, when these kids are young they can just write anything wherever they see a space that they can reach. 

During an interview with the Youth Interactive Section,  Anesuishe said he can draw using pencil and pen.

The most interesting thing is he taught himself to draw and his inspiration comes from his family.

“They usually challenge me to draw all kinds of stuff of which l love drawing my favourite cartoon characters and that’s what you will find me drawing in my spare time,” he said.

His passion for drawing started when he started holding a pencil at a crèche.

“When l was five years old, I would draw on the walls, floors and on any piece of paper I could get hold of.”

For Anesuishe it’s different, his father thought of a plan! 

He decided to buy him the pencils and drawing paper. 

“I hope this will motivate parents and guardians to do the same rather than spanking! 

“But of course you do it once and find a solution. 

“I want to be an artist so l have asked my parents to enrol me at a school that specialises in art, l hope they will not disappoint me,” he said.

Anesuishe said whenever he is bored at home, he looks for pictures on Google, especially cartoons.

“I was feeling bored and had no one to play with at home and I thought of drawing a bird. I saw the picture on Google and decided to draw it,”

“I love how the beautiful bird came out and it’s quite easy to draw. I also like the different shades of pencil on the drawing. 

‘‘When l start drawing a picture l feel so nervous but as l go on my confidence starts building,” he explained.

When he started drawing the Blue Jay he felt very nervous, he thought he would fail to capture every detail at the same time he was also excited to be recreating such a beautiful bird on pencil, he hoped people would feel amazed by the beauty of the bird and learn to appreciate nature.

“Every time I draw a picture l want someone to be inspired and love it then try to understand the story behind the picture, pictures always tell stories, it can be sad, scary or exciting,” he said.

“For the Blue Jay l would want to add more detailed feathers and probably colour it with different shades of blue, black and white because it’s quite a colourful bird.”

“The details l put on my drawings always portray a message, it is especially good if one cannot tell what the picture is. 

‘‘There is nothing worse than saying, “What a lovely flower,” only to have the child tell you it is supposed to be a cat.

He pointed out that as a child he taught himself to connect emotions with whatever he wants to draw to come up with a creative expression. 

This has also allowed him to put himself in another person’s position and also imagine how his work affects that person. 

“Imagine drawing a monkey then you go on to say that’s my grandma, how would you think grandma will feel when she looks at that picture?” he said.

Anesuishe said his drawings help him to recognise his own creative spark and makes the connection from real-life events to artistic creation. 

He wants to portray a message and not scare people but of course to tell people how he is feeling at a particular time. 

Most importantly, he values his own internal validation rather than performing in hopes of gaining the approval of others.