Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ettiene Botha. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ettiene, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It was only during the pandemic, when I was still working as a Web developer for an Agency, that I happened to came across a very familiar show I grew up watching. Dragonball Z, in this case I saw Dragonball Super. It was thrilling seeing such a childhood favorite years later.

I went into a deep dive and discovered anime. The second anime I watched was Seven Deadly Sins. And from that point on I wanted to be a character designer, and so I made it happen.

Anime inspired me to start a business as a full-time creator.

Ettiene, 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?

I’m born in (1998), a South African Artist who created my own art business at 23, Ezra Art & Ezra Design.

I’m a self-taught artist since a young age. And have only studied a short course in Graphic Design, receiving my Diploma in 2018.

Before I decided to start my own business in 2021, I worked as a Web Developer & Designer for 2 years at The Wikid Agency.

I always loved art, but the sort of art I was exposed to never really got me inspired enough to pursue it. During the first year of the Covid-19 Pandemic I saw Dragon ball Super, a show I loved as a kid It stirred up all kids of emotions and it led me to explore the world of Anime (Japanese animation).

Soon after I bought my first laptop and digital drawing tablet, and I started learning character design. Years later, and I’ve made a career as a character designer.

The services I offer these days are character design for commercial use, and I’m looking at working together with animation studios and game studios, to be able to provide concept art and character designs for their projects.

I also offer Album cover art for musicians, and my style of work are illustrative and character based. Graphic Design services, mainly logo design creations.

And lastly, I’ve explored the world of painting more these past years, and come to realize I love watercolor portrait work. That is something I also offer.

Recently, January 2024 I released a educational/ tutorial book “How to draw a character in just 8 weeks”, available as a e-book on my website for the time; I’m still working on getting a full publication going. The book is a weekly step guide helping beginner and intermediate artists to learn how to draw a character effective by learning the basic from shapes, anatomy to even ‘how to create character background stories’.

I have always been transparent about this, but I’m not the best artist and designer out there, you can find a million others better than me. But that is also my driving force, I’ve never settled for just okay. I always work to become better, so I can say “I am standing amongst some of the best in the world. ”

Whether a fan follows me or a client hires me. They will immediately realize that I am trusting, efficient and caring. I might not be the best at communication with fans, but when I’m hired to create a character or so, my level of communication, levels up. I believe it is important to communicate accordingly to make sure you create exactly what your client want.

How do I differentiate myself?

Maybe it is my style, or the way I interpret and see things? So can million of other artists and designers say as well. All I know for sure is that, by staying true to myself…is what truly differentiates me. Because in reality, clients hire me, because they like and trust me. The fact that I create quality work is a added bonus for them.

I’m still growing and adventuring to new depths, I’m kind of greedy in what I want to obtain in my life… so I will be working hard to make my goals and dreams a reality.

And lastly, it was thanks to God, my parents, sister, friends and my fellow business friends and mentors that has supported me greatly. They made the fall of losing a bit softer, but helped me stand up even stronger with better experience and knowledge every time I failed

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

The first year and half of my business was an absolute failure, although there were some highlights.

Since I started learning about anime and how to draw anime characters, the structure of my art business ended up being fanart in the beginning.

For the first half year I focused on creating artwork based on famous anime characters, added it to some shirts and hoodies and thought I would become an instant millionaire. I could go through many reason why that was a huge failure, but I’ll spare you with the details.

For the rest of the year I only focused on digital illustrations, the focus being anime fanart. And although that did much better it was also a huge hit and miss.

During that time a rejoined a business network (BNI) I was apart of when I worked as a web designer and developer for the company I used to work at.

By this point I was so stressed out, and practically not knowing anything about running a business, I was certainly lost.

As I started talking with some of my old relationships I had to rebuild in BNI, getting asked questions such as “What makes you different? “Why should I use you?” “Why would I want a digital artwork if I could rather get a painting?” “What are your goals for the next 5 to 10 years.”

These where extremely daunting and uncomfortable questions at the time. But it made me realize, what I was offering wouldn’t have gotten me where I wanted to be.

And as I sat down with my BNI members, a photographer owner, a short term insurance owner, a debt counselor owner… practically none of them in the space I was… they helped me figure out ideas to pivot my business.

I realized that my most prominent network and the best chance of getting me where I wanted to be was the answer. I pivoted from creating fanart for consumers, to original character designs for businesses. I went commercial.

Having gone commercial in a sense, by creating mascots for businesses ended up growing my business and became the main source of income. Having included things such a branding designs helped create another stream of income too.

Years later, and I’ve become more daring. Always trying something new, most of those ideas fail, but those that sticks truly brings my great rewards that helps me to move forward and keep on growing.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Behind all that art and design work you see, and specifically curated way of presenting ourself as creators to the world, are entrepreneurs and business owners in the background.

It’s not all fun and games, where we splash some paint on a canvas and call it a day. In order to keep on creating we have to run the other parts of the business. That means admin, finances, marketing, networking, selling ect.

Yes, we are blessed to do what we love, but it doesn’t mean we necessarily have the freedom to paint one day and bench watch an entire Netflix series the other day. Often artists and creators spend 10 + hours per day on their craft and business to keep things running and to make sure we can still do what we love to do.

With that said, I think I can speak for all creators and artists.  And say, we can’t go without not creating. It’s in our blood and we will give up everything to continue creating art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ezra-art.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ezra_animeart , https://www.instagram.com/ezra_modernart , https://www.instagram.com/ezra_coverart
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ezra_art1
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/ezra.art

Image Credits
I’m the sole owner of the images posted. Character sheet with female character. Credit to Oby1 as we are collaborating on creating a short 2 min animation. Sole owner of the character designer.