In this episode, we are chatting with Lord Gris about what is new in her life since we talked two years ago! Enjoy!!
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Get in touch with Gris
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lord_gris/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LordGriselda/
Special thanks to Gris for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Lord Gris, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Iva Mikles
So welcome everyone to another episode of Art Side of Life. And I’m super happy to have Lord Gris here. Hi. Hello. So welcome again back. After how long is it? It’s more than a year.
Lord Gris
Two years after the interview,
Iva Mikles
not a year after it’s two year after
Lord Gris
those two years went fast. It’s good to see you again.
Iva Mikles
Yes, definitely. I love you’re here. Super cool.
Lord Gris
Thank you. Thank you. My earbuds falling out here. Yeah. There we go. Good. Just it just see them.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. All right. So yeah, so what’s new? I mean, what’s new with you? Right. So where should we start? Maybe what was the biggest change? You’ve happened over these two years? If you can pinpoint something?
Lord Gris
I think the biggest thing that I worked on would definitely be the world next door, which was a video game that I produced alongside Viz Media, I guess wouldn’t say produced. I did all the art for it. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. liberated, right. Yeah.
Lord Gris
And people don’t seem to know the name is when I say it, but they know it was does because this is a licensing company. And they license like One Punch Man, Pokeyman, sailormoon. My Hero Academia, they license a lot of like anime manga content, but they’ve never made original content before. So they were like, we want to get into making our own IP. And so the world next door was their first stab at making their own IP.
Iva Mikles
So cool. Yeah. And then do you remember what was maybe the most memorable character from the characters he created? Or the backgrounds? Or everything was like?
Lord Gris
Well, I didn’t do the background. So I shouldn’t say that. That was by a guy named Justin Baldwin. He’s amazing. He’s making his own game right now called Wild at Heart. And it’s really just doing so well. And I’m so proud of it. But the characters that I made most memorable. I think I really liked when she’s not really much of a character, because sort of what happened was, I just designed like, a pile of characters, like for year 50, I think. And then I handed them over to the people. And they looked at him and they were like, Okay, we’ll keep these four main characters and these for like, NPCs. But like, I was, like, attached to all the designs kind of equally. I wasn’t like, oh, yeah, I love these main characters and the side characters or whatever. So even some of the enemy designs, I think, I think one of the enemies might be my favorite. And it shows up for like, two seconds. It was this character is supposed to represent an anxiety a little bit. And so it had like, hands on the throat and hands over the head, hands covering the eyes. Somebody actually got it tattooed, which I am not sure they knew it was from a video game. They just saw the image on my Instagram, and they sent me a picture and we’re like, check it out, got it tattooed, and I’m like, That’s awesome. I hope you know that’s an enemy.
Iva Mikles
So maybe No, maybe. So if you can maybe talk about more about how you were creating the characters for people who don’t know how the process of game character creation looks like, like you create the you know, also the brief with the art director, or you got the brief or how did you do the lineups are a little bit more of these, like points? was the creation?
Lord Gris
Yeah, um, I don’t know if it’s normal for all game studios. Because I was working with an indie game studio to make this game. They’d never made a game before. So for all I know, everything I did was totally unconventional. But the way that it worked initially was, I had a lot of freedom over it, because I sort of proposed the initial idea. They had made a contract with this, and to make a game, but they didn’t have a game idea. And so they got 12 artists in a room together over a weekend. And they’re like, Okay, everybody come up with an idea. Make some concept art in two days. And then we’re going to like pitch all 12 ideas and see which one of his legs so I ended up making this it was originally like a Monster High School dating sim kind of game as far deviated from the original concept, but I made that and just like a whole pile of characters, they’re very poorly sketched, it’s not good art. Because I had two days to just do all this stuff, all this concepting for you know, here’s what a battle scenario would look like, and the toxic scenario and all this stuff. So they flew down to visit visit was like, Yeah, we like this anime game. Let’s go with that one. And so it was mostly just making like really terrible scribbles. And then the data, be like, yeah, they’re like, We like this one. And then I would finalize it and make it pretty dexterous and put in the game, eventually down the road,
Iva Mikles
in the sketches. They were like, just black and white, or did you work like pencil or digital sketches or actually colored sketches?
