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Meet the man behind Reddit’s favorite watercolor paintings
By ,
Published November 03, 2015
Hector Janse van Rensburg painted a portrait for President Obama during his AMA. The president later posted it on his official Tumblr.
For more than two years, Hector Janse van Rensburg has been illustrating comments and painting on demand on the popular site Reddit.
His first paintings were less than stellar - hence his username - but more than 3,000 paintings later, Rensburg says many people now consider his work more "mediocre" or "average." His work is often compared to that of Quentin Blake, who illustrated many of Roald Dahl's books.
Despite his modesty, Rensburg has begun to turn his watercolor painting into a career. He's been commissioned by the BBC and often sells paintings through RedditGifts.
Besides illustrating comments, Rensburg enjoys painting sloths, re-imagining masterpiece works, and painting portraits of prominent people who come to Reddit to participate in AMA's - including President Obama.
"Usually I get a bit of warning," Rensburg said. "Like, a few days beforehand I"ll make the painting and have it ready to post and when Obama did his AMA, I had no idea and I only saw it 20 minutes after it had posted, so I had to just scramble to get something painted and it's pretty awful."
The president appeared to disagree - Rensburg's painting was posted on Obama's official Tumblr page.
Watch our full interview with Hector Janse van Rensburg below:
[youtube FsYc_yPzf1M]
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/meet-the-man-behind-reddits-favorite-watercolor-paintings