We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cody Schibi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cody, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents did what I believe ALL parents should do, which is the simple act of supporting their child’s interests & helping them grow. I ALWAYS loved drawing & I would constantly do it when I was a little rascal. One of my fondest, & first, memories of falling in love with art was when my mom would draw an outline of something & have me & my brothers fill in the object with details. To be specific, I remember an outline of Frankenstein’s monster my mom drew, & I spent hours drawing the eyes, nose, mouth, hair, stitches, outfit, coloring it, etc… It was the greatest thing ever to me at the time & something I look back on as the launchpad to where I am now, which is being a freelance illustrator & predominately creating art of monsters & other silly things. It’s a perfect example of my parent’s support; how they continued to back me up & cheer me on when I wanted to keep pursuing art, & eventually making the absolute CRAZY decision to do it for a living. Most parents would’ve been like “Uh, Cody, are you SURE you want to be an “artist”? What about ANYTHING else?!”..haha. But again, that just shows that my parents wanted/supported their kids to choose what they want to do with their lives &, most importantly, be happy & LOVE what they do… I was spoiled with my parents’ love & support…they did it right.

Cody, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name’s Cody Schibi & I’m a freelance illustrator in Austin, TX. My journey becoming a full-time freelance artist has been a long, but enjoyable, one with many milestones, & stepping stones, leading to other opportunities & where I currently am today. How I started in the art world was playing music. That was my main focus & artistic release for a long time, but I was still drawing & doing physical art for myself. I’d create band posters/flyers/cd covers, which led to a few paid commissions. I met a great friend at one point who just graduated film school, & from there I started learning production art. I designed/built sets, & started doing storyboards which I continued doing for a few more years for different production companies. I started focusing on my own, personal art (while still taking on different storyboard jobs here & there), & found more fulfillment SHOWING my finished art to people. I began doing some gallery shows, hitting the convention scene, selling original art/prints, working on some comic books, painting murals, & meeting a lot of amazing people along the way which opened up a lot of doors. Having worked in (& being a massive fan of) film, I always took joy in creating art from movies I loved, particularly the horror genre. My “gracefully grotesque” art reached a wide audience via social media, as it was posted/liked/shared & reached a lot of new eyeballs… The notoriety of my “horror fan art” led to many jobs & new clients in that world, wanting movie posters, toy packaging art, cover art for physical releases of films, LP cover art, private commissions, etc. I’ve been honored to meet & work with some great people, bringing their vision to life, while applying my artistic style to their projects.
As mentioned above, my “artistic style” has been described as “gracefully grotesque”. My art hovers in the horror genre, but I also create cute, silly, colorful works, which I hope make people smile &/or think &/or appreciate the detail/work put into it. I’m proud of my art style, having spent YEARS back in the day really focusing on my inking & detail work, while still (& forever!) continuing to learn & grow as an artist. My only goal & hope is to entertain & spread the joy I feel creating my art… :)

How did you build your audience on social media?

Initially, my social media presence was just to connect to friends & family & see what they were up to. I’d occasionally post a piece of art & it would get some likes/comments/positive feedback, which was always encouraging at the time. There was a definite shift & focus on ONLY sharing art on most of my social sites around 2010, however. I made it a point to post everyday, trying to reach as many people as I could. I started doing giveaways at different milestones (1000 followers, 5000 followers, etc..) where to be entered one would simply need to repost/share my art, hoping to reach even MORE viewers. I’d also do some live draw alongs while I watched certain films & was sure to communicate or answer any questions people had about my art or supplies or whatever… I find being completely personable & honest to who I am is important, & people are drawn to that sincere energy. It’s important to make those who take the time to like/share/comment on your art feel included & appreciated…which they truly are. I also just had my four year anniversary on the social site, Twitch, where I stream art. I’ve built up one of the greatest communities there, lovingly called my “Art Family”. We have creative draw alongs, art shares, watch parties, etc. & I show my process, from start to finish, of different pieces of art using different mediums. It’s an amazing outlet which, again, allows me to be personable with those interested in my art (or ANY art) & make everyone feel included & appreciated. It’s important to maintain a presence on social sites (even though the algorithms & reels/videos have really taken over since I started..making it a lot harder to get your work seen!), as I have had so many clients reach out through Twitch, Instagram, Twitter, etc… Try not to let these sites stress you out, however! Post at YOUR pace & just try to get the art that you’re proud of out there….

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

Back in 2015, when I was already freelance for a few years & was always alone in my studio working on projects, I began getting cabin fever….haha! I found a local private school hiring after school care, so I applied & got the job. I started off just hanging out with the kids (at this time 4th/5th graders) a few hours everyday during the week where I’d help with their homework, play games, or just draw with them as they waited for their parents to arrive. I was still doing all my freelance work, but I absolutely loved helping the kids at this school. I became close with the administration & they saw my enthusiasm with the students while also noticing my love of art. The next school year I was offered the Art Teacher position which I gladly accepted. This lead to 2 years teaching art to kindergarten-5th grade, then moving into teaching full curriculum to 4th-5th grade a couple years after that… I brought this up as it was a spontaneous “pivot” in all three categories of business/carrer/life which was one of the most fulfilling times of my life. Even though the majority of my time went to teaching, taking away most commissions & art jobs, it was something I fully embraced & loved. During that period, having a salary & concentrating on something other than fully art (although I incorporated art in most of my lessons:), it allowed me to become a LOT more selective on the freelance jobs that came my way. It was a blessing, as I built up relationships with specific clients, & really fine tuned my style & what I wanted to do/wanted to be known for. I’m now back to JUST freelance & in a better position, business-wise, than I was before working as a teacher. I’m always open to the random. :)

Contact Info:

• Website: codyschibiart.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/codyschibi
• Facebook: Facebook.com/codyschibiart
• Twitter: twitter.com/codyschibi
• Other: twitch.tv/codyschibi

Image Credits
mural photography by Cody Schibi