When 18-year-old Hector Janse van Rensburg was rejected by his first choice university, he traded books and essays for a dusty old watercolor painting set he'd received years earlier. Painting, he thought, might help ebb his nagging boredom and depression.
The only problem: he was a shitty painter. Hilariously shitty. And so, the mysterious subreddit /u/Shitty_Watercolour was born in 2012.
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By revealing his identity to Mashable, Rensburg finally puts to rest the constant questions from suspicious Redditors, some of whom believe him to be Quentin Blake, famed collaborator of children's author Roald Dahl.
"Perhaps I just ruined any remaining mystery surrounding the guy that inexplicably decided one day to paint thousands of subpar paintings on the Internet," Rensburg tells me.
My sloth will go on pic.twitter.com/VKRVSgeeQ1
— Shitty Watercolour (@SWatercolour) November 9, 2013
Shitty_Watercolour began as simply another novelty account. Rensburg would interpret Reddit submissions and comments in his signature awful style, quickly amassing a small fortune in upvotes and followers. He quickly joined the ranks of "celebrity" accounts like /u/AWildSketchAppeared and /u/Etch_A_Sketcher.
Then, users began to notice that Shitty_Watercolour wasn't so shitty anymore. It was improving.

Rensburg's rapid improvement is clear when comparing one of his early works to a more recent painting.
Image: Hector Janse van Rensburg
"It took hundreds of paintings before I produced anything better than an average five-year-old could," says Rensburg, now 19. "Although I’m not quite ready to graduate from the ‘shitty’ prefix to my paintings, I feel that people can now appreciate what I do beyond just the novelty."
And plenty do, including President Barack Obama, whose official Tumblr featured a Shitty_Watercolour original after his 2012 Reddit AMA. Rensburg calls it his proudest moment.

Image: Hector Janse van Rensburg
Part of the appeal of Rensburg's work, aside from its quirky nature and abundance of sloths, is his openness with his style and process. You'd be hard-pressed to find an artist as quick to reveal his weaknesses as Rensburg. This attribute aligns perfectly with the core of Reddit culture — it's an honest place, a funny place and one of the few spots online that rewards (and insists upon) humility.
"My process of getting better as an illustrator is completely transparent," says Rensburg. "I think that's part of the appeal — I have grown up with Reddit and people have watched that."
That's why Rensburg has begun to branch out. Joining Twitter, adding his portfolio to Tumblr and, more recently, creating a YouTube channel are all part of a larger plan to expand his reach beyond the limits of Reddit — a 21st century rags to riches story.
listed on wikipedia under '21st century British Painters', feeling very legit
http://t.co/JwfrAacwmb
— Shitty Watercolour (@SWatercolour) December 26, 2013
"Ultimately Shitty_Watercolour was the best thing that has happened to me, and I want it to stay for as long as people will have me," says Rensburg. The exposure he receives from Reddit has enabled him to create hundreds of commissioned works (as well as sell prints for about $20 each), work with the BBC Twitter account and receive at least two potential book deals. Both are currently in the works, and according to Rensburg, may or may not be sloth-related.

Though the fast-paced, sexy life of a Reddit celebrity may seem cushy, Rensburg still deals with all of the problems that come with being an online artist in 2014. Content theft plagues Shitty_Watercolour the same way it does many creators.
"Although during the start of my career I would have been overjoyed to see anyone using my work on their website, it does get tiresome when they don't credit me," he says. The quick turnaround of Shitty_Watercolour paintings leads many sites and fans to assume its okay to not credit or ask permission. But Rensburg exclusively produces quick paintings, and this logic frequently backfires.

Image: Hector Janse van Rensburg
"Even if people get bored of me tomorrow, it has been an amazing experience," says Rensburg, whose time is largely filled with school work and outside projects.
Shitty_Watercolour's growing success outside the niche community of Reddit is a sign of good things to come for entrepreneurial artists online. The loyal following Rensburg has built will continue to follow him wherever Shitty_Watercolour goes. Invested, connected and willing to support their friends, communities like those on Reddit might end up funding a new generation of artists online.