Meet Collin Reynolds

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Collin Reynolds. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Collin below.

Collin, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

How’s that old saying go? Sometimes you take the long way around to find your reason.
I’ve always been into art but I didn’t fall into painting until I was forced to take an alternative mediums class in college (just a basic overview of watercolor, acrylic & oils). There were a couple of difficult things happening in my life all at once at the time, adding in the fact that I’m naturally competitive and it was just the perfect storm. I subconsciously used it as a tool to deal with a lot of things while subsequently finding a medium I’d end up falling in love with. Fast forward a couple years to getting into a car accident on my way to work. I’d already been burnt out for the most part and felt like I was spinning my wheels so this was effectively a blessing in disguise because during my recovery period I ended up losing a bet to a friend and started streaming on the platform myself to keep my word. Little did I know this was a perfect storm scenario as the art section of Twitch was just starting to take shape and I became a part of the first boom of creative streamers on the platform right around the time Bob Ross’ copyright became available for all platforms.

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

Simply Phenomenal & Instantly Classic but Always ProperlyMAD
My name is ProperArtist, but most people call me Prop.
I’m a freelance oil painter/digital artist that specializes in realistic nerd culture & wrestling art.
I offer both prints & originals on my shop and commission are available upon request.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Social Media
-Be active on social media as much as you can
Post on pictures/reels on instagram, take advantage of stories for people who really pay attention to your page for updates. If you’re streaming on twitch, edit down your content to make youtube videos, edit those down even further for tiktoks/reels. Make sure your store/shop info is visible on your pages so people know where to contact you. Funneling all your links to one place like a link tree helps immensely too.

Be a Sponge
-Always be willing to learn something new. That’s the thing about art, there’s always something new to learn that we can apply to our trade. If you’re set in your ways and still producing work, you’ll sabotage your own growth.

Consistency
-Success takes time. The hardest part of any dream is the waiting game, it’s all about timing in a lot of cases, but keep posting your progress shots, keep posting your art, drawing daily, whatever your creative outlet keep doing it and sharing it with the world because you never know who may be watching you and hit you up for work one day.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My fiance
She’s known me since I was 15 so she’s since this journey take shape over the past 20+ years.
She’s never lost faith in my dream and now that we’re together (circa 2022), she’s even more involved just to help take some of the stress off my of me. Best part about it all is getting to bounce ideas off her and see some of the things she comes off with because she does art too.

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