'How I learned to draw' with RossDraws

I really want to see my own stuff and my world come to life my own character have stories and I feel like if I'm not contributing to that I'm wasting my time if you don't know who that is that is Ross Tran who is one of those people that is so exceptionally talented that it makes you feel bad for slacking off so he's only 24 years old and yet his portfolio is one of the most fleshed out perfected things I've ever seen like he's able to consistently create hit after hit after hit after hit with like this level of polish that you would normally expect from like a large studio with lots of artists critiquing things but for Ross it's just like another week mostly what I like about his work is that he doesn't shy away from what other artists would call crutches like he's blatant about using color dodge and like all these glow effects and really he just he's just interested in just making cool-looking stuff and that's really what I like about it but as well as that he also understands the fundamentals you can really clearly see that it's not like a one trick pony sort of thing anyways the guy is just really really talented anyways three years ago he created a YouTube channel where he started making like short fun like mini tutorials about how he creates one of his pieces um and not only that but like in one of the most fun ways possible and as a fellow artist he is also on YouTube trying to make learning fun I feel like I have a lot to learn from this guy and as you can imagine when you combine exceptional talent with entertainment it blew up so his channels like just going crazy at the moment so if you are interested in learning 2d or even just being inspired because it's very inspiring make sure you get on that train and subscribe to his channel which I'll put in the little box wherever that is anyway so I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ross and interviewing him and asking him all the sort of questions that you would probably want to ask him so we talked about how he got started in art his first job working for Disney and why it wasn't for him keeping odd fun and why that is crucially important you'll see having an open mind the importance of connections and finding a mentor and just general advice for growing as an artist and speaking of exceptional results we need to talk about our sister company polygon which makes episodes like this possible so if you want to create world-class renders you need world-class assets so come to polygon and discover the difference that a professional sharp texture can make to your renders and now on to the interview I'm super excited to have you did ya totally still have to be here uh so tell me have you always been autistic yes I've always been artistic but they're a lot of like roadblocks for me a lot like getting to do art because um my dad didn't like me doing art okay yeah so I'd like hide it a little bit okay uh why didn't you like it typical Asian family you know they want their children to become but you know I could market of doctors or dentists or accountants or something practical so growing up I think for the first few years I did are like I love art you know the kid he was fine with that and then when I got to elementary and like real schooling he thought I drew too much and so he would actually hit me you know it's like an Asian things fine like he would hit me every time I do art and so I drew up my homework you know like dill doodles and then he would come in he see that and he's like you're not doing your homework oh my gosh yeah and then he would hit me and then it was hard and so over time I felt out of like like a love for art because I couldn't really do it out of hide it but in school you know I joined the desk the notebooks the textbooks everyone knew what it like who did it I did it you know I'm the only one that draws on textbooks and so I would do that and then not until my parents which is when I was in seventh grade and he moved out the house and that gave me a lot of like freedom to actually kind of take art on again and nothing happened like overnight but I slowly and gradually started drawing and painting again and creating again and it was fun and then um yeah and then ever since then I started pursuing art further and further further dude so you must debt you must have had a really burning passion for drawing I loved join it was it was very interesting like I'm thinking about I'm like I just wanted to draw but I couldn't pay attention I think I'm pretty sure like ADHD the thing and I could never pay attention in school I feel like it's never interesting to me and I like to you know I mean and I'm more interested in drawing and so I have a natural tendency to just ignore and draw it was just like I think something you know with me and so I just migrated through okay they're good you know I didn't like flock off somewhere they Asian okay yes for when I lived with my dad they were like 4.0 yeah like yeah because he said in order for me to check my email I had to have a 4.0 no way checking emails is code name for playing runescape oh okay and so like hey Dad um I just got a 4.0 can I check my email it's so I would just play runescape in the back and pre-tensioner my email you know there's like I was like 12 what emailed am I getting my friend there's stuff like that so yeah yeah so you would so you'd go around yeah on your texts which need to leave like little trails little nodes that you'd been there in Hawaii little breadcrumbs and your dad saw the no and he would what just basically he like uh um anything kind of basically wants me to be the perfect son and if he could limit any type of factors that could distract me into being perfect son then he would take it out of me a little aggressively because he thought it was a tactic to learn right that was his method of teaching me but sometime you know hidden anger got out of control and something you know people aren't perfect and takes a hold of them and so he became a little abusive but uh it's it's fine now I feel like it's of life you know people go to things and that was one thing that went through what what does he think of Iran now he's happy he's uh he's happy but he has a he wants me to always do better and he and sometimes I like I know he appreciates what I do and you know I know I I know he's proud but he thinks it's his job to always push me right and that's parents but I just want him to understand I hope him like I hope he knows that I got to where I am could I push myself and he sometimes I just want him to simply just be a father and never raise any questions about like business cuz when I hand with him business hey where's your business how much are you making but wah wah and so it's kind of hard you know he wants he still had that trait of me wanting like him wanting to have successful son and like I always tell him dad just trust me you know I I know how to I feel like I know how to do life and so just don't worry about that stuff because I want to hang out with you and do things without ever you know talk about business and the money and stuff like that because I don't like that stuff I just want to like draw and yeah that's I think it's personalities yeah yeah and what did your mom think my mom luckily is the opposite I feel like she has some tendencies to uh you know become the parent and check up on me but I I told my mom one thing in high school because my parents divorce and so like she had to basically work a lot harder to provide income and so I told my mom one thing just trust me and never worry about me I got it and I told her maybe two or three times because you know sometimes parents are like but you have to succumb but you have to and it's like mom just trust me I know what I'm doing and so I applied to one college it freaked her out because you know we like to have options or she likes to yeah whatever you know like a lot of like fertility I'm like I know where I want to go and I'm applied to this one school and when she got went when she heard that she's