Hey, guys! In this episode, I am chatting with Yan Sosak, a 2D and 3D artist most known for his YouTube channel called YanSculpts where he shares awesome Blender tutorials, on sculpting, textures, speedpaints, time lapses and more.
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Get in touch with Yan
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/yansculpts
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yansculpts/
Key Takeaways
“Don’t just wait for something to happen to you. It’s not gonna happen by itself. Decide your life by yourself!”
How did you plan on this?
- Yan is currently on his 10’000 hours journey to become a great artist, he is drawing every single day, using a stopwatch to measure it. It’s not about the hours though, it is about being psychologically prepared that it takes too much time
- In order to do the 10’000 hours challenge, Yan saved a lot of chaos, he stopped partying, cut down on food and anything that is not necessary. He is fully focused. It takes a lot of sacrifices.
- Yan is always frustrated when he learns, but that’s a good thing because that’s the only way you learn, if you are comfortable, you don’t learn and you should stay away from that.
Resources mentioned
💡 Please note: We are supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! For more info, please read our disclosure.
- Sculpt January by Zacharias Reinhardt
- Books
- Blender Market – market for Blender creators
- TED Talks about 10’000 hours phenomenon
Special thanks to Yan for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Yan Sosak, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello everyone, Iva here and welcome to the next episode of Art Side of Life where I chat with inspiring artists and create their eyes art related videos before we introduce our guests and go to the interview, let’s thank our sponsors. Have you heard of arts Nick’s art exists subscription box of unique high quality art supplies. Every month you discover new art products, limited edition tools, exculsive supplies and useful techniques. Go to artsideoflife.com/art snakes and use promo code art side 10 to get 10% discount. If you are a digital artist, you will love AstroPad app which turns your iPad Pro into a virus graphics tablet for your Mac. So you can use older programs like Photoshop right on your iPad, go to artsideoflife.com/astropad and use promo code artside to get 10% discount. And now let’s go back to the interview. My guest today is Jung also known online as Jung’s cult. And in this episode Yan shares great thoughts on how to deal and overcome the art frustration. Yan is in 2d and 3d artists most known for his YouTube channel called the sculpt where he shares awesome blender tutorials on sculpting textures, speed paints, time lapses, and much more. He’s currently on these 10,000 hours journey to improve as an artist working hard and making art every day with a mission to help other artists to become really good. And now please welcome Jung and let’s get to the interview. So welcome everyone to the next episode of Art Side of Life. And I’m super happy to have you on here. Hi.
Yan Sosak
Hey, what’s up? Very glad to be here to
Iva Mikles
cool, I’m super happy that you joined then let’s just start with at the beginning. And maybe you can share some of your biggest turning points how you got where you are now and some of your creative outlets as a child.
Yan Sosak
Yeah, definitely. This is the part where I told you earlier that my answers are gonna be a bit weird. Compared to other artists. I hated art. When I was a kid, I had my reasons I didn’t want to be an artist. My parents are architectures. And yeah, I just I didn’t I never expected to be where I am today. So I can’t say that when I was a kid. I something happened that made me an artist is really not the case.
Iva Mikles
Did you like I don’t know skateboarding or what was the kind of like other stuff.
Yan Sosak
Sports. I love basketball. When I was a kid I used to dream to be a professional NBA player. That happened anyways. Yes. So I really loved sports. I do all kinds of sports, from from basketball to boxing to I still do sports right now. And yeah, I think that was my biggest passion when I was a kid.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And how was the transition then for you to start with 3d? How did that?
Yan Sosak
Well, first of all, I will for viewers who know me through my channel, I talk a lot about how I don’t really see myself as a 3d artist. I see myself as a character artists, for me, are stems from something like drawing you know, it’s before you go to 3d, you got to learn how to draw. And that started very recently. For me, I started drawing a year ago, not even I mean, last July is when I started seriously taking it. And yeah, that’s what I started taking it seriously. I guess I don’t know if that answers your question.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. And can you maybe share that story? Like what kind of pushed you this direction, like, oh, I want to start drawing.