Lord Gris
It was digital sketches, and it had to be colored because color was like really important, I think especially going for like the mount monster aesthetic, like picking who’s going to be in the cast. A lot of it was like, do we have similar color palettes happening here? You know, I think we ended up deciding there was too much purple. Oh, and we had to change some people’s colors, like get rid of some of the purple. Yeah. So and everything’s
Iva Mikles
so you weren’t like bad characters, good characters and these type of like color coding or not too much.
Lord Gris
We had mostly just like, boss concepts, enemy concepts, and then everybody else see all the monster characters and then they kind of picked from those designs. Oh, this guy’s a good guy, and this guy’s gonna be bad guy and all that. Slaves. He’s not saying, Okay. I have tiny little eardrums. They don’t like earbuds very much
Iva Mikles
need to have a specialized headphones. And so when you were kind of also creating the game, and also posting on Instagram, creating your own artworks, how did you find the time or balance both of these, you know, personal artworks and also the game artworks?
Lord Gris
It was hard. I think there was definitely a point where I just was not posting at all and it actually made me really sad. Like I missed all of Inktober last year, which I was really bummed about. I think I got I got one post out for Inktober. And it was while I was at Comic Con of all places, I went to New York Comic Con with his to promote the game and manage to like in my hotel room. Make one Inktober sketch and then the rest of the cover I missed. Yeah, a lot of artists totally killed it last year. And I was like, I feel so left out. I’m so busy this game. And so there’s a part of me that was very relieved that the game ended because I was I could focus on my platform again. I felt like it really neglected it.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, but I mean, you can always go back. And if you still like keep on posting and just update the community. What do you have? What’s going on then? Yeah, that’s important.
Lord Gris
Yes. And people I think were they were generally excited about the idea of like, oh, my gosh, you’re making a game and when they I think what made it official was when like, I could hold up like a Wii. When you know, so we anymore. But it’s technology now switch a switch on behind a whole console behind a Nintendo Switch. And be like, Look, see, my game was on here. And people were like, Oh, you made a real game.
Iva Mikles
With a company? Yeah.
Lord Gris
Yeah. The game itself, I think it came out okay. I think it was a good attempt for like a company’s first attempt is a little too short thing. I have been like a three hour playthrough for like, a year and a half of work or whatever. So I was like this t shirt longer.
Iva Mikles
Because I am not such a big gamer. So that’s why I’m asking all of these questions as well because I don’t know, three hours. It’s a it’s a good length or no. I am always interested in the character design and the environment. Like if it is designed nicely, then I’m like, okay, I can play this game.
Lord Gris
Yeah, you know, I’m very happy. I’ve read a lot of reviews of it. And a lot of people do say this game is way too short, this kind of content, but it’s very pretty. Yeah, like I love the character art and I’m like, Oh, all right. I feel like at least I did my part well and that’s like the best I could ask for
Iva Mikles
that. I can play that game. Yeah, well, it’s pretty. What about now then? Are you focusing on the gallery work? Or like specialized springs or licensing or what is your main focus now with your art?
Lord Gris
Mainly, I’ve just been plugging into my Instagram and slowly working on making more physical paintings because end goal is that I want to be like full time painter. Not at that point yet because I can make like maybe a painting a month and you know, sell it for, you know enough to cover my phone bill or something like that, but not enough to like live
Iva Mikles
off of and do you want to focus with acrylics or oils? Or which medium Do you want to focus on in the future?
Lord Gris
I’ve only ever used acrylics I just tried oils the other day actually, I wish I had this panel. It’s it looks really bad. It’s like a child’s crayon drawing. And I don’t understand I don’t understand how people do oil paints. It’s just It drives me up the wall it takes a long to dry keep smudging it with like the side of my hand. Just like it’s infuriating.
