Meet Johanna Taylor

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Johanna Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Johanna, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I have rejection sensitivity, so I created a folder on my computer called “Nice Things,” where I keep screenshots of compliments, good-news emails, fanart of my OCs others made, etc. So now when my imposter syndrome tells me I’m Bad at Art/Comics/Writing/etc, I can pull up evidence to the contrary.

Collecting/saving nice comments is a great coping skill because it forces us to engage with, remember, and catalogue positive interactions, which helps override our brain’s usual impulse to fixate on negative interactions. It’s important—healthy, even!—to give more weight to our positives.

I also had to learn to trust in the people who choose to hire me, specifically, or utilize my skills for certain projects. They didn’t choose me because they wanted the most talented creator in the world, or the most popular, or the most interesting–they chose me *because they wanted me* and whatever experience and voice I can bring to the table.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a freelance illustrator, concept artist, graphic designer, and comic artist. I have a BFA in animation, and focused my studies on concept art, storyboarding, and sequential storytelling. I have contributed comics and illustrations to independent publishers such as Limit Break Comics, EEP, and 2CGaming; and publishing houses such as Oni Lion Forge, Penguin Random House, and MIT Press. I am passionate about stories with folkloric themes, mental health narratives, dark comedies, historical fantasies, magical realism, and D&D-style fantasy adventures. I am an advocate for mental health and wellness in the comics industry, and a member of the Cartoonist Cooperative.

I’m the creator of the debut YA fantasy graphic novel THE GHOSTKEEPER, published by Penguin Teen in July 2024, which received a starred review from Kirkus and Booklist and made the American Bookseller Association’s Indies Introduce list for summer 2024.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Resilience, which is extremely important in an industry as subjective as the arts. It means accepting rejection with the faith that another job opportunity will come along, and understanding the importance of being prepared for whatever those opportunities may be, whenever they arrive. And sometimes, it’s okay to punt. It’s okay to pivot, retreat, take a beat and re-evaluate when things get unsustainable.

The world is not set up with artist’s success in mind. It’s the failing of an unfair, imbalanced system, not the failing of you as a person. But don’t let that stop you from moving forward and trying again later.

2. Self-discipline. This is especially crucial to learn as a freelancer or contract worker. I had to figure out specific ways to motivate myself to work and build my own schedule in a way that helped me finish projects on time, and fill that time with creatively-enriching personal projects when there was no more new client work. It also meant being aggressive and persistent about networking and finding new work opportunities, online and in day-to-day life.

3. Versatility. This might seem counterintuitive for an artist whose main job is usually just drawing, but having a background in multiple disciplines–such as motion graphics, graphic design, illustration, comics, color theory, video editing, animation, writing, and both 2D & 3D studio pipelines–have protected me from layoffs in corporate jobs and reinforced my hireability to art directors and recruiters.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I talk things out with a friend or family member, and take time for activities that are in no way related to my work to decompress. For example, I do a lot of swimming, cooking, walking, traveling, hiking, gardening, mindfulness meditation, and reading non-comic prose books of all types and genres. I also take what’s in front of me and break them down into smaller and easier-to-manage tasks, building up to the harder tasks as I go.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Johanna Taylor, Kimberli Johnson

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