Yan Sosak
I guess I gotta go back a little to the past. So I’m actually a graduate here in France. I did five years I did masters. Now the school I went to is not really an art school. I thought it was an art school. But it wasn’t it’s more of a management school. So the first year is a prep year. And the reason I went to it is because in the prep year, you get a lot of different choices, from web development to you know, Photoshop design, illustration, that kind of stuff to 3d 3d was one of the things and I think there were five, six choices. But anyways, so when I went to the premiere, the first thought I had in mind, I’m like two things I’m not going to do. One is 3d. So as what I’m like these are the two things I am not going to choose at the end of the year because you had to choose you have to do a project and choose and fast forwarding. What happened in the first year is I had a class with a scenario is scenario just a professor. It’s about writing the story basically to acid B Each and we had like a week every week was different, right? We had like three days in that week to do the projects, whatever they asked and move on. So I wrote this little story they asked, he asked us for a thank you page, I did like six pages, I just got really into it. And I think that stems down to my, I think, because I watched a lot of anime as I grew up, and there’s a lot of stories going on. And I just started writing and writing. And the professor called me and he’s like, you know, what do you want to do in the future? Like, I have no idea. And he told me, you have something here like you could, you could write stuff, right. And I was kind of surprised, because I really suck grammatically. And all that kind of stuff. I’m not good with language, because I don’t really read books. But I started taking, I took a look at all the choices we had in the first year. And it seemed to me that the 3d path would be the path where I could, because I was a visual person in a way not really artistic way. But I love visuals like I loved anime, I love that kind of stuff. So I thought that was the thing where I could be creative and tell a story. And that’s how I chose 3d. That’s how I chose the thing that I spent the next four years in school doing. But in the second year, we studied some 3ds Max. So it’s a program for anybody who doesn’t know, that’s not the one that I use right now. And it’s just an introduction, every week, we’d have a different professor, and I wouldn’t really call them professors, because there are people who come from companies from other places. So they didn’t necessarily know how to teach because it’s a different skill. But yeah, they kind of did what they can and
Iva Mikles
Like, real life experience. So it is it is an aspect we would like better from the to see how it works in the real life.
Yan Sosak
I wouldn’t say so to be honest. I’d say it was a bad experience. My university life was not a good experience. I like Hopefully, they’re not watching. But no, I’m sure they did their best. But I found a good fit for you. No, no, because up until the fifth year, I didn’t I had no idea what I wanted to do. I don’t think any of the professors gave me any real good advice. Throughout the years. They were maybe skilled, but they did not know how to teach, they did not know how to guide the person. And they come for a few days. So I understand, right? So I was kind of lost for four years. I didn’t know what I know what I wanted to do. But what I knew the thing that was certain for me is I wanted to do something with my life. Biden know what, anyways, so around the fourth year, third year, and fifth year, we had a an internship. And the first one I did in a company that does a lot of luxurious work for well, actually, they do publicity for luxury products, such as can I say the names? Yeah, sure, of course, down the hall, or Chanel and this kind of stuff. So I did a lot of After Effects. I did a lot of stuff, right? Not only I never did characters actually in the beginning. And I did it for six months completely hated it. Like, yes, yes, that’s probably how I got to where I am today, I had a very bad experience. I felt like I was wasting my time, I felt like I was in the company just to do what you know, they just wanted me to do the work, but I wasn’t really learning much. So fifth year, I did another internship, I actually went for a 3d internship this time. And that’s around the time, I started getting interested in characters. But I didn’t really start yet. So I went to this company, I’m not gonna say the name of the company just in case, but it’s a big company here in France. And I did six months. And that was a horrible experience to I think my manager would agree with me. i At that time, I wanted to be a character artists, but they had no projects for that, even though they knew that’s what I wanted. And they just give me all that little stuff that that’s just boring, plain