Iva Mikles
More fancy. Like
Lord Gris
yeah, and I think people get kind of affected going for more with oils and sound like I think I need to buckle down and learn this. But for now all I know how to do is acrylic since that’s what I’m working with.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, I want to learn more about oils as well because I like the the 3d Fancy feel and actually how they’re blending together. I feel like that’s nicer than acrylic because acrylic is you have to be really fast like okay, I have to solve this out like
Lord Gris
yeah, the magic the secret ingredient is this stuff called satin glazing liquid. It’s supposed to be for adding a glaze over your painting, but if you mix it in with your acrylics, it makes them dry a lot slower. So that Here’s my trade secret. I have a little more time to get everything blended together. And it’s like $6 for a bottle. That’s gonna last me a year. So
Iva Mikles
Oh, good, good. Yeah. So that’s manageable. Do you mix your colors before creating the color palettes? Now? Also, when you’re creating the acrylic paintings? Or like, do you like, Okay, this will work better afterwards? And or do you sketch it digitally before you go to traditional actually,
Lord Gris
I sketching digitally actually hang on, I have one like right here that I’m about to get started on. I have it because I was just about to transfer it to the canvas. So it’s a digital sketch, I printed it out. This was a commission for somebody. So it’s some girl with a dragon on her head. But I sketch the whole thing out visually, very roughly, I mean, you can see the hand down there. This is like the level of quality, if less, so that I hand it to people for the game, like is super scribbly, like that. So I sketch it out digitally. And then I’ll transfer it onto the canvas and then paint it so that I have the whole layout and the color palette planned out ahead of time.
Iva Mikles
So these will be the tiles right? Have you printed like two a fours?
Lord Gris
Yes. Yeah, that one’s a little my 14. So I know that like convention speak a four a two. I don’t know.
Iva Mikles
I think that’s a three looks like a three, right? And so how do you translate the know? How do you go about like translating these digital sketch? Do you just have it next to you? And then you sketch it with pencil on canvas? And then you start translating? Or do you have some awesome tips how to do it, like, gently and awesome.
Lord Gris
I am about to try something that I’ve never done before, but I hope that it works. I’ve seen a different artists do it. You cover the whole back with graphite. And then you lay this down on the canvas and you like trace over the line work so it makes the graphite create the line work on the panel. I used to it up until now. I’ve just winged it and I’ve just re sketched it on the panel. But I’ve been like unhappy because I’m like this didn’t come out like the sketch that I handed the person and I’m worried that they’re disappointed that they’re not getting quite what I sketched out so I’m trying this one out.
Iva Mikles
But it sounds like it will work. Yeah. Hold the pencil, you know through the paper. Yeah, but yeah, well, we’ll destroy the print button, you know that might work is well.
Lord Gris
My studio May is smart and he just uses a projector and just project it onto the canvas. I don’t have his fancy equipment. So we’re doing it old school.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, because then that helped muralist basically work right when they use the projectors? Yeah, like lots of times when we did but yeah. But no, they
Lord Gris
were like, how can they be up that close? And they get their proportions, right? Because even if I’m holding my sketchbook, like, a little bit angled all the sudden you like, bring it straight up, and you’re like, Oh, God, what happened? Like, like the head is like, super huge, because you didn’t realize you’re working on a prospective. And I don’t even like how to mirrorless do this. It’s been blowing my mind. So now I know. You’ve answered my question.
Iva Mikles
The projector a lot of them. Yeah. That’s amazing that they can do it. Like just you know, so I’m not generalizing. But yeah. And then you mentioned also did some galleries you had some artworks in gallery. So how did that happen? How did you choose the galleries?
