We were lucky to catch up with Jules Centeno recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jules thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I think really what it takes to be successful is just believing in one’s self. Flowing forward with faith, courage and never living in comparison. Comparison can be tough though, at least it was for me growing up. Feeling like I wasn’t doing enough and then never acting on ideas I had then I’d see it be done. None of that helps. We all have our own journey and it will never look like anyone else’s. I truly believe Success is absolutely a mindset. There is a lot of outside noise that can disturb a story of success but that makes it all a part of the journey. I believe it takes a strong focused mind, and a consistent drive to be successful. We get where we are due to our choices and what drives us. A lot of great success stories tend to be rough, and all it takes is a focused driven mindset that gets to where it wants to. Release comparison thinking, release expectation thinking that things will never work out the way you want them to. Never stop trying, if failing is a fear of yours, please keep failing, fail bigger, fail like never before, never stop failing. And keep on forward.
Jules, 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?
Ah yes, my names is The Jules Jules here on the web, I am an illustrator, Visual Artist, Innovator, Food Connoisseur and would never think or felt worthy to call myself an artist until 2 or 3 years ago. I’ve done art on and off but stuck by it ever since I came to the states at a very young age, that’s when I started taking an interest in drawing. For the most part starting out, I taught myself how to draw just by watching TV. It was quite lonely growing up, or loved to be alone, so shows and movies was all I had. I’d become fixated on faces, I just loved the lines I saw when I looked at peoples faces. Where they all flowed to to create something. Just beautiful I thought… All our flaws, unique characteristics. I would be so inspired and would draw for fantasy of a different reality than the one I was living in. My family quickly noticed how much I would draw and were pretty supportive about it. Holidays and birthdays I would be gifted art supplies so I kind of had to keep going with it. Later, even in school I’d still partake in art but I was never serious about it until I had to pick something as a career.. so instead of choosing to pursue something to learn in, I chose something I was already good at, thought I could grow . Mainly, I wasn’t going to do something I did not love. ever. Although, Art also has had its period where I’m finding myself within it, so even that has not been easy nor was it clear. I never planned to sell art or make customized work for people but people would always ask to pay so that has been really nice to grow in. Making broader services, working to evolve in art forms is what I currently do. I knew I wanted to learn it all and do it all and be some kind of service for people, which in it brings me some kind of happiness.
After high school I then took fine art classes and graphic design classes. For the longest time, I was refusing to do anything digital, it felt like cheating but I thought to myself since I dabbled in all fine art mediums why not challenge myself and the art too. And digital isn’t cheating at all, I wanted to be authentic, I did stray away at some point but remembering why I started to do digital work in the first place set in. I wanted to be good at something else, challenge my art, I wanted to learn to do things outside of my norm. And creating digital work isn’t easy at first, it’s all another form of art to learn that’s what some of us forget to appreciate. Or maybe it is just me that loves the learning aspect of things. In reality, it’s actually a lot harder than learning fine art. At this point fine art is probably in fact too easy. So I’ve kind of stuck to digital ever since 2015, I now use my iPad mostly for most of my projects now, I currently have a shop that I’ve been more serious about running it, staying consistent and hopefully to keep making the shop easier for people who want custom artwork and can easily upload their files or can directly get in contact with me in to do so. I offer services on my site I like to do, artwork prints, custom portraits and always open for proposals. I love making things for people they’d love or help out with businesses creating something that represents and is beautiful that gets to be their own brand. I have been so blessed working with folks I admire, collaborate with those I love, and I just hope that keeps evolving. I am yet not quite aware what sets me apart from what others do, kind of everything and perhaps nothing yet, always growing daily. I am mostly proud of how far I have gone already and where I am now. All very unexpected. Thankful and proud.
It is an absolute pleasure to be back here with Voyager I am so grateful to be chosen again to share an update. Thank you.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice
Seems like something to me that can be shut down at any given moment. My view has a million questions. Who really created NFT’s to be a thing? I like to see and actually have ma moneys.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative, I mean connections are never a mistake. So I am grateful for everyone I’ve crossed paths with. It all has helped me grow and learned some well needed lessons with being an artist with work flow. The artwork I get to do FOR/WITH people for people can be thee most rewarding out of everything I do and want to do.
When I create family portraits for clients of people who have crossed to the other side tend to be the most important to me. It’s not because of the money, that part does not matter, it’s making something that honors their loved one and capturing their essence and light.. It’s a gift to me, their response, a piece of me for your home, it’s kind, let alone be chosen to make art of a loved one.
Contact Info:
- Website: jujupeppi.com
- Instagram: @thejulesjules
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-centeno-981b1513b/
- Other: https://folio.procreate.art/jbabyjules