We recently connected with Nick Winn and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nick, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
I think art school taught me to take risks. I remember seeing a lot of art students have these wonderful and amazing ideas, but not want to do anything with it in fear of failure. It didn’t sit right with me so gradually I pushed myself to fail as quick as I could to make sure I got a good chunk of the bad ideas out of the way. I wanted to get better at drawing but to do that I really had to go all in. I remember quitting my job at Mcdonalds and filling up as many sketchbooks as I could and going home to learn character design on my own since my school wouldn’t teach me. I failed a whole lot but I learned so much in the process. I think not having a safety net of a paycheck and barely any money in my pocket kinda made me work harder in a sense that if I fail I won’t get to have the luxury of being on my own which I really enjoyed. I’m thankful it all paid off but taking risks is hard and it developing it takes time and courage.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I do Character Designs, Storyboards and was recently a Design Supervisor for Cartoon Network’s Jessica’s Big Little World. After my day job I work on personal comics in my free time. I’m releasing a sci-fi graphic novel titled The Orphaic later this year. I also have a vampire and folk love story coming out in the future that I’m excited to share. While animation is an amazing thing to work on with insanely talented artists, writing and drawing comics has been such a breath of fresh air for me as I get to figure out who I am and how I’ve matured while writing these stories by myself.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Kill your darlings, Be wrong quickly and observe often. I think failure should be spoken about a lot more in creative spaces. There are times where, yes, the first idea is the best idea. But a lot of the times that is not the case. I think understanding that and throwing what you can at a wall and see what sticks will work best with the story. Sometimes the idea that you love and have been nurturing for a very long time might not be whats best for the project and will have to go. It does not mean you’re ideas are bad. It just means that piece of the puzzle doesn’t go there. Sometimes it might go perfectly on another project or even better it might only be for you to share personally with your other own ideas. Being wrong and killing your darlings helps other ideas shine and grow into these arcs and characters and storylines that you would never even think could happen. Also, observing people and being curious about how people act is a huge part in telling stories. People react to the same thing in different ways. An artists job is to be curious enough to understand it and accurately translate it to an audience whether it be happy or sad. Developing all these takes times and is extremely hard at first but once you get the ball rolling it’s hard to stop.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I was raised catholic so a lot of the overwhelming parts of life stem from that good old catholic guilt but I do remember a verse. Psalm 46:10: He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The world is crazy right now and it really does feel like nothing is going to get better but that verse always calms me down. I think because it really is a verse thats saying “calm down.” haha! It’s always good to know that theres something bigger looking out for everyone no matter how crazy it seems. I always think about how when children fall on the playground there parent is always there to comfort them. It doesn’t mean something bad is gonna stop happening, it just means in spite of the bad, theres always someone who’s going to take care of you. For me thats God, no matter how mad I get at him sometimes. Praying and being thankful is a tough thing but its a strategy that has helped me stand upright when I really wanted to quit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://winnsart.carbonmade.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winnstinn/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-winn-91808a139/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Winnstinn