Lord Gris
Well, I didn’t choose them actually. Currently, I’ve been in a gallery called Haven gallery. It’s on Long Island. And it’s had a lot of my favorite artists show there, which I’m really excited about had like Camilla de Eriko and Audra Claire Miho Hirano. So I’m just like, oh my gosh, I’m showing in a space with all of my heroes right now. I feel unworthy. It was really random. There’s a thing in my city at a local gallery called nucleus, Portland, they do a drink and draw every Wednesday, you can come to their gallery you can draw with other people. You know, I got tables with the butcher paper, so you can do little cran doodles. And I had a painting I was working on and I brought it in to finish it up while I was there. And the gallery owners were like, This is so cool. Can we film this and put it on our Instagram? And I was like, Yeah, sure, go ahead. So they filmed a little video of me working on it and like posted on their Instagram, and Haven gallery saw that because the galleries are connected. And so she messaged me and she’s like, Hey, I don’t usually reach out to like new artists, but like, I saw that painting and it blew my mind and like, Would you be interested in showing our gallery and I was like, Oh my gosh. I was so nervous about that. Because I knew that like some amazing artists were going to be in the show with man did a group show called Her Majesty was themed around women’s power in history. I think Mab graves was going to be in that show Kellogg’s loops. Do you ever interviewed him? Yes. Kellogg’s loops. Yeah, so he was on that show. And I was just like, I’m gonna make this painting and it’s gonna go in here and it’s gonna be the worst painting of the bunch. Everyone’s gonna be like, who let this girl in here? And I was like, it’s not going to sell the lady’s gonna regret ever asked. You need to do that, like, so nervous. And it just it made my day when like the day of the opening of the show I get a mess. So answer from someone big like the minute I saw this, I had to buy it. And so he like bought it opening night and I was like, Oh my God. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
so you had one painting with them?
Lord Gris
Yes, one painting is Hang on, I got a print of it. Very small version of it. It was a very large painting was titled water from the underworld. It was about a Korean legend about a princess that goes to the underworld to rescue her dying parents.
Iva Mikles
So how did you choose these these legends? The Did you know about it? Or did you research it?
Lord Gris
I didn’t know about it. I like the theme was open to like real women in history or like Legend and I wanted to do something that hadn’t really bright colors. Like if I do legend, it’s a little more open to interpretation. I’m not very good at making my art look like real people. So it’s like, I don’t want to draw a real person have people like that looks nothing like them, like so I looked for a legend and I just read a lot. I just waited till I found one that really clicked with me. And I liked that one. I thought it was really beautiful story and it had water stains, and I really like drawing water.
Iva Mikles
Perfect. Because then then you I guess you did a lot of like sketches and preparing how to create actually this artwork.
Lord Gris
Yes, I made a sketch. This looks nothing like it. It was definitely one of those times that like you.
Lord Gris
You get like you have an idea in your head, and then you start making it. It’s just not working. And you’re like I just need to let this painting happen. Because if I try to force it, it’s going to come out stiff, it’s going to come out bad. It’s gonna be like the fact that Ron and Hermione ended up in the Harry Potter series together and it never should have happened. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
So what type of sketches did you do when you were like planning this painting? Was it like always like a frontal view? Or was it more like something with hands? Or how was the process of deciding okay, this is how she’s going to look?
Lord Gris
Yeah, um, you can see here, it’s like a pretty front on piece. Initially, I think her head was more tilted. And she did have a hand and her shirt was pink. And her hair was a lot more green. There’s this a lot about it, that somehow we ended up with something very, very different than what I sketched. I think it was running out of time. Actually. That’s why I dropped the hand. I was like, the hands gonna take me forever to paint. And I had a very limited amount of time. Like I made the whole painting in a couple days. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was just like, I gotta get this set out for the show. I gotta go. Because this was something I did while I was working on the game. So you know, I had the same amount of like, workload, but I’m like, I got it. Get this painting. I did that.
Iva Mikles
So how big was it? The painting?
Lord Gris
It was I want to say like 20 by 24 inches. So yeah, fairly, fairly big. And it wasn’t a huge frame. Cost me like $80 just to ship it.
Iva Mikles
Because you had to ship it. They wasn’t thinking about it. Yeah.
