Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Donte Hawkins | The Christian Reeve Podcast #251

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Donte Hawkins | The Christian Reeve Podcast #251 · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of the Christian Reeve Podcast.
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  So thank you so much and thanks again for listening.
• 0:51
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
• 0:54
  Podcast. Today's guest is an artist and
• 0:56
  graphic designer hailing all the way from the United States.
• 0:59
  It is Dante Hawkins. Welcome to the show.
• 1:02
  How you doing? Good.
• 1:03
  How are you? Thank you for having me on this
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  show. No, I'm I'm, I'm glad, man.
• 1:08
  I'm I've been this. I think this is, this might be
• 1:11
  the first podcast I've recorded this year that's pretty big.
• 1:16
  Yeah. Fourth year of the podcast
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  starting fresh, getting, getting the guests, getting on the show
• 1:22
  and just starting off on a good note.
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  And yeah, I I mean this show has been one of those shows where
• 1:28
  we've kind of gone back and forth rescheduling.
• 1:30
  And that's kind of a that's all been from my side because I've
• 1:36
  just been chasing the almighty dollar, trying to make ends meet
• 1:38
  and stuff and also trying to make this show happen as people
• 1:44
  may or may or not. I don't know if I've really
• 1:46
  spoken about this, but whenever I'm relying on like this agency
• 1:51
  work that I get, like just to make make sure things are going,
• 1:57
  sometimes I have to reschedule shows.
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  Which really sucks because obviously, you know, it's two
• 2:03
  people's schedules that you have to kind of keep in mind it's not
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  just one. And I hate having to keep doing
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  that and because it's like once or twice is fine, but I think
• 2:11
  it's like it got to like two or three times and I'm like, oh, I
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  feel really bad like this. So I really, really appreciate
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  you, man. Yeah, no problem.
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  I think as a content creator too, like I understand like
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  rescheduling things all the time.
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  So I can. I was like, yeah, I know we're
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  going to get a show in sooner or later, so.
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  That's, that's the thing. Yeah.
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  I always intend to get to get the show booked in for sure
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  because because. And that's the thing, I mean
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  about the show is like, as long as it happens, that's all that
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  matters. Like I can't count how many
• 2:41
  shows where, you know, someone said to me like, yeah, we'll
• 2:44
  reschedule. Never hear from them again or or
• 2:49
  just like, yeah, and that's fine.
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  If you change your mind, it's cool.
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  But please tell me so I can plan something.
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  Exactly. Anyway, I'm here with Mr. Dante
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  Hawkins. Let's talk to let's talk through
• 3:01
  how you got into art and graphic design.
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  I mean, we could see like a bunch of cool posters behind
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  you. For those who are listening to
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  the show, I recommend you jump over onto the YouTube channel
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  and check out some of this artwork he's got in the
• 3:14
  background. Obviously it's comic stuff as
• 3:15
  well, but like just, I don't know.
• 3:17
  It builds a complexion of you. But I just want to know how you
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  got into it, because I think it's always interesting to sort
• 3:23
  of hear how that journey began. Absolutely.
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  Wonderful question, by the way. So yeah, my wall right here is
• 3:31
  basically a reference, a representation of who I am.
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  I really got into like grab design and drawing when I was a
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  kid and I just started just drawing in the back of my Spyro
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  notebooks. Sorry teachers, heads up.
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  Sometimes I wouldn't pay attention in class and I would
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  just scribble and color. But I mean that's when I kind of
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  knew like something, there was something deeper going on and I
• 3:53
  really need to pursue this further.
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  And so from that I took like web design classes in photos in in
• 3:59
  high school and we practice in like Photoshop, Illustrator,
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  Dreamweaver. And so we started creating our
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  own like Nike shoe posters and like just our own custom
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  websites and stuff. So that's when I really decided
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  to pursue graphic design. And then also we did some game
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  art stuff in college as well. And so I'm just an all out
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  gaming video game and graphic design nerds.
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  So yeah, that's. OK, so I'm going to get back
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  into that in a second, but I've got to bring this up real quick.
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  So for those who are listening again, I recommend you go watch
• 4:33
  the video version of this show for for the reason I mentioned
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  before and also this reason Dante is 29.
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  Yeah, yeah, I'm 30, right? Let's just hang in the air for a
• 4:49
  second. What's the secret man you know?
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  Yeah, So I would just say just having fun in life, living life
• 5:00
  to the fullest, taking one day at a time, you know, just a
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  precursor. I am a Christian.
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  I believe in God and he's first in my life.
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  There's a lot of things that he's done for me and I'm totally
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  grateful for that. And I believe he's actually
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  helps me stay younger by laughing, eating the right
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  stuff, talking to people like I am now, you know, so it's just
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  just living life to the fullest, that's all.
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  And sometimes though I will say this because I, you know,
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  turning 30 this year in June and it's kind of unbelievable in
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  some aspects because it's like I definitely don't feel like 30, I
• 5:36
  don't look like 30, what's going on.
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  But I mean it's it's all good. That's the thing.
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  You radiate like younger energy. And like for those, I'll just
• 5:46
  say what I said to you off camera.
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  Like, I checked. I was like, Dante, are you.
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  Are you. You're 18.
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  Yeah. And he's like, I'm 29.
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  I'm like, oh, wow, OK. But that, I mean that speaks to
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  what you're, what you're about, I think, which is like you're
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  having that kind of like young energy, both of being, you know,
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  responsible, having a career, all these things, you know?
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  And I mean I'm, I've only got a year on you.
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  All I can really say is not much really changes other than I
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  think your perspective. And you know, I've said this in
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  live streams before as well. I think that growing up is a
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  decision that people say, like, oh, it's just this thing that
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  happens, but there's no magical moment when it just sort of
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  clicks and you just suddenly, like, you reach Level 2 and now
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  you're suddenly an adult. Like, it's it's a gradual
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  process. And some never grew up, Some
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  choose to, and some, like yourself, have that kind of
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  healthy balance where they're still true to who they are and
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  they don't let the pressures and challenges of adult life like
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  bog them down. But at the same time, they're
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  responsible, They have that work going and everything works out,
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  you know? Yeah, I gotta tell you this
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  short story real quick. So of course, if I'm looking
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  young now, Can you imagine how I looked in like high school and
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  middle school? So people would just be like,
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  are you in the right class? And I'm like, yeah, I'm in the
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  right, look at my badge, I'm a senior people always all the
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  time in high school to be like, no, you're a freshman.
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  I'm like, no. Oh, so hold on.
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  When you first turned like 1819 or whatever.
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  Oh no. Hell, what's stricken age in 21?
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  So when that was the kind of a thing you it must have just been
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  like, really, really difficult every single time.
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  Like just people. Like, Nah, there's no way that
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  you're 21. There's just no way.
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  Well, funny thing about that. I don't drink, so I guess I
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  didn't have the opportunity for people to really ask me that.
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  But I will say this, anytime I would get like Dayquil or
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  Nightquil for like Walgreens, you would be like you ain't.
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  I would have to always go with my brother or my mom.
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  They were like, no, ain't no way, ain't no way.
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  You're also interested about that as well as it's changed
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  here in the UK, it's changed where, I mean there were the
• 7:59
  standard things like when I was growing up, you had to be 16 to
• 8:02
  buy like cigarettes and now it's 18 and pretty much everything
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  across the board is 18. But now there's like emerging
• 8:08
  things like where you have to be.
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  This is a new one. I've seen.
• 8:10
  You have to be 16 to buy energy drinks.
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  Like some energy. Yeah, like some high level ones,
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  like that. That horrid crime that everyone
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  keeps going on about or what else didn't do, like the
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  stronger end ones. You have to be 16 and I'm like
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  really? But for what?
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  But then I guess, I don't know, maybe it's just like caffeine
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  could be really dangerous if you drink enough at last.
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  But I mean, I suppose, but I drink a lot.
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  I drink a lot of coffee. So that's that's the only thing
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  I allow myself. Like I, same as yourself.
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  I don't drink, don't smoke, don't, don't do any of that.
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  But like I do drink coffee. That's my thing.
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  I can't not, can't get or give a coffee out, man.
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  It's a fuel. It's a fuel force keeps it
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  going. That's.
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  Interesting. That is interesting.
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  Usually when I wake up like first thing in the morning I
• 9:00
  have this. Now I will say it may take me
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  like 10 minutes. I'm still in zombie mode so I
• 9:05
  don't nobody try to talk to me in the 1st 10 minutes but give
• 9:08
  me like some like 30 to 45 minutes and I I just have like
• 9:12
  this energy like now and I all I need is water.
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  So you know there's something dangerous when I have like candy
• 9:18
  around me. I was like juice.
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  I just I just got to just limit myself because I can't because
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  I'm already hyped up so. I get it, man.
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  I get it. You bring it back to art and
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  graphic design. Part of the reason why I focused
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  on your age there is because we grew up at the same time,
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  exactly the same generation. Obviously you were stateside and
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  I was UK, but like you mentioned something there that some people
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  here will have no idea what you're talking about.
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  You talked about Dreamweaver. I remember that shit.
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  It was part of my language. It was terrible.
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  It was terrible then and it's. I mean it's just beyond.
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  I mean The thing is when we were doing that in school it was
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  basically obsolete then in the from mid to late 2000s it was
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  like a project like a program that was slowly going out of and
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  and also I mean I can't really speak much to the American
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  education system at that time but I can say that in the UK I
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  mean there were people I knew that were also designers like
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  yourself who were. I remember one kid whose name
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  was Nick. He would like sit in class in
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  maths class and just draw endlessly and I would just ask
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  him questions all day about like oh what's this?
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  Is this going to be a comic? Is this like Warhammer?
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  I just go on and on at him and the he used to tell me
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  interesting things like for instance in art casts where I
• 10:40
  figured he would definitely excel.
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  They would just turn around to him and be like, no, everything
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  you're doing is wrong, you know, because you're not doing this
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  art that we want you to draw. And it's like he has this
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  talent, Why not help him figure out a career path with this?
• 10:55
  But I don't think that that kind of infrastructure was there back
• 10:58
  then. And I don't know, could you
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  speak to that a little bit back then, what was, was there
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  anything, was there kind of like people trying to push you?
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  I mean obviously like later on obviously you, as you mentioned
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  you you began to study it and and turn it into something.
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  But initially, like when you're in school, like did when any of
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  your teachers like recognizing like, oh, this kids got
• 11:17
  something here and tried to help you foster it.
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  I would say it's a delicate balance between, yeah, it's just
• 11:24
  like a delicate balance what what teachers.
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  I think most of my teachers did foster that a little bit later
• 11:30
  on in high school and in college.
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  But there were some certain scenarios where in in certain
• 11:35
  assignments where people would try to put you in a box and all
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  the time I would just be like, you know what?
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  No, I think I'm just going to do it my way.
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  So I was kind of like a rule breaker in a way, in that sense.
• 11:47
  Now sometimes that wouldn't, you know, I mean most of the time
• 11:50
  we'll get good grades. But I I still try to like
• 11:53
  finagle it to make it work my way and for them to look at my
• 11:57
  art and be like, oh, you did the assignment.
