We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jude Zangel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jude below.

Jude, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

So I am still very much learning and improving my skills, but I learned a lot of my skills from The Animation School (Cape Town). As for 3D, this school taught me (and is teaching me for my final year now) how to create cool models, rigs, and animations and opened my eyes more to the endless possibilities of the digital medium. For my 2D art skills I’d say I’ve learned throughout my life since young, however never professionally, only relying on teaching myself.

To speed up my learning process, I definitely could have spent more time actively focusing on learning and practicing fundamentals and studying, as well as just making lots and lots of artworks for fun.
Whatever medium you choose to pursue, there will always be the balance of fundamentals (study), and enjoyment (play). Solely focusing on either one will not end well. If you only do studies and focus on fundamentals, you’ll get bored. If you only do artworks for fun, then the results won’t turn out as good as they could because you don’t have the understanding and knowledge of what grounds something, the building blocks of what makes an artwork successfully appealing.
I’ve definitely done both of these, getting bored and being put off creating things because I thought I needed to first master fundamentals, and then creating art that just doesn’t look right because I wouldn’t know how to make it look right.
But finding a balance will definitely make you improve faster, because if you spend time doing both you’ll be gaining crucial knowledge but then also learn how to apply it to the things you want to create and they’ll look better.

Making as many artworks as you can (while finding the balance I mentioned before) is one of the most essential things for any creative. You need to get your creative mind going and your muscles in the action of creation. At the end of the day creativity is a skill and every skill needs repetition to get better, your brain needs to build that muscle memory. Think of a time where you didn’t handwrite anything for a while and then the next time you do your handwriting is awful and the pen feels super strange to handle, that is because your hand lost some of that muscle memory. It’s the same reason you should first do some warm up exercises when drawing or painting or whatever it is you are doing, getting your muscles and mind re-accustomed to the motions. By making more art, you are able to fail more, which is a super positive thing, because it gives you the ability to reflect on why it happened and you can see what to do better or instead next time, or where you need to improve. By creating more and more, and reflecting after each piece, your brain and muscles will get more accustomed to what you’re doing and you’ll end up creating better and better pieces.

Having inspiration around you is a must, and it’s possible to really suffer creatively if you don’t immerse yourself in what gets you going, what fuels you. It’s so much easier and exciting to create in a room with colours, plants, some playful toys or decor and different pieces of furniture, than a simple desk with nothing on it in an empty white room. We all have different things that we like that come together in our brains that we then express in the world, that eventually becomes our style, or at least something we enjoy creating because it’s a mashup of our favorite things. Looking at the kind of art you want to create by other successful artists and studying from them is a great way to gain inspiration, especially if you enjoy different kinds of art, you may end up creating a mashup of both of them. The only thing to be wary of with looking at other artists, is to not compare your art to theirs, this will lead to a lot of unnecessary self-criticism.

Hanging out with other artists either in person or online is great for your learning. Having friends, or even good acquaintances, is great because you’re able to connect with people doing the same thing you’re doing and you have good discussions and even have them critique your work to make it better, or share resources between each other to help one another on each other’s art journey. As someone going to an art school, this has stood out to me as an indirect way of helping my artistic learning.

The biggest obstacle I’ve struggled with in my learning path is perfectionism. The mental pressure of thinking everything you create needs to be perfect, there’s not allowed to be any mistakes, you shouldn’t fail. Putting a lot of pressure on yourself to only make good stuff.
This mindset has seriously hindered my progress before, and stopped me from using my own advice from earlier to create as much as you can. This mindset affected me a lot, and still does now and again, and has caused panic attacks because I’ve been scared of creating something bad.
I think everyone finds their own solution to this feeling in their own way, for me, I just take a breath and realize that the pressure I’ve built up is all made-up, there is no need to create something perfect because that doesn’t exist, and to tell myself “so what if it’s not great, I still made it.” . Basically, the time is going to be spent whether you’re obsessing over making the most perfect painting and beating yourself up for every mistake you see, or if you realize it’s just another painting like any other, no more special than any other you’ve done. Which of those mindsets do you think will result in a better painting experience?