Lord Gris
I just shipped another painting there. And I think they were pretty off because it was a smaller painting, but I paid like $170 to ship it off. So because you have
Iva Mikles
to also pay some special insurance so it doesn’t get destroyed. Right and like really vary in these kinds of things. Yeah, always good because you also sell your own artwork still through your website or where do you sell your art originals like most of the time,
Lord Gris
my originals I have through a separate site. That’s Storenvy I sell all my other products on Etsy in general I need to just move to like a website. It’s like one thing one of the big things I need to do but it’s just like I’m like alright, when I’m ready to hunker down and really like figure out how this is all going to work. I sell them through a different website because when when you have a listing on Etsy if somebody buys it the listen just disappears. And so I’ll have a lot of people just be like the listing isn’t showing up for this original drawing I can’t find it anywhere Storenvy will market is sold out so listen to the EPA just says sold out and so it’s more helpful for people to be able to like oh Siri bought it
Iva Mikles
they say you there’s so many things you have the game you have gallery shows the art prints. So what else do you do now? How do you kind of combine your income streams nowadays?
Lord Gris
I’ve been doing a huge focus on product right now. I think long term I’d like to transition into a brand a little bit. Do you know omocha at all? No. OCAT is just an amazing artist and she did such a good job of taking your art and transitioning it into a brand. She makes really cool apparel. She makes scape boards. She’s done collaborations with a lot of other artists on Instagram to like print their work on her clothes. And that’s been like a big dream of mine just to transition into brands. So my huge focus has been just like making products. I’ve made a lot of stickers. I’ve been getting into keychains lately, I just got my first like acrylic figurines made. So that’s been like, just, that’s been like the main focus.
Iva Mikles
Oh, super nice. Yeah, I’m looking forward to see all of them. Now I will have to research the skateboard. It would be so cool to have your illustration skateboard.
Lord Gris
I know. Yeah. I think that’s like a long time down the road, because I think it took even her a long time to get there. But that would be really magical. That’d be the dream.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. So which products do you have in mind, like now off the bat like notebooks or more something for the home where
Lord Gris
I would love to do sketchbooks. But I think the hugest one for me really is like apparel. It’s I have never done apparel before because it is so expensive. You know, I’ve been like looking into a couple of sites lately. And it’s just like, oh, bare minimum? Like, do you have $2,000 to spend on this? And I’m like, no, no, do that. Now just throw at you for like shirts, because you got to, like, you gotta make sure you get them in all the different sizes. That’s the hard one. It’s like how many smalls viewer mediums, larges? I don’t know, the the sizes of my clientele. I don’t know what size my followers are. So I’m, like, you know, what, if I get one size, and nobody has that size, and it just doesn’t sell it, it’s pretty intimidating.
Iva Mikles
So you maybe you have to start with something more generic like leggings.
Lord Gris
Or just a very large unisex t shirt, just one size fits all.
Iva Mikles
Something like that. Or you can do some collaborations, are you also looking into the collaborations with some other brands, which are already making something like, I don’t know, hair accessories, or some clothing pieces.
Lord Gris
I’ve had some brands reach out to me, but nobody can quite do the printing that I want. I’ve learned a lot about printing in this process. There’s like there’s printing this, just like a lot of printers will have like a square space on the shirt that you’re able to print a design on. Some of them can only do one color, some of them can do full color. But what I want is something called sublimation printing, which means the entire surface of the shirt is printable. Because I just I think those looks so cool. Those are what I want to do. And so I’ve had people like making mock ups and be like, Oh, here’s your design on a t shirt. I think I might launch a company this month. But I it’s just just seeing it like is like a square design in the middle of the shirt. It just looks very to me like the effect I’m going for here.
Iva Mikles
And you also have the print on demand. And that’s not the way I guess you want to go. Right? You want to have your own. So not just like a licensing fee, like society sakes, are these red bubble in these?