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  But then it's like, no, actually I really didn't.
• 12:00
  I did it my way, but you think I did the assignment.
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  So I even had like some kind of thinking back then like you are
• 12:06
  not going to put me in the box. I I always grew up with that
• 12:10
  kind of terminology. Like no, there's nobody that's
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  going to put me in the box. I'm going to make sure if you if
• 12:15
  you try to, I'm a break outside of the box.
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  So there there's definitely that that side to it.
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  So just make sure for any artists out there any designers
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  out there do what works for you. And I say that because a lot of
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  people do create art and stuff that for like other people and
• 12:32
  and they feel like what's the word they feel like down about
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  it or they don't really like what they're doing.
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  Well, do art that you like while also creating something that
• 12:40
  they like. You know what I mean?
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  Like there's nothing. I've I've I've done a lot of
• 12:44
  different things. I've done programming.
• 12:46
  I've done 3D art. I've done 2D art.
• 12:50
  You got to step out and find out to see what works for you what.
• 12:53
  Was the motivation. I mean, like the thing that kept
• 12:57
  you going because that's something I can resonate with,
• 13:00
  but I come in it from a different perspective.
• 13:02
  I think I'm just stubborn. And that's always the thing I
• 13:06
  like to talk about with my audience.
• 13:07
  Like, I just keep going because I can't imagine not going, like,
• 13:10
  what's the point of stopping? But, you know, I mean, there
• 13:14
  must have been people that were, like, scoffing at the idea of
• 13:17
  you doing this when you were younger.
• 13:19
  Because back then, in fairness, it wasn't the kind of clear
• 13:23
  career path it is now. Like now if you say, oh, I want
• 13:26
  to be an artist or a graphic designer and you're at school,
• 13:28
  like, people will be like, oh, yes, yes, of course.
• 13:30
  And you could work on this film and do these things.
• 13:33
  And, like, there's all these different, you know, career
• 13:36
  paths. But back then it was kind of
• 13:37
  like a niche kind of thing. Like, how would you even get
• 13:40
  into that? Can you talk a little bit about
• 13:43
  your motivation and how you sort of you know where you found that
• 13:49
  and also how you maybe dealt with critics at that age?
• 13:53
  Well, interesting thing that you bring that up because I was
• 13:56
  actually bullied in middle school and partially in high
• 14:00
  school until I took my power back and said, no, you're not
• 14:03
  going to run over me because this ain't going to happen no
• 14:06
  more. I know who I am.
• 14:07
  So I think by just having that kind of similar to you, I just
• 14:10
  have that tenacity not to give up.
• 14:12
  There's something, this, this art that I have.
• 14:15
  I know it's a gift and I'm going to keep mastering it and
• 14:18
  crafting, you know, doing the best I can with.
• 14:22
  So even if somebody says like, Oh no, you can't do this, well,
• 14:26
  I'm going to prove me wrong, you know, I'm going to do it anyway.
• 14:29
  I'm a probably even do it better.
• 14:30
  Actually, critics have actually helped me in a way because, you
• 14:34
  know some teachers, as we were saying like before, like some
• 14:37
  teachers would be like, Oh no, that's not good art.
• 14:39
  And I'll be like, well, actually it is good art.
• 14:43
  I like the art that I do, and so whenever I give constructive
• 14:48
  criticism to somebody, especially like other designers,
• 14:50
  I'm like, I like, I like what you did here, but here's how we
• 14:53
  can make it better. I feel like the constructive
• 14:55
  criticism thing is, is necessary, don't you know?
• 14:58
  But the the harsh criticisms and stuff, it's like, no, I don't.
• 15:02
  I don't really need that, but I'll take it as a positive
• 15:05
  anyway. So this a lot in in live streams
• 15:09
  as well. Like when it comes to criticism,
• 15:12
  think about who's giving the criticism.
• 15:15
  Do you know what I'm saying? Like, that's not to say that
• 15:17
  like any form of criticism isn't valid.
• 15:20
  You know, it's people's opinions, it's thoughts.
• 15:22
  They might, it might genuinely be valid.
• 15:24
  But at the same time, if it comes from another artist or
• 15:27
  someone in your industry or someone who's doing well, I
• 15:30
  mean, it's doubtful they're going to, like, punch down Jay.
• 15:34
  They're going to try and raise you up because they remember
• 15:36
  what it was like to sort of work on that and be doubted and try
• 15:40
  to push themselves up and you know, onwards, right.
• 15:44
  But then I often find that the people that attack you, the
• 15:48
  people that don't believe in you, the people that doubt you,
• 15:51
  they're either not doing anything with their life or
• 15:55
  they're, you know, they're they're just sitting in their
• 15:58
  own sort of pool of hate, which is unfortunate or I don't know,
• 16:03
  there's just like maybe there's jealousy there.
• 16:04
  I don't know. It's just like it doesn't come
• 16:06
  from a place of of like love. Let's put it that way, right.
• 16:13
  And don't get me wrong and I've I've said this again in live
• 16:17
  streams before that I don't attack those people.
• 16:20
  I try to speak to the the hurt person because you know hurt
• 16:24
  people, hurt people. That's that's a common thing.
• 16:26
  But like that don't make it right either.
• 16:30
  But I I do pay a lot of attention to who's given the
• 16:33
  criticism. You know, I think I think that's
• 16:35
  important. It's interesting when you say,
• 16:37
  like, our teachers didn't believe in this, they didn't
• 16:39
  like this. It's like, well, the whole point
• 16:42
  of a teacher is they're supposed to teach you and inspire you.
• 16:45
  And, like, it's kind of crazy when when they're not doing
• 16:50
  that, when they're doing the opposite of that.
• 16:51
  Like when I was at school, they would say things to me.
• 16:55
  Like, Christian, you talk too much or you ask too many
• 16:59
  questions. Stop asking questions.
• 17:01
  How can you not understand this? You know?
• 17:03
  And it's ironic because literally the two things I do
• 17:06
  the most are talk, you know, with acting and voice acting and
• 17:10
  then asking questions. I've literally do a shot.
• 17:13
  I do a show and I've done a show for the last four years based on
• 17:16
  asking questions. So go figure out that's funny,
• 17:21
  but is this? I don't know.
• 17:22
  Like it's. I know that not everyone gets
• 17:25
  into teaching because they wanted to become a teacher.
• 17:27
  I I understand that. But like when you're thinking
• 17:30
  about the new generations like you can, you can inspire the
• 17:34
  future generations just by giving, like planting little
• 17:37
  seeds of hope, making people realise like, hey, listen, you
• 17:41
  can do this, I believe in you and I'll help you to do it, you
• 17:44
  know? Exactly.
• 17:46
  And I want to. I want to make this clear.
• 17:47
  It wasn't every teacher that was like.
• 17:48
  That no, I did have. Yeah, there was a lot of great
• 17:51
  teachers out there. Shout out to you guys, my my
• 17:54
  teachers, the ones I really choose to focus on, the the
• 17:57
  great teachers that I had really fostered that.
• 18:00
  And even I wouldn't even say this too, like a lot of them
• 18:02
  spent one-on-one time with me. And I and I learned at that time
• 18:06
  that that was actually best for me to to have that one-on-one
• 18:09
  with them because I was able to understand things a lot better.
• 18:12
  You know, I'm a I'm a big visionary person and I also
• 18:15
  understand a lot of things better when it's versus
• 18:17
  one-on-one versus like a class with 50 people, you know.
• 18:21
  So yeah, it's it's, it's it's really important though that we
• 18:26
  you do what works for you as an artist or really anybody do what
• 18:29
  works for you. You know you're the best you
• 18:32
  that you can be and you know, a lot of great positive advice out
• 18:35
  there and but there's also a lot of crazy advice out there.
• 18:38
  So you just have to know what works for you just to be
• 18:40
  transparent. There is a lot of stuff in the
• 18:42
  air out there and I'm just like, oh, so you just got, yeah, well.
• 18:47
  Just just speak to that. Do you mean do you mean like
• 18:49
  specifically in art and graphic design or just like life advice?
• 18:52
  Like, what were you talking about?
• 18:53
  Yeah, I think more so now I'm really pulling from streaming
• 18:56
  advice like streaming on Twitch and and stuff like that.
• 18:59
  I've been streaming on Twitch for 10 years now.
• 19:01
  This year. Wow.
• 19:03
  Yeah, thank you. And I've just seen, like with my
• 19:07
  own process improvement of Twitch and streaming and how can
• 19:10
  I be better and how can I grow and how can I do this, that and
• 19:13
  the other. I've seen some videos and I'm
• 19:15
  just like, yeah, but that works for you.
• 19:18
  That doesn't mean that's going to work for the the person, you
• 19:20
  know. And I and I always put that
• 19:22
  disclaimer out there whenever I'm making the video.
• 19:24
  You know, I'm only sharing what works for me.
• 19:26
  You know, you have to, I'm happy to to to give advice, you know,
• 19:30
  and to share what works for me. But I can't.
• 19:32
  I'm not going to say, hey, this works for you.
• 19:34
  This this is how to grow your strength.
• 19:36
  This is how you know, I I just, I just don't believe in that.
• 19:39
  And so when I see a lot of that, I'm just, it just makes me
• 19:42
  laugh, honestly. I get it, man.
• 19:45
  I get it. It's I think, I think the weird
• 19:48
  thing about it now is there's like a whole business to be made
• 19:51
  from giving advice which sounds like a crazy concept but it it's
• 19:55
  true. It's like people that maybe you
• 19:58
  know a little bit about the thing or know very little about
• 20:00
  the thing trying to educate other people about said thing.
• 20:03
  And it's like, I mean, this is the reason why, for instance, I
• 20:06
  don't teach, you know, offer lessons for different things.
• 20:10
  Like people say like, oh, Christian, you could offer
• 20:12
  guitar lessons or you could do voice acting lessons And it's
• 20:15
  like, well, until I become. Somewhat of an expert in that
• 20:19
  area or like, I feel like I've achieved some things where I
• 20:22
  could be like, well, OK, I achieved these things.
• 20:24
  Therefore these are my credentials and why you should
• 20:26
  listen to me. Like for example, if you give
• 20:28
  advice about Twitch, right? You've been doing it 10 years.
• 20:32
  I assume that your affiliate or partner at this point, right?
• 20:35
  So, right. So it's like you've got these
• 20:38
  achievements and you can be like, well, you know, if you
• 20:41
  doubt my credentials, here they are and it's like, OK, maybe I
• 20:43
  should listen to this person, you know.
• 20:46
  Whereas if you got, you know, a bit of experience or it's like
• 20:50
  it's kind of this hole was missing there, you know, it's a
• 20:53
  bit like, well, you could do it and you can learn to teach other
• 20:58
  and that's a big thing as well. At the same time, you don't want
• 21:02
  to give like incorrect advice. Like you said, you don't want to
• 21:05
  kind of give stuff that might lead people off the wrong path.
• 21:08
  Or as you said like stuff that will only work for certain
• 21:11
  people but not for others. Like for instance, I do the gym
• 21:14
  training a lot and I always say like the same thing.
