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

Malik, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started drawing seriously when I was 15. A little later than a lot of artists started however I was incredibly inspired around that age after taking a computer animation class that was offered by my high school. I saw that my life could be surrounded by the arts, free thinkers, creatives and inspired me to strive for that lifestyle. I started off with just learning the basics. I watched a lot of videos online to learn my craft. Some notable mentions are Matt Sanz Art, Trent Kaniuga, ahmed aldoori, Sinix Deisgn. and Matt Kohr. Thankfully my high school had a photoshop class that allowed me to build the foundation to my digital art skills. After hours viewing video tutorials and drawing, I proceeded to attend Savannah College of Art and Design to hone my skills. I think there is no way to speed up the learning process when it comes to art. No matter what tricks you come up with the fastest way to improve is by sitting down and treating art like a full-time position. putting in the time and effort into your craft is what helps you hone those skills. Some essential skills would be visualization, hand eye coordination, and confidence. Something that I continuous struggle with is confidence in my art. Overthinking my craft even after years of dedication to it. mentally battling self-doubt while trying to concentrate on values, composition, and light is an exhausting experience to say the least.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi Everyone,

I am Malik Collier, a Queens, New York based illustrator that has an extensive amount of experience within the illustration industry. I got into this industry after graduating in 2018 from the Savannah College of Art and Design that’s located in Savannah, GA. I got a BFA in sequential art, which is the art form of creating comics. I do not create comics because my interest lies in other avenues of art however the SEQA program provided me with a lot of the technical drawing and drafting skills I needed. My first position out of college was working on video game assets. It was an amazing experience working at lantana games and taught me a lot about myself. I’ve learned that I love working at smaller size companies, they allow you keep that personal human connection with clients and coworkers. Afterwards I did a bunch of freelance contracts work to supplement myself. A notable project was creating marketing promotion for a TV that aired on HBO. My services include custom phone wallpapers, illustrations of loved ones, and Illustrations for creative related projects. I’ve had clients request items like portraits for their custom characters, Character designs for their role-playing games, and iconography for trading card games. I’m incredibly proud of how far I’ve come, you never want to compare yourself to anyone else but it’s always good to look back and see the growth in the field you watered.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Watching a blank canvas come to life. The beginning of my artistic process is very messy so to establish a border I use masking tape to define that border. Peeling off the tape to establish a sharp crisp border is always rewarding. It marks the ending of my work and means that the image in my head that I envisioned is complete.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn is “every critique and criticism hold tremendous value”. Other people have ideas on the type of art you should be creating however when you create something you love the way you want it to be there doesn’t need to be intervention from an outside source. People will flock to you when you genuinely create pieces of work with your own view and skillset. I see many artists on social media that just create things that are so out of my understanding and imagination that I think that if someone had critiqued their work and forced them to make it in a way that was more palpable to the general audience this artist wouldn’t be where they are today. Critiques are important but it is up to the artist to mold how they want their art to look.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/malikcolliart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malikcolliart/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@maleakyleak