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

Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I drew quite a bit when I was younger, but started getting into photoshop and other adobe software when I was in high school. Some website at school mentioned that CSULB was the best school for graphic design, so there and then I decided, why not?

During my time at CSULB, I had to take all of the art foundation courses as a pre-graphic design major. Once I took my first figure drawing class, I really struggled; I was pretty bad at it. Having not really drawn regularly for about a decade, it was a big adjustment. After going through plenty of hurdles with mild success in that class, I decided to major in illustration when I was 19.

Jonathan, 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 am primarily a character concept artist that loves designing outfits, writing little stories, and accessorizing them. Having had a fine arts education, I still love to do portraits and figure drawing whenever I can.

The approach I have for artwork is definitely heavily inspired by my upbringing. Growing up as a mixed race (Filipino and Croatian) kid in the early 90’s gave me a pretty balanced American experience. I wasn’t pushed into whatever the stereotypical profession was for either group and was given the room to just pursue what was in front of me. This lack of constrained direction has allowed me to create things that I find interesting and fun.

My work is geared towards the gaming industry as I’ve been a big gamer since I was about 5 years old. I lean much more into fantasy than sci-fi, but I have a big love for both. Some of my favorite games are Dark Souls, Final Fantasy, and Red Dead Redemption. I’ve been inspired by all sorts of media, from games to movies, to books, to tv shows, to real life. My current personal project mixes the themes of World War era and medieval fantasy.

Lately, I’ve been doing character commissions and portrait/family portraits for clients. I can’t say I’ve been drowning in work, so I’m always on the look out for more! For my portraiture work, I strive to maintain a strong likeness while giving the individual the most flattering depiction as I can.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In life and specifically in creative fields, you often make the wrong choices. For drawing and painting especially, you develop bad habits from the right and wrong people. Finding things out yourself and recognizing that those discoveries are wrong also happen frequently. From how you draw, how you paint, how you render, how you design, how you present things, theres plenty of bad information – at least for what you’re working on; some advice only applies to very specific things which makes the advice upwards of terrible for what you’re doing.

All of that said… it generally isn’t a complete unlearning. It’s becoming more educated and knowledgeable about any given topic to know when to incorporate that skill or trick.

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

Creative careers are certainly a marathon and not a sprint. The money will not come at the beginning and might even be a slow trickle in the middle.

I don’t think most people that choose creative fields will expect whole hearted support from the average friend or colleague. The average person can only care so much about anything. At minimum though, basic support would be nice. When I was going through college, some of my friends supported me and others didn’t. Especially when growing on social media was more viable in the early days, having my friends simply like my posts (whether or not they really liked them) would have helped quite a bit, but they just didn’t.

Whenever I meet other artists or just anyone trying to run a business, I compulsively throw them a like. Half the time, I probably don’t even like whatever it is, but I do my best to give bare minimum support. All that to say, throw some likes at someone you know to help them keep going and grow their business; that like can create a waterfall of more likes, not for ego, but to hopefully land a new opportunity that’s around the corner.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jonathankordich.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathankordich/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankordich/
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
All are my paintings.