The other 2 obstacles I’ve faced is comparison and imposter syndrome, feeling like you don’t belong to be an artist.
With comparison, it all comes down to realizing that each artist you compare yourself to has felt the same towards another artist and that they were once a beginner too. They have their own life and struggles to get to where they are now and it’s different to yours. You’re looking at their best pieces from now when they’re professional with 20 years of experience, when you maybe have 3 years of experience. You’ll get there in due time, the most you can do is see what mistakes they made so you can avoid it along the way on your own artistic journey. Only compare yourself to the you from yesterday, you’re learning and improving at your own pace.
For imposter syndrome I just remind myself that I am an artist, it’s the path that I chose and I have the power to learn and improve as I see fit, and I’m going to be here and do what I do. Remember that the value that you bring to the table is not solely on the work you are able to do but on the person that you are, and as long as you are kind and willing to learn then you are just as right to be where you are as the person next to you.

We all have our own artistic journeys and no two look identical. There are things you can of course do to improve and speed up your learning, but at the end of the day remember that it’s a lifelong journey, there isn’t a finish line, with each piece you make try to enjoy making it. And make sure that you create the things that inspire you and make you want to sit for hours, that will make you always come back to your craft. With consistent learning, practice and fun in due time you’ll get to where you want to be. Take it easy on yourself.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jude Zangel, and I am a 2D and 3D artist from Cape Town South Africa, I am a student in my 3rd & final year at The Animation School where I am learning the craft of 3D, story writing and animation. My electives this year will be in 3D Asset Development and Rigging.

I got into this industry and craft because, well, I’ve always felt a pull toward the creative field. Ever since high-school I never saw myself as someone who would go into a traditional career or work environment, I just wanted to create my own stuff and live in my own imaginative world. But of course as a teenager you feel pressured to go into a normal job, so after high-school I was fortunate to have taken a gap year where I realized how my passions aligned to a field I could see myself going into. My passions of course being creativity and technicality.
I was determined to find something, anything, I could go into where I could use my creativity, and for a while I thought that path would lead to the career of a programmer, since they utilize both creative and technical skills, but I still didn’t see myself as someone doing that full-time.
With the help of a psychometrist, I was able to narrow down what things would be a good fit for me and my personality. Out of all the options, architecture seemed the most interesting so I started looking into the different paths for it, and the one I felt myself drawn to the most was of Architecture Visualization (Arch Viz). If you don’t know, Arch Viz is creating a 3D visualization of architecture such as a house, and showcasing it to clients for them to better understand what the end result would look like.

So I was hyped for this, I was excited, and then I was seeing colleges around Cape Town that I could learn the skills for it, and then I can across The Animation School (TAS). I saw a virtual open day video of theirs and some of their student films and the realization hit me like a brick. Animation! That’s what I want to do!
I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it before, 3D Animation (and the disciplines in it) encapsulate everything I was looking for. The ability to be super creative and create cool projects, as well as using technical skills to learn new programs and do problem solving.
So the one day my sister and I took the bus into the city to visit the school for an open day and I was instantly in love with the place and the possibilities it held.

Thankfully I was able to get in for the next year and now it’s been 2 years since I started and just about to go into my 3rd year where I’ll be part of a team working on a short film.

Over the passed 2 years I’ve been drawn to the disciplines of concept art, 3D Asset Development and Rigging, those are what I’m specializing in and what skills I offer to clients, with the occasional animation project. An example of work I’ve done is making a 3D character to be used in a movie. I do both organic modelling such as characters and hard-surface such as items and vehicles. With the aid of learning the program zBrush this year I’m aiming to improve my 3D skills and other skills even more.
A field I’m dabbling in is Set-Design, more so for fantasy and sci-fi, where I design the environment sets that characters will interact with.
After this year I will haven chosen which path I’m going to further explore.

My work for clients is very thorough, understanding exactly what they need so I can deliver on the deadline and having feedback sessions so they have input to get exactly what they want. I work with clients as professionally as I can. I’ve had good experiences with feedback and critiques and the end result has been just what the client wanted.
I am most proud of my growth as an artist and person, I feel like I’ve reached a point where my skill level and knowledge is solid enough for me to create whatever I set my mind to and I can do so within a good time frame.

