Samuel Blankson’s (alias Themanyphacedgod) story did not start with a certain plan for digital art as most Ghanaian artists would do. He studied attentively what other artists were making, trying out new skillsets and gradually found his niche.
He has built a visual style that intersects between illustration, abstraction, and figurative painting. He works mainly in Procreate and Photoshop and treats the screen the way he’d treat a canvas, building an image up in layers of marks, color, and texture until something starts to take shape.
“I still remember coming across the work of Ian Quachi, a fellow Ghanaian artist on Facebook. During this period my father was not supportive of my decision to pursue a career as an artist and so I reached out to Quachi looking for some direction” Samuel recounts. In return what he got was a blunt feedback: do whatever you want, just be good at it.
As time went by, he had already figured out that the path he had expected was not working for him. In school, at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, he studied graphic design, but his strength as an artist happened outside of the lecture halls. Digital art complemented his process, enabling him keep at a consistent pace on the digital route without spending much on painting materials he could not afford back then.
Samuel Blankson’s (alias Themanyphacedgod) story did not start with a certain plan for digital art as most Ghanaian artists would do. He studied attentively what other artists were making, trying out new skillsets and gradually found his niche.
He has built a visual style that intersects between illustration, abstraction, and figurative painting. He works mainly in Procreate and Photoshop and treats the screen the way he’d treat a canvas, building an image up in layers of marks, color, and texture until something starts to take shape.
“I still remember coming across the work of Ian Quachi, a fellow Ghanaian artist on Facebook. During this period my father was not supportive of my decision to pursue a career as an artist and so I reached out to Quachi looking for some direction” Samuel recounts. In return what he got was a blunt feedback: do whatever you want, just be good at it.
As time went by, he had already figured out that the path he had expected was not working for him. In school, at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, he studied graphic design, but his strength as an artist happened outside of the lecture halls. Digital art complemented his process, enabling him keep at a consistent pace on the digital route without spending much on painting materials he could not afford back then.
He has a strong instinct for what he expresses through his work by sketching out his own space, moving between surrealism, figuration, and abstraction depending on what a piece needs. “Perfection feels static,” he says. “It cannot be continued.” This is part of the reason why he is uninterested in perfection as a goal.
That restlessness is central to how he sees his own development. Samuel has zero expectations to sticking to one art styleas his work shifts because he treats the paintings as part of an ongoing process. It’s also why he leaves room for other people in the work: a piece might start from something deeply personal to him, but once someone else is looking at it, they bring their own memories and associations, and he’s fine with that.
From Accra to London, a self-taught Samuel Blankson who started with digital tools via Procreate and Photoshop sees experimentation as a lesser-known method he uses. He currently works out of London, Seven Sisters to be precise, where he holds onto the same idea that got him started: find your own way, keep making the work, and get good enough that no one questions the choice.
Written By Usman Damilola Sulaiman