like kind of freaked out but when she got the acceptance letter she's like yeah my son's going to college what was the college Art Center College of Design in Pasadena have you heard of it yes yeah it's the third time I think someone's been in - no yeah so you went there from what is I went there when I started college when I was 17 so I moved down to LA when I was 17 and then I I spent three year there I think and - the year off cuz I didn't feel like I loved art anymore and then I picked it back up to graduate right yeah whoa how is uh how was hot hot Santa Santa all right yeah no was it it was good it was definitely life changing for me because of what I was exposed to and what I've experienced it's not your traditional College and sometimes I feel like I miss that in my life because I see I feel like there are certain stages in people lives and I like the college phase I seem to never have gotten but I feel like I'm kind of living it now a little bit but um I felt like I was thrown into grad school so I was with people that are 23 24 30 I would the youngest in my class and the average age to get in yeah the average age to get him was like 22 23 24 and I was 17 and I was like kind of a little scared but the same time I'm like I know what I want to do I don't want to be and I have no reason to be scared and so yeah it was kind of like a interesting dynamic do Art Center I think my favorite thing was connections the connection and friends I've made and me growing as a person and I felt like a lot of growing up was at art center yeah how do you think the connections helped you I think it got me my first big boy job big boy job yeah what does that mean so my best friend Manoel at the time in college we would like you know we're best friends and so he recommended me for a job on a Disney film and I'm like if I'm it's almost out of nowhere right I was like 19 and it's like hey you wanna we're looking for a character designer and I showed the director stuff along with a few other portfolios and he likes you the most would come on in I'm like okay sure I was kind of like it was kinda weird right like I don't feel like like I've experienced life or to that point of working on this movie and so it was a weird dynamic sometimes when they took me to the head of the like desk producers and the prop makers because I made the character to a movie and the prop makers are like hey give us some notes like hey what do you think about the the prop that we have made off your design and I was like I've never given feedback before whoa but that was the first time I've ever worked on something like a movie and I was tasked with creating the main character the main little robot inside the movie and it was it was fun it was interesting because first it was like what I do you know drawing designing stuff like that and then it got real when the props makers actually built it like they did in 3d like a 3d model of it and then built it and I didn't like see or know any of this they called me up to the upper floor of the studio execs and stuff like that could they wanted to review it and have a meeting and so they brought me in and they're like hey Ross this is what we made what do you think I'm like what okay this is this is what we made give any notes for us like what can we do better and I was like I've never given feedback or like a critique like that you know in that kind of type of setting and it was surreal because I saw it like I saw it and it was like a slight connection and like a good memory like seeing it come to life but I've never seen that before and it was like a really weird moment but it's like good in a good way but I was caught off guard when they asked me for feedback and then my production designer came in and he took the ropes he's like okay cool change this change this tweak this she was like oh okay cool yeah Wow and yeah why do you think he didn't have anything but like you can you could give I think it caught me so off guard that um I've never had that type of the right moment or opportunity to actually give feedback because I was in school I was still learning I was kind of fresh and it it was just like a new experience a new moment um that I wasn't exactly ready for I guess but looking back at it now like I feel like I can do it now yeah okay digital it uh but before I was like I'm 19 I don't know you want for me I thought to just eat and sleep so this was during odd stay out Center yeah so this was during Art Center I think it's during the summer so we were off term and yeah the the movie came out it was it was crazy it was like like you know like hey this is the first thing and my mom bought movie tickets with for my whole entire family they'll see it and they saw my name in the credits you know take a picture of it and it was like a really cool moment but being like after doing that though I realized that I didn't really want to do that like it was a good experience for me but I don't I feel like other people would be a lot better at that job I feel like I would like more creative control with my things and so I felt like I couldn't have someone above me all the time like a confining what I need to do because you know movies have a restriction you know of what because they are also meant to gain money and you have to find the right balance of that and our director wants something they have a vision the production designer want something they have a vision director and so it was a lot of like tweaking one thing and I feel like other people might be a lot better at that and want to do that I feel like I like to be a little more expansive and have a lot more creative control into what I'm doing right yeah yeah so at that point you learned you just got to be your own boss in a way I'm like I don't think I can work for people to resume life whoa that's a crazy like first first job right like so this was so I was during Art Center and yeah you got you got the job of making a lead so it was like the initial concept sketch right yeah like the very beginning there the script and it's like hey and so my director said well actually did these at home in my childhood home because I wasn't in the area and they said hey send something over I think it was also a test you know to see if I couldn't actually do it and so I did it and he said the first round I nailed it and so like my personal sketch I captured the story and stuff what do you want it and I was like oh great and then and then we started having a studio and then click everything of the phase in movies right you have to get greenlit slowly and slowly so the sketch has to get greenlit and this has to greenlit because the execs are like they really want their thing and so if they don't prove something they'll tell them and change it and so with a very slow approval process into getting made but it got made and over time it got more budget and stuff like that yeah whoa huh and so so you were still going to Art Center yeah what were you thinking about your career prospects I think at that time actually when oh yeah so after it no it was a fun experience you know it was really cool to see everything come to life I came back and I started like be more confident in my art in a way I it was cool it wasn't like life-changing but it just mystery' into like a different direction something and so um so I still went to our Center for like two to three more years and so I was about 21 I believe when I quit I quit Art Center and I left to pursue acting really I know way what what why suddenly acting I feel like in a way art was kind of handed to me I felt like I was always good good at it I could draw you know and I at like a young age you know people thought I had drawing skills so that was my thing my talent I was viewed as the artist and a raw so talented boy and I felt like it was kind of handed to me and I wanted to just embark on something completely random not random but like I loved like I thought I could be in my mind I thought I could be a really good actor and I was like hey I think I'd be really good at