• 21:17
  Like this is what works for me. But then, you know, it might not
• 21:20
  work for you because different types of bodies, you know,
• 21:23
  different factors to consider, metabolism rates and so on and
• 21:27
  so forth. Like it's no two person is the
• 21:30
  same, you know, and you have to kind of look at it like that.
• 21:33
  I mean, there is generic advice that works for all, but I think
• 21:38
  you've got to factor in like things, I suppose in the field
• 21:40
  of this, like art and design. It's about, you know, people's
• 21:43
  work ethics, their approach to to to artistry and stuff like
• 21:47
  that. And Speaking of which, walk us
• 21:50
  through your approach to drawing an illustration.
• 21:53
  So usually it's funny, I'm actually getting back into
• 21:56
  physically drawing, which is, which is very exciting.
• 21:59
  I've been doing like acrylic painting for a long time, but
• 22:02
  now I'm kind of turning it in and switching it up a bit.
• 22:05
  And what really inspires me to draw is really just seeing all
• 22:09
  these posters on my wall. I wake up and I'm like, yes,
• 22:12
  where am I? I'm here.
• 22:14
  This is great. I don't have to go to anywhere.
• 22:16
  I I thought, you guys probably know, I got like a lot of game
• 22:19
  systems over here on the side. You can't see it, but you know,
• 22:21
  it's inspiration everywhere. And so that's the thing that
• 22:25
  really helps me and inspires me. Of course we have the Internet
• 22:27
  too, you know, looking up references and things like that.
• 22:31
  We have nature outside, so you have life experiences that you
• 22:34
  can pull from. So there's a lot of different
• 22:36
  areas that kind of just get me into into drawing and I'm very
• 22:40
  excited about it. I love the digital aspect of
• 22:43
  drawing and I also like the physical aspect.
• 22:46
  They're, they're they feel different.
• 22:48
  But I like them both in the same way, yeah.
• 22:53
  Is there any particular places or people or areas where you
• 22:58
  draw inspiration from? I would say nothing I can think
• 23:04
  of at the moment specifically, but I I just, I just think in
• 23:08
  general because I've been through like a lot of people,
• 23:10
  I've been through life that, you know there's this thing called
• 23:14
  life that everybody is, is really familiar with for some
• 23:17
  reason. But yeah, and I think from the
• 23:20
  struggles that I've been through and the experiences that I've
• 23:22
  been through, I I just kind of pull from those those spaces.
• 23:26
  And I I really, sometimes this as an example, sometimes I I
• 23:31
  could just be having like not the greatest of days, right?
• 23:33
  And it's like, man, what is going on?
• 23:35
  I'm just in my head or it's just like this and that something
• 23:39
  else is happening. I pull out a drawing pad and
• 23:42
  give me about like 15 to 20 minutes and I'm gonna be just
• 23:45
  fine. So there's there's something to
• 23:47
  drawing that's like it goes beyond just creating art for me.
• 23:50
  It's actually therapeutic. Would you say that's when you
• 23:53
  created your best start? Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 23:58
  I mean, I think it's it's there's no coincidence with
• 24:00
  these things, you know? Yeah, No, definitely not.
• 24:03
  You know, I think maybe still more so in the beginning because
• 24:05
  I was starting to learn and I did like a lot of Thomas Kincaid
• 24:08
  paint by numbers and stuff like that.
• 24:11
  And and you know, just kind of being like, is this going to be
• 24:14
  for me? Maybe at that point it wasn't
• 24:16
  really therapeutic because I was just kind of like, I don't know
• 24:18
  if I really want to do this. But you know, 15 to 20 years
• 24:21
  later, it's like now this this there's something to this, this,
• 24:25
  This is why this is like a it's like a gift.
• 24:27
  It's like something that I'm nurturing and it and it's
• 24:29
  therapy because it can help me. Just like music.
• 24:31
  I listen to music and it, you know, 15 to 20 minutes in and
• 24:35
  I'm fine. What kind of impact does music
• 24:39
  have on your work? Because I remember when I was a
• 24:43
  kid, I remember my mum did a lot of like artwork and some of the
• 24:49
  moodiest stuff. I was always intrigued by and
• 24:52
  and when I asked her about it, she said that she listened to
• 24:54
  like darker music and that kind of influenced the artwork.
• 24:57
  So what impact does music have on your work?
• 25:01
  Oh, big time. I don't.
• 25:04
  I don't even know of. Maybe there's like a little bit
• 25:06
  of downtime. But most of the stuff that I
• 25:08
  create, I listen to music. It could it could be from like
• 25:11
  movie soundtracks. You know, one of my favorite.
• 25:15
  I I love Sonic. You know, the movie soundtrack.
• 25:20
  I I love video game soundtracks. You know, God of War, Ratchet
• 25:23
  and Clank. I even, you know, listen to
• 25:25
  upbeat gospel with, you know, things with lyrics in it.
• 25:29
  Yeah. And usually it depends too on
• 25:32
  like the volume, because I was going to go into that a little
• 25:34
  bit because sometimes it's like I turn the volume all the way up
• 25:37
  and I don't wanna hear nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing else
• 25:39
  but this music and this art. But then there's other times too
• 25:42
  where I'm like, Nah, I think I want to just turn this little
• 25:45
  bit down to like 10 or 8, you know?
• 25:48
  So it just depends upon the mood.
• 25:49
  But yeah, I always have music on that's that's like my thing.
• 25:55
  It's interesting to me like how, you know, obviously human
• 25:58
  emotion is so heavily impacted by music, which it makes sense
• 26:03
  as obviously evokes motions in you, but like the impact that it
• 26:06
  has on your creativity. Like same as you.
• 26:10
  Like, I've often written songs or written poetry when I've been
• 26:16
  feeling down, to be honest. Same way to use it for therapy
• 26:19
  and often. So sometimes, like, I'll often
• 26:22
  get expired when I hear like a particular song or like a rhythm
• 26:26
  or something like that, and I start writing, start jotting or
• 26:28
  like maybe even just like taking pictures, whatever, like acting,
• 26:32
  you know, it's all the same, It's all connected.
• 26:34
  It's that big tree. And yeah, the best work
• 26:38
  definitely comes from those moments where you're feeling
• 26:40
  something pretty deep, so. Oh yeah, I agree.
• 26:44
  Now this is pretty interesting. Most of my guests, for those who
• 26:47
  don't know, will send me over if if they reach out to me.
• 26:51
  So Dante reached out to me and I was I was more than happy to
• 26:53
  have him on the show. And some.
• 26:55
  I believe you filled out my podcast application form.
• 26:58
  So if anyone wants to be on the show, fill out my podcast
• 27:02
  application form and you can be within a chance of being on the
• 27:04
  show. One of the things you you wrote
• 27:08
  to me was that you're representing all black creatives
• 27:13
  who desire to break into the creative film.
• 27:16
  And does this sound like a pretty basic question, but I
• 27:20
  think it's important In your experiences so far, what
• 27:23
  challenges have you faced and do you think it's improving at all?
• 27:28
  So to be clear, your experience of being an artist in the in the
• 27:33
  field. I think because there's actually
• 27:36
  2 two sides to this being a black person in the field and
• 27:40
  then also just in general. So I think I'll pull from the
• 27:42
  general side first. So I think in general, kind of
• 27:45
  like we were saying earlier, there's a lot of discouragement,
• 27:48
  but then there's also a lot of encouragement.
• 27:50
  I feel like though the most challenging thing I've had to
• 27:54
  deal with is really not from other people.
• 27:56
  It's in here. OK, self self.
• 27:59
  Doubt not. Not feeling that I'm good
• 28:02
  enough. The imposter syndrome of oh
• 28:04
  wait, is this going to, you know, like all of that stuff.
• 28:06
  I had to actually sit down with myself.
• 28:09
  I have to journal, which I still do now.
• 28:11
  Journal everything, making accomplishments, list of
• 28:14
  everything I've accomplished. Because, you know, in those bad
• 28:16
  days, it can just be bad. And so I have to, I have to get
• 28:20
  to a place or a safe space where I can be and be like, you know
• 28:23
  what? This may be a bad day.
• 28:25
  I'm having a bad moment. I'm transparent.
• 28:27
  I'm going through some stuff right now, but this is the stuff
• 28:29
  that I've accomplished. And it's like an instant thing
• 28:32
  that just helps me, you know. I think a lot of the a lot of
• 28:35
  times too as an artist, you you can compare yourself to other
• 28:39
  people, other artists out there, man.
• 28:42
  Was that a struggle too, in the beginning?
• 28:43
  Like I'm like, oh, I I don't, I don't think my art is this good
• 28:47
  as this person or I don't think they're posting way more in
• 28:50
  progress shots than me, you know or you know.
• 28:53
  And and now I look back at it, I'm just like really, Dante.
• 28:57
  Really, man. Yeah.
• 28:58
  Again, you be who you are. Don't try to be like somebody
• 29:03
  else. You know there's always going to
• 29:05
  be somebody that's greater than me.
• 29:06
  Like, as far as like art. Yes.
• 29:08
  And I congratulate them because I know that that's what they're
• 29:12
  they're on a different level than I am, actually.
• 29:14
  You should actually surround yourself with people that are
• 29:16
  greater because if you're always on that same level, you you
• 29:19
  can't grow. You know what I mean?
• 29:21
  So I always on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever, I always
• 29:25
  have a group of friends who or Discord who I reach out to and I
• 29:28
  and I say hey, how does this look or do I need to change this
• 29:32
  or I'm always looking for feedback.
• 29:34
  I'm never too high minded to be like Oh no, I got this that you
• 29:37
  know I'm never like that. I'm always reaching out for
• 29:40
  feedback. Would it be portfolio?
• 29:42
  Whatever it is. And I want to be that for other
• 29:45
  people too. And this kind of goes into the
• 29:47
  black creative thing we were speaking about earlier.
• 29:50
  I want to be a bridge for other people.
• 29:52
  So I know there's a lot of black creators out here that I'm
• 29:55
  seeing now more than ever before, which is great in all
• 29:58
  different types of industries. And I want to be able to get to,
• 30:02
  because my ultimate goal is to be a art director and I want to
• 30:05
  be able to open doors for other people, you know what I mean?
• 30:08
  I want to be able to create positions for other people to be
• 30:10
  like, hey, we can't, I don't care if they don't have
• 30:13
  experience. I see that they're doing art.
• 30:15
  I see that they're creating, I see they're doing the best.
• 30:18
  Open the door for them, you know what I mean?
• 30:20
  Like, I I'm, I'm so I realized that I may have to have that
• 30:23
  title to be able to do that because I know there are a lot
• 30:25
  of people that, you know, they're very title minded.
• 30:28
  You know, I don't really care about that, but I realized I
• 30:31
  probably have to do that, especially at that level if I'm
• 30:34
  willing to open doors for a lot of people.
• 30:35
  So that's only why, only reason why I bring that up as far as
• 30:39
  art director and and really being able to foster creativity
• 30:43
  for other people, giving back to other people, not just in art,
• 30:46
  but just in any anything being an open door for other people.
