We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yolanda Martinez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Yolanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
When I was a young girl I loved Disney films and inspired me to draw. As young as I could hold a crayon and a paper, I drew away. Art has always been apart of me and continues to be. Studio Ghibili also was another great inspiration to my artist journey.
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?
Before even graduating from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to work with Ghostbot Inc, they were the first studio to take a chance on me. Once, I was able to go back to school to finish my studies I decided to move on and work as a freelancer. I had the opportunity to work with various studios and people. Working from mobile games to concept art for tv and film. Both freelancing and full time studio jobs require understanding your team/client. Having great communication and respect is what will bring more clients to you. Being able to be open to learn new things and not get stuck drawing that one thing ultimately, for me gets boring. Which is why my portfolio showcases my many disciplines I enjoy working. I believe my positive attitude is what sets me apart from others and being able to take constructive criticism in your work because we aren’t always perfect.
I don’t have the most “proud” of project, just because all projects are different with variety of challenges which keeps my creative juices working in order to find the most creative solution. I feel that my ability to change in between stylizations is what keeps me fresh and creatively stimulated.
My body of work is child friendly content, love nature and that is what represents me as an artist. Being able to create fantastical characters, backgrounds and props are my specialty.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
After graduating college and setting off to freelancing it was hard. I got small jobs every now and then while working in a kitchen to support myself. After over 40 rejections from Disney, Dreamworks, to name a few. That didn’t stop me. It was disheartening to get so many rejections and others around you pushing you to keep going. I almost gave up, until I landed my forever studio in Idaho with Curious Media as a Gaming Illustrator for children’s content.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think this is a perfect platform to say regardless if you’re a big studio or not. If you want an “art test”, please PAY your artist’s their time. I feel that these art tests exploit artist’s in giving them free work. I’ve experienced that, art test’s I’ve done, end up being used in a marketing campaigns or in what was being made at the time without giving me credit. Even though I’ve participated in these art tests without getting paid, was a huge mistake on my part. Exploitation of creating free work needs to stop. Everyone’s time is valuable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ymartinezart.com/
- Instagram: Ydreamsart
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ymartinez88
- Other: http://ymartinez88.blogspot.com/?m=1