Meet Randy Vega

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Randy Vega a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Randy, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

As someone with a mixed race background, I was kinda scrambled from the beginning. All my life I’ve been different than everyone else, in appearance and ideas. I had different features from my peers, and consumed different media, food, music. Making me the “weird kid” at school. This made growing up very difficult. I tried to blend in at times and tried to be like everyone else, and that just made life hard and uncomfortable. But as I got older, I found that my differences became my greatest weapon. In my own free time I expressed myself through drawing comics and doodles that I found funny, with no intention of sharing with others. But after showing these to my family, these silly little drawings were met with a great response. I started to share them with friends and teachers and surprisingly, people liked them, they liked them a lot. This helped a lot in finding myself as a person, writing and drawing about my life, and making up stories and characters for my art. Through being myself, I found friends and a community that accepted and celebrated my differences. I got to foster this love for art and comic creation. People loved my individuality, my courage to be myself and do what I wanted.

So I hate to say it but, the approval of my peers and family was a great part of loving myself. If they loved me then I guess I loved me too. But this helped create a great foundation for my own self esteem, and I’m thankful to have such a supportive family and great friends. Through them, I learned that I was loved because I was one of a kind. And because of them, in my adult hood I don’t need this approval or love from others anymore. I know that being me is enough and being me is fantastic.

So long story short, I learned to be successful THROUGH my own individuality. I learned that being yourself, and different from the pack is the thing that will make you stand out. Going into job interviews, art competitions, writing comics, making art, going anywhere really, people don’t want to see something or someone that is like everyone else. People get bored easy, and everyone is starving for change, excitement, something weird. My differences make me successful, because when I’m different, everyone is going to pay attention to me. I use this to my advantage when I need to, but I’m not out here trying to be something I’m not. I’ll get myself the boring black coffee on my way to work and watch Grey’s Anatomy in my free time just like most individuals. But additionally, I will dye my hair and eyebrows green and draw comics about aliens and vampires making out. Not to be “weird” but just because thats what I like to do.

So it excites me to be the only one in the room that looks like me. Cause not only do I know all eyes are on me, but I know I’m one step ahead of them and I’m thrilled to share myself with them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a Mexican-American Illustrator and Designer from CA & NY.

I make posters, murals, packaging design and anything 2D really. My specialty is drawing silly comics and storyboard arts. I draw inspiration from mid century design, victorian art, and vintage cartoons! (Think Popeye and Casper the Friendly Ghost.)

I make my art to bring joy to people’s lives. Not religious ecstasy levels of joy, but I just wanna bring a little chuckle and levity to my viewers day to days. I also make art to be accessible to all ages, or more specifically I try not to make “boring art”. And this is not a criticism to other artists, some art is not suitable for children, but as a child I felt like I was kept out of a prestigious club. I felt stupid cause I couldn’t understand the art, and once “in the club” I honestly felt kinda bored and underwhelmed. So I strive to make things that can be consumed successfully by anybody of any age.

I’m currently looking for work! You can find me on instagram at @_randy_farts and through my website mirandavega.com.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Consume everything that peaks your fancy!!! Books, movies, television, video games, podcasts, comics, everything is a source of inspiration, you just don’t know where or what it’ll be unless you find it! All media is good media, and you should eat it all up to fuel your own artistic spirit!

2. Learn everything, especially traditional mediums of art. I hated making charcoal drawings and oil paintings. I especially hated learning technical ways of drawing subjects, HATED IT. But I would do it all again in a heart beat, because this strengthens up your skills without you knowing it. Learning these traditional basics creates a great foundation, and once you have these skills, you can break them down to your preference! This is how Picasso created his crazy paintings, how Mondrian made those squares, it all started with learning the really boring ways of traditional art. You might think drawing a naked dude’s penis won’t help you if you want to make cartoons for the rest of your life, but it might help you draw an awesome superhero suit in the future!

3. Make bad art!!! Keeping in bad art is like keeping in a fart or a burp, it just sucks. But aside from that, failure leads to success. You gotta make hundreds of bad things to finally get to something good. Not every piece of art is gonna be perfect, in fact it’s mostly gonna be pretty bad! And thats ok!!!! The old masters made a great deal of bad art, but those blunders lead to masterpieces. Something I’ll do if I’m really upset about how something turned out is I’ll try and pinpoint what specifically is pissing me off, and then look to other artists I like and see how they solve this. And then try to incorporate that into my own style. (NOT exactly copying their work, but using how someone might use a rendering treatment onto a character I’ve already made. Or how someone picked colors for their pallet or whatever. )

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

The number one challenge I have, along with a lot of other creatives out there, is not getting enough work. The creative world is (lack for better words) in shambles right now. AI art is taking over, people are getting laid off, studios are closing, and quite frankly it’s scary to be an artist right now.

In response to the art world imploding right, I got an entire new degree to try and make a safety net for myself. Most of my graphic designer friends had pretty steady jobs (and health insurance) and at the time, I was a cashier at Trader Joes. Also for some reason a lot of illustration jobs were asking for graphic design experience, and vice versa. The graphic designers I knew didn’t really know how to draw, and they too sought further education. So I went back to school for graphic design. I’m not entirely shifting my career focus, in fact I believe this new skill set I’ve gained improves my illustration work. But going back to school got me back into a creative mindset and really revitalized my love for art.

I’ve also been clawing my way out of a 4 year burn out, so I’ve gone back to my childlike ways and started drawing silly comics again. I’ll draw for fun, not perfection or profitability. And sometimes I get some pretty good gags out of mindlessly doodling. (Which actually sometimes leads to me being able to sell little comic books at fairs.) That hasn’t been helping career wise, but spirit wise I feel a lot more creative now a days.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All photos and drawings done by Randy Vega

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
What would your closest friends say really matters to you?

If you asked your best friends what really drives you—what they think matters most in

Highlighter Series
When do you feel most at peace?

In a culture that often celebrates hustle and noise, peace can feel rare. Yet, peace

Highlighter Series
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?

Almost everything is multisided – including the occurrences that give us pain. So, we asked