boring. And if I wanted to be creative data, one that didn’t want someone creative, they wanted someone who would do the job, which I completely understand, but you know, miscommunication. So that’s when I decided in that internship. I remember I went out for a break called my best friend. Hey, by the way, if you’re watching, and I told him you know what’s after I finished this no matter what I’m gonna find a way not to work in a company. Okay, and that’s how I started my YouTube channel. And how I did it plan. I did a plan. I’m like, I’m gonna do something with art. Biden love art. Yes. You see what I mean? Yeah. Good. Should I continue or of course. Alright. So I know it’s a bit long so. So yeah, so I got to that point, and I’m like, okay, you know, they’re cool YouTubers online. I knew some YouTubers and I know what succeed what kind of things succeed what doesn’t. And I knew that if I wanted to teach our I had to be really good at it. You know? On, so I had to learn how to teach. So that’s a skill. And I had to learn how to be an artist another skill and, and that’s what I did I used to I spent every day I just said, you know, I want to be a character artist, I want to be good. I look at this amazing art. I feel like I’m good. I might enjoy it if I’m delegate. Right? So I just I grinded in the hours I spent hours hours drawing, I spent hours sculpting. And what started as the most frustrating experience of my life, because it was it was people think that, you know, you need to find what you love. I disagree with that. Not everybody finds the thing they love because who loves sucking at something no one right? Is that a bad word? I’m sorry. It like no one, no one, no one loves being bad at something. I think we can all agree to that to maybe you can do it for a day, but not for a living. And I just kept on doing it. And at a point it switched from something that I hated to something that I was completely in love with that I do from the from the hour that I wake up till I sleep. And that’s pretty much how I got where I am.
Iva Mikles
Oh, cool. And so how long did it take you to like from the time you decided, okay, I want to take it like I learn about the character design and counting was the year as you mentioned that you started throwing in the year and did you strike through every day or
Yan Sosak
I have a specific date, I started something called 10,000 hours. Which is not a new concept. Obviously, 10,000 hours exists, but it’s a different thing. I started it in July 2017. I already had some sculpting experience throughout that year. So I was already able to sculpt. But being a sculptor is not necessarily the same as like being able to sculpt something is not necessarily the same as being an artist in my opinion. So I couldn’t really create designs the way I wanted to sometimes I just come up with something, but it’s not what I had in mind. So in July 2017, I’m like I’m gonna start drawing every single day, till I hit 10,000 hours. And the point was not getting to 10,000 hours, I don’t really care about the hours, it was just to psychologically get me ready for a long road. Because I know that anything in life, it takes time. It takes patience, it takes consistency and a lot of stuff. So I started journaling every day with the YouTube channel, the sculpting and stuff. I actually put in the hours I use my stopwatch I’m very, very specific about it. Even if I take a break during coffee or whatever, I don’t count down the hours and I only count the hours that I actually put up pencil and paper. And right now I’m almost at 600 hours I’ve been drawing for over 200 days in a row. No exception. And that’s how long it took me to get to where I am today. Oh, cool. Cool.
Iva Mikles
So how did you plan on this? Did you like when you stopped like, I mean the internship Did you save up and then was like Okay, I will take a year off or did you have a part time job or how did you make the living on the side?
Yan Sosak
Let’s just say I had some cash aside. I have some some support from my family for the first first period and let’s say that I cut down I sacrificed a lot because I love partying. I love going out I love hanging out with friends and that costs money right and I used to do it once to two times a week with no exception. And right now it’s been months since I did that it’s just I completely cut it off. I’d eat less still healthy just for someone who I go to the gym so we actually eat a lot so I had to cut down the food I had to cut down anything like I don’t buy clothes i You just you have to I mean it’s it’s it takes sacrifice nothing just comes easy. And I knew that I I wanted to put everything into this I didn’t want to find a side job and try to you see what I mean. Yeah, so
Iva Mikles
Yeah, that can be distracting as well from the time and yeah because you have to focus on like making money or these and so you cannot focus on like making the art better.