Lord Gris
Yeah, yeah. I was trying this out the other day, but they still I just I do I want like a very unique, you know, something that isn’t just like, oh, this is like the same as that other society six year to have. It’s just a different design on it. But I might need to start there and see what happens. Yeah. That’s kind of the way it goes with these things is you just you start somewhere because if you keep pulling out for like the perfect thing, it’s just never gonna happen. Yes. You just kind of gotta jump into it know that it’s going to turn out bad, you’re gonna make mistakes. The first keychains I made did not come out what I was looking for. Because it’s the terminology for it. So I was hoping for something that was like double sided and it was sealed in with like this clear plastic epoxy and I got like a one sided charm that’s like open on one side. So it can get scratched really easily. And I was like, this isn’t what I wanted. But now when I order I understand how to order them. So yeah, look back at the stuff I was making. First on my se it was just real bad is really low quality. Like I printed out on sticker paper, I got to Office Depot and hand cut it out, you know, you know at my home printer, and it just was not a high quality product. But that’s where I started and now I have really an issue. Like
Iva Mikles
so now you have the do you make stickers at home? Or do you order it from somewhere?
Lord Gris
I know I go through a company called sticker mule and I love them to pieces. I would marry them if I could. They said the best customer service the best product. You can put their stickers through like a dishwasher or the Apocalypse and the last forever. So
Iva Mikles
just put the disclaimer guys don’t put the stickers in the dishwasher because we know what happens but yeah, or have you tried it?
Lord Gris
No, they they’ll go through a dishwasher. Okay, yeah, they’re awesome. So it’s great for people that want to put like a sticker on like their water bottle or something because yeah,
Iva Mikles
okay. Oh, perfect. Yeah, so that’s a good recommendation for people who wants to try stickers, and can you share maybe some fail? In the art process you know something with other people can learn from like you’ve made mention those are the key chains or something you know, you learn along the way,
Lord Gris
is I think everything that I do for the first time came out weird. The acrylic figurines that I ordered, I’m pretty sure when they show up and showed up yet, I’m pretty sure that the print is gonna be way too dark. I didn’t lighten it enough. And I realized that the other day, and I emailed the company was like, Have they started printing it because I think they’re gonna be too dark. They’re like, sorry, we already started with let go grab. So I think those are gonna show up like pure black, because they’re like a dark blue color. Just I think everything that I’ve ordered for the first time, I initially like tried to go through different. So first, I was making stickers myself. And they were actually not bad. I mean, I started out with like, the plain sticker paper, but then I figured out how to put like, adhesive layers over it, like holographic adhesive over and things like that. And so those are pretty nice. But eventually I was like, I don’t have time to hand cut these myself anymore. I know did get them ordered. So I went through a different company. And I was like, Oh, these, you know, this company seems affordable. And so I started selling those stickers and found out that like after a month, the design rubs off, just because they just they just print the ink right on the plastic vinyl, and they don’t put any sealant over it. And so what happened is the designer just rub off and the people would just have this like vinyl was empty white vinyl. And I was like, Oh no, I’ve been selling these to people. And everyone’s stickers are disintegrating. And I feel just awful. I was surprised where people didn’t write me about it. One person wrote me and they’re like, hey, the quality of your stickers is really gone down. And I’m like, I know that I’m so sorry. And switching company.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. Because then it Yeah, it kind of makes you look bad as an artist, even though it’s not your production, right. But some other company when Yeah, when didn’t work.
Lord Gris
And I didn’t want people to feel like I didn’t care about them. Because I’ve had like, you know, the quality of stuff go down. And I’ve been ordering overtime. And I’m just like, oh, that’s rude. You know, you’re making me pay the same price for a product, but like, it’s worse. And I’m like, I want to hand people like the nicest possible product, which is why like, I’m so happy with the stickers that I’m making now, even though they’re like, way more expensive than it used to be to make because they’re just they’re top notch. And I know that everyone who gets it is happy with them.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And then how do you go about the pins now? So when you mentioned that there are some words that people use when they are ordering or so what did you learn in that process?
Lord Gris
Oh, with pins? Are with? Oh, you mean keychains?
Iva Mikles
Yes, yeah, but also pins because I thought you said kings and queens, keychains and pins.
