We were lucky to catch up with Patty Pancakes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Patty, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Over the course of my lifespan, I’ve tended to utilize pigments as a form of creativity. My journey to where I am now isn’t exactly what I’d suggest to other artists, but I would like to enlighten some of the things I’ve picked up over the years.

Being a creative is like having an itch inside one’s brain that cannot be scratched. Creative people tend to be more observant of their surroundings than the average person; and observations are what usually influence the individual. At first, everything is interesting: this fashion piece looks unique or this music is kinda fire or this movie poster just *grabs* my attention. It’s up to the creative to feed into their interests (within reason): “WHY does this piece catch my attention?” “What specific aspects make it so interesting?” are questions I would ask whenever I became obsessive over a subject.

Sure, schools can teach you techniques like time management and provide incredible feedback on your works… But they don’t necessarily nourish your individual creative style. That’s where I heavily encourage exploration. I myself am quite comfortable in foreign situations; but with technology today, even the most introverted human can explore other parts of the world without leaving their comfort zone. Search engines are your best friend: I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in my freelance career if I didn’t have Google to look up tutorials or even just references. Type in everything and anything into that search bar and you’ll be surprised as to what you can find.

The biggest challenge to a creative, in general, is themselves. Even a healthy brain can be a tough piece of meat to manage. Self worth is something that artists are never taught, but it’s crucial to their creativity. I’ll always encourage finding multiple groups, forums, channels, streams etc to socialize in. Surrounding yourself with like minded people who speak the same language as you (creatively, not literally thanks to translation apps) will be the best form of learning. One of the highest peaks of art in history was in Constantinople where individuals from different cultures shared their knowledge through coexistence. I still believe that’s the best way to learning anything.

Patty, 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?

I’m currently a nomadic artist that came from a career path in entertainment design up in Los Angeles. I stepped away a few years ago due to health concerns, and have been carving out my new path ever since I’ve been able to recover. It’s not the easiest way, especially since I’m doing this somewhat alone, but I wouldn’t have it any other way honestly. Self worth stuff.

I’ve noticed my croquis sketches have been quite popular over the years, so I’ve been elaborating on that style with added gesturals and textures. I don’t do much refined work anymore, as I believe I lose a lot of the piece’s life in the process.

This year, while I’m still living here in beautiful San Diego, I’m building a portfolio to be able to present to tattoo studios for an apprenticeship. With my living situation, however, it might take a bit of time; so I’m creating small flashes to sell while I lurk at the local shops. Slow progress is still progress, may my time and determination encourage you to take that first step!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is definitely the stories I hear when people connect with my work. I’ve been brought to tears over a heartwarming story based off the flowers I chose to do a study on as well as given myself sideaches over laughing about a story connecting to the subject.

I’ve seen people’s eyes light with fire as they talk about their process of drawing the same subject. Those are the most rewarding to me: the skill levels never matter, it’s the passion. The itch to understand.

The instant connections you can make by just being your creative self is incredible.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I’ve honestly been trying to figure this out myself. I’ve made friends with tons of degrees behind their engineering titles and I’ve struggled with translating my creative ideas with them. It’s somewhat understandable, having such a lock on our reality makes it challenging to think outside of that box. A concept of a personal flying machine that looks like bird wings is impractical in their eyes.
However, i have collaborated with them regarding a habitable space station for a large population, or what the planet would be like 500 years from now.
I do think it’s all a matter of putting things into perspective for an individual to understand… But I’ve had my fair share of non-creatives who don’t want to put time or effort into thinking differently.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/pancak3s
• Instagram: @justpancak3s
• Other: TikTok @just.pancak3s