HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Quintin Banks was a star football player for Houston County High School in 2006. Not only was he talented on the gridiron and the classroom, but he was a sort of a "Renaissance man," developing a skill on the canvas, something he says came just as natural as football.
“I fell in love with art a long time ago,“ says Banks. “I always had an itching for it. My family is actually pretty creative. Being the only child, there was only so much I could do to entertain myself. My mom could only play with me for so much, so a lot of times, I would just start drawing either Dragon Ball Z characters, Star Wars characters, or any kind of cartoons.”
After graduating from Houston County High School, Banks went on to continue his career as a student athlete at UGA playing football while majoring in studio arts. It was a tough assignment balancing both loves, but he persevered. Even while in Athens, he realized those days drawing in a notebook way back in middle school helped prepare him as a young adult in college.
“I remember drawing in the Feagin Mill Middle School yearbook. We had a contest and I won,“ explains Banks. “I knew then I was good enough to at least draw things for people.”
Now that his playing days are over, Banks is married with a family now, but he is still pursuing his love of drawing, which has grown from a hobby to a passion, to a business, and one day, hopefully, a full-time career.
“My brother once told me, 'A lot of people are always looking for a niche or how they can make money,“ says Banks. “He always told me, 'You have a million dollars in your hand based off the fact you can draw from God-given ability and it’s natural for you.' I took that conversation and ran with it.“
Now, Banks is working full-time as a project manager in metro Atlanta because he says he still has to pay the bills until his dream of selling his art becomes full-time. If you’d like to see some of Quintin’s creations or purchase one of your own, head over to his Instagram page and check out this talented son of Central Georgia.
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