this and it's something I've always wanted to do and I think I should do it now and so after that semester ended I he was living with me at the time I think yeah my friends off screen with living with me at the time and I told him like hey I'm gonna do acting and so I just bound asti you in Hollywood I moved there I had no idea where to start but I loved it you know I I absolutely loved it because it felt like I was like living like I felt like I was living and so I was searching on Google hey after school where do I start try to find some acting school and as some money saved up from the years to do this and the money went down quick because I'm not working and so I was doing it and then so I had a studio apartment I was learning everything headshots reading lines getting a manager getting an agent like the whole shebang I think the most like I've ever gotten out of it was an audition for a Fox pilot and the executive producers of a psych and scrubs I think was on it and that was like the realest moment ever because I was in the room and I've been working up for this right like I quit art and I'm actually doing this thing and I'm really proud of myself for even getting this liking and I did this all on my own nothing was handed to me yeah and I was in the moment and I did it I was kind of nervous and I didn't get the part they went with so the role was an Asian designer an Asian designer and be more perfect I know he wasn't he was the best friend to the lead like kind of like quirky and kind of me and I thought I thought it was me it was like my role and this is what I've been working towards and then I didn't get it they went with the white guy yeah it's all good Ashley's on Netflix right now um and so I think it was on Fox in the Netflix I'm not sure they resumed it what's it called oh I forgot the first part but it's something bury guide to surviving high school oh okay I've heard of that no I might ring him I don't know if seems so many Netflix I'll probably sentence you after but it was uh it was fun to like do that because I felt like I've really earned that and I was so proud of myself for because I wasn't that confident before I grew up very insecure and kind of like unconfident and to do that - absolutely drop everything I was good at and to pursue something foreign and I know that I have to work hard and earn my place here and the thrill of auditioning for them to see have them see something in me and I'm like wow this is awesome you know and I did that all on my own I think why didn't get it and then I think a few weeks after or something like that I still went to auditions but I feel like something was missing again I feel like I miss the art I love you know doing art in the first place and I missed it so I that's when my youtube channel formed it was a I spent a week inside my bedroom just playing with camera angles I want to do something new something different and I feel like this was fun for me and I had some time and so I played with except of videos like I made everything like normal speed painting videos my mom gave me money for a tablet I said mom I really would love this it's an investment for like what I will what I want to do and she knew that art with my passion and so she got me my first antique like and so I was playing around with it um just having fun right yeah and that's when I made my intro video and my first youtube video which is a drawing Daenerys Targaryen I have I had no idea how gonna go I was scared for my life you know it's new you're putting yourself on the internet which is like you know everyone's gonna you know potentially watch this and then critique it and critique it right everyone has thoughts and so I was kind of scared for thoughts but at the same time I remember my route which is I want to do this and it's fun and so I just did it and within the first video I think I got like a few hundred shares I'm on my personal Facebook because I already had a following from from doing art so they're like oh my god Ross what the what the hell of this we love it and so they shared it to everybody and everyone so I got like a thousand subscribers I think it was a thousand I guess doesn't drive off that first video I was like oh this is so fun you know because there's a YouTube algorithm thing you need a 500 subscribers to claim our URL right here without yeah yeah so I couldn't claim my year out on the flat 500 and I would literally ask my mom everybody just just a hey can you subscribe so I had like like I don't know 20 years when I started and then after my intro video I gained a few and then after the first 1000 like yay Rostov and so that was like kind of the birth of everything I think everything kind of flowed into one another to guide me in the right direction yeah Wow why why do you think you felt like drawing was the way you said it almost sounded like it was cheating you know like it had been given to you yeah I I felt that it was is something you grew up with like I grew up drawing and I felt like I was good at it but I didn't feel like there was a substantial challenge that I ever experienced like I didn't feel like like looking everyone else I've conquered this or I've done this and I feel like I needed an experience that felt absolutely challenging and I want to test myself as a human being and that's something I wanted it to do like I always wanted to be an accurate it looks it looks fun and something that it's a lot harder than I originally thought anything is yeah but that was like a personal challenge I wanted to endure and I learned a lot about myself because you know when you're acting and being in the moment you have to there are certain skills you know you have to project and learning about yourself and how you emit you as a person into the lines as a person you know and deliver it and also improv thinking on your feet thinking of something I'm something really fast following through yeah I think that's probably the biggest skill skill set that I've learned inside my acting was to never doubt and just follow through because when you have doubt you show something and you're not like following through but something like at the end it's always something rough but if you keep following through and pushing through at the end there's like that's one magic happens so when I have an idea now for a video I will always think of a few ideas but I will always follow through and see where it can lead me and if I never second doubt with my ideas you know if it doesn't work it doesn't work but try it and that's what I kind of learned from acting yeah yeah so I yeah I imagine it was the perfect start to like getting into YouTube yeah because you would had the act so did you do any acting classes or anything yeah so I took a class for a year and a half improv cold-read scene study so I and that was that wasn't school that was like a extracurricular thing or yeah so I took a year off like a year and a half off from school so I said hey I'm leaving for a year and a half or something like that I'll be back but yeah I'm not gonna do it art whatever and so in that year and a half that's what I pursued hmm gosh that's so cool deep so do you find that you're more confident when you're doing YouTube videos because of that experience I believe that plays a huge role into how I how I push through videos yeah so I think without that experience maybe I would second-guess a little more or just like be a little doubtful or hesitant but I the experience gave me like dude just own your do it yeah yeah that's one that's one really good thing about your videos it's like it's high-energy it's super happy and you're doing I don't know even if it's a silly thing it just it feels okay because of the way you've presented it cool well thank you thank you yeah yeah Wow and so so that was two years ago you started the channel roughly two years and like two months yeah oh my god that's crazy I'm thinking about it right now like the very start and now it's like so much has happened you know and you got 400,000 subscribers now yeah it's uh it's