• 30:50
  And I feel like that's really a big part of who I am.
• 30:54
  It's not just creating art. It's not just streaming on
• 30:56
  Twitch. It's not just, you know,
• 30:58
  creating great YouTube content, It's it's about being there for
• 31:02
  other people and helping others. There's a massive Spider Man
• 31:07
  poster right there behind you, Spider Man Miles Morales.
• 31:10
  Obviously, there's been a lot of content centered around the
• 31:14
  character of Miles Morales. For those who don't know, Miles
• 31:19
  Morales is black character and he's Spider Man, you know, and
• 31:24
  it's incredible. His story is it's awesome and
• 31:27
  it's been handled in two different mediums in in the last
• 31:31
  five to six years. So you got the the PlayStation
• 31:36
  games and then there's three of them now.
• 31:39
  So Spider Man, Spider Man 2, Spider Man, Mars Morales.
• 31:42
  And then there's of course the Into the Spider Verse series,
• 31:46
  which yeah, I know we want, we'll talk about that, we'll
• 31:50
  talk about that. But like look this, I guess this
• 31:54
  is, there's a multi layered question.
• 31:56
  So the main question I really want to ask you is like how do
• 32:01
  you feel about like kind of the representation in in the
• 32:03
  industry sort of as the last five, 1015 years in like you
• 32:09
  know, video games and and and movies and stuff Because we're
• 32:13
  seeing a lot more, you know, black characters in movies like
• 32:17
  as in like titler, like the main character etcetera, entire
• 32:22
  franchise. You know, if you consider
• 32:24
  something like Black Panther as an example, what's your, what's
• 32:28
  your feelings about that? Like, is it positive?
• 32:32
  Do you think more can be done? Like how do you feel about it
• 32:34
  all? I definitely think we've had a
• 32:36
  great start to it and like you, to your point, we are seeing a
• 32:38
  lot more black leads in the role, which I really do like.
• 32:43
  Black Panther is woof. It's it's a fantastic movie and
• 32:49
  and really even with Miles Morales it's funny because one
• 32:52
  of my goals or expectations for this year it's just and again
• 32:56
  studying more about him. I it's not like I'm trying out
• 32:58
  for an audition for Miles I it's funny because a lot of friends I
• 33:01
  talk to are like hey you're Miles.
• 33:02
  I'm like I'm. I see it.
• 33:05
  I see it, man. I see.
• 33:07
  It And so yeah, I'm I'm staying. Who knows maybe it will turn
• 33:10
  into something. I don't know.
• 33:11
  But as of right now I don't plan on plan on me Miles for Ellis
• 33:15
  but just I I really, amongst any characters I feel like Miles is
• 33:21
  the one I connect with the most. I don't know if because he does
• 33:23
  art. I do art.
• 33:25
  He's he's a little quirky. I'm quirky, you know he you know
• 33:28
  everything like that. So I think when I really first
• 33:31
  saw into the spider verse I was just like jaw dropped because I
• 33:35
  couldn't believe the representation that this movie
• 33:38
  was giving to to black people you know and and just in general
• 33:41
  like it was a positive representation, you know what I
• 33:44
  mean? And same with Black Panther.
• 33:46
  Like I feel like yes we have our moment and and I feel like we
• 33:49
  need more of those moments. I don't feel like it should
• 33:51
  stop. I feel like we should just keep
• 33:53
  going, kind of speaking to what I was saying earlier, I know
• 33:56
  there's a lot of people like me out there that want to open
• 33:58
  doors for other people and other black creators specifically.
• 34:01
  And I say go for it, don't, you know, don't stop.
• 34:04
  Just keep going. And.
• 34:06
  And I'm looking forward to seeing more of us in the video
• 34:08
  game sphere, in the movie sphere and just really everywhere, just
• 34:13
  to say that. Everywhere in every field.
• 34:16
  Yeah. No, I mean I think you you
• 34:18
  touched on something really, really sort of positive there
• 34:20
  because and and like poignant as well.
• 34:22
  Like obviously there's always been you know black characters
• 34:25
  in in main roles but maybe not always necessarily positive.
• 34:30
  You know and and now we're sort of doing away with those
• 34:32
  stereotypes and trying to be like hey, you know it's just
• 34:35
  this is just life this is do you know what I mean?
• 34:37
  Like this is people come from different backgrounds.
• 34:40
  People come from different cultures and that is like I said
• 34:44
  this to my my housemate recently.
• 34:45
  I think this is really like if if you want to like normalize
• 34:48
  things, if you want people like movies and TV shows to represent
• 34:52
  culture, then you just have to like cast people from all
• 34:57
  different backgrounds and just make that, make that the normal,
• 35:01
  you know, make it. And I know it's being they're
• 35:03
  trying to do that with various series, but like some get it
• 35:06
  right and some get it wrong. And I think the ones that get it
• 35:08
  wrong are the ones that are not kind of focused enough on the
• 35:12
  story. You know it's like Miles
• 35:15
  Morales. The story of Miles Morales, I
• 35:17
  feel like it's it's it is partly about him being a black
• 35:22
  character, but it's not the focal point.
• 35:23
  Do you know what I mean? There's there's so much more to
• 35:26
  it than, than that. But it is it's not like they shy
• 35:28
  away from that either. And I think that that's the
• 35:30
  solid kind of way that you do that you tell stories that that
• 35:34
  we're at our best as human beings when we're telling
• 35:36
  stories because that's how we learn.
• 35:37
  That's how we grow. That's how we get the most out
• 35:39
  of each other. And I feel like that's the best
• 35:43
  way that you do representation as well.
• 35:44
  You just, you know, you represent by telling stories and
• 35:49
  connecting with others. Exactly, exactly.
• 35:52
  I feel like that's that's actually like what I really go
• 35:55
  for. Like when I see a movie or I
• 35:56
  play a video game, like I want to actually be immersed in the
• 36:00
  game or in the movie. I want to feel like I'm a part
• 36:03
  of it. I don't want to just be watching
• 36:05
  it, you know? And and so and then, you know, I
• 36:08
  know everybody's different. That's just me.
• 36:09
  That's how I really kind of get into movies and games and things
• 36:12
  like that. And there are, you know,
• 36:15
  sometimes I do have to be careful with that, though,
• 36:17
  because there's always an intricate balance.
• 36:19
  Because when I step out of that world, it's like, oh, it's back
• 36:22
  to real life, you know what I mean?
• 36:23
  So it's like I can't be stuck in a mouse around this world.
• 36:27
  What? I mean, go back to mine.
• 36:30
  You know, like you made the connections before, but it's
• 36:33
  like, yeah, similar people in so much as like he's still that
• 36:37
  young minded person who's trying to find himself, who's trying to
• 36:39
  do this, that and obviously you're a bit younger, you've
• 36:42
  you've already felt like learnt that and and you know, become
• 36:44
  that. But like that energy is similar,
• 36:46
  you know, Yeah, that's awesome man.
• 36:49
  Thank you so much for sharing. Let's move it forward.
• 36:54
  What have been the biggest challenges you've faced in the
• 36:56
  pursuit of art and graphic design?
• 36:59
  I would say really, oh, there's so many, so many things to
• 37:03
  unpack there. The first thing I would kind of
• 37:05
  go with was kind of what I was speaking to earlier, self doubt.
• 37:09
  I think this really actually stemmed from being bullied a lot
• 37:13
  when I was younger and not really knowing who I was.
• 37:17
  And so to kind of unravel that a little bit, I think I didn't
• 37:21
  really know how to stand up for myself, you know.
• 37:23
  And so being a Christian, you know, and being I'm someone who
• 37:28
  grew up, you know, with with great parents, you know, and an
• 37:31
  amazing brother. I think even with that still, I
• 37:35
  kind of felt like I was just on my own, isolated.
• 37:38
  I felt like I was just like, I don't even know who I am.
• 37:41
  I don't know how to defend myself.
• 37:42
  I don't know where to go. But there was always something
• 37:45
  that helped me through this art journey and it was singing.
• 37:49
  So not only do I listen to music, so I I got like 50 things
• 37:52
  I do, but I also sing, you know, this is a thing that has helps
• 37:58
  me. You know, I I sung for like and
• 38:00
  I really to think about this now, it's just kind of crazy.
• 38:03
  But I would sing in front of people at church and while being
• 38:06
  bullied, they didn't understand any.
• 38:07
  They didn't understand my story. I didn't talk to them about my
• 38:10
  story, but I would sing for people.
• 38:11
  And so it just amazes me. Even at that time, at that age,
• 38:14
  I was still helping people even when something wrong was
• 38:18
  happening to me. And so I want to be, you know an
• 38:21
  inspiration for other people. Even though you're going through
• 38:24
  hard stuff, you can still help people.
• 38:26
  Don't make that your excuse. Oh I'm going through this and
• 38:29
  I'm going through that and I I realize the main thing is when
• 38:33
  you help somebody else, something comes back to you.
• 38:37
  You know what I mean? Like you reap what you sow.
• 38:39
  And so while I'm trying to figure out how I create this
• 38:42
  great art and how do I do this and how do I do that and all the
• 38:44
  self doubt and all the all the thoughts I I basically focus my
• 38:49
  attention on just helping people and that's when in years it
• 38:53
  didn't just happen overnight. You know there's not like a
• 38:56
  overnight thing you know a twinkle thing but you have to it
• 39:00
  has to be a continuous thing to help helping other people with
• 39:04
  whatever they're going through. And then you'll you'll
• 39:06
  ultimately find your purpose or purpose is because I know like
• 39:10
  we have multiple gifts and then you'll be able to execute those
• 39:13
  gifts wisely. I I hope that was a the good
• 39:16
  answer to your question. The best answer is, is your
• 39:21
  answer, man, the truth? You mentioned getting bullied.
• 39:29
  I just want to ask for that for a second because hey, listen,
• 39:32
  I've been bullied, man. I know it feels like and people
• 39:37
  right now, they see and they hear a guy who's full of energy,
• 39:40
  who's happy and and pushed himself and made a success of
• 39:43
  himself. You mentioned before about how
• 39:47
  you had to learn to stand up for yourself.
• 39:50
  So what was the turning point? Because sooner or later you had
• 39:55
  to address that. So what was the thing that
• 39:57
  changed all? Really, I think, and I this
• 40:01
  might sound weird, but one day I just had enough.
• 40:05
  I was like, I don't know if it's because I just matured or it was
• 40:09
  just like. I I'm just, I'm just tired of
• 40:12
  being bullied, you know, And then a a mixture of that too.
• 40:15
  Other people were starting to stand up for me and then I saw
• 40:18
  the power in that. So this is going to even sound
• 40:21
  weird to some people but one of my bullies, you know, later on
• 40:25
  and he was just really just bad, you know, in middle school.
• 40:28
  But as we went on to high school, I was like, oh, great.
• 40:30
  He started to stand up for me because I was being.
• 40:33
  I know, that's weird, right? Like, how does that even work?
• 40:37
  But me being bullied by other people, and he would see that,
• 40:40
  like, in the lunchroom or in the classroom, wherever we were, and
• 40:43
  he'd be like, don't you mess with him.
