More About Me

How did you get into art? Who are your inspirations?

I started drawing since I was little but I would say mainly video games and an elementary school friend who pushed me to be more determined in creating art. Along with other artists, I looked up to in my years of youth while growing and improving my skills as must as possible and with any opened window I had for just sketching an idea. Then it just progressed from there as I got older, found myself enrolling into The Art Institute of Orange County but moved to a different city after 3 semesters and transferred to The Art Institute of Inland Empire-San Bernardino.

My inspirations are: Trickywagon (YouTube and Instagram), RossDraws (YouTube and Instagram), Gabriel Picolo (Instagram), 3DEx (YouTube), Drawingwiffwaffles (YouTube and Instagram), and Kim Jung GI (Instagram and YouTube) mostly for his beautiful detailed work and mind in drawing in such a 3D world head space, and many others along the way.

Are you self-taught?

Yes. I started drawing when I was maybe five years old or whenever the time, I could write my own name. I got into the habit of creating my own characters from watching cartoons or even anime (yes guilty as charged) but it was all just inspiration to make my own characters and stories. Even video games were also a creative outlet for me to design and wanting to build my own fantasy world and story line.

My ultimate favorite game series that even sparked this idea was when I first started playing Legend of Zelda A Link's Awakening on my GameBoy Color. I grew up and played that franchise for years on in all the way up 3DS, the Wii, and to my recent play through of Breathe of the Wild on the Switch.

Do you use references often in your drawings? If so, where do you get your inspiration from?

Yes! Always! I often use so many references it’s kind of hard to keep track of everything or even remember where I got the reference to begin with. Most of the time, it’s from Pinterest. I use a lot of references from that site. It’s basically an artist infinite reference data log of infinite amount of usage for creating an inspirational art piece or character design. The references I use can vary from a full outfit layout, to a color scheme, or even a name. It can even go as out-worldly as looking a scene from a coffee shop or city street walk.

How did you get into graphic art?

Getting to graphic art was kind of like an accident. I was looking for a reference vector for a project for class and did not like any of the references I was finding. So, I took my sketchbook and just sketched out what I liked and was looking for. From there I took it to Photoshop and used the pen tool to vector it out. I used Pinterest to find a color scheme, added it and made a logo and banner for a 3D model that was a little café that I had made. It just blew up from there. Started to make my own logo, (revised it this year in 2020) and started making other logos, band albums, and business cards for friends.

How did you get into 3D modeling?

Video games. Legend of Zelda once again (I just really love the series and franchise). What brought my curious brain to it was playing games here and there and when I beat a game, I would literally try to read all the names of the people who worked on it and what department they were under and it peaked from there. I was always curious on how to create and build games with just a huge vast amount of space and almost feel like you're going through the story with the said main character of the game.

Put yourself in the character's shoes as they say and see where they take you.

What got you into creating your own comic stories? Who was your inspiration?

Stan Lee. The man who created comics not just for kids but for adults alike. He brought the Marvel and DC Universe to everyone hearts and became a huge sensation to very day he died. He inspired many other artists and writers to create their own stories and I’m one of them. I have been a fan of his since the first Spider-Man came out and he appeared in a cameo in that movie. He was so well beloved it broke my heart entirely to hear and to see that he had passed away.  

I grew more and more into the Marvel and DC Universe because of my Godfather Greg who was a fan of both, (yes there is such a thing... I’m one of them). As a kid and growing adult, I wanted to create my own stories and comics and Mr. Stan Lee was the one who inspired me to do it even though I did not know him personally. It was my lifelong dream to meet him in person but that sadly was short lived but he will stay in everyone’s hearts forever and always.

Enough said.

How did you develop your own art style?

There’s always this question a lot of people tend to ask wanting to know the secret of “getting good” to doing art. I always say the same thing... you can’t draw like me. No one can. Every artist out there has a different and unique art style from the rest of everyone else. If you take Mr. Kim Jung Gi, Neal Adams, and Ross Draws and asked them to draw a horse grazing along a field you will get three entirely separate drawings in three different drawing styles. One would be more detailed than others, or graphic novel like or just plain simple and illustrated.

I myself struggled to find my own art style after watching other YouTubers, Instagramers, and even reading articles on this particular subject they all said the same thing. Practice until you get the results you wanted...that advice did not go well for me. I needed more information until I stumbled upon Trickywagon and DrawingWiffWaffles on YouTube saying an art style just doesn’t come from practicing. Look up other artists that inspire you and take a piece or part of what they do and apply it to what you have already learned and don’t just straight up copy learn how they make their characters work.

What shape language do they use, do they use saturated primary colors or muted neutral tones? What is the overall mood they use throughout their art? Once you have all that down then study them, take a drawing of yours and utilize it to what you learned from the several artists you looked at. To top it all off make it fun for yourself, take your time and no need to rush or push yourself.

Therefore, I did just that. I am however still working out trying new things and experimenting with different medias but so far, I am appreciating my process as I learn new things every day.

What are your goals?

My absolute goal is to have my own studio for creating my own comic series. I am currently in the process of writing two different stories but also maybe figuring out a way to merge them (if possible). For now, I am entirely focusing on one of the stories to see how well it will do. I know it may not make it or break it but I believe it will.

(Also planning a podcast called Real Artists Talks Talk show or R.A.T for short)