it's awesome yeah and you know it's I've never expected it like two years ago if you would if like I would be happy with like 50 like a hundred you know yeah but for saying like hey Ross in two years you'll have four hundred thousand subscribers they actually wanted to subscribe to you and watch your stuff and I'm like whoa in that scale you know I'm like I would never have thought right yeah have you ever received a comment which is made you change the way you do it you do videos or I think at beginning I took a lot of people's comments more to uh personally yeah because I haven't built anything yet it would like it was mostly good some people obviously and everyone not gonna be a fan you know you can't please everybody but I filtered through something that I would take into consideration and just try to do what I want to do but keep that in the back of my head like what I could do more so they're the certain point inside my videos where maybe I had too much fun and there was less art and so sometimes I went into the next video what maybe I should expand on the art more here and have less fun I don't know it like it was a weird like like a learning experience but it was essential for how things have developed I feel like I've found a flow now and I can like really expand on that flow yeah yeah so okay so did you go back to our chanda yes I went back to Arts Center because you know my I wanted my parents happy and I feel like graduating was an easy thing to do at three classes left you know I left our Center in with three classes under my belt I'm like and my mom's like come on please finish please finish and you know agent agent parents you know they love that piece of paper even though it means nothing but I think it symbolizes a lot and to make them happy so I just went back and finished it and try to end with a bang and I made them happy and that's one thing they can stop bothering and you were doing that whilst you were doing the YouTube yeah that was insane that was like that was kind of insane I kind of like I don't want they slacked off on classes but I tried to do the best I can and know that YouTube like was my thing my like you know my my business so well and even so I sacrifice sometimes like really amazing polished school work for my youtube channel right yeah yeah I've heard that odd centers a little can be quite an militant yeah like quite rigorous structured is it it was it quite hard yeah it was uh it was very intensive lots of hours I pull a lot of all nighters really yeah like on getting a project finished oh yeah there were so many classes and they expect so much from you because our senator Mari like up here and that's why it's the Art Center and so the good thing about it it teaches you to be working professionals at a very early start and mileage it builds up a lot of hours of you just like working and getting in the flow of things sometimes it can people just work their brains off and they forget that it's fun to you didn't go to art center to like be robots and work for the rest of lives and I can see some people fall into that trap and so I always sometimes sacrifice like amazing school work for sleep you know I'm like hey my body you know and at the end of day I want to hear myself and be in a good headspace and be healthy rather than getting I don't know perfect perspective right on a car you know but um I still took a lot of all nighters sometimes I would drive home and I was actually like nap a little bit oh my goodness I've was like four and a half seconds oh oh oh I'm almost home alright yeah so I'd like there are certain times that I never crashed though but uh yeah it's quite intensive yeah Wow yeah and that was just from being worked to the bone well so much work yeah like imagine I I think I had six or seven classes my first term my first semester and they all Ford it like for three to five hours each class and then the work is like three to five hours per class so you have an average of fifteen and twenty hours of homework a week but then twenty hours of being in class yeah and it was like I almost had absolutely no free time I probably didn't have that much for time yeah so it's not it's sort of potty school that's for sure it is not a party school but we find ways to celebrate but in that party school where do you think you fit in the class you at top bottom I would like to say I earn myself up here okay yeah I've worked very hard so I don't think I'm down here like back then yeah yeah okay yeah so I've like worked and I try to always try to be on top and when I see someone like do something amazing and so much better sometimes you feel ah dang I worked so hard on it and it's just there looks so great and you just to go off dude it looks amazing dude and it feels like you want to do better next week you just keep trying and trying trying and so that's one thing that really helped me into building my system and also the connections and friends like that first job you know exposure and everyone is like everyone on a wavelength of wanting to be up here and so when you're trying to constantly be up here you're gonna meet people and they're gonna recommend their friend then they're gonna bigger they're gonna recommend who's up here you know and so overall the community and the friends I've gotten and became great connections and I've learned like a great system of working hard hmm yeah Wow yeah it sounds that that's again a recurring thing I've noticed talking to people is like that's what a physical school gives you yeah like they say yeah yeah the five friends that you hang out with yeah you know average out their income it's probably your income average out their weights probably your weight like it's a you you tend to become who you hang around with and I saw I can imagine why a super popular but effective school for odd would breed more and more like high standards you know yeah so what like like did you say you would like meet up with friends like on the weekend or something go to dinner and just be like oh look what you've done or it's something like that I used to work a lot at school okay like it was inspiring because I liked being in that place of people like wanting to work and we would put on projector I move in productor and we'd all just work but like sometimes I realized I work too hard and we all get that and I'm like ah because you're stuck in that headspace to of like wanting to work all the time and there needs to be a balance of work and fun and so like slowly I began like not working less but working more efficiently so I can have fun time and so I try not to work all the time and meet them all the time but just enough so I can get where I want to be and also like because we need to release sometime like our energy or stress something like that yeah because that school is stressful yeah why it seems so effective I've seen a few of like on your odd station you've shown like your old drawing versus your new drawing yeah like that you did the same thing but several years apart some of those from before are today Center yeah that is before our Center that was like when I first started digital art which was I think 16 in high school I realized that you could do this for a living and so I would just draw a lot and that was one of the first showing and I'm just like oh my god but at the time you probably feel it like it's not that bad yeah I was like oh that's kind of cool you know I'm drawing and they're kind of looking kind of cool and yeah so that was like 16 and then to now yeah and and I guess when you arrived at Art Center was there a moment when you realize that you had a lot a long way to go so leaving up the Art Center right because it's really hard to get in so you have to have a bomb portfolio and I knew from then I could not get in with my skills at all so I had to make sure I worked so hard for the next few months to build a portfolio to get in well they're not gonna set me you know how can I be one of the 20 if I'm not good and so after I found out that I wanted to go to Art Center and I want