You an upcoming artist who is still a student? Need a new challenge or a platform to showcase your work? Then the PPC Imaginarium Awards may be your best bet.

The PPC Imaginarium Awards is the best bet for emerging artists. It is a competition established by the PCC cement company. It gives upcoming artists the platform to showcase their talent and creativity. The catch is that you have to use the cement as your primary medium.

From the year 2014 after the name change from Young concrete sculptor to PPC Imaginarium Awards, more categories were introduced. It was no longer a competition for sculptors only as it was since 1992 when it was established.

Various categories were introduced, well five more. Industrial Design, Jewelry Design, Fashion, Film, and Architecture were introduced. This introduction of more categories rose the entry numbers. All these categories are set to showcase the versatility of the concrete.

The competition has also gained more coverage and scored a spot to showcase in the major exhibitions. Exhibitions like Design Indaba Expo, Young Blood, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Pretoria Arts Association, Turbine Art Fair, 100% Design South Africa. More than 80000 visitors have viewed these exhibitions in the major houses. So definitely this competition is worth it.

The competition is open to South African or Zimbabwean citizens, but if you have a study permit in any of these two countries, then you are also allowed to enter the competition. There are great prizes to be won. The overall winner gets R100 000 in cash. A winner for each category gets R50 000 and the first runner up gets R20 000.

For more information as to how to enter the competition visit the PPC Imaginarium facebook page

Or if you want to view the sculptures that won the prizes you can visit VISI

Below is Sonwabiso Ngcai’s sculpture that won the competition in 2019

Since this is an ART blog, I figured it is fit to share with you all some drawing tips.

By the comment section, you can add yours!

• Talent– You must be gifted.

• If you want to pursue Arts as a career, education is advisable. Go perfect that gift with some education! There are things a gift cannot teach you that you could learn about at school.

• Drawing is observation. That is, you have to look at the object that you are drawing so that it can come out exactly the way you imagined it. Have the person or the photo of the person or thing you want to draw next to you.

• Measurements. Before you start drawing, use a ruler to make the lines on the paper. They must be equal spaces between them.

• Quality Lines. Not every line has to be thin. You can pick which ones you want thin and which ones you want thick. This will make your drawing interesting.

• To avoid stiffness of the drawing, draw multiple lines so that you find the right ones that define your contours properly.

• Look for basic shapes. Shapes simplify your object. Pick and start with the easy to draw shapes, then draw the outlines.

• Draw lightly first. So, your first sketch should not be that much visible. This will allow you to rub off some parts if you do not like them. You can shade the drawing when you see the sketch came out exactly the way you wanted it to.

• Practice! Draw anything you see daily so that you can improve your talent and your skill. When you do something every day, you eventually become better or even be the best in it.

The above information was collected on The Virtual Instructor website

Or you can visit their Youtube channel

Athobe Mlahlwa, a Rhodes University first year Arts student drew the below art piece and named it “MY CROWN”. He dedicates this art piece to all the black females who wear their natural hair proudly. He felt the need to do this art piece because of the recent Clicks and Tresseme advert that labelled black people’s hair as dry and damaged. ” By this art piece I wanted to show how beautiful and exquisite black people’s hair is regardless of its texture of shape” said Athobe.

Grahamstown/Makhanda has some of the most beautiful statues in South Africa. On a daily basis , I get the privilege to see the Albany Anglo-Boer War memorial statue and I saw it fit to share it with you all.

The Albany Anglo-Boer War memorial statue Memorial is located at the central crossing of the intersection of High Street and the end of Bathurst Street. The funding for the statue came from some citizens and some members of the various Corps. They offered this money to honour the deceased comrades who were involved in the war.

The pedestal and the stand of the statue are made up of marble cream stone. On top of the marble stone stand, there is a bronze statue of a winged woman of peace standing next to a dead soldier. At the bottom of the square, at the side the figures are facing, there is a bronze crafted flower seemingly painted with a greenish color.

The message on the statue stand goes like: TO THE BRAVE MEN OF ALBANY WHO DIED FOR THE EMPIRE DURING THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 1899 – 1902

Then on either side of the statue stand there are names of the comrades who lost their lives. To get find out more of what is written on other sides of the stand you can visit the Artefacts page

A genuine smile showing all his teeth, the man wearing a green t-shirt and has a dreaded head gracefully introduced himself. “I am Mzomvelo Stofile, a third-year student doing Journalism and Media studies in Rhodes University. I started drawing when I was in primary school”. Flickering his hands, one could tell he was nervous and shy, but amazingly he did not stop talking.

Usually when one loses interest in class they look outside the window and start fantasizing. Well Mzomvelo was slightly different from other kids.  He would draw instead of looking outside the window. “All my schoolbooks had drawings. Every time we were taught in class, I would just draw” said Mzomvelo. By now he had stopped flickering his hands and was engaging in the conversation with passion. From there one could tell that indeed Mzomvelo loves drawing.

Well he did not only draw on his schoolbooks, sometimes he would help his siblings with their assignments if there was a need for drawing. Mzomvelo discovered his talent for drawing when he was in primary school. For him, drawing is also a way of expressing himself. “I am a shy person, so by drawing I put down my thoughts” said Mzomvelo.

If you want to know more about Mzomvelo, you can inbox him on Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/mzomvelostofile.mzomvelo

Below is a video of Mzomvelo Stofile doing what he loves, drawing.

Enjoy!

Video credit: Zisanda Solwandle