We recently connected with Sophia Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sophia, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I love the fact that I can do what I love doing the most as a living, and wouldn’t change that for the world. Even having just a small part in a creative project brings me so much fulfillment, and I love that I can put a part of myself into the work. Whether it is my interpretation of the brief, or whether the client leaves much of the design process in my hands – Being one of the first people to see and help on the design come to life on screen is so exciting. Something else that is really cool about the work I do is the variety – Earlier this year I was working on a kids’ film while also working on a crime show!

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

I am a concept artist, with an emphasis on costumes. I’ve worked on a variety of TV shows and films as a costume illustrator and have dabbled in character design for video games. Sometimes I do conceptual pitch work if a client is thinking of pitching a show as well. I got into this work while taking Phil Boutte’s Costume Design course at CGMA. I was really inspired by the work he did on Black Panther, and my love of costumes only grew after taking his course. He brought me onto the concept art studio he cofounded, 9B Collective, and has really become like a mentor to me, which I will be forever grateful for.

I’m still pretty early on in career, but there have been so many really cool moments already. One of the recent ones would be getting to work on the next installment on a show I used to obsessively watch every night after art class back in college!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My path towards becoming a concept artist was never a straightforward one. I didn’t start drawing until I went to university as an art major (Crazy, I know). It worked out though because I fell in love with the craft and was drawing all day, every day. I knew I wanted to work in films or video games as a concept artist but never felt like I was creative enough. All of my peers were trying to go into animation or games as character or environment designers and I felt like I needed to do the same. Once graduation came up, I still felt just as uncreative as when I entered the arts program. Our school invited artists from various studios to review our portfolios and I was told I wasn’t good at perspective, and that I should stick to painting other artists work if I wanted to get a job in the industry.

After graduation, I applied to several studios and, of course, got rejected by all of them. So in the meantime, I decided I would take a couple of courses to better my skills until I can get a job (Which took much longer than I would expected!) Before signing up for classes, I got my portfolio reviewed by an industry artist that would basically change my artistic trajectory forever. They told me I didn’t have any foundational skills, and I should start there first. It was kind of crushing at first, considering I just graduated and now I’m learning I need to start from square one. But, I buckled down and started by signing up for a perspective course, and an environment sketching course. From there on, I would take courses every semester for the next few years until I started working professionally. It came with its ups and downs, I was burnt out a lot, and constantly doubted whether I was meant to be an artist. But I just kept going, and it worked out.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think one of the best ways to support the arts, outside of monetary, is to simply understand and appreciate the work and creativity that goes into it. Whether that be drawing and painting, costuming, writing, etc. With the rise of AI, it has put a lot of artists’ works and livelihood at threat. We work hard to get to the point we’re at, and the fact that someone can take that work and put it into a machine that spits out an image equivalent to something an artist has spent years and years honing is incredibly debilitating for us. So much of who we are as people, our experiences, how we view and interpret things all goes into the work we put out.

Speaking on a more technical level, to put into perspective how much work goes into making a good painting of, for example, a simple figure. Just to start, we have to understand anatomy (meaning, we study bone structure and muscle structure and how they function), we have to understand color and light theory, how clothes drape over the figure, how the clothing folds depending on movement and material. On top of that, we have to know the techniques behind drawing and painting.

It’s unfortunate how much AI is already taking over the creative fields, and it’s slowly trickling its way into other fields as well. I think if we as a society band together, we can really push back against AI dominating our industries.

Contact Info:

• Website: sophiajohnsonart.carbonmade.com
• Instagram: @sophialee_johnson

Image Credits
Sophia Johnson