to do it for a living I trap myself in my room and true eight to 12 hour of the day mileage mileage mileage studying anatomy I'm trying to catch up cuz I feel like I feel like I behind you know I'm like my art skills are not like I know for a fact and so I looked and I looked at how to improve fast and why need learn no color Anatomy drawing skill digital painting environments I just tried a 12 other day have a schedule just just breathe through barely took any breaks but I keep myself stimulated and I'll try to try to learn cuz up at that time I thought that would the way to learn you know just cramp everything and just do it mileage and so um like now I know it's like a different way to learn but back then I just like made sure that I need it to get mileage to career portfolio to get me in and luckily enough I got answer do you think there's a because everyone's heard the phrase you know practice makes perfect and you just need to practice I learned through trying it myself that if you practice alone the mileage thing it can actually if you don't know you're making mistakes it can actually lead you astray right do you are there any exercises or things that you found to be particularly helpful to improve at a faster rate um there's a few that I've really learned and I tell could I have a picture onto and III run like video demo podcasts on there and I some of the topics are hey neither way to improve faster or these are some tips and some things I've really learned that helped me with um headspace because I think we learn best when we're having fun simple now and so before sometimes like I don't want to learn when I'm stressed because I feel like stuff's on your mind and you can't absorb information faster so if you're having fun while you're learning it's a lot easier so one way I did that what I mix / studies into my personal work okay and so I the end product was a personal piece for me but through that process I would learn like anatomy to fix an arm or or somewhere about right and so I'm building my own piece I'm having a lot of fun and I'm learning anatomy at the same time and so that was like that the headspace thing and also like your environment plays a key part of how you feel when you create and improve you know like clean workspaces or clean desktop or a simple mind and that's one big old I am very happy that I am pushing forward like being clean and organized so I can like have an organized life because I feel like my life is chaotic sometimes I know so yeah like good headspace is like almost like a number one thing and that is so complex cuz every factor can play into a good headspace so getting Atticus sleep you know me like people you need your brain rested to of our information and some people at our Center are literally pulling all-nighters every single day right look for like three days straight and they learn at a slower rate because they're stressing themselves out and they are just working at a very distressed level and how can you learn at that kind of like headspace so I sometimes just sleep because I learn faster and so I just make sure that I'm wanting to learn I'm engaged and in a good headspace and try to mix both analytical and fun into what I'm doing and that helped me improve a lot faster hmm I like that idea are there any examples where you you made something based on a study that you put into it it's a lot of homework but I can't think of something at the top of my head yeah yeah yeah I'll get back to that yeah okay yeah hmm because that's that's definitely something that that I struggle with but we most artists do is like they have the stuff that they want to do and it's the it's the it's the fast cars it's the futuristic cities it's the girls in bikinis whatever it is and then everybody has you got to do the traditional stuff as traditional art is important and it's Anatomy with those crazy names lattice yeah you know the tibia whatever those names are and and complex books that explain color and how light interacts with it and yeah it's uh it's hard to get into that right totally oh my god sometimes stuff go then one here out the other I bought a book I'm light I don't remember anything on it like eyelid I'm telling you right now I don't think I can recall anything I've absorbed key pieces of information I realize I'm not a textbook person you know even in school I'm not talking about person I feel like everybody is like has their best known way of learning and doing something and so I cannot read an hour an article and obtain information for me I had to apply it and so I would see down flight and I wanted to attack it with this next personal piece I have on how to do both like yeah and so reading on bounced light okay this is the sky color bounce on the shadow bounce on the chin okay I understand that but not until I did it I fully uh like I started to really understand it and so everyone has their way of learning and that's that's my way of learning yeah yeah and how how did you how did you discover that I think watching OH the fast way I think I learned was watching my my mentors paint over my work and it I saw what they did and why they did it and they're more experienced than I am and so I kind of like oh because I worked on that painting say for like four hours and then they come in with a fresh eye with their skill set and their database of knowledge and they paint over my own work and I'm like oh I could be doing that more I could be cutting this shape and they would explain it why the doing it so that's like my favorite way of learning - is watching my mentors paint over my own work and seeing why they did that right yeah I've noticed that that's almost like a shortcut when you get somebody experienced to give you feedback on your work yeah because they'll find something that you might it could take you two years to discover by yourself yeah you know but because there's so more experience they're finding things that you just you can't say right totally yeah it's great yeah it's uh it's hard because there's a lot of people out there that are going the yeah like if you don't have a mentor and you know at school how would you recommend someone find a mentor right I think people are scared about this but if you bring down to the root simply take a chance and reach out email find stuff you know like of course everyone not gonna be on board right away but I got my first mentor by taking a leap and connecting and so we have this program called independent study at my school and it's where they pay instructors or of your choosing to teach you 101 and so this so my mentor would Jamie Jones and he's I think viewed as one of the top digital artists in the industry and so I was you know like he he didn't know me at all and why would he help me Beauvoir but I wanted to take a chance and see whether he would do it and so I attended his workshop I really recommend if people are trying to look for a mentor is meet in the most genuine and authentic way as possible in person right okay and what why is it I think it's just something about the human connection and it's like you can it's on paper like you can just see and breathe and experience how you might feel about it rather than an email sometimes we pass by emails like what do you want for me right right next what do you want for me next okay you want me answer question the song really sorry but if you're in person right and it's like a little different because well he had a workshop and I attended that workshop I really wanted to watch him paint and so he was doing his workshop and I was like okay I want to ask now like hey he's like hey like my name bras and my school had a program where they can pay instructors to help teach a called an empath study and I love your work I've been falling for a while would that be something you'd be interested in it he was like oh that that sounds really cool actually shoot me an email like okay cool and so just by that I like it makes a lot of sense to me to just try to engage in a very like authentic genuine way and I feel like the