We were lucky to catch up with Niko Pope recently and have shared our conversation below.

Niko, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Taking risks has always been my biggest challenge in life. From socializing, to networking, and to out of the box creative decision making, to beginning (and especially ending) new projects. Without taking risk, everything in your life becomes stagnant, including your business and your art. It is important for artists to take risks to progress their creativity and their career further. Risks such as trying new art mediums, trying new artist subject matters, communicating with new people, and going to new places which can help you reach higher achievements.

Choosing to get together and collaborating a collective team of artists (DaVinci’s Flayers) has been one of my biggest risks that helped propel me forward in life. As someone who was once very timid to approach others to collaborate, it’s propelled me forward in both my social and art life in countless ways. And I thank my closest companion and fellow artist Lia (@phoxdraw) for pushing and encouraging me to begin this journey with her and our other artist friends. We’ve had art shows which connected us to even more people. Never be afraid to put your art out there with your friends. You’ll open the doors to places you’d never believe.

Also. very recently I have reached a stagnated place in almost all fields of my work. Taking time off from the endeavors of my personal life to try new artistic mediums was a big risk to my social life and my finances, because I believed I never would have the time to master it, but in the end it was worth it. I recently took the risk to train myself in 3D art and animation, something I didn’t think I would ever get myself involved in due to the lengthy time and persistent effort it takes to master it. However I come to learn by risking my time to add this new skill under my belt has opened me up to many new opportunities of work and my personal life, even at intermediate skills. When you feel your creativity and your artistic career isn’t going places, don’t be afraid to take on new artistic mediums and styles. That way you’ll have multiple skills under your belt and you open yourself to more working opportunities!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Niko J Pope! I am an Illustrator, Concept Artist, Comic Artist, Designer, and Co-Founder of a small artist collective known as Da Vinci’s Flayers. All my life I just simply love to create. I love to help people bring their ideas to life, I like to create art to express my feelings, and I like to create visual stories that may teach others something about themselves and the world. My main focus in artistic art style is Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and surrealism. I create freelance Concept Art and Illustration for video games, film, and other forms of entertainment. Clients hire me to bring their ideas and their proposals to life in the forms of character design, background design, prop design, and sometimes storyboarding for their film, video game and/or comics.

My goal in art, as a whole, is I hope to inspire others to not be afraid to be themselves. I like to encourage others to create weird things and to not be afraid to push the boundaries of their art. Our artist collective, DaVinci’s Flayers (@DaVincisflayers) was born from an event known as Wasteland Weekend; an event in the Mojave desert where we all dress in Mad Max Apocalyptic outfits and freely express ourselves. We run the art gallery there and we plan to expand our art shows in various venues in the near future, we create surreal, bizarre, weird, dark arts that we hope can inspire others to express their true selves. We also plan on creating an even bigger event which we will reveal within the near future. We also have plans for an animation studio in the near future with my closest partner! Follow our instagram to see plans for our future shows.

www.nikojpope.com
Personal IG: @nikojpopeart
Collective IG: @davincisflayers

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Inspiring others is always the most rewarding aspect of art. The world is afraid to be creative and has a heavy lack of creativity. I love o inspire others to think outside of the box and share their own creativity with the world. Whenever a client is happy to see their image come to life in concept art, that is my greatest reward,

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

Much of society, unfortunately, doesn’t like to pay artists their worth due to several misunderstandings. This is a trade and skill that takes much time and effort to master like any other. Keep in mind, that art is a major backbone of human society as a whole. Many things that you love and see was once a form of concept created by an artist. If you desire to support the arts, please hire local talent and don’t rely on AI. While I am not entirely against AI to be used as a tool, I am against it as an alternative to art, as it uses the work of many artists without their permission to create its images.

Contact Info:

• Website: nikojpope.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/nikojpopeart
• Twitter: twitter.com/nikojpopeart
• Other: instagram.com/davincisflayers

Image Credits
Profile Photo by David Droke