Yan Sosak
Yeah I’m sure your viewers if they watched your videos I’m sure you’ve you’ve went through artists who talked about how it’s not just about creating art there’s just a lot going behind it there’s there’s the business side or the paper side there’s the social life side there’s your health there’s there’s the art itself there’s the content that you’re creating the video the planning there is just so much so much.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. Because if you want to be self employed there needs like, like a business person like working with art and then someone who’s just starting out maybe they don’t realize it right away. And yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. Before we continue, let’s thank our sponsors again. If you love discovering and trying out new art tools, you should check out art snakes. When you subscribe, you will get the books on high quality art supplies every month. I have already discovered so many amazing new products, limited edition tools and exclusive supplies only available to subscribers. I’d say it’s definitely helped me to get more creative and try different art techniques every month. There is also artistic challenge where you can share your artworks using only the tools in the monthly books. You also get to join the art sex mix community where you can talk with other artists like you inspire each other and improve together. Well this more is the art side of life listen there, you will get a special 10% discount with the promo code artside then. So don’t wait visit artsideoflife.com/arts next and use promo code artside them. If you’re a digital artist, you will love Astro pad. Astro pad is an app that turns your iPad Pro into professional viral is graphics tablet for your Mac. I use it to work with Photoshop and Illustrator to create highly rendered artworks for my clients directly on my iPad. I was super excited to discover AstroPad because the painting apps available on iPad don’t have all the functionality like Photoshop. With Astro pad, I can use all my favorite and custom made Photoshop brushes, which is super cool. What is more is an art side of life listener, you will get an exclusive 10% discount on a stupid studio licenses. To get started, go to artsideoflife.com/astropad and enter the promo code art side. And now let’s go back to the interview. And uh, do you have like, some tips for the organizing tools? Or like, I don’t know, the taxi taxis and these kinds of things, you know, like maybe like FreshBooks or slack or Trello? Or some other FC? Like,
Yan Sosak
if you’re talking about specific program, then not really no, that’s not how I organize myself.
Iva Mikles
So how do you organize yourself?
Yan Sosak
I think it’s, it’s a skill like another, you can do it right away. You got to learn how to be consistent. And that takes time. And before I started are I as I said I used to I go to the gym. And I taught myself how to be consistent throughout that. So I choose five days of the week, I chose five days for the gym. And these five days no matter what’s I go, even if it’s five minutes, it doesn’t matter. I go no exceptions being sick. No, your your your pets passing away. I’m sorry. But I’m not saying that that happens. You don’t do that exception. I’m saying mentally, like the mindset has to be no matter where I go. So that’s the day that you don’t go it’s a real crisis. You see what I mean? If you don’t put yourself through that mentality, you won’t go far in life if you want to really succeed. So that’s how I advise someone to start, choose something doesn’t matter what’s and be consistent with it. Choose three days a week four, to always use these four days, it means if you want to do a fifth day, that’s completely fine. But don’t switch these days don’t if you say like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it has to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And that’s how your brain makes the connection and it becomes so strong that it becomes second nature. And that’s how I do it. I basically taught myself taught my brain that I wake up at a certain hour, I do a certain amount of work per day, no matter what.
Iva Mikles
So the do you structure your days as well that you have a creative time at the beginning. And then the in the afternoon you do some organizational or how do you do the batch processing? Or
Yan Sosak
Mostly I’d say well, it changes from time to time. It’s always good to freshen things up. But I’d say for the past few months, I I usually wake up around 930. And by the time I drink my coffee, you know how it is? At seven I started working from 10. So one, what is that three, four hours 1011 12 One Yeah, three hours, I draw. I draw. Sometimes I practice, I don’t know figure drawing whatever, it doesn’t really matter if I draw. And then I go to the gym at one, go back around three, I buy food, whatever I get back and then I start either sculpting or I work on a YouTube video. That’s usually what I do. And I do that until late night, around 1011. And that’s when I usually if I have time go back to drawing. This is how it usually goes buts. Sometimes, for example, for now I’m working on a course on my channel, which is why I’m very very busy with that, I have to start with that in the morning because what you do when you wake up is what you’re going to be most effective. And so I kind of do that and I pushed drawing back to night or when it’s rendered, you know, because there’s a lot of rendering going on when it’s rendering guide draw stuff like that. So depends.