response would be starting from there the response would have that much more of a Becht on you then an email yeah definitely yeah that's that's so true like yeah emails yeah I know everyone gets too many messages ooh yeah yeah but then someone meet you at a restaurant or something and you go like oh yeah you start listening right so if so I would recommend conventions workshops meeting at a mixer or something an event or something like that in person I feel like you know because we're meant to connect in first then it's just convenient for the digital app and we don't have that much of attachment to how we feel a person over email and I feel like it should life is connections and you want to make a good connection and uh that's a genuine authentic way yeah yeah that's great advice I think yeah it doesn't matter what country you're in you gotta find someone local right yeah yeah guys have an advantage here in LA I think you think so yeah with all the artists yeah you're from Australia yes yes it's it is far I mean and there are artists in where I live in Brisbane I mean there's not us all over the world but yeah it does feel like you guys have a bit more of a ratio of artists to nan you know way but uh yeah which is a lot more competition it is exactly yes hard to stand out yeah what do you foresee what do you think you'll be doing in your future like you're gonna be continued growing a youtube right so YouTube was more of a new goal for me could I like back then you know when I was like by there was no YouTube so I can't make that like a goal I want to be youtuber so my root was always wanted to do would create worlds and characters and that's I know for a fact that it's in my blood and I would always want to make world of character and so everything now that we've gained and everything popping up it's just too filled up and so my my first book nema which is my own character and my own world and I think it's through one year of YouTube one half yearly - I realized that I need something that's mine out there I remember my root you YouTube is great I love making people laugh and teaching people and creating content but I feel like I don't have anything that's mine out there and so I had to made a mental stamp I need to have my Kickstarter out for my book this year no matter what that was my was true my one goal that I wanted for 2017 right to them things so I'm really happy about that but it's kind of crazy too because right when my Kickstarter without my youtube channel my youtube channel blew up right and so I had out of that conflict myself but deep down I know I need to finish that book and you too can wait you know you like there through your audience they love you they'll come back wherever so I just need to find my way because I never say no in my vocabulary so I just need to find a way to do my YouTube and do my book yeah and even if it's an investment of money hiring an editor which I've just hired you know and just trying to grow my business but I need to my book that's my number one and so my end goal is to have like a studio a place to create all these worlds and characters and have games and movies and TV shows and toys and franchises like the next do you do Ghibli or some of that right and so Nima is the first step Wow so it's it's a book it's gonna be a movie it's what right so the book I think is a great way to put on producers and studio dusk like hey this is a tangible product I've heard in this world and there's a story and there's the following behind it cuz I my youtube channel right there the success because studios you know money boom laughs yeah so numbers help yeah marketing right so there's numbers behind it and it is not like I'm not I'm a nobody so I've tried to fuel everything into making that book like hey would you like it to make a TV show out of it and so I'll pitch it around and I think people are attracted to safety right and so they can see that there's backing behind it of the Kickstarter and my ug channel and so they're more likely to greenlight it how much did you raise on the Kickstarter I think the final number was a hundred and sixty seven thousand what do you think of that I don't know I don't know III I try not to like like think about it but I'm so thankful for them to give me that freedom to be able to do it and now the hardest thing actually is to do it with everything I'm going on so I'm trying to be smart and just make sure that I get all my foundation great which is consistent YouTube videos with my new editor have like my community and growing and half side money everything like that so I can successfully start my book without any like like stuff in my way yeah you you mentioned before you've got an agent yeah yeah what was the decision that led you to to go with an agent right so there are two agents one is I've gotten on my first movie so that - the connection thing right he's actually the agent to my director - and also Loki I'm not sure I can say this but Mart Martin Scorsese dejan - yeah so he kind of reps the literary and he saw echo which is earth echo and he's like hey when you're ready let me know and so Nima is actually like when I'm ready and if if he's still down I have that open line I'm like hey Baba if not I don't the agent is to find you work and to help you get in but I feel like by then I can kind of do it right I don't know where I'll be in a year and a few months but I'm guessing like I feel like I'll have a lot more pool in to where I can get in but uh yes so that is for the Nima book but for my youtube channel I'm under maker studios by Disney and my decision to go into that was I they had database of stock stuff I can use music video sound effects and I wanted access to that and at the time like my channel wasn't making anything really you know I was like hey I'm not like 30,000 40,000 not really making anything at all yeah and it would be smarter just to join because you have access to all these things and they're they're taking just a cut of nothing but they saw something in me and so they put time into me an investment of energy and to finding me things because they think I can make a big what do they help you with so there front of me gigs now because I have a like I feel like my credentials are getting like elevated and so they can pitch me to things and so they would find me gigs of a like pair me up like if a studio or a company hey we're looking for maybe an asian-american influencer in the art space who do you have Ross he's like the only one I feel like and so okay so I feel like that yeah right I feel like that's why I could be important to them and they could get more revenue off of my my field because they're not that many people and so um they they cut like three to four five thousand channels from their roster but luckily they kept me and because I feel like I have something to offer them yeah and yeah and I feel like they also get me um like spaces into things because it's Disney Maker you know if I want a booth space if they want stage time if you want if I want to talk from their behalf like Disney Maker presents Ross drawls I have an option so it's like a network of of tools I can use for my channel right okay that's kind of cool yeah I guess there's been a lot of a lot of negative things about multi-channel networks and yeah like I've got I got a friend in Australia I run this little YouTube meetup and I like to don't ever do multi-channel you know join one of those people because he's like locked in for four years and they take like 50% of his cuts and they're doing nothing like he can't even email them and I'm like oh did this friend like close to you or um not like so he's his channels got like 70,000 subscribers to something but he's basically giving it up because it's too depressing because they take half you should never take more than 30% did and I think see the multi-channel networks know that they can Bank off of what you're doing so I feel like unless you have pool you're like hey I have this and I want a better deal unless you have a friend that's looking