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

Patrick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My first big risk was back in late 2018 when I decided to transfer colleges around halfway into my stay in one. Here in the Philippines, when you transfer, you also run the risk of not having your credits from your previous school carry over because of a mismatch in curriculum even if both schools offer the same course. And as luck would have it, my worst fear ended up coming true so I had to reset from square one when I was suppose to go on my 3rd year. It sucked but in my mind I thought “oh well, better to start from scratch than to give up” so I continued to pursue game development for another year or so.

Then the news broke out in 2020 when Covid hit with full force and everyone had no choice but to stay indoors. I was already in a pretty vulnerable place at the time knowing I had to start from the beginning and then suddenly my schooling gets disrupted again by some unforeseen circumstances. Of course when online classes were being introduced I did give it a shot but I realized it just wasn’t for me after a good 6 months.

So around that time, a thought popped into my head about wanting to drop my studies for the meantime and go straight to working. I thought then since I had a good amount of experience in college already, perhaps I was in a good place to take this leap of faith. However as life would have it, I was proven both right and wrong on so many levels. My parents for starters were heavily against this decision for me which was unfortunate but understandable. On the bright side, if it wasn’t for them putting me through college, I wouldn’t have met some of the people I would eventually work on projects with so my transition wasn’t that bad. Given that it was project based though meant that I would be constantly hopping from one thing to another so that in of itself presented it’s own challenges.

Luckily I was able to keep up my freelance gig for a good 3 and a half years working as an illustrator and concept artist for indie games as well as taking commissions to help my family pay bills. But as life goes on, I soon realized the extent of what I can do on my own. I was never really good at marketing myself outside of the few circles I’m part of so my available clientele wasn’t the biggest. I didn’t want to leave my family alone again to pay for everything so I made the decision to venture out and look into the corporate side of the creatives industry.

At the time of me writing this, I’m currently starting my first few weeks at my first corporate job as a graphic artist. I want to, and eventually will, return to doing freelance full time. But as of right now, there’s something I need to learn more about and I feel the best way to go about it is learning what I can to the best that I can.

Patrick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi! My name is Pat but I go by Stick_Drawing on Twitter and Facebook.

I currently provide illustration and concept design services mostly for visual novel type games or any 2D games. I mostly do environments that range from painterly, semi realistic to something more cartoony and line heavy. I also do character illustrations too for vtubers, anime characters or even original characters.

Right now I currently do graphic design for my full time job though. I’m still adjusting to the new routines but I will be open to doing commissions on the side very soon so please stay tuned for that!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s something that transpired for me relatively recently but seeing or hearing someone use your illustrations as their desktop or mobile wallpaper. Never really realized how much people like my stuff until they show you their setup haha. Especially knowing fellow artist friends have used them as their PC background. Honestly it was a lot more touching than aiming for big numbers on twitter or Facebook for sure; it really helps keep that flame going when times are tough.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’m working to become an artist recognized by the world someday. It sounds a little shallow but I think having my work being easily recognizable would definitely make finding work a little easier too. I especially would love to see games and anime showcasing the worlds I had a hand in making too!

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/patpatdrawing
• Twitter: https://x.com/patpat_drawing?t=KTVHShkzTzLoyFPrE4oong&s=09
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@stick_drawing?si=e9Q29HZUW2xH3ogq

Image Credits

Vtubers from first to latest:
-Ninomae Ina’nis
-Sugi Aoki