We recently connected with London DeGarmo and have shared our conversation below.

London, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started learning visual arts in middle school. Like most kids, it wasn’t something I took seriously. My teacher entered one of my pieces in an art show held around the school district, and it won 3rd place. I started to look more into art as a hobby at that point. By 8th grade, I was hooked.

Unfortunately, my journey began in 2012 but it wasn’t until 2017 that I realized that I was just treading water in a skill development sense. It was only then that I stopped, and really started taking the learning process seriously. If I had followed the instructions of my mentors more rigorously, and chosen more full-heartedly to improve in the craft, I suspect I would have been making exponentially large steps in my growth.

Today, thanks first and foremost to the fundamental of perspective, I am able to work as a freelance Illustrator with regular commissions. While all of the fundamentals are important, study of perspective can inform so many unique and creative methods of visual exploration. For my niche, specifically, it’s essential. Without perspective, you’re going to have a tough time exploring crazier concepts.

It’s been a long journey, and there’s always another mountain peak up ahead. It can be easy to get discouraged or to fall into a rut. It is hard in the world of social media, especially since the ability of AI to develop compelling at-a-glance visuals. On top of that, there are thousands of genuinely amazing artists at your fingertips. Even in your day-to-day, you may find people who seem unreasonably talented at tasks you struggle with. The trick to navigating these obstacles as a creative is to do what is fulfilling to you first. Chasing numbers or following trends can have moments of joy, but ultimately it’s far easier to get discouraged in these pursuits. I got into my niche because it has always been of interest to me; I’ve never regretted joining the community that I have, and I am grateful that it has been so welcoming and supportive.

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.

My name is London, a freelance Illustrator. I go by “HollowPointArt” on most social media platforms. I truly became a freelance Illustrator in 2017, being 19-20 at the time. At first it was odd commissions, or small doodles for friends. I finished college in 2018 with a degree in Multimedia Graphic Design, which is my primary 9-5.

In 2022 I launched the Hollowpointart twitter account. It was a reboot of my socials and a chance to start fresh. My wife was the one who came up with the name “Hollow Point”, and given my niche of anime, firearms, and tactical gear, it was a natural fit.

Presently, I’m busy fulfilling commission requests from the VGEN commission platform, and preparing for local conventions in 2024. I offer anime styled illustrations with a primary focus on military and tactical themes, as well as vtuber rigging services. I genuinely love doing commission work and it is my mission to make sure that no client walks away feeling unhappy with their final product, nor the commission experience. I also try and keep very tight turn around times with few exceptions, so most clients work start-finish is between 2-3 weeks from the initial payment. I do this for all of you who take the time to say hi, or support my work with commissions. I also have a subscribestar where I tend to get more verbose, if you can believe it.

It’s a point of pride to me to be able to offer these services to my clients. I drive 45 minutes to and from work each day, so I wake up at 4:45am each morning to make sure I have enough time to work on client projects before I go to my regular 9-5. It is my goal to incorporate in March of this year, and start working on HollowPointArt as an official business.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

This sounds a bit cookie-cutter but I mean it in all sincerity. Knowing that my work on a project has made someone’s day is the most satisfying feeling. People offering to pay you for a service is an incredible act of trust, and delivering a satisfactory or greater result on that act is a magical thing.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I wish it was as easy as positing a platitude or two about “pay artists” and calling it a day, but alas.

I think society and social media have really made it hard to find common understanding between people of different backgrounds. In social media, you can spend hours on a piece, your heart and soul, and what you’re jockeying for is about 5 seconds of someone’s time. Likewise, that person sees hundreds of other hopefuls every time they Refresh their feed. Most people will never be aware of that. If you read that and thought, “Wow, that doesn’t seem worth it,” I wholly disagree. Yes, the cost/benefit ratio is steep, but there has never been so many opportunities per second for someone, anyone, to see your art. You never know how that will stay with them. I am only doing what I do because Jeremyzxc123 and Coffee and Perspective were posting their art long before I was posting mine.

Switching hats, there’s a cultural misunderstanding about what creative work, “takes.” There is a perception, prevalent across society, that art and creative design are effortless, quick, and easy. I work with many small businesses, many of them are less than 6 months old. It’s a soul crushing thing to see that this person’s passion, life’s work, or dream is represented by unaltered Arial 12pt Bold on black ink, and nothing else. You deserve a meaningful brand, and a meaningful design. It might be expensive, and it will take longer for the final result, but you will be more memorable instantly.

On the other hand, many employers see design the same way, “No design should take longer than five minutes.” This is simply untrue and good design, by necessity, will take a bit of time. Society would be a much more interesting, and colorful place if creative work was better understood at the small business level. Good work may take time, but in my view, it’s better to have something done well, than something done quick.

Contact Info:

• Website: Hollowpointart.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/holopointart
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollowPointArt
• Other: https://www.subscribestar.com/ciiran