out for you right because at the end of the day it's all about money people people know that but they don't talk about it but unless you have like a friend in there and luckily I had a friend looking out for me and so my they cut me a better deal yeah and so that is so sad for years 50% I can't even imagine that that's really depressing I would be pretty depressed ooh what is it you think that that gave you that drive to just want to go off on your own it's hard to pinpoint anything but my route and it's just a kid you know I think going back to it I really want to see my own stuff and my world come to life my own character have stories and I feel like if I'm not contributing to that I'm wasting my time and so sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time at these cup companies that work for moms like I don't think this is this is gonna get me okay financial security they're gonna pay me maybe a name here and there but it's really not doing anything for my future goal and what I really want to do and so are you brothers yeah brothers and sisters I'm an only child oh okay there you go right so that sort of explains why your parents were sort of like oh the spotlight was always on me yeah like always on me I did not like it you get a lot of fan art yeah it's crazy oh my gosh like I conventions I usually announce I'm going to Anime Expo or Comic Con and some of the fan art are absolutely incredible yeah and yeah it's some of me and my dog and me and my original character they're usually about me my dog or me my original character and it's like so like surreal to actually see that because of they must really like you to be able to want to create something for you I'm thinking like who I create stuff for you know I'm like I must really like them and like sometimes they put so much effort into it and they write notes and they're like you inspired me so much you know I was going to school and you make me want to do art for a living I'm like whoa like last year my first convention like the love gotten I've never met fall with her or watchers or subscribers and on the third day I started crying because it was like so beautiful for me and I felt like I understood a lot more about why I'm not like what I'm doing because before I met them I was mainly doing it like for me right it's like hey I'm making a YouTube channel for me and I want to teach and I want to like make it a successful channel and I felt like everything was more steered toward me and after I met them I realized the impact that I made and how I'm helping people actually and like hearing it from them I'm like you've really helped me and they started crying like I've gotten it like few girls who have cried and like oh my god I can't believe I'm meeting you I'm like really me and so like yeah you've helped me so much my life I'm like oh really and so after like two days of that the third day I parked in the garage and I started tearing up I'm like it's so beautiful because it's not about me anymore it's about them and slowly that transition really started because like it should be you know about giving and it it was really beautiful when getting a little Santa all the time Elmo it's like oh my god so so cute you know and like it's it makes me really happy yeah yeah that's fantastic how do you handle the the fame that the YouTube brings oh man this this has I think it will be a struggle for anyone in this space about I think when you get in a spotlight you get a lot more pressure on your shoulders a lot more things that are expected or so basically I before I felt like my life was a bit more simple I can wake up I can draw I can play games I can eat I can sleep simple I love my life yeah and now all these responsibilities of life is wrong yeah it's like it's sometimes the pressure can take over a little bit and I and I just need to learn I'm always learning my own system and right now it's some taking all that absorbing it and finding a way to release it and so sometimes I felt like I didn't have a release system of like like you know working all the time and then because my students at home so I'm working all the time so it builds up and so I'm slowly learning to let go a little bit and enjoy myself because that that's my hardest thing in my life or now it's taking a step back for my work and having fun because I'm always thinking about work what's my next video yeah what do I have to do I have so much to do my book Beauvoir and so I never have a moment of like I'm having fun it's always just like I have stuff to do and so that's I feel like that's my life challenge right now and to learn the balance of work and play that's crazy you say that because I couldn't think of a more happy yeah youtuber you know really yeah yeah it's you think that comes naturally that that that vibe I think it's becoming a lot more natural than it was before I think before it was like how I wanted to what I wanted to do with my videos I wanted a nice I wanted to give people an escape a good time from whatever they're dealing with everyone has stuff going on in their lives right here and I want to make our fun and if I can somehow provide a good time experience for my followers that make me happy and so I think over time that because you become who you want to be and a habit you can actually form it within yourself to become happier and so over time of trying to create that vibe it became almost second nature of how I wanted things to go you even if I'm feeling depressed that day even if something tragic happened that day I know that headspace and I know when turn it on and in it yeah it's always about the video and it's never about me and so I can't make it about like oh I'm so sad today I'm like hey guys this is for you kind of it yeah yeah I find that that's also what separates the the best youtubers from the ones that are struggling I guess is that the good ones know that it yeah it's about the viewer you have to be delivering something of value yeah whatever that is whether it's comedy or a tutorial or or anything else yeah hmm so you tapped into that quite early that's interesting [Laughter] what do you think because I'm sure you've seen a lot of yeah beginner art yeah people try to follow along with you what do you think are some of the biggest mistakes that beginners make I think really it's simple not having an open mind okay it's I feel like that has helped me and I've learned and I've experienced that because if you're not if you're closing yourself off to some methods or tools then you're already closing yourself up to the opportunity of what that could have became and so at the beginning like for an example in the concert industry we're really used to using photos because we have a deadline we can't paint every grass you know I mean we just take a picture of grass extract it put it in or something like that and and make it look like a painting and so some people in school they're like photo they're cheating Lodha cheating so they're already restricting that opportunity of using photos and learning from it and inside their own work and that's interesting yeah that's true so I think that's the biggest mistake of people thinking they can't do something and so that's one thing for my channel I want to show you that art can come from anywhere you can be inspired by anything whether it's food sometimes I use food and paint into character or using like myself and gender-bending myself into a female character I don't know but I want to show people that it can really come from anywhere you don't have there's not one correct way of doing something and you can and if you have an idea of using something all through with it I noticed yeah you you use a color scheme at the start after you've got the sketch done you put like I noticed the I watch that via the I don't even know I name the Suicide Squad girl Halle Halle Quinn yeah yeah and you use the crunch rapper as the color scheme yeah you know why do you choose a an image to base the color scheme off I'm very curious there's a few reason why I do that so a