Nigerian-American illustrator, Odera Igbokwe is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, with a BFA in Illustration.
At Brown University, Odera studied movement-theater and West African dance with New Works/World Traditions.
As an illustrator, Odera loves to explore storytelling through character archetypes, afro-diasporic mythologies, and magical girl transformation sequences.
Odera is currently working on art for card gaming companies, illustrations for a short story coming out later this year but first we stopped to admire some work already done.
Speaking about working inspiration in an interview, Odera said:
“As a child, the characters I drew were not black unless it was Storm from X-Men, or an actual real person. One day around the age of fifteen or so, I just noticed that none of these original fantasy characters I was drawing looked like me or my family. By the time I went to college, I unplugged myself from that system of white supremacy that allowed for none of my characters to be black.”
“Sometimes it is as simple as seeing our people present and represented in the realm of fantasy art.”
Take a look at the stunning collection
Illustration for The Ladies of Literature Volume II.
This post originally appeared on Y! Africa