• 40:45
  He's cool, you know? And so I began to really see the
• 40:48
  power in that. And, like, I mean, if he could
• 40:51
  do that for me, him being my bully, if he can do that for me,
• 40:54
  I can do that for myself. So yeah, I just got tired of it.
• 40:58
  I saw an example of of even how God was even working in that,
• 41:02
  like that, that there's no other way I could explain that other
• 41:05
  than that being God. I mean, there's no other way.
• 41:09
  It's interesting, Speaking of God and life and stuff like
• 41:14
  that. What has art and illustration
• 41:17
  taught you about life? It's taught me to keep going,
• 41:23
  don't give up when it gets tough.
• 41:25
  It's taught me to keep on persevering because with art,
• 41:29
  you know, for those who don't know, just to kind of give an
• 41:30
  inside look, it's a process. There's a beginning, there's a
• 41:36
  middle and there's an end. And we can even look at this in
• 41:39
  life. There's a beginning, there's a
• 41:41
  middle and there's an end, you know?
• 41:43
  And I think a lot of times even I have to remind myself, we we
• 41:47
  we're focused on the end result, you know, of creating whatever
• 41:50
  we're creating or whatever we're going through in life.
• 41:52
  We're focused on the end result. But we have to, we have to learn
• 41:55
  how to appreciate the process, even if it sucks, even if it
• 41:58
  hurts. Nobody likes pain and we going
• 42:01
  to be transparent. I don't like pain.
• 42:04
  I don't like how it feels. I don't like even going through
• 42:06
  stuff, you know, all the time. But I've I've, I've realized
• 42:10
  that there is a purpose in this process.
• 42:13
  There's a purpose in my pain. There's a there isn't even a
• 42:16
  purpose of me being bullied. Back then I didn't understand
• 42:19
  it. In the in the in while I was
• 42:20
  being bullied. I didn't like it and I don't
• 42:23
  encourage people to bully anybody.
• 42:24
  So I'm not saying that. I'm saying like there's always a
• 42:28
  a, a purpose in it. So who knew today on a Saturday
• 42:33
  that I would be on this podcast with you sharing my story with
• 42:36
  other people years later to be able to help somebody else who's
• 42:40
  maybe going through something like that, you know what I mean?
• 42:42
  So that's what I'm saying. There's always a purpose because
• 42:46
  we want to know. We always want to know.
• 42:48
  Like, there's always like this great scheme of like, oh, you're
• 42:51
  an artist, you're this, you're that you're something else.
• 42:53
  But people don't understand. And and kind of going back to
• 42:56
  where you were saying earlier, people are jealous because they,
• 42:59
  some people are jealous because they see like the outcome.
• 43:03
  Oh, like, oh wow, this is great, this fantastic.
• 43:05
  You know, they almost like put you on a pedestal.
• 43:07
  But they don't understand the many years and the the valleys
• 43:11
  and the the process that it took to get here.
• 43:12
  This didn't happen overnight. There's some nights where I had
• 43:15
  to cry. There's some nights where I
• 43:17
  would be attacked from people and I'm like, I don't know if
• 43:19
  I'm worth it, you know, kind of going.
• 43:21
  We were speaking to earlier self doubt.
• 43:23
  I'm sure you experience even some similar things.
• 43:25
  You know what I mean? And so here's the here's the
• 43:28
  thing, I, I, I just want to leave with people in this part
• 43:31
  of the podcast is don't be jealous of somebody if you're
• 43:36
  not willing to do the work that they did to do what they're
• 43:39
  doing. So if you're going to be jealous
• 43:41
  of me, then OK, fine, then do the entire process.
• 43:45
  Because I I can guarantee you, you are not going to like it.
• 43:48
  You're not going to. You see me as an artist now, but
• 43:51
  you don't understand how I was bullied then.
• 43:53
  You don't understand how it took me years to figure this stuff
• 43:56
  out like it was it, you know what I mean?
• 43:58
  And so that's that's all I really want to say about about
• 44:01
  that because I I understand that you know, we're all going
• 44:04
  through stuff and so I I just hope to be an encouragement for
• 44:07
  other people. Definitely are, man.
• 44:09
  It's a pleasure hearing you talk about these things.
• 44:11
  Thanks so much. Let's moving forward a little
• 44:14
  bit. What do you envision your goals
• 44:17
  in the future to be like, both for this year and in general
• 44:20
  with art and design? Yeah, so it's funny you ask
• 44:24
  that, cuz I actually just took a break from concept art last
• 44:26
  month, so I. Division.
• 44:29
  Lots of holidays. It's important for everybody
• 44:35
  listening to understand this too, even with hobbies, stuff
• 44:38
  that we enjoy, whether you're in streamer artists, it's important
• 44:41
  to take breaks. Like, I don't know, I feel like
• 44:43
  some people think that, like, you can just keep going and
• 44:46
  going and going and going even with hobby stuff.
• 44:48
  And it's like, no, no, no, you got to take breaks even from
• 44:53
  that. So I took a break last month,
• 44:55
  just kind of step away and refocus, and this month I'll be
• 44:58
  coming back into concept art and really just like doing more
• 45:02
  physical drawing. And who knows, maybe I'll learn
• 45:05
  some more Photoshop techniques. We'll see because I'm always
• 45:08
  learning in Photoshop. It's a great program and and
• 45:12
  really I I wanna see myself accomplish 2 or more concept art
• 45:15
  projects for this year. And then as far as like just in
• 45:18
  general I do wanna be a concept artist in the game industry and
• 45:22
  so I'm really working towards that and and for example many of
• 45:26
  the things I'm doing I'm I do have my own discourse.
• 45:29
  So I I have a lot of artists and gamer friends in there.
• 45:32
  I do and I I chat with them just to see like if you know this is
• 45:36
  kind of challenging so so we have our own like art
• 45:38
  competitions or art challenges if you will.
• 45:41
  I also reach out to people on LinkedIn like especially though
• 45:44
  people in the game industry like hey how did you break into the
• 45:47
  industry. You know, I've been doing that
• 45:49
  for years, though. Like, this has to be like, hey,
• 45:51
  how did you break into the industry?
• 45:52
  Like what? How, how challenging is it?
• 45:55
  You know what I mean? Or like, what are some things
• 45:57
  you like? What are some things you don't
• 45:58
  like, you know? And then I just kind of leave
• 46:00
  like a like a funny question, like what did, what did you do
• 46:03
  on vacation or was something funny?
• 46:04
  You know, just to kind of just end it with something
• 46:06
  interesting. But I'm always improving and I'm
• 46:11
  always looking to grow as an artist and I think just as a
• 46:13
  person in general, we should always be like that.
• 46:17
  If you're not willing to grow or improve, then it's like, well,
• 46:20
  what are you here for exactly? How much of those outreach
• 46:26
  efforts led to work? So it's just like, it's
• 46:28
  networking, isn't it? Like so like how much of that
• 46:30
  led to future projects? Yeah, I would say a good portion
• 46:36
  led me into a game internship early in 2014.
• 46:40
  It was unpaid, but I needed to break into the industry somehow.
• 46:44
  You know, I was like, this might be my door.
• 46:47
  And so, you know, there's two fields I'm talking about here.
• 46:51
  There's graph design and there's game design or game art.
• 46:54
  And you know, these can kind of intersect a lot because there's
• 46:57
  graphic designers in the gaming field, you know what I'm saying?
• 46:59
  So I don't want to confuse people, but I I like being both
• 47:03
  in in both of these fields and I'm passionate about both of
• 47:05
  them. What is the difference?
• 47:07
  I just for like, I mean I I have no idea.
• 47:09
  I'm sure many of my listeners don't know what is the
• 47:11
  difference. So for graphic design, you're
• 47:13
  really working on creating something visual, whether it be
• 47:17
  a poster or infographic with a lot of different picture
• 47:21
  elements with text or even the the posters you see design
• 47:25
  around me are like graphic design things where as far as
• 47:28
  like game art, it's more so like 3D modeling textures.
• 47:32
  And for video games, you know what I mean?
• 47:35
  So like for example, for people who really don't know Mario,
• 47:39
  let's say like you see like the character Mario and you want to
• 47:41
  model him and his textures and his hat, You don't want to see
• 47:44
  his hat texture on his shirt, you know what I mean?
• 47:46
  So making sure that things are being represented correctly.
• 47:49
  So there's a lot of technical things and 3D stuff that I
• 47:53
  really enjoy, but it's not my main thing, you know?
• 47:56
  It's like my side gig compared to graph design, where that's
• 47:59
  more creative, more visual, speaks to that side of my brain,
• 48:02
  you know? So yeah, I love them both
• 48:04
  though. Nice one, man.
• 48:06
  Thank you. Let's move it forward and
• 48:10
  discuss the future of art and graphic design.
• 48:15
  What do you think that looks like?
• 48:17
  That is a great question and I'm going to be transparent and be
• 48:21
  like I don't know. Really.
• 48:24
  Oh, I expected you to have all the answers, man.
• 48:26
  Oh no, I don't know, like, Oh yeah, I know what's going to
• 48:30
  happen. I have no idea.
• 48:31
  Especially with the AI stuff. Are they going to take over
• 48:36
  graphic designers? Like, I mean, I think there
• 48:39
  always should be kind of a human element to designing.
• 48:42
  And I'm not bashing AI because I think there is a lot of great
• 48:45
  things you can do with it, you know.
• 48:47
  But I think anything that you make automated, like you just
• 48:50
  have to be careful because like every can you just imagine
• 48:54
  everything being automated for us like where where is the
• 48:58
  humanist to it we we need some we need.
• 49:00
  And especially for clients too. Like if you're working with
• 49:02
  clients and stuff like that like I, I, I I doubt that it's gonna
• 49:06
  be like, hey, just you know, they're going to get a good
• 49:10
  result off of everything that's automated.
• 49:11
  They need that human aspect, they need like what color fonts
• 49:14
  do you want what what selections what, how would you want this
• 49:17
  logo to be represented for your company?
• 49:18
  They need that real time person rather than just typing it in
• 49:22
  the chat and just being like create this logo.
• 49:24
  It's like he's going to be like lost, you know what I'm saying?
• 49:28
  So there's there are a lot of pros to AI because I've actually
• 49:32
  used it a lot in the last position I was in in in some
• 49:36
  areas of our design. But then I also was like, you
• 49:39
  know what? I want to kind of take that away
• 49:40
  and use more so of the the what I'm used to the human element to
• 49:45
  design. So I mean, because you're not
• 49:49
  really saying per SE that it's a bad thing.
• 49:51
  You're just kind of like concerned with it, which that's
• 49:54
  what I hear from a lot of artists and creatives right now.
• 49:57
  I mean, obviously I have my concerns from like the voice
• 50:00
  acting perspective and various other areas.
• 50:04
  But like, I remember one one guy I had on my show shout out to
• 50:08
  Craig Blackmore. We spoke a lot about AI and AI
• 50:11
  art because he does a lot of visuals using various different
• 50:14
  programmes with AI. And he kind of envisioned that
• 50:19
  because right now it's a bit like the Wild West.
