Jules Mutuga, 21, also known as TyZik, has found his niche in visual and performing arts and is motivated to uplift his art to an international level as well as spread it to everyone who wants to mug up.

Mutuga does portraits, painting and illustrations of graphic novels, children books and comic books as well as designs and 2D animations. As part of performing arts, he is a rapper, songwriter and former hip-hop dancer.

Jules Mutuga. 

He started drawing at a young age drawing in his notebook's last pages, but got dissuaded by teachers who would tell him that his drawings won’t get him far.

He shared that he was an introvert and an anti-social child who faced a lot of difficulties expressing himself due to the fear of being unheard or misunderstood.

"I was keeping everything inside but whenever I had a pencil and a paper, everything felt different. I found peace and joy in storytelling by exposing what I had in my mind. It became my new way of expressing what I couldn't get out of my head henceforth giving me a voice,” he said.

"Art became my therapy, whether drawing or writing. As I grew up, it became my home, my universe. I didn't discover my talent, it discovered me.”

 Jules shared that he would get family’s support though they didn’t see visual art as something he could pursue as a career.

"My father and uncle were my first motivators. During vacations, instead of traveling or doing any other activities, I would ask him for enough papers, pencils and then go to my grandmother's and spend days drawing. My uncle also would be there to support and motivate me,” he said.

His journey as a professional artist started in 2017 after graduating from high school. He started as a freelance illustrator, working for Gravity Studios on children's books. He later worked with various companies and publishing houses and made numerous story books.

At the time, his hobbies included watching anime and reading comic books. These also served as his motivation, according to him.

He declared that his love for visual arts never fell back because visual art is limitless, adding that he can express anything out of it.

"Visual art boosted my confidence and made me less anti-social. In it, I found a way to express myself and heal from mental breakdown. Being a visual artist is the best decision I have ever made in my life,” he said.

Jules’ arts encompasses a mixture of cultures and a distinctive style that include Japanese manga, American comics, and his African touch which, according to him, delineates his uniqueness.

He shared that nowadays, in Rwanda, visual arts is a career that parents can help their children to pursue unlike in the last five to 10 years.

"The industry has highly experienced international artists and that’s just the beginning. We still have to take it to a higher level because a vast part of the population don't have a clue about how visual artists generate content that their kids watch every day in schools or how it helps in advertisement,” he said. 

Jules won the first prize in a competition organized by Francophone Cultural Centre of Rwanda (Centre culturel francophone du Rwanda) in collaboration with Bakamé Éditions, where his project "Écharpe” was selected to join others that will be presented during the International Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

He is also working on a graphic novel "Orphans vs Aliens" as an illustrator of a story written by an American film director, Matthew Leutwyler.

Talking about his challenges, he said that there are still a few opportunities for young artists to work on big projects, adding that some people don't understand the role and importance of illustrations in education materials which often causes them to pay visual artists little money that makes it hard for them to make a living.

Jules’ most popular artworks include the illustrations entitled "Protect the Culture" and "Late nights sleeping" that were featured by different influencers on their instagram accounts like Nubiamancy, Dopebackart, Institut Français and Madboogie Creations (former lime town studios).

For more information, you can contact him +250780756577, tyzikjules@gmail.com

Instagram: @tyzik_the_greatest_, @tyzik_the_rapper

Twitter: @Mutuga_Jules, @TyZikTheRapper