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

Joel, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have studied many different artists to get to the point that I am now. I mostly learned by watching other artist’s creative process. I would watch for hours, and afterwards, I would gather all my own materials and recreate other’s techniques. I can remember as a young boy watching street artists paint all day. I would stand there for hours watching and deconstructing their methods so I could go home and create my own paintings using their techniques. I spent a vast amount of time learning through plain repetition until I had mastered a skill.

When I became interested in art a a young age, the opportunity to learn more was very limited. The only way to learn more was to sit down and just start figuring stuff out on my own. Today, the easiest way to learn is through the internet. There is an endless supply of artists that are willing to teach their methods for free on the internet. My family didn’t get the internet until I was about ten years old. The only problem at that age is the internet was more of a distraction than a learning tool. I loved making art as a child, but as soon as I was introduced to video games and the internet, I completely forgot about all things art related. Looking back, I wish I had the fortitude to ignore childish distractions and focus on becoming a better artist.

I believe the most essential skill when creating a piece is figuring out how to stand apart from the rest to get noticed. I see many great artists that are very skillful but are doing the exact same thing as the guy next to them. If you can’t create something unique to stand out from the crowd then it doesn’t matter how good your are. When I first started glass painting, I thought it was very unique because I had never seen it done before I started on Tiktok. I fell in love with it almost immediately, and as I searched, I began to see that it was more common than I had originally thought. There were many great artists I found making glass art, but I started to see that everyone’s glass art started to look the same. That’s when I had the idea not to paint like everyone else and to start doing my own thing. So instead of painting with plain solid colors, I started using a technique called pointillism. This is a technique where you create an image using nothing but dots. This allowed me to stand out and start getting noticed above all the other artists doing the exact same thing.

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

It all started about 3 years ago, at the beginning of Covid, when I created a Tiktok and Instagram account with the handle Weebzryzing. I didn’t really put a lot of thought into the handle when I created the name. I was just making an account to watch videos with some anonymity. I have never really liked being in the spotlight, and I wanted to keep information about myself private. It is starting took look like that is going to be an impossible task. I was just on the app for fun, but I soon discovered all the amazing artists doing what they loved. I have been an artist since I was little, but I have not kept up with it consistently. I would always get distracted with something or someone and have spurts of creativity from time to time. I got married in 2015, and became a father in 2017, so between work and children there was not a lot of time for any art projects. Then in 2020 my wife and I made a switch. She went to work full time, and I became a stay-at-home dad. While at home, I finally started to have a little bit of free time while my kids were napping. That’s when I discovered other artists on Tiktok and started to get inspired again. I have always loved anime growing up and kept seeing lots of artists creating anime drawings, paintings, and customizations. That’s when I was first introduced to anime glass painting. I fell in love with it almost immediately, and as I searched, I began to see that it was more common than I had originally thought. There were many great artists I found making glass art, but I started to see that everyone’s work started to look the same. That’s when I had the idea to paint in a way that would differentiate me from everyone else. So instead of painting with plain solid colors, I started using a technique called pointillism. This is a technique where you create an image with nothing but dots. This allowed me to stand out and start getting noticed over other artists doing the exact same thing on glass. One particular thing about glass is that it is not a forgiving surface to paint. Once you put a color down, that’s it. You cant change it, and you can’t paint over a mistake. The color is shown on the other side of the glass when you turn it over. I used pointillism as a way to introduce more of a variety of colors and bring my paintings to life. That’s when I started to get noticed and slowly gained my followers.

When I started out, I never intended on selling any products, I was more focused on having fun and sharing it with others. As time went on, people kept asking me how much or wanted me to make a special commission. That’s when I decided I wanted to start developing my art and work towards becoming a full-time artist.
As time progressed, I started making friends with other artists and got introduced into customizing leather. So I took a plunge and bought specialty leather paints so I could start practicing on expanding the variety of products I had to offer. I started painting on purses, backpacks and shoes. I want to diversify my art so my customers can come to me with any project they might have in mind. I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. I want to show everyone that I am capable of painting on any kind of surface. I am also constantly tweaking and switching up my style of painting. I try to introduce new painting techniques into my work all the time. I am constantly working towards creating something more unique than the last project. I am most proud of the constant evolution of my work. Looking back at where I started and seeing how far I have come in the past 3 years has been an amazing experience. The response from social media and the encouragement from my followers to keep going has been very uplifting. I want all the people that are interested in my work to know that I am extremely grateful to be able to show them my work. I will always work harder to make my art the best it can be. I have always loved working on something challenging to be able to say in the end I was able to overcome my doubts and make it happen. I will always have the desire to exceed the expectations of my clients and give them something truly special.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal in becoming a full-time artist is to be able to work for myself. I have had many jobs working for corporate America. They are not fun and can be very demoralizing. I don’t like having to work my self to death just for a paycheck. I have worked some very demanding jobs with long hours that can take a toll on your body. I want to be able to support myself and not have to worry about pleasing a boss. I want to be the boss of my own life and choose the path of my own company. Right now, I have the best chance of making this opportunity happen. I have a decent following to promote my work through social media, and I have a loving supportive wife that has given me an opportunity to make my dream happen. I have learned through my mistakes of the past and will no longer be distracted when it comes to making this future happen. I want to succeed, and I need to succeed, to show myself and my family that you can make your dreams comes true!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I first started building my audience on social media with anime glass paintings. I started off watching how other artists were posting their videos and basically just recorded my own videos the exact same way. I gained a few followers here and there, but it was a very slow process. You have to be engaging all the time with your posts and other people’s posts to get them to follow you. As an artist, it is very hard to post every single day to keep people’s attention. The problem that I faced was that I did not have the time to post every single day and a keep up engagement. So I started to develop a different plan of attack and increase the quality of my work and the videos I produced to drive the engagement of followers. It took a while with my limited time, but I eventually hit a pocket of success after about 5 months of posting. My glass painting had drastically improved, and I had started to develop better video recording and editing skills. From that point on, I knew I was going in the right direction and started to build off what I had started. I believe there are two different paths you can take when building a social media audience. You can either post videos of quality or quantity. But whichever path you decide to take, you have to make sure people are interested in your subject matter. If your subject is not interesting then you will not gain a following.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Weebzryzing
• Youtube: Weebzryzing
• Other: Tiktok- Weebzryzing