We were lucky to catch up with Max Gibbs recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Max thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I know what I know because I sought out resourses since I didnt take any art classes nor could aford it in college. Some people may think you have to go to art school to become a professinal or even get good at art but that isnt true. There are countless of free helpful resources and websites to help imporve your art skills. Free vidoes even done by indestry professinals! One thing that could have sped up my process is being more consistant with art. I do have the bad habbit of not drawing for a long while during slower commission periods so when I want to it feels like I forgot how to draw. The skills I thiink are the most essential is learning anatomy so I could syalize it. I enjoy more cartoon and anime inspired styiliations but if you dont understand anatomy and shapes when you go to brake thoses rules it can make the peice look odd. The biggest obstical I needed to overcome was gettinng over the fear of making “bad” art. Going back to what I said about the bad habbit of not drawing for periods of time. It was also due to my fear of looking bad. When you are surrounded by other fantasic artist consitantly showing their best work it put pressure on me to make sure everyhting was perfect. I didnt allow myself to let losse and experament more but when I got over that art became less stressfull.

Max, 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 work as a freelance illistrator and charater desginer. I’ve done work for small buissnesses, youtube personalities, and twitch streamers. How I got into the craft was sort of a natural progession. As a kid art was my escape and the worlds and charaters I created helped me cope. That creative side never left me and I only imporoved as I got older. At some point I got good enough where someone approched me about commissions and I did it ever since. I help my clients create key art of their charaters or help establich a brand for themseleves. With my process my client has imput every step of the way. Im most proud of is how statisfied my customers are. Im told often my servises and work ethic is some of the best they have had. I was able to help them achive the vision they had in their mind.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew about all the free resources by industry professionals on YouTube. For a long time, I thought I’d never get better at art since I couldn’t afford art classes, In high school I discovered a few professionals posting tips and tutorials for free to help other artists. People like Proko, Marco Bucci, and Sinix! Professionals who have helped me grow as an artist and pushed me to leave my comfort zone. I wish I had known about them sooner so I could have implemented their advice quicker.

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

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was not everything needs to be perfect. Art may be a job but it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still be fun. People have their bad art days and pushing outside your comfort zone is a good thing. When you leave your box you are bound to make “bad art” since you are experimenting and learning. Since the art looked bad in my eyes I was scared to leave my comfort zone and it halted my progress as an artist. I realized I wasn’t going anywhere when all my art started to look the same.

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