Iva Mikles
Yeah and then the cores the you are planning the array You know when you will release it, or do you want to shout about it?
Yan Sosak
Sure, sure, definitely. So I kind of did this course sculpting for beginners in Blender. By the way, Blender is not usually the program people used to sculpted ZBrush, which is why a lot of people go like, Oh, wow, okay, use Blender anyways. So I did that course, not not long time ago, a few months ago. And it wasn’t really meant as a course to support the channel per se, because a lot of it is for you on YouTube. And it’s more like, if you want to support my channel, go ahead. And I got a lot of support from it, which motivated me to do a real course for for my supporters. And the one I’m working right now on is something similar, which is texturing, and blender for beginners. And you could find like my latest tweets, you basically see what what the character looks like. And that course is going to officially be released next month. So march, march, right? I think, I don’t know, March, yeah, march around the 22nd or 29th. It’s a Thursday, it’s usually when I post my videos on YouTube, that’s when I officially release it. However, I will do a pre release in a few days. So this is usually only going to be known by my followers, because it’s gonna be on Twitter, but not really on YouTube. I’m not gonna post a video on it. So
Iva Mikles
You will share it through Gumroad? Or is it like on your website? Or how are you going to?
Yan Sosak
I don’t have a website yet. Gumroad? Definitely. I’ll let people know through my Twitter, Facebook, there’s the YouTube community thing that you want. I don’t know if you’re aware about it. Well, you could post to your followers without really posting a video on my shirt. They’re my patrons. And, yeah, but but but of course, it’s gonna be on Gumroad. And a few months later, I put it on blender market? Probably yeah.
Iva Mikles
Oh, nice. Nice. I know, maybe you can share some of the YouTube video tips. If you are the you know, for someone just starting out the YouTube channel or just say, Oh, just from your experiences?
Yan Sosak
Definitely. There’s a lot to say, I don’t know. Like, what, two minutes, five minutes?
Iva Mikles
How would you feel like,
Yan Sosak
Okay, actually, yeah, sure. Well, if you’re interested in YouTube, I guess you’re interested in social media, right. And I started that last year, beginning of 2017. And I spent that year focused on discovering how social media works. And I’m very curious with that kind of stuff. It’s really fun. It’s like a strategy game. And I got a lot of tips on that. First thing I gotta say is, it isn’t what it seems. It’s a lot more complicated. It takes time to learn, no matter how many tips I give you right now, it’s still not enough to completely understand how it works. And even until today, I’m still lost, to be honest.
Iva Mikles
So changes all the time,
Yan Sosak
All the time, a lot of changes, a lot of things are not said they don’t really tell you a lot of things. So first tip is there’s always this fight between quality quantity, right? Do I post more regularly to get more followers or just quality. And I tried both, I tried both, I tried more quantity than quality, I’ll be honest. And not that I didn’t put quality into my work. But you know, the set amount of time that I had, if I posted right now I post once a week. It’s kind of strange the amount of quality I can put into that video. I think if you want to explode in YouTube, you should go for quality and post, like once a month, once or twice, but create really good videos. And the second thing you got to do is find out what people people are searching for at that time. So for example, today, in Blender, the biggest thing is Eevee. It’s a new blender engine. It’s technical stuff not really important. When it came out when the development started. The people that posted a video on dads, they’re the ones that got the most views. You see what I mean? So find what people are talking about, find what people are doing. If you don’t then you’re going for a slow growth like at the same time. Don’t go for something you don’t enjoy. Yeah, kind of the hassle I go through. I don’t go through topics that are very famous such as fan art, for example. I’d love to do fan art. I don’t do it for I’m kind of scared of the copyright stuff. But anyway. Yeah, so I don’t go for stuff I don’t enjoy even though it’s gonna get me more views. I try to find the stuff that people are talking about the I enjoy. So that’s what I advise you to do. Try to find something you enjoy and then try to find the the subject of that subject that’s popular amongst people. Second thing is consistence goes back to consistency. If you’re posting once a month, try to choose the same day the same date, the same day the same time. Excuse me. Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Also, choose a lot of like, choose more than On one social platform just don’t use too many debts. It overwhelms you. That’s what I did last year. For example, I think YouTube, Instagram, maybe Twitter Twitter’s a bit difficult to get into. Should be enough Facebook honestly not even worth it. Yeah, so these are the basic tips I can give you. And then algorithm is very complicated the way your video how well does it do? How fast does it grow? Generally depends on the first 24 hours. In fact, from all the videos I check, because every time I post that kind of look at the analytics, and all I think it depends on the first two hours.
