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Tunji Onigbanjo is the Lawyartist; a young lawyer and an old artist. Old artist because he has been drawing since his earliest memory and young lawyer because he passed the bar and became a lawyer in late 2011. Tunji only considered his talent to be commercially viable in the winter of 2015 while undergoing his Masters program. He finally became sure enough of his growth to register as an exhibitor at the Nottingham Comic Convention 2015, where he sold quite a few pieces and met a few fans and artists. Tunji was also an exhibitor at the Lagos Home Show on May 8, 2016 at Mega Plaza. With a lot of consistency, risk taking and investments he has become an artist to be reckoned with and whose work can now be found on all social media platforms.
On his journey to becoming a lawyer, Tunji decided to study law when he was admitted into secondary school and realized that being a rocket scientist or inventor was foreign to Nigeria. He therefore decided to study his father’s profession which he admired anyway. Moreover, people had told him he liked to argue while growing and would probably make a good lawyer.
In Tunji’s opinion, anyone can draw as drawing is based on brain – eye – finger coordination among other factors. Most part of a drawing goes on in the brain, your fingers just produce the visible results, while your eyes monitor and judge these results. With enough practice, anyone will improve and finally know how to draw to their satisfaction.
Tunji once drew for 20 hours; an A4 sized 3D Super Mario. He broke the drawing down into stages and coloured it with all the skill and patience he could muster. The drawing when framed would cost about N35,000 and a framed print of the same size would cost about N15,000.
Being a lawyer has made Tunji more cautious as he tries not to fall into any traps that may get his art unfairly exploited. Law has also given him a high sense of discipline, as he has no excess time to slack on art, since law also requires a lot of dedication. Tunji says that art does the opposite of law in his life as it makes him relax and forgot about his problems. Whereas law is about solving clients’ problems. Both of them keep him in some sort of equilibrium; happy and smart.
Tunji’s goals are still developing but as of today he wants a Lawyartist piece to hang in every home and maybe own a gallery someday. If Tunji could do life again, he will still be a lawyer and an artist ; only wishing Nigeria was a little more favourable environment for both professions.
His advice for anyone who wants to be a lawyer and also follow his or her passion/purpose is “ when you find what talent you enjoy giving up sleep for, doing into the dead of the night, you then have to be consistent. Also, have clear goals and learn from your role models’ mistakes. Listen, learn, be honest with and push yourself always.”