Lord Gris
Um, I’ve made two pins, I made some money,
Iva Mikles
because I remember them. So there are some things
Lord Gris
I need to make more pins. That’s also another thing that I need to focus on. But that one’s a little more tedious to read, because it requires submitting really nice clean line work and knowing pantones. That’s a I don’t like doing line work very much. I’m not a line work artist. And so I get it’s very stressful for me to just be like, this needs to be perfect, or it’s not going to print properly. I think so. So I made a Patreon post about this because I do like artists tips on my Patreon. And it was like, here’s everything that I learned ordering keychains because I made mistakes, and I don’t want you to make mistakes. I’m definitely understanding. The big one is understanding what epoxy is. That’s the one because what, what you’re gonna get if you don’t order epoxy is you’re just going to get a keychain as flat on both sides. The way that keychains work is the laser cut out a piece of acrylic, and then they’ll print your design on the back. So that through the acrylic, you can see the design. So if you get single sided, it’s gonna be white on the back, and then you’ll be able to see the design through the acrylic, but it’s totally open on the back. And so having a keychain like that, it’s just like the the inks gonna get scratched off, like a scratch ticket. It’s just gonna come right off. And it drives me nuts.
Iva Mikles
To keychain? Yeah,
Lord Gris
yeah. And so what you want is to double sided printing. And so they’ll do a second layer of printing on the back of that white section. And then epoxy, which is where they’ll seal that in with like this clear plastic bubble. So on one side, your kitchen is going to be kind of rounded and on the backside, it’ll be flat. And so I pretty much think that like you should always order double sided with epoxy keychains getting single side without epoxy. You’re just gonna get a cheap keychain, it falls apart.
Iva Mikles
So good to know. And then if people want to know more guys, so go check out the Patreon so, you know
Lord Gris
yes, it’s on there. And you
Lord Gris
do a lot of tutorials there as well on Patreon I guess.
Lord Gris
Well, this is my first month on Patreon. Okay, okay, so you just Yes, I just launched it. I’m really happy with how it’s gone so far because I really thought nobody’s going to join this Patreon. I’m just going to feel real stupid just like looking at the numbers zero on their vehicle. Yeah, nobody wants to live here. Korea. So I’m just I’m so excited. I’m so over the moon about it. I have these like, there’s like a tear for mailing out these fancy little postcards, and I’ve just been, like making them super pretty with lots of washi tape. And just as many things have been like throwing extra stuff in there, because I’m just so excited to have my first patrons ever. So the focus isn’t super on tutorials. Like, I’m gonna say her name wrong. It looks like the daska Yeah, I love those guys. And she makes so many tutorials. She’s so amazing. She’s just like a workhorse a champion, though. Yeah, yeah, I get the feeling that she doesn’t see because I look at everything she’s doing. And I’m like, Girl, I don’t know how you do it, you’re blowing my mind. You’re killing it. You’re amazing. I don’t have that stamina. So I was like, the main focus is going to be like this like postcard club of mine. And then I have something called like, artists tip. So it’s not full tutorials. It’s just like little tips. You know, like the other day I did one that was like how to edit. Like when you take a picture with your camera, I do everything with my phone. So I’ll take a picture for Instagram, my phone. And you’re always going to end up with the paper looking kind of yellow and darker than you want. So this was just like tips on how to edit your photos so that you get the bright white paper that you’re going for and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s short and quick. It’s like a paragraph. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
I felt like it makes sense. I mean, I also started Patreon recently. So thank you. Thank you. So yeah, so guys, check out patrons. Yeah, so I’m also sharing like our tips and like kind of resources, how you can run your artistic career and how you can make a living basically, as an artist, but also, I’m not focusing on the art tutorials, because the focus is also on this podcast, right? And all the other content.
Lord Gris
Yeah. Oh, congrats on launching your Patreon. That’s so cool. I’m so excited for you do such cool things.
Iva Mikles
Your YouTube?
