Eliaser Saltiel (25) is a passionate sketch artist who found his niche in the industry when he started drawing images of local celebrities.

Gazza, Maria Nepembe, The Dogg and Exit have all made his artistic cut.  He is inspired by renowned American sketch artist, Heather Rooney, whose artwork he watches on YouTube in his free time. There and then, the bug bit him and Saltiel later fell in love with sketches and started doing drawings of different objects for fun.  Swakopmund born, he started doing sketches at only nine years by sketching animals, plants, cars and many others. “I then moved to Arandis where I started to watch videos on YouTube on how to draw using different materials, as well as how to sketch real people’s face,” says Saltiel. Moving to Windhoek few years ago, he started drawing people and celebrities for money, uploading them on social media.  “This was a strategy of self-promotion in the art industry, because if you upload a portrait of a celeb on your Facebook timeline, it will drive a lot of traffic into your account. It allows me to interact with fans of these celebs,” says Saltiel, adding that this is also a way of honouring Namibian personalities, apart from generating an income for himself. 

He uses different types of materials like graphite, charcoal and black powder for proper black and white images. He also uses tools such as a blending stump to blend the skin, brushes, bud cloth and tissues papers. “As an artist, I want to do hyper realistic drawings as well as helping my fellow artists who are struggling with sketching or shading by adding details to their portraits,” he says. 

In five years, Saltiel wants to open a big studio, where all artists from different parts of the country can gather to share skills and sell their artworks. He currently has 14 trainees that he trains free of charge. More information and drawings of Saltiel can be found on his Instagram account:@qondja_arts_official.