Iva Mikles
It’s probably also like, on the type of video if it is a tutorial, or if it is, I don’t know, speed paint, or I think all of these different ones, they go to different suggested feed and
Yan Sosak
Possible, yes, right. I never thought of it that way. sure that that could be one of the things. But also, just because your video did not do the first two hours doesn’t mean that in two, three months, for some reason, it explodes. It can happen. I’ve seen it happen to other YouTube creators, where your video just for summary, because the way YouTube works is very different from Instagram and Facebook is that a video can go viral. Anytime. Instagram and Facebook and other stuff. It’s only at the beginning. It’s really just the 21st 24 hours. Otherwise, forget it. And YouTube, for example, if someone a big channel or a big person, whatever, they see your video share it. And at that time, it gets a lot of us. I think the algorithm kind of figures it out goes oh, okay, you know what, this video has good content. A lot of people are watching it for long periods of time. So the watch time is the most important thing right now, from what I know. And that’s when it goes viral. So yeah, exactly.
Iva Mikles
The also the, as you mentioned, also the percentage of the view, like how long it doesn’t matter if your video has nine minutes or 50 minutes, but the percentage of the video watched, right. So the bounce rate is like really high. That’s not good.
Yan Sosak
Yeah. Comments, Likes and other stuff. So far, it makes no difference, honestly, I mean, probably very miniscule.
Iva Mikles
Oh, that’s really interesting. Yeah. And so where people can find you the most on on YouTube, I guess, or the other social media, as I mentioned that Twitter when the our fans are like always checking their
Yan Sosak
YouTube, YouTube, you’ll definitely see me posting a video per week. Twitter is more of a personal side. Like I talk about other stuff that post I post some sketches. You know, you see what I mean. So I think these two places are the best place to find me.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And how did you develop your skills? What was the your aha moment? You know, like, if I do this, you know, the I my drawings or my sculpting will be so much better.
Yan Sosak
I don’t believe in these moments.
Iva Mikles
Progress for you. Yeah, they’re
Yan Sosak
Always a ha moments when you’re working like you’re working like, Oh, I did not notice that. But in reality, it’s, I don’t really think of it as a ha moment. I think that’s all the progress you did before allows you to notice this at a certain point. So I mean, if you saw the same thing, like for example, you’re drawing ahead, usually draw it really wide. And then one day you draw, like less, why don’t like haha, you know, that looks better. Yeah, but the fact is, if you did at the beginning, you probably wouldn’t have noticed that’s a good thing and went back to the white things. You I mean, it’s a progress thing. It’s yeah. So
Iva Mikles
The studies and so do you have maybe recommendations for you know, where to study anatomy or, you know, like, some resources you like?