video a lot of filming right and sometimes I take the base of a color and I use that to let me feel the piece forward because when you take a pallet say food like a crunch wrapper there's blues there's red there's whites and so is a limited palette for you to choose from if I'm doing it completely on my own already and I'm it can go in a million direction and the filming time the film any time can get dragged on thirty hours I haven't figured it out yet and so the color palette is the food also people love right yeah it's you to be you know it's like something fun I throw it on and I has a set color scene and I feel like that could work with Harley Quinn because she dark you know and I feel like those cool values can be very good for that image and you have took a chance on it and just naturally kind of progress and I didn't use like greens you know because I don't have greens so it kind of restricted my flow hmm yeah I like that idea that's something I've heard a lot of like um like if you say like you can you've got an hour like I had a blended made up recently yeah and I we had a 60-minute blended competition people brought their laptops along and and I want to just say like yeah all right make whatever you want within 60 minutes but I knew that that would lead to a lot of like paralysis like what support about this what about this there's too many too many choices right so you pick a theme anyway it's it's weird that constraints give you more freedom almost it's crazy yeah but I like that I like that idea so it's just it's it's a matter of limiting yourself as a challenge yeah yeah it's like a theme to put you and the viewer inside the same wavelength hey Halloween demon we kind of get it and then the crunch oh we kind of get the palette it's not like so it helps steam the so people remember yeah hey right remember when you did this out of this you turned a Sulha a hot dog into a zoo or something it gives people like a sense of um you got like a stamp of what it is yeah how thanks like a marketing thing as well yeah quite clever I think what was it dr. Seuss The Cat in the Hat was a challenge by one of his friends who said he couldn't write a book using only six words or something yeah and so you can't own maybe was green eggs and ham won something like that but yeah and he did it and I yeah it's pretty crazy what do you think some of the biggest wastes of time and when you're trying to learn how to do what you do the biggest waste of time I think it's I think we all do this as artists also is trying to attack something in trying to keep attacking it and you're being stressed out and you don't know what's well but it's like doing like if I'm trying to draw hand um I'm trying to excite hand I've been working with a hand for an hour I've used no reference but I'm in a spiral of thoughts where it goes oh maybe this hand this hand in this hand and we waste an hour whether we can just find a reference to the hand and learn from that but we okay this is something my best friend like one best friend had taught me is that certainty is primitive okay so sometimes we were very certain that we're going to get that hand over the next one well the next one oh this one so we don't entertain the option to grab the Reverend photo and sometimes I have to remind myself it's easier to just grab the reference photo into it but sometimes we just want to do it because we're already there and we want to just keep doing that that's true actually yeah right yeah because this baton is boring to go through that reference and totally look at the muscle structure of a hand yeah it takes you out of your spiral like you're trying to thought but sometimes we need that but we said remember that we need that yeah yeah gotcha let's say somebody wants to become I don't know an artist like you did a digital painting Drori but and and they've got two years off after high school this one take a couple of years off just to focus on that and you could map out and they're gonna be self-taught they're looking to go to school self completely so far yeah like not even trade school not even trade school so they have to choose their own learning what sort of training regime would you map out for them I would work on the most mileage because they're ten thousand hours for a reason it's like 10,000 hour doesn't like oh we didn't grab that number somewhere you know don't know about ten thousand hours is to train your hand-eye coordination because it's muscle memory at the end of day you know you can't draw hands you've never drawn it right all right so through that mileage just sit down and train your hand to do what you wanted to do right it's like okay kind of get it's rusty something baba so I would say mileage of drawing basic drawing skills it's it's it's insane how people sometimes forget that step could we have everything now and we forget to do the basics with the paper yeah and like learn how to is everything's Hanikra nation the root of it you know the cavemen whatever it's primitive you something tool in hand yeah I don't draw as much of the really how much do you how much do you practice I like pen paper pencil anything yeah so like a primitive traditional drawing I probably spent an hour and a half this whole year whoa I know maybe two okay tuned half I don't know the rest has been on this intake rust had been yeah painting YouTube channel with Antigua Lavoie I feel like I've gotten all the mileage out with the first five years it doesn't mean that I should never stop learning that but it's like the opportunity doesn't call for it yet maybe when I'm like more structure than stable I'll pick it up again but right now it's more wiser for me to not because I've I feel like I've done it yeah so if someone wants to start I would say milage observing and drawing observe draw observe draw hand-eye coordination oh is that the leaf you want is that the tree you wanted and through that mileage you learn how you do things how do you check that it's correct I think if you're happy with it okay it's nine times out of ten you're not right right true so I think when you get to a point where it starts to look at it and you know it don't like lie to yourself that didn't look like yeah so I would say because through observing and through the mileage you'll find new ways how you would do it so how you shade a tree it's different from anyone else how you crush a crosshatch how you come up with ideas and through that mileage you start to build your mental database and your mental tools of how you approach something yeah and you need that in order to select your roof foundation on how you attack tasks in the future so I was just say start basic anatomy you know observe hand-eye coordination and definitely I would say wait this like networking as well you could yeah sure I say network for sure good because you know at the end of the day when you're ready you need connections to go out and meet people right and make a genuine connection you know don't like go out to meet them because they can offer you something right good point cuz I hate that yeah but if you start early like I did and I found other 16 year old that we're doing what I'm doing and now we're friends like now we're like in industry we're friends so I would say understand that you do have to network but never do it for the sole purpose of networking right just be friends yeah just be friends because at the end of day we just all want like people we vibe with yeah and so fine friends are doing the same thing you're doing don't expect anything out of it help each other get to where you guys want to be and in those two years you know you both learn a lot and you guys are friends forever it's a great note to leave on yeah well thanks for taking the time of course thank for having me it's been a blast you

Channel: Blender Guru

Views: 619,935

Rating: 4.9530678 out of 5

Keywords: drawing, learning, tutorial, concept, painting, sketching, interview

Id: jxVfsG8srqA

Length: 75min 55sec (4555 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 19 2018