Lord Gris
Yes, yes. pat on the back here.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And everyone listening knows like, okay, okay, whatever. Yes. Okay. But yeah, so I’m super happy that you are doing so many projects, and now also hopefully branch out soon to the apparel. And if you now think about that, you know, the famous question thing, like when everyone likes to know, always, like, five years, 10 years, what is the plan for the for the future project?
Lord Gris
See, when I think about this, I’m like, Oh, God, I’m trying to do two things. I really am. I like one plan is like, I want to be like further along in like a brand. I would like to hire somebody that would be great. Like somebody that can do the packaging for me and Run like customer service for me, because there’s an artists who just do everything, like I’m running my Instagram page, making content for that, making original artists while I’m doing customer service and doing the shipping, you know, just like I’m so tired, I’m doing everything. So I’m like, I want to be able to like do be doing well enough that I could hire somebody to do that. And then I also want to be painting, like all the time. So I’m just like, that’s two different things. But when I think about it, okay, Camilla Eriko does this. I don’t know if you know her. But she’s an amazing painter either interviewed her? She’d be
Lord Gris
great. So me she’d be wonderful. I’d love that.
Lord Gris
Yeah. Because she, you know, she makes her paintings. And then she makes them into clothing. She makes these beautiful, like antique plates with her art on it like, so she does both. And I’m like, maybe that’s how I’m going. It’s probably where I’m going.
Iva Mikles
Good. So okay, so that will be the plan for the future.
Lord Gris
Yes, yes. I’m just excited about I just I always feel very privileged that I get to be an artist at all. I think it’s just, it was such a lucky thing for me. And I’m not someone who ever thought that it was going to happen. So I just wake up every day. And like, I’m very grateful for where I’m at.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. Oh, super nice. And maybe you can remind people if they haven’t seen the first interview, how many years did it take you from like, start to where you are now and kind of which were the biggest transition points for you.
Lord Gris
It’s interesting to think about, I don’t know the exact answer to how many years but I did. I went to an art college for like a year. And then I dropped out and said, I quit our forever because a lot of my professors were very discouraging, and we’re like, you’re wasting everyone’s time being here. And I’m like, Okay, I guess all Lee. And so for many years after that, because I must have been 19 I dropped out I think I didn’t drag until I was 24. So that was like five years of my life that I just missed, and just missed. And sometimes I am kicking myself for it. I feel behind because I see all these like kids up and coming just doing amazing art. And I’m like, dang, I miss five years of growth because I quit art for a while but, you know, I’m happy to be where I’m at all. So I think around 24 After doing a bunch of failed other projects, including trying to write a book and trying to have a fashion blog and just Want to do a budget? I was like, maybe, maybe I can try this art thing. Maybe I’ll start drawing in. And I’ll just draw every day and see what happens. I was first in my life I ever drew every day. And so I started doing that. And that was three years ago this month. So I’m on my third year of being an artist and very happy with it.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. So congratulations on everything. What do you achieve? And I’m super happy that you shared some of your story with us. And yeah, so good luck with everything in the future. And let’s do it. Check in again. Maybe next year, Orange. I have some clothing into yours. Yeah, yes. I’m wearing my
Lord Gris
own t shirt being like, Yeah, what’s up?
Iva Mikles
Okay, so this would be also in two years, hopefully the clothing line so you have a deadline?
Lord Gris
Yeah, I’ll be there. I’ll mail you and we can both wear matching shirts and
Iva Mikles
actually from Okay, good to go so thank you so much again for being here. Thank you. And thanks everyone who was listening or watching and see you guys in the next episode. Bye
Hi, I am Iva (rhymes with “viva”). I am a full-time self-taught artist behind Art Side of Life® and a Top Teacher on Skillshare. I have 15 years of experience in the creative field as a concept designer, illustrator, art director, and now freelance artist, content creator, and art instructor. My goal is to help you get your creative groove on with Procreate and make awesome art through practical classes, tutorials, Procreate brushes, and guides on art tools, supplies and resources. About me »