I am slowly expanding my art into more personal projects that I’ve been wanting to create and sharing them, which you can see and follow along with on my instagram and artstation.
The brand that I am working towards creating is a blend, of fantasy, sci-fi and cyberpunk put into one genre called NeoFantasy. Through 2D and 3D works, animations, characters, creatures and environments I hope to tell my stories and create worlds that combine my love of magic and wonder with dystopian realms and dimensions filled with technology. I aim to bring all the things I love and am inspired by in these genres into one cohesive world and style that I can explore.
I find my inspirations from anywhere I can and try to expose myself more to the things I feel pulled towards, for example I can’t get enough of mechs and robots and always enjoy media with those subjects. I’m also fascinated by mushrooms and you can find them in a bunch of my more fantasy works.
I hope to one day be able to use my brand to bring a team of amazing people together to make even bigger projects with the same passion I have. For now though, I am on my own quest, my journey, to start bringing my imagination to life and making my dreams a reality.
I’m very fortunate and grateful to have great support in my partner, friends and family as I pursue my endeavors and dreams, they help bring a lot of inspiration into my life that I couldn’t do without.

Although I want to create my personal work, I’m hoping to get more experience by working with clients and brands to bring their projects to life and working with great people who can help get me to the next level. With everything I do, and everyone I work with, I hope to leave a good impact with my signature and leave my clients more than satisfied with what I bring to their projects.

If you’ve read this far and are interested in my journey, feel free to follow along on my socials to see what I create and what adventures I get up to as a college art student in my final year. Who knows what will happen and how my brand will evolve.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Like all creatives, I have incredibly ambitious dreams and goals that I want to bring into reality. For me it is building a brand that creates immersive, unique and interesting stories that feel authentic, human and soul-touching and are experienced through art, animation and games. This brand I hope to build into a creative studio that can house a brilliant team of artists. With this team and studio I hope to make content that tries new things and explores boundaries of what is achievable, bringing back the uniqueness of games that AAA studios have lost touch with. This dream studio of mine is a way for me to express and bring to life my imagination with no bounds.

Of course this is just my dream that I am working towards and that will always be the driving force at the back of my mind, keeping me going, but for now I am working on developing my skills, style, storytelling and entrepreneurship to get to the level I need to be before I can venture onwards. And building a community of fans that would want to see the marvels that I can create with a team.

I think it’s good for artists to have goals as huge as this, even bigger honestly, because with the right empowering mindset there is nothing that can’t be achieved. Having an internal reason for pursuing the creative journey is what will determine where you end up going. As a student my journey is being focused on completing college, and so it can be easy to loose focus on dreams when work piles up, but as long as you have that guiding dream, goal or mission, you’ll keep coming back to it because you know it’s what you need to do and you know that only you can do it the way you think it should be done.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Knowing that life is not limited to what society dictates.

For me, what’s most rewarding is knowing that the life I’m pursuing and the things I’m doing is not the traditional path that a lot of people either choose to take or are forced into. Although it is true that artists are now known to be able to make a living from their work, especially those in studio jobs, the act of leading a life that is based on creation and connection shifts my mindset to be more empowering.
Especially when doing freelance, you realize “Oh wow, I can make x amount of income because I’m good at this skill.” It makes you think of what other ways, what other avenues, you can explore to gain an income using your skill.
It can be scary of course, as you are holding yourself fully responsible and accountable, but in a way it’s nice to know that you are in control of your life and if you want to earn an income then it is up to you.

I’m not sure if I’ve explained this well, but basically what I’m meaning, is that what is most rewarding is knowing that I have the power to find or even create my own income outside of traditional means and I’m not following a path dictated by society. As an artist I can use my creativity as an advantage.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mech.shroom/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jude-zangel-1747992a8
• Other: https://www.artstation.com/judezangel5

Image Credits

Photo of me taken by Kiara Maharaj.

All artworks provided done by me.