We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Bissant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I have always enjoyed drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I spent a lot of my time doodling, mostly characters I saw on TV, as animation always served as my inspiration for creating art. As I got older and started school, I drew so often that it distracted me from schoolwork. While my teachers weren’t exactly pleased with me drawing during class, they also noticed that I had a talent for art, and recommended that I be enrolled in art classes. I used this time to work on my craft and do what I enjoyed doing most. By the time I got to high school, I couldn’t see myself doing anything other than art, and chose to major in graphic design, which allowed me to use my skills in illustration in a professional arena.
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.
I got into the realm of design and illustration through initially pursuing this in college. Our curriculum allowed us to learn techniques that enhanced design, and my affinity for illustrating lent itself well to a lot of assignments. During the length of my professional career as a graphic designer, I was able to create illustrations and layouts for a variety of things such as branding, apparel, baby products, and marketing services. But besides that, I was also fortunate enough to be noticed online for my illustration work. Many people followed me for my character art and anime influenced designs, which I became somewhat known for in online spaces. This led to me getting discovered by Inkyverse, an illustration agency, which allowed me to work on projects for professional organizations. I’ve worked on books, marketing illustrations, educational illustrations, and I’ve even worked on creating assets for character builders. My favorite projects have always been those that allow me to design/illustrate fun characters with a variety of features.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I honestly wish I knew more about the different illustration programs that were available! I was always taught that Adobe was the gold standard, and while it’s great, I enjoy being able to use alternatives such as Clip Studio Paint.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had always thought that using “shortcuts”, like copying elements from your drawing and tweaking them were doing me a disservice, because I thought that if I didn’t “learn” how to draw it by hand, it would leave me stunted as an artist. I always felt similarly about using pre-made assets like brushes. I would always draw things by hand, refused to use symmetry tools, and would work longer hours on projects to get them finished. Over time, I realized that there’s nothing wrong with using any kind of aid. Whether you use brushes, copy assets, or not….illustration still takes work, and nothing is wrong with using things to help your process along, as well as using these things to enhance your work. If you just WANT to redraw things, there’s nothing wrong with that. But using tools that can help you doesn’t make you any less of an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.morganbissant.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morg_city/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganbissant
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-bissant-8b1a7394/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/morg_city
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGpqqQzGanFE-S0Dldkukcw
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/morg_city/ https://www.tiktok.com/@morg_city
Image Credits
Jesse Guillory