• 50:20
  It's all, for the most part, Free Ish, But they're beginning
• 50:25
  to put some kind of paid aspects to it, and he sort of reckoned
• 50:30
  that it would follow the same thing as like Photoshop, where
• 50:33
  it would lead to licensing and then that's how they will make
• 50:36
  the money from it. But my my kind of key, I
• 50:42
  suppose, contribution to that conversation was that I figured
• 50:46
  you would have AI art and human arts, and that's and across all
• 50:51
  fields, even outside of design and graphics and stuff, it'll
• 50:54
  always be human offering, AI offering.
• 50:57
  And maybe, maybe that might make human offerings actually more
• 51:03
  valuable. Potentially.
• 51:04
  I mean, I don't know. What do you think?
• 51:06
  About it, I know I absolutely agree, because kind of going
• 51:09
  back to what I was saying earlier, like I did use just
• 51:12
  like a little bit of AI. It's.
• 51:14
  OK, you can use it man. A little bit in it as I was
• 51:19
  image searching because part of my job was to like search for
• 51:22
  relevant images for blogs and so sometimes I couldn't find what
• 51:26
  they were looking for. I'm like, oh, just say turn it
• 51:28
  out, right. So that's where AII feel like
• 51:31
  can be a real good asset for you because it's like, Oh yes, I I
• 51:36
  wouldn't, I don't know how I would have found this before.
• 51:39
  You know what I mean? So I'm not, I'm definitely not
• 51:42
  saying AI is great and I I just think that when it's used
• 51:45
  responsibly and when it's not used to replace the human asset,
• 51:50
  that's why I feel like it. Yeah.
• 51:51
  I don't think it ever will. I mean, it might replace in far
• 51:56
  as like commercial aspects or corporate, they'll get lazy.
• 52:00
  I mean I've already seen like YouTube videos, YouTube accounts
• 52:03
  that are all AI generated, but all the content sucks, man.
• 52:06
  Like it's it's devoid of, I mean ironically, human, esque.
• 52:11
  And that's the thing like yeah, you know, some people might buy
• 52:14
  into that, but a lot of people will feel uncomfortable with it.
• 52:17
  Like, it's not. It lacks a soul.
• 52:20
  That's that's the problem. You know it lacks a soul.
• 52:24
  But then sometimes you see something scary, which which
• 52:27
  like I've seen like AI poetry and that's terrifying.
• 52:31
  But then again, that's rehashing.
• 52:32
  It's not original. It's basing this work on
• 52:37
  existing human work. That's the that's the reality.
• 52:40
  It's it's rehashing a bunch of things and putting together
• 52:43
  something based on that. You know, it's a
• 52:46
  reinterpretation of. It's it's no, it's no different
• 52:48
  to like a studio making a remake or a reboot.
• 52:51
  It's just the same shit again. Yeah, that's that's a good
• 52:54
  example actually. And you know what too, I can, I
• 52:57
  mean there has been like a little bit of AI where I'm like,
• 52:59
  wait, is that really AI? I can't really tell, you know?
• 53:02
  But then for the most part I can tell just as an artist you have
• 53:06
  two similar images. I can tell when one is AI and
• 53:09
  one is not like just in general just as like someone with a good
• 53:11
  eye. I can.
• 53:12
  There's been probably like a few pieces, just a few, where it's
• 53:16
  like, oh wait, I cannot tell the difference here, hold up.
• 53:19
  But there's been most of the time where it's like, no, I can
• 53:21
  tell. It just looked visually like
• 53:23
  you. I don't know, like cut and paste
• 53:26
  and stuff. Like I could just kind of tell.
• 53:28
  Is there any other telltale signs?
• 53:31
  Sometimes I look, I zoom in real close and I see some like image
• 53:34
  blur. I'm like really y'all y'all
• 53:36
  ain't about to give me with this.
• 53:38
  Sometimes too I can just tell like from and this is kind of
• 53:42
  cool too from a 3DS perspective in the 3D side and being in
• 53:45
  rendering images in three DI can kind of tell like they just like
• 53:50
  AI you know what I mean? So it it it can be kind of hard,
• 53:55
  you know, in general sometimes too for for certain images
• 53:58
  because it's like again, you know, like I I I honestly can't
• 54:01
  tell. They actually did a really good
• 54:02
  job with this for me not to tell, but I I just think it's
• 54:05
  just my artist's eye at this point.
• 54:08
  Fair enough. OK, best and worst projects
• 54:12
  you've ever worked on. Let's go.
• 54:15
  Yeah, so best art project. This is hard for me because I've
• 54:20
  worked on so many. But if I was to pick a best art
• 54:22
  project, oh boy. Now.
• 54:24
  Oh you know what? I have to think about 3-D2 and
• 54:28
  2D. So I'm yeah, I'm gonna break
• 54:31
  this up. So a 3D project wasn't college.
• 54:33
  So we did. We created our own like 3D
• 54:37
  goblin character, you know, and it was a small class.
• 54:40
  It's like 8 people. So we would just kind of give
• 54:43
  each other cool critiques and be like, you know, his arm should
• 54:45
  be longer or it should be shorter.
• 54:47
  You should have seen me in front of this computer like I was just
• 54:50
  like I kind of make this perfect.
• 54:54
  That's another thing I was struggling with.
• 54:55
  I was, I was a perfectionist. So I was like, wait, this has
• 54:59
  this arm has to be this long And I would use a reference image,
• 55:02
  you know? So I would just Google it and
• 55:03
  I'm gonna be like, OK, this is what I want.
• 55:05
  And I'll be like, Oh no, this has to be this tin of green.
• 55:08
  It can't be all. And my instructor was like,
• 55:10
  dude, it's not really that big of a day.
• 55:12
  I was like, no, it has to be this green.
• 55:15
  So that's what I'm kind of speaking to Earlier when it
• 55:18
  wasn't even sometimes wasn't even the instructors or their or
• 55:21
  their lessons that they were given.
• 55:22
  It was me like just being way too hard.
• 55:26
  Like there are some things I get it.
• 55:27
  You have to have exact colors for, especially if you're like
• 55:30
  working on graphic design stuff on the computer like hues and
• 55:33
  saturations have to be like exact 'cause, you know,
• 55:35
  everybody works on different monitor and stuff and it's going
• 55:37
  to show up to the world differently.
• 55:39
  But like for this stuff like 3 Molly four class project, calm
• 55:43
  down. Like this is not that big of a
• 55:45
  deal. But yeah, that's probably one of
• 55:46
  my my favorite things just because two of this the
• 55:49
  collaboration process like you know, giving feedback, you know,
• 55:53
  and receiving feedback. And I don't remember what grade
• 55:56
  I got on that project to be honest.
• 55:58
  But I graduated so I must have did good also silly.
• 56:05
  And then as far as like 2 DI would probably say, oh this is
• 56:09
  probably hard, I worked on like a Jack and Dexter.
• 56:11
  Are you familiar with Jack and Dexter?
• 56:13
  Yeah, cool, man. I worked on, yeah, I worked on.
• 56:16
  It's on My Portfolio art station portfolio and that's probably
• 56:18
  one of my favorite just because of the the amount of work and
• 56:21
  time it took to just create that whole process.
• 56:23
  It was fun and worst project. Yeah, I'm looking at it and you
• 56:27
  get away with it, man. Come on.
• 56:28
  I know. I'm trying to work my project
• 56:30
  through it. The worst project I've worked on
• 56:33
  it would have to be this boat project.
• 56:36
  So I'm I'm going to pull for the same thing, 3D and 2D.
• 56:38
  So 3D. This is boat project that I did.
• 56:40
  It was my first 3D modeling project, my first 3D class.
• 56:44
  I I don't know how many headaches I got after after
• 56:47
  completing that because it was just ridiculous.
• 56:50
  Like the the book that I was using, it was like a Maya, which
• 56:54
  is a 3D program, and I was just like, OK, let me do this,
• 56:59
  imagine being a perfectionist, but then also like trying to
• 57:02
  follow directions and like just trying to get everything like
• 57:06
  perfect, which is crazy anyway because something's going to be
• 57:08
  off. That's just the reality of it,
• 57:10
  you know. But here I am just trying to put
• 57:12
  everything together and making sure the boat and and the sail
• 57:15
  is ride and and everything like that and and and here I am like
• 57:19
  in in that mindset like Oh my gosh I don't know what grade I'm
• 57:22
  going to get out of this. This is this is terrible.
• 57:24
  And I and the the thing about this project that was terrible
• 57:28
  wasn't really the project. It was me that was being
• 57:29
  terrible to myself. So I was just like, OK, this is
• 57:33
  just, this is just at the time I didn't know the difference
• 57:36
  between the two. So I would say, like, this is
• 57:38
  just awful. I had to go through this pain
• 57:40
  and it took me like, I don't know like a two weeks to get
• 57:43
  through. And here's the funny part to
• 57:45
  that story. So I go into class and we we all
• 57:48
  like show our work to the teacher, you know, on the on the
• 57:52
  board or whatever. And she's like, oh shoot.
• 57:54
  And my, I think was like closer to last and everybody was like,
• 57:58
  this is fantastic. I'm just like, this ain't
• 58:00
  fantastic, this is crap. So this is not good at all.
• 58:06
  But again, like, I think just, I just had to learn just to take
• 58:09
  it easy on myself. And as far as, like the 2D
• 58:12
  aspect, let me think about this, the 2D aspect.
• 58:16
  I think my worst project was I, oh, you know what?
• 58:19
  I did a drawing. I think it was like one of my
• 58:22
  first digital painting drawings. And that thing I ain't going to
• 58:25
  post, that thing was terrible. You know, I'm actually thankful,
• 58:29
  a small thing. I'm actually thankful that my
• 58:31
  old computer got that virus hold.
• 58:36
  On. That drawing was a nightmare.
• 58:39
  I do not want to share it. I'm glad I I can't even access
• 58:43
  it now. So like it it it was, it was.
• 58:46
  But you know what? I pulled a lot from that project
• 58:49
  though. I learned like the perspective
• 58:51
  some. There's always a learning
• 58:52
  lesson, even in like crappy work.
• 58:54
  You always, always learn stuff from it.
• 58:56
  But I ain't going to share it because that that was just like,
• 58:59
  Oh no, no, thank you. You said that your computer got
• 59:03
  a virus. Was it your fault?
• 59:05
  It was my fault, I. I What happened?
• 59:08
  I clicked on a link on an e-mail knowing that the e-mail was kind
• 59:11
  of you know when all that you know what was that I wanted this
• 59:15
  yeah this to see this check this out virus and I.
• 59:19
  Was when? When was this like?
• 59:21
  This was like 2015. Oh, so it's just a standard
• 59:26
  e-mail? Oh bad.
• 59:27
  Damn. Yeah.
• 59:29
  How? How, how?
• 59:29
  What was your reaction to that when that was happening?
• 59:33
  Well, OK, so I'm not, I'm not generally a cursor, you know,
• 59:36
  You know, as I said earlier in this project.