Yan Sosak
Sure. Let’s see. Classic human anatomy. I don’t remember the full limit. Okay. Don’t have a second to last sick human. This is the first book that I actually studied anatomy from. So, classic human anatomy, the artists guide to form, function and movements book by Valerie L. Winslow. So this is the anatomy book that I studied. I gotta warn you, it’s not fun. Because this is more anatomy. You know what I’m saying? Yeah, but it’s still it has artists in mind. So it’s not exactly that. But yes, I think it’s important to go through that through that period where you study anatomy. And the other really cool book I’m actually studying right now is figure drawing by Michael Hanson. And I take my time with it. So it’s figure drawing anatomy as well, but in a more artistic way, how to draw that form. So it doesn’t really go too much into details of the anatomy or Yeah,
Iva Mikles
I’d say these two. Have you read the Drawn to Life? Drawn to Life? No, I did not. Yeah, that’s fine. You may enjoy as well. It’s kind of about the gesture drawing and how to do also the observation from real life.
Yan Sosak
Oh, I typed that in and found a Nintendo game. Is it just John lighter.
Iva Mikles
Yeah by Walt Stanchfield.
Yan Sosak
Book. Okay, I wrote it down. I’ll check. Okay, found it. 20 golden years of Disney masters that yeah, check it out. I’ll check it out. Oh, cool, thanks.
Iva Mikles
If you think about the whole art career until now, is there something you will give as advice to young self? You know, before you started something you wish you knew?
Yan Sosak
I was afraid you’re gonna ask me that question. Amen. Think about vices. It’s such a tricky thing. Because there is no best advice. Honestly, it’s, it’s the way that advice is absorbed depends on the person and their, their current situation. So for example, I’ll just give a quick example. Being consistent is consistent is one of the best advice I’ve heard. But I’ve heard it many times before and never really registered, in my mind, see what I mean? So if you’re not ready to hear that advice, it just won’t work. But if I really have to give advice, I’d say, work on your mentality and your style of life. Because without both of these things, you won’t you won’t last long, because you’re starting without a real structure. You’re a lot more important than your art because your art is graded by you see what I mean? So I guess that would be my advice.
Iva Mikles
Oh, definitely. And if you think about the most difficult time in the artistic journey, maybe you can take us through that moment. And what was your key takeaway from that? Because that’s where we usually learn the most.
Yan Sosak
Yeah, very good point. Very good point, man, most typical time in my art journey. So I go through that all the time. I still do. I mean, you’re always frustrated when you’re trying to learn, but that’s how you learn. It’s, it’s when you’re frustrated. It’s when you’re, you know, when you’re I don’t you do art, right? When you’re drawing, you’re trying to learn something, you start getting frustrated, you start sweating, you start itching, and you go like, why is it not working? That’s when you’re learning. And that is the best thing you can ask for when you’re doing art. If you’re if you feel comfortable with what you’re doing, you’re not learning. And you should stay away from that. And I think, sorry, that doesn’t really answer your question. But I think that just changed your perspective. If you’re seeing the frustration as a bad thing, you’re gonna have a bad time. If you see the frustration as Oh, that’s a learning moment, then you’re gonna look for that frustration. And that’s how you’re going to learn.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, that’s very good point. Because every time you are learning, then yeah, it can be frustrating. And it isn’t said so. But at least you can see the progress. And when you can compare where you were, like year ago, and now then you’re like, Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah, exactly. And so how do you start a new project or new drawing or new sculpting project? Can you take us through the biggest step so far? You know, the thumbnails or sketches? And how you you progress? Oh, wow.
Yan Sosak
There is no one particular way for me, I don’t have a routine for that I every single time I start in a different way. Sometimes it’s from one of the practice sketches I’m doing. Sometimes I see some art online and just get an idea sometimes. From music, sometimes I don’t I don’t really know how I start, I just start I face because I’m used to doing something every day. So at a point, there’s something that works, you know, and I say, Okay, this can be something, man, I go for it. So, for example, the course I’m working on right now, the character I did that character, because there was this thing called sculpt January by Zack, which I did a video on my channel where you sculpt everyday and I wanted to join the first few days. And it’s called a character every day and night spent like one two hours and one of the characters just look good. I’m like, Oh, she she looks appealing. She can I can turn that into something. So I finished that sculpt. And then I’m like, oh, you know what? I can texture that character and texture to that character. I’m like, Okay, there’s a lot of technique that I can teach people. Why not do that? And that’s how it went. As for my characters? I, it could be planned sometimes. It’s not. It’s just, uh, yeah. And I don’t really have clients. You said clients, I don’t take clients.
