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Lethabo Huma
Lethabo Huma articulates her thoughts and emotions to the world through digital paintings and illustrations while still following traditional painting and drawing techniques in order to achieve expressive brushwork textures.
Lethabo Huma is a digital artist born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa. She is currently attending the University of South Africa, where she is pursuing a degree in visual multimedia arts. From a young age, Lethabo struggled with articulating her thoughts and emotions. Her ninth-grade arts and culture teacher offered the class an opportunity to exhibit their drawings in the classroom whenever they had artwork to share. Through this opportunity, Lethabo found a way to communicate her thoughts and emotions with the world. She explored various media in pursuit of more precise methods of communication. From this exploration, including online learning and YouTube tutorials, she found herself drawn to digital art. She says, “I create digital paintings and illustrations but still follow traditional painting and drawing techniques in order to achieve expressive brushwork textures. I always strive to improve how I translate my emotions and the stories I share through my selection of muses and brushwork.”
Fun facts about Lethabo? She is a huge love of bunnies and teacup puppies, and her current favorite artists are Alexis Franklin and Harmonia Rosales.
Lethabo has been using Procreate for almost three years. Procreate has had a significant impact on her career as an artist by bringing her ideas to life. She enjoys using the Nikko Rull brush for painting and blending, the technical pen for sketches, and the time-lapse feature to capture her process videos. She also enjoys doodling with a fine liner and acrylic painting.
How does Lethabo tackle artist block? She quickly responds, “Patience.” She goes on to explain that being patient with yourself and your art is very important. When she is experiencing artist block, she takes a break from what she is creating just to play around with colors and shapes. She also shares that she spends time watching YouTube tutorials as well as browsing Instagram or Pinterest for inspiration.
The theme of Lethabo’s work centers around her emotional responses and thoughts to life’s experiences. She continues, “My art is a way for me to speak to the world and share my experiences that can be relatable or “felt” by others.” Although Lethabo struggles with letting what she calls “imposter syndrome” get the better of her as an artist, she remains focused on continually looking for interesting ways to use design and art to communicate with the world. Her goals include improving how to translate her emotions into her art and remind others of the importance of creating. She encourages other artists to explore different mediums and techniques, as this will help them develop a unique art style. And to the art community as a whole, she expresses the need for more physical and online support spaces where artists can learn from one another about creating, commissions, and managing themselves as artists.