• 59:37
  Yeah, no, I get it. I get it.
• 59:39
  I'm. Christian, but I'm be
• 59:41
  transparent as I always am. I cursed that day I went off
• 59:46
  that day. I, you know it usually pushes me
• 59:49
  when you know there's something going on.
• 59:51
  When I'm when I'm cursing that's like to my limit.
• 59:53
  You know, I get it. But yeah, that was not a good
• 59:56
  day. Not a good day at all.
• 1:00:02
  What advice could you give to aspiring artists and graphic
• 1:00:07
  designers? I mean, you've given plenty in
• 1:00:08
  this show already, but like the first things that sort of come
• 1:00:11
  to mind. Like let's say you're starting
• 1:00:12
  out like, what would you say? I would say just step out and
• 1:00:16
  find out. Just as simple as that.
• 1:00:19
  Step out and find out. Because the only way you're
• 1:00:22
  going to be able to know if something works is if you step
• 1:00:25
  out and try it. So many times, even I'm speaking
• 1:00:29
  to my older me. Years ago, if I would have heard
• 1:00:32
  this, I would be like, Oh my God, yes.
• 1:00:34
  But so many times we as people want to figure out, like, the
• 1:00:38
  right thing for us or we're afraid to fail.
• 1:00:42
  You got to fail forward the only way you're going to know how to.
• 1:00:45
  You know, and and and it's nothing wrong with making a
• 1:00:47
  mistake. We're human beings.
• 1:00:48
  You know what I'm saying? And so if something doesn't work
• 1:00:50
  for you, it's OK to be like, you know what?
• 1:00:52
  This ain't it. I'm gonna step back and I'm.
• 1:00:54
  I'm gonna think about this some more and I'm gonna try something
• 1:00:58
  different. Or sometimes it can even be.
• 1:01:00
  Maybe it's just not even the right timing.
• 1:01:02
  You know, I've had things where it's like, you know what?
• 1:01:05
  I think I'm gonna press pause on this.
• 1:01:07
  This is a great idea, but this is not the right time to do
• 1:01:10
  this. Yeah, I need more time to
• 1:01:11
  dedicated to this. And I just don't have it right
• 1:01:13
  now. So I'm gonna put this in the
• 1:01:14
  books for next week or next month or you know what I'm
• 1:01:17
  saying? So I think the way to identify
• 1:01:20
  that is to kind of sit down with yourself and and have a meeting
• 1:01:23
  with yourself and really and the thing that works for me is just
• 1:01:26
  journaling, you know, and and I know people think this crazy,
• 1:01:30
  but I do talk to myself and I I mean that's just the thing I do
• 1:01:35
  and it helps me kind of figure out what I'm going to do next or
• 1:01:38
  like my next step or if something's not working, you
• 1:01:41
  know, I I need to know the difference between what's not
• 1:01:43
  working and what what just isn't the right time.
• 1:01:46
  And sometimes those things can look the same.
• 1:01:48
  So that's why I always say like, just have a meeting with
• 1:01:50
  yourself. So yeah, step out and find out.
• 1:01:55
  Solid advice, man. I feel like this show has just
• 1:01:57
  been that treasure trove of of fire slam.
• 1:02:00
  Thank you so much. No problem.
• 1:02:03
  You mentioned earlier that you're a big Ratchet and Clank
• 1:02:06
  Clank fan fanatic, and for those who don't know, that's that was
• 1:02:11
  a big computer game back in the day.
• 1:02:14
  Video game What's a life lesson that you've learned from that
• 1:02:18
  game? Oh boy.
• 1:02:22
  Again, this is a good question because it's it's pulls from so
• 1:02:25
  many different avenues and I'm going to give you guys a little
• 1:02:29
  insight on how I play video games now since we're talking
• 1:02:32
  about Richard Clay Bible gets the insight right.
• 1:02:34
  So I look at video games more than just video playing video
• 1:02:38
  game because you got to understand too, as an artist and
• 1:02:42
  as, as someone who used to do a lot of 3D modeling and then
• 1:02:44
  stuff like that, I'm looking at it differently.
• 1:02:47
  Like, wait, why is that shadow cast like that, you know?
• 1:02:49
  Or like why is the character doing this and they should be
• 1:02:52
  doing, you know, it's a weird animation.
• 1:02:54
  So I'm looking at it in that side.
• 1:02:56
  And then I also look at video games as life lessons.
• 1:02:59
  So it's funny that you ask that question.
• 1:03:00
  So I would say from Ratchet and Clank, one of the things that I
• 1:03:03
  pulled from that is to not give up when something's hard.
• 1:03:08
  Because usually when I Ratchet and Clank, I play on like the
• 1:03:11
  hardest difficulty because I'm, I'm pretty mastered as you know,
• 1:03:14
  mastered with the game and watch the next one come out and it's
• 1:03:17
  going to be a nightmare because they know they hear me.
• 1:03:19
  But yeah, I think because of the one, the latest one ripped
• 1:03:23
  apart, I think came out like what, 2020 or 2021 or something
• 1:03:26
  like that. I have it on PlayStation Five
• 1:03:28
  and one of the parts it was like it was an arena battle.
• 1:03:33
  I'm like am I going to get through this.
• 1:03:34
  I'm changing my weapons out. I'm going through the weapon
• 1:03:36
  reel and it and it's almost like I I I'm not even kidding.
• 1:03:40
  I ran out of all ammo and they weren't giving me any ammo on
• 1:03:44
  the arena field and I'm just like Oh my gosh what am I going
• 1:03:48
  to do. And and the person I was facing
• 1:03:50
  had like half life. So I had to keep like bobbing
• 1:03:53
  and weaving. And one of the great things
• 1:03:54
  though, I will say ratchet does have a wrench and you can use
• 1:03:58
  that, you know. So I would just, I would just
• 1:04:00
  Bob and weave and just use the wrench and and before you know
• 1:04:03
  it, y'all I was so scared. I had.
• 1:04:04
  I didn't have like a lot of life.
• 1:04:06
  I was just like this. And the boss's life is like this
• 1:04:09
  too. I was like, Oh my gosh.
• 1:04:11
  And I paused the game. I paused the game because I
• 1:04:14
  thought I was going to die. I was like, no, please, I can't.
• 1:04:17
  I'm almost there And I end up completing it.
• 1:04:21
  And I don't know, that's just, that just resonated me so well
• 1:04:25
  because you can be in at the brink of something, wanting to
• 1:04:28
  give up, OK, Sorry, that just got me.
• 1:04:33
  Brink of giving up, you know. And you have to keep going,
• 1:04:37
  don't stop, because if something you, you adapt close to your
• 1:04:41
  breakthrough, so you have to just keep going.
• 1:04:43
  You have to keep pushing. And I'm so emotional about this
• 1:04:45
  because I understand what it is for people who want to give up
• 1:04:49
  because they're like this close to wanting to give up.
• 1:04:51
  But you can't give up. Don't give up.
• 1:04:54
  If it's something that you're supposed to do.
• 1:04:55
  Don't allow other people to tear you down.
• 1:04:58
  Don't allow self doubt to get to you.
• 1:05:00
  Because I I understand it and I'm sure Christian understands
• 1:05:03
  it. We all understand it.
• 1:05:05
  You know, we we want, we feel like giving up sometimes in life
• 1:05:08
  because that's just how life is. But I remind myself daily, like
• 1:05:13
  this thing that I'm doing, this art that I'm creating, this
• 1:05:15
  these video games that I'm streaming, they're not for
• 1:05:17
  nothing. They're for something and this
• 1:05:20
  game, it's crazy how you think that just it's just a video game
• 1:05:24
  right? But this game has helped me so
• 1:05:27
  much in discovering who I am as a person and discovering that no
• 1:05:32
  matter what comes your way, keep going and IA 100% of the game.
• 1:05:35
  Y'all, IA 100% of the game. I don't usually do that because
• 1:05:39
  I usually am like no, I'm just going to play the story in some
• 1:05:41
  side missions, but IA 100% in the game and it it was it was
• 1:05:46
  amazing. So shout out to Insomniate
• 1:05:47
  Games. Thank you so much for sharing,
• 1:05:52
  man. That was beautiful.
• 1:05:54
  Couple of final questions for you to see out the show.
• 1:05:57
  Completely unrelated to what we've spoken about today, but
• 1:05:59
  you're going to smash them because like I said, the whole
• 1:06:01
  show has been just life lessons. Man, I'm sitting here just like
• 1:06:06
  questioning life right now. What's the biggest mistake
• 1:06:11
  you've made that you learned a valuable life lesson from?
• 1:06:15
  Good question. So I remember a couple years
• 1:06:19
  ago, then this was back in like 2019 or so, like the beginning
• 1:06:25
  of that I walked away from a job not letting my supervisor know
• 1:06:30
  that I was leaving and none of my Co.
• 1:06:34
  I mean, I was. I was exhausted, I was tired, I
• 1:06:37
  was overworked. I didn't really understand what
• 1:06:39
  I was doing. And so I walked away without
• 1:06:42
  letting them know. I did write a note, but I didn't
• 1:06:45
  say visually, hey, I'm leaving, you know?
• 1:06:47
  And so when I got home, it really bothered me because I'm a
• 1:06:54
  person with integrity and I felt like that was being a coward,
• 1:06:59
  you know? I feel like I should have let
• 1:07:01
  them know in person. Hey, this is a lot for me right
• 1:07:04
  now. I wouldn't even say I should
• 1:07:07
  have just left. Maybe, like say like, hey, this
• 1:07:10
  is a lot for me right now. Can I do some more training on
• 1:07:12
  this? Or is there something else that
• 1:07:14
  I can do that maybe, like shift my priorities?
• 1:07:16
  But I just because I was so exhausted and because I was so
• 1:07:19
  overworked, I felt like I just went to leaving.
• 1:07:21
  So I want to say this to people. Just know, you know, when we are
• 1:07:28
  high on our emotions, like we, we'd be making some interesting
• 1:07:32
  decisions. So allow your emotions to die
• 1:07:35
  down a bit before making decisions.
• 1:07:37
  I always say like when the storm has calmed down, then make a
• 1:07:43
  decision because you're more grounded.
• 1:07:45
  I mean, just imagine I've done this a lot of times too.
• 1:07:47
  You're like, Oh yes, I'm going to do that.
• 1:07:49
  Oh, Oh yes. Oh yeah, sure, I'm going to do
• 1:07:51
  that. And then the emotions die down
• 1:07:53
  and it's like, oh, wait a minute, I don't think I really
• 1:07:55
  want to do that or I don't have enough time to do that.
• 1:07:58
  You know what I mean? So that's another thing we have
• 1:08:00
  to factor into it. But yeah, that was, that was
• 1:08:03
  definitely the thing that I don't.
• 1:08:06
  Here's the thing, I don't regret it because I understood I
• 1:08:09
  learned something from it. So it's not like I'm sitting on
• 1:08:11
  some kind of regret, right? But I definitely wouldn't do
• 1:08:13
  that again. I would definitely let them
• 1:08:15
  know, like, hey, you know, there's something we can work
• 1:08:18
  out. I probably wouldn't.
