We were lucky to catch up with Liam Johnston recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Liam with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I believe I get my strong work ethic from mother as she is an incredibly strong and resilient hard worker. Growing up around that really ingrained a strong work ethic in my psyche I think.
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’m very focused on just making art in general and see myself more as a generalist and don’t particular focus on one art field at a time
As a 3D artist I have worked in Autodesk Maya where I make 3D Models, texture models and animate them. There’s a tons of things you can do in 3D, I’m always learning new stuff about it all the time. I like to think of 3D animation as the equivalent of playing with action figures but in a digital 3D space. My most previous animation work, I was a shot finalist on Unicorn Academy. Where I fixed 100s of animation errors and cleaned up scenes with a team for Mainframe Studios.
Currently as many may know the animation industry in the west is going through a bit of rough patch at the moment. So I have pivoted to working on music which is another passion of mine for the time being. A friend and I made a band and have been working a punk/black metal demo for past several months.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One is confidence. Having confidence in oneself I think really impacts individuals work. I used to have very little confidence in college but the more confident I got in not just art but life in general. I eventually found my art to become a reflection of that and my art was stronger because of it. I think you can develop these by going out of your comfort zone and doing stuff like working out helped me a lot.
The second is probably perseverance. Art is hard and requires a lot of time, patience and hard work. Perseverance is must have because though it can be a rewarding journey it is quite a lot of work and can be at times very difficult. Sometimes you will fail persevere but when you do, you just got to get back on that horse when you fall off.
Last important thing is to learn lots outside of art and take in lots of different valuable life experiences. This will greatly impact your art, learning new skills, going to different countries and learning about different cultures, gaining personal stories and so forth.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
When I feel overwhelmed and I often do. To deal with it I try to keep organized.
I break stuff down Into smaller steps. Try to focus on one thing at a time. I think organization is a very important skill to develop for upcoming artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://liamkjart.ca
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liamkjart/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-johnston-artist/
Image Credits
All image credits belong to Liam Johnston
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
