THE IMMEASURABLY FINE ARTIST
Thabang Koogotsitse first discovered his talent at the age of five and according to him, he didn’t think much of it back then. He started by drawing a simple bus and got paid P20. For a while, he wanted more P20 notes to keep coming but it never happened. As time went on, Thabang then went to primary school where he met other students who could draw but they couldn’t do it as good as him and that meant a lot to him because he liked the status of being “the best” and he supposes that’s how his talent grew. He went through his school years being told he’s the best though he wasn’t getting paid for it.
Growing the page audience was the most difficult part for Thabang as he wanted to give up more often than not because he couldn’t sell any of his work for a while but eventually he started selling one artwork here and there which was helping his student allowance to cover all my bills, that’s when art turned from being something he does for fun to something he does for a living.
He then made an artwork for Khumo Kgwaadira which shocked people because of how amazing it was. Thabang said a lot of people said it was done with a computer app and it got so much attention that it hit over 30k likes and that’s when he started getting a lot of clients. “One thing I learnt with art is that you don’t have to approach customers, you have to create an artwork at your level best and customers will approach you and when they do, give them your level best again and their friends will know about you. That’s my selling strategy, I get people to talk about my work,” said Thabang.
As good as he’s with art, he’s not only focused on it, but he is also focused on agriculture. He breeds chickens and manufacture egg incubators. Back to art, Thabang has sold a lot of artworks and has even lost count. He sells his artworks to people of different backgrounds and he even has some of his work in India and America.
He has never really cared about entering art competitions because he feels growing artists should be given a chance to win and has something that motivates them. “I remember a few years back I got removed from an art competition because I was on a different level so there was no point of me competing when the results are obvious,” he added.
Thabang does fine artists and he draws using graphite pencil, black charcoal and white charcoal pencils, tombow mono eraser, electrical eraser, and a blender. His business name is Dodo’s Art and it can be found on Facebook & Instagram. He said that he never draws unless he’s getting paid for it.
He advised the aspiring artists by saying, “I just want young artists to be confident about their work and they should respect their work, if a customer can’t afford their work then the artwork can find a cheaper artist. Also, invest on the most expensive art materials you can find, that’s how you can produce high quality work. Draw at your level best and your work will speak for you, customers will approach you.”
Duncan Sebeso 
Celebrity World 
Administrator