• 1:08:19
  My brain wouldn't even go to leaving.
• 1:08:21
  It'd probably be like, hey, there's something we can work
• 1:08:22
  out to make this better. So I'm not so overloaded with
• 1:08:25
  work or I don't understand what I'm doing.
• 1:08:26
  Or maybe you can sit with me a couple minutes and we can hash
• 1:08:29
  this out versus just just just quitting.
• 1:08:31
  And that took that took like 5 to 6 months to get over.
• 1:08:35
  Like, that was some heavy stuff in that season.
• 1:08:39
  Thanks for sharing what's the best advice you've ever
• 1:08:43
  received. Best advice I've ever received,
• 1:08:49
  I would say from my parents, probably Be who you are.
• 1:08:56
  Don't let anybody dim your light, those two connected.
• 1:09:02
  Don't let anybody dim your light.
• 1:09:04
  I am who I am not because of myself.
• 1:09:07
  I am who I am not because I'm so high and mighty and I got all
• 1:09:10
  these accolades and all this kind of stuff.
• 1:09:13
  People fall into that trap way too easily.
• 1:09:15
  I am who I am because of the parents that I had and I have
• 1:09:19
  and my brother and the people I have surrounded me and I didn't
• 1:09:23
  get here. And mentorships, I do a lot of
• 1:09:25
  mentorships with with other people who are at a greater
• 1:09:28
  level than I am and and they helped me become a better
• 1:09:32
  person. So it's a problem if I surround
• 1:09:35
  myself with someone who just says, Oh yeah, I got it all
• 1:09:38
  together or like, Oh yeah, I'm in this and I made it on my own.
• 1:09:42
  No, no, no. Even streaming on Twitch for 10
• 1:09:46
  years before that. Before streaming, I looked at
• 1:09:50
  other people's streams first, you know, and I saw how they
• 1:09:53
  were and and close friends and I kind of said, I wonder if this
• 1:09:57
  is something that could work for me, you know?
• 1:09:59
  And I kind of gleamed on them for advice.
• 1:10:02
  And you know what? That has resonated even still to
• 1:10:04
  this day, even 10 years, I still am.
• 1:10:07
  Like, I reached out to people involved in the community.
• 1:10:09
  I'm like, wait, how do you, how do you do that?
• 1:10:11
  Or like, you know what I mean? I'm always learning.
• 1:10:13
  I never, I never want to get to a point where it's like I have
• 1:10:16
  all this these years of experience and I just got it
• 1:10:19
  made. No, that means I'm not growing
• 1:10:21
  and that means I'm stingy. So yeah, that's that's the
• 1:10:25
  that's the really good bit of advice I have.
• 1:10:29
  Don't, don't, don't, please do not dim your light for somebody
• 1:10:33
  else. I don't care what it is, don't
• 1:10:35
  do it. Always let your light shine
• 1:10:38
  because we need your light. Even it don't.
• 1:10:40
  This goes beyond art. Now I feel like I'm giving the
• 1:10:43
  sermon, but you know, always, constantly, constantly remember
• 1:10:49
  that be yourself because there's nobody else, Everybody else is
• 1:10:53
  taken. You might as well just be
• 1:10:54
  yourself. Even if you try to be like
• 1:10:56
  somebody else, it's not going to work.
• 1:10:57
  Because I've I've, I've done that before when I was younger
• 1:11:01
  and I'm like, oh, this, this, this, this ain't working.
• 1:11:04
  It seemed fine for a moment trying to be like somebody else
• 1:11:07
  and copying them, but after a while it's like, no, no, no,
• 1:11:10
  this ain't this ain't me. I don't feel right because it's
• 1:11:12
  not authentic. That's why.
• 1:11:14
  So be here. You are and don't don't kind of
• 1:11:17
  like we were talking about earlier.
• 1:11:18
  Don't allow people to put you in a box because either I'm a I'm a
• 1:11:23
  either break the box or they just ain't going to be no box.
• 1:11:26
  So that's that's why live advice for you guys.
• 1:11:32
  Thanks so much. What's the biggest life lesson
• 1:11:36
  you've learned so far? The biggest life lesson I've
• 1:11:40
  learned so far is, man, there's there's so many things inspire
• 1:11:46
  others. I feel like my my name actually
• 1:11:51
  means like I think it's like gift and enduring and I'm hoping
• 1:11:55
  that I can be a life for somebody else because that's
• 1:11:58
  really why I'm on this podcast for other people, you know,
• 1:12:01
  because they we don't know what other people are going through.
• 1:12:03
  They can be going through crazy stuff right now, right?
• 1:12:05
  So I think just even sharing a part of my artist story, my life
• 1:12:09
  story, even being a Christian and being transparent, because I
• 1:12:13
  think a lot of people think that Christians have it all together
• 1:12:15
  all the time and they never go through trouble.
• 1:12:17
  That's absolutely false. We go through the same thing the
• 1:12:19
  world goes through. The difference is we have God
• 1:12:22
  with us. That's the difference.
• 1:12:24
  But we we still have to go through a process.
• 1:12:26
  And so I think just continuing all the advice that I've shared
• 1:12:30
  today with you guys, I've had to learn and I'm still learning
• 1:12:33
  because it let's be real, There was one day last month where I
• 1:12:36
  was like, I don't want to get out of bed.
• 1:12:39
  I don't want to do art. I don't want to do gaming.
• 1:12:42
  I don't want to do anything. And I just had to allow myself
• 1:12:46
  to sit with that and just be like, OK, well, don't do
• 1:12:48
  anything. It's OK Allow yourself a relaxed
• 1:12:51
  day. I, you know, that's that's kind
• 1:12:53
  of like why I was speaking to you earlier.
• 1:12:54
  We always feel like we have to do something or we attach our
• 1:12:57
  identities to these things. But in real life, what are you
• 1:13:02
  When none of those things are there because we all have an end
• 1:13:06
  date, we're all are going to die.
• 1:13:07
  So what happens? Just to give an example, what
• 1:13:11
  happens if you're on your death bed and I'll use me and I and I
• 1:13:15
  can't create art? Or what happens if even if I'm
• 1:13:19
  older and I can't create art or I can't stream, or I can't do
• 1:13:22
  YouTube or I can't, you know, whatever it is, you know, who am
• 1:13:27
  I? You know what I mean?
• 1:13:29
  Who am I as a person? Because now if my thing is, if
• 1:13:32
  my identity was tied up in those things and I'm at my at my end
• 1:13:38
  and I feel, you know, I'm, I'm not going to have anything Like
• 1:13:40
  I'm just like I wasted my life being caught up in all these
• 1:13:44
  things. And I don't know who I am as a
• 1:13:46
  person. I'm kind.
• 1:13:48
  I'm, I'm loyal. I'm a person with integrity.
• 1:13:51
  If I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it.
• 1:13:54
  Or if I need to reschedule, I'm going to say, hey, I'm going to
• 1:13:57
  need to reschedule. I already know you're a person
• 1:13:59
  of integrity because you said, hey, can we reschedule this?
• 1:14:02
  And I'm like, absolutely. Yeah, we can reschedule.
• 1:14:04
  I understand it. You know, a person with no
• 1:14:07
  integrity would just not say anything and ghost you.
• 1:14:09
  So that that's I I just feel like I've learned so much and I
• 1:14:13
  know I just kind of went on a rant there, but I learned so
• 1:14:15
  much in in the aspect of just really being who I am.
• 1:14:19
  Don't let anybody dim your light and don't stop.
• 1:14:24
  Don't stop. Just keep on creating artists
• 1:14:26
  out there. Keep on, keep on doing great
• 1:14:28
  things. Thanks so much, man.
• 1:14:31
  Really, really appreciate it. Yeah, final question for you.
• 1:14:34
  Do you have any upcoming projects or some final thoughts
• 1:14:36
  that you'd like to share with our listeners?
• 1:14:38
  Yeah, so I'm working on a Disney villain project right now.
• 1:14:44
  I I'm probably going to end up at this one.
• 1:14:47
  I'm going to physically draw. So I'm probably I'm thinking
• 1:14:49
  about drawing Maleficent. I'm I'm going to combine
• 1:14:53
  Angelina Jolie's Maleficent with the cartoon one.
• 1:14:56
  So this thing looks a mess. That's why.
• 1:14:58
  But that's that's what I'm going to be working on for the next
• 1:15:01
  couple months. And then also I kind of stepped
• 1:15:05
  back away from streaming a little bit just to kind of take
• 1:15:07
  a break by we'll be back in March streaming Spider Man 2 and
• 1:15:11
  and it's it's amazing so if you do want to catch me out you know
• 1:15:15
  catch me streaming. I'm the ultimate down gamer on
• 1:15:17
  Twitch. I'm also on Instagram, the
• 1:15:19
  Ultimate Down Gamer, and I just, I just love talking about games
• 1:15:23
  and life and stuff like that. So if you do want to play
• 1:15:26
  something, let me know. Thank you so much for being on
• 1:15:30
  the show, man. It's, it's been an absolute
• 1:15:32
  pleasure. I've learned a lot and I I feel
• 1:15:34
  like our listeners are going to get a lot from it.
• 1:15:36
  So thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it.
• 1:15:39
  Yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me and I
• 1:15:40
  hope I can come back. Yeah, no, you're always welcome,
• 1:15:43
  man. Absolutely, Absolutely awesome.
• 1:15:45
  Thank you so much. Yeah.
• 1:15:47
  Until the next time. And for the listeners of the
• 1:15:49
  Christian Reef podcast, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I
• 1:15:51
  did. Thank you so much for listening.
• 1:15:54
  Before I sign off, I just want to say thank you so much.
• 1:15:58
  Yeah, For watching for the last four years.
• 1:16:00
  I mean, now it's going into year four.
• 1:16:02
  It's it's huge. And if you want to help support
• 1:16:06
  the show, there's different ways you can do that.
• 1:16:08
  First of all, subscribe to me on patreonpatreon.com/christian.
• 1:16:13
  Reeve helps me to live and also produce the show and also get
• 1:16:18
  access to bonus episodes of life with Christian Reeve, my Patreon
• 1:16:23
  exclusive series, bonus podcast content, bonus behind the scenes
• 1:16:27
  content, and everything else. If you want to help the podcast
• 1:16:30
  directly away from that, you can help us by leaving a review on
• 1:16:33
  Pod Chaser. Basically like the IMDb of
• 1:16:37
  podcasting. Uh.
• 1:16:39
  You can also leave reviews on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
• 1:16:42
  obviously. If it's YouTube, make sure you
• 1:16:44
  like, share and subscribe and leave a comment.
• 1:16:46
  All of that jazz, all these different things really help
• 1:16:49
  push the show. Please share it with your
• 1:16:51
  friends. If you enjoyed the episodes,
• 1:16:53
  maybe recommend it, let them know, hey, this was a good
• 1:16:56
  episode or hey, this sucked and just let people know.
• 1:16:59
  And that's how we might grow the show.
• 1:17:01
  Thank you so much for listening, for watching and until the next
• 1:17:05
  time, I'll see you in the next one.