Iva Mikles
Right now, as you mentioned, because you’re focused on the project. Yeah, yeah. And what about the future? You know, and what would be your dream scenario, you know, in like five to 10 years, maybe projects he would like to work on or characters he would like to create
Yan Sosak
Projects right now.
Iva Mikles
As well.
Yan Sosak
Yeah, I see what you mean. I see what you mean. The thing is, I think it’s so good. It’s such a difficult question. There’s a lot of thing. I mean, okay, I have short term and long term goals, right? So the short term wants to make what I’m doing working, because it’s still not something that’s sustainable, right? It’s not something that I can live off yet. It’s not very stable. So that is my short term goal is I want to turn what I’m doing into something I can do every day without worrying about paying the bills or anything else, really. My midterm goal, I think, is which wasn’t the case before I started the channel. By the way, that’s not why I started the channel. But I think I really enjoy getting emails from from my audience telling me that they’ll learn this and learn that. And I think I want to get to a point where I help a lot of people get really good, not a little like really good, whether they want to get a job at an industry or whatever. But more, I really want to teach them that life is a lot more than just doing what you’re told that you got to be your own person. So that’s the kind of thing I want my channel to be. It’s not a channel of tutorials, right? It’s not a channel of how to sculpt in Blender. It’s a channel of how to have the right mindsets to become successful and do what you love. And I hope that one day I can get to that point. And the long term goal is I have some ideas. I like to do short films like every other artists, so that’s not new. I’d like to open another business that I don’t really want to talk about right now. Because it’s not really something solid. I’d like to travel. Because right now I’m working so much that I’m not traveling, I’d like to go back to partying a bit. And I missed that it’s a longer, long term goal. Now, I don’t know, I mean, a lot of stuff just like everybody else.
Iva Mikles
Oh, perfect. But it’s good to think about the goals, also short term and long term to see what you’re working towards those. So that’s definitely really good. And before we finish, maybe you can share the last piece of advice or key takeaway, as you mentioned, what our audience should kind of remember from this discussion, like, yeah, you mentioned along the way.
Yan Sosak
Live your life. I mean, I know it’s something you hear all the time, but people don’t do it, they don’t live their life, they don’t, they don’t work hard enough to get there. Right, just live your life. And don’t wait for something to happen to you. Your your your dream job is not going to come your the thing you want to do it for the rest of your life is not going to happen by itself, your channel is not going to explode by itself. So control your own life. Because we’re given a set of cards when we were born, right, some things we can’t control, from environment, to family, to our genetics to whatever. And until the day we realize and wake up and understand what we are, we’ll never be able to control it. And we’re just gonna, it’s like, we’re zombies. Just living through whatever life gives us. So you need to get out of that. And decide your own life by your own self, right. Just choose what you want to do and go for it work hard for it. And I’m sure you can get there.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. I totally agree. And yeah, so that was a great, kind of wrap up of the discussion. Yeah, thank you so much, again, for being here.
Yan Sosak
Thanks for inviting me, man. I’m really happy that you did. So very, very nice to talk to you seriously.
Iva Mikles
So awesome. It was definitely my pleasure. And hopefully everyone who’s listening and you know, or watching. They’re inspired and like thinking about what are the future goals. So thanks, everyone who joined as well today. And see you in the next episode.
Yan Sosak
See you guys. Bye.
Iva Mikles
Hey, guys, thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate you being here. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode at artsideoflife.com. Just type a guest name in the search bar. There is also a couple of free artists resources ready for you on the website as well. So go check it out. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher so I can region inspire more artists like you. If you want to watch the interviews, head over to artsideoflife.com/youtube. Continue to inspire each other and I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Bye.
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