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

Elijah Isaiah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve been really blessed to be a part of so many meaningful projects and opportunities, from producing black-owned content with AnimeHipHop, doing coverage of multi-cultural or marginalized projects with POCCulture and Nerds of Color to working with special needs youth with my brother and Mother Road Studios. But I think the most recent highlight would be the latest film release, Beyond The Aggressives: 25 Years Later.

Beyond the Aggressives is a documentary about real life things affecting real life people in the LGBT community and its a sequel to a film from the early 2000s following the same people however many years on and how they’ve adjusted to life post-transition. I got involved with it through a referral from a friend of a friend who got me in touch with Daniel Peddle, the film’s director. He was in need of an animated sequence for the intro, and he had a really particular vision of how it was supposed to be. I’d mixed live-action with animation for my own Youtube channel over the years, but I hadn’t quite done something on this scale before, technically, or with that much significance.

Going in to it, I really didn’t know much about the LGBT community, outside of the entry-level stuff; of course there’s always so many more layers to unravel, but I feel like I walked away from the project with a greater understanding, respect and empathy for the community. And it’s an important film to a lot of people, historically, in the community. It’s really an honor to play any kind of role in something with the potential to be so formative like that. Those are the kinds of projects I gravitate to.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Elijah Isaiah Johnson (I usually just go by Eli), and I’m an illustrator, animator and VFX artist from North Hollywood, CA. I’ve been in the visual art industry since I was a teenager, and I think one thing people have always come to me for is my particular vison and style. There’s an emotion, scale and sense of wonderment I try to capture in my work and what I do for my clients, where they can feel like the final result evokes the sensation they had when they envisioned it. That’s important to me.

I started out with my brother as child actors in film and TV, actually, but transitioned into illustrated work which included books, concept art, character design, and so on. As I started to get my name out there, things expanded into animation which came full circle with film and TV. “Climbing the ladder” has really been making and keeping solid connections, a tight circle of people who really believe in myself, the work I do and the energy I want to put out in the world. I’m always open to concepts and projects that can expand my thoughts and affect people.

Primarily, I’m proud to be able to add a unique, dynamic aesthetic to any project. You have to stand out to stand out, and that’s what I’ve been able to achieve for my clients whether it was an animated commercial, graphic novel or VFX spot in a feature film.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a point in 2021, where my mother got hospitalized for a while so that had me put everything on the back burner, and it was really hard to bounce back. I took off to take care of her and walked away from some good projects and then things just got dry for a while. I was primarily doing books but was trying to move into doing more animation but didn’t have any takers for the longest time.

This is why I always stress being intentional, having patience and making connections. Put your best foot forward when you get on projects and bring a unique perspective, because your clients will remember you for that. I was always putting myself out there for new work, but really placed an emphasis on saying “Hey guys, I can do visuals for commercials, movies, tv, all of that stuff too, not just books.” And they knew the kinds of quality work I put out, so when certain jobs within the industry required it, I got recommended for stuff that I couldn’t have imagined that ended up being great looks.

So pivoting was really just bumping up the quality, standing on the knowing that “I’m shooting for this field, explicitly,” and getting into spaces where people are looking for what you do. The circles you run in influence your trajectory so much.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We live in a digital age and it’s easier than ever to support artists: It’s the simplest thing in all of the universes and galaxies, but just share the work. If you like it, click like, click share, leave a comment, don’t just skip and scroll. Especially if they’re your friends. I’ve seen people come out of large sums to support their favorite musicians or actors but won’t share their own friends’ work online, even when they see that person in real life, every day. That’s what’s really holding artists down–the lack of support from within their own immediate communities and circles.

To build an ecosystem is all about cycles, and we have to create a healthy cycle of exposure for our artistic friends and the projects we care about. And if there’s some monetary backing with that, that’s even better, but we can all always start from the easiest step, which happens also to be free: share the work and share it often!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artbyatlas.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyatlas/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ArtbyAtlas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-johnson-ab3443244/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtbyAtlas