Illustrators are powerful interpreters known for their ability to transform abstract ideas into visual forms to aid comprehension. For an illustrator words in their millions are easily compressed into an image for quicker comprehension making them an intrinsic art of communication in the digital world. NGD recently held a competition for this category to determine the designers with the strongest visual representation and our guest for today emerged the winner amongst notable professionals in the NGD universe.
For your reading pleasure this week we have ozegbe Ada, an eye catching illustrator with a knack for producing stunning designs with just about anything.
Read our 10 question series below for her inspiring tale of : triumph through animes, method for overcoming burnout and what success means to her right now. Enjoy!
Our 10 questions series with Ozegbe Ada
1.The passion, the creativity, the skill, how did it all begin?
I have been drawing since I was a kid. I loved and still love cartoons, fairytale, folklore and the likes. As someone who isn’t very good at physical conversations, I tend to express myself through art. I am also very used to staying in my head, conversing with myself and imagining different sceneries that the only output would be through drawing them. My art teacher in primary school was my first motivator, he always praised my art assignments and made me believe that this was something I could do with ease, it all started from him.
An early work of ozegbe Ada
2.What role have mentors played in your growth?
Bursting my bubbles. I have had one mentor since taking art as a profession and if there’s something I always remember of him, it is that the art industry is no playground, it is difficult and it is cruel. He has worked with Disney, Facebook and some other companies before going independent and he opened my eyes to the reality of working in the art industry. The harsh superiors, short deadlines, little pay (for some), the time it would from your normal life and the difficult expectations. He also sent my works to some people working there and the feedback I got really reinforced his words, they were cruel lol. It was then I realized that no matter how good I think I am, the customer can make or break you. He also helped me realize the importance of research and practice. He taught me the need to focus on one specialty and become one of the best in it.
Community scene in a children’s story book receives a captivating look with Ada’s imagination
3.You emerged winner of the NGD Pro illustration challenge, what was your motivation for joining and if not you then who do you think would have won?
I wanted to see if I had grown. I wanted to put myself out there for the first time, challenge myself and to also make my presence known. I started digital art a year ago and I always get imposter syndrome so I wanted to know if I was as good as i thought I was. The person who I thought would have won would be Dexter Arts. He is incredible with landscapes and his palettes are always appealing. I was really looking forward to seeing how he would have interpreted the brief and the elements he would have used in his illustration
Nothing short of enchanting is the designer’s entry for the Pro Illustration challenge
4.What was the most challenging part of the process?
The most challenging part of the process for me was my phone. The piece I illustrated had a lot of elements and my phone was out of storage space to carry it. I use a 2gb ram phone and the app I use clip studio paint, takes a lot of processing power to use. I can’t count how many times csp crashed while I was drawing, making me restart a lot of steps again. How everything was lagging and how I had to save different layers to later import them because my illustration refused to svae. It was a really stressful and humbling experience for me. Many times I wanted to withdraw from the contest because I did not want to submit a half done job. At the last day before the submission I almost quit, I closed csp and decided I wasn’t going to submit my entry because I couldn’t finish it. But somehow I did. The illustration I submitted wasn’t the finished work but it was the best I could do considering how my phone situation was.
4. You’ve mentioned the criticism on the platform as toxic, why do you think so?
I was a complete newbie to graphic design groups when I first entered NGD. Someone from my friend list recommended that I join the group and I obliged as I wanted to learn graphic design to add to my skills. The first two weeks was very surprising and weird. There were lots of harsh comments on people’s posts, it was during a particular challenge I think. I didn’t understand what was going on and why nobody was trying to correct the contestants, instead were just leaving ridicule. Most of the people who did this had no posts on the group or on their timeline so I wondered why they would do such. I believe teaching should be approached with hot and cold methods, that is how my mum taught me. She would reward me when I got the questions right, correct me when I made mistakes and flog me when I refused to listen. The combination of these methods made me want to study more and helped me overcome a lot of obstacles I experienced in my school days. I believe it can be applied to all areas of life to impact more people.
5.Some of your dazzling works were created using a mobile phone? What’s your take on gear?
Devices doesn’t make the user. A lot of people believe that the better the devices you have, the better you’ll be good in what you do but that’s a delusion. Devices are there to make the process faster and easier but it doesn’t affect the skill of the user. A good example of this is a friend of mine Kim. I met her a few months before I started digital art, she is a traditional artist (pencil and paper). I am always amazed by her work, her line art, color, rendition, everything is always very beautiful.
Tired portrayal of Miles Morales, Sony’s leading superhero character by Ada
6 How are you monetizing your skills now?
I do freelancing. I apply for jobs and illustrate people’s imagination to reality. I am also creating projects that would be of value in the future.
NFT art – Garbage University by Ada
7. Do you think the path to success in design is more challenging for females?
No I don’t think so. If I hadn’t uploaded my pictures or specified that I was a female in my bio, a lot of people wouldn’t know the person behind my works but would still respect the artist. Unlike physical jobs like medicine and politics, there is hardly any gender inequality in design. Your works speak for you, people hardly care if you are a female or male as long as you can deliver a project.
8. As an illustrator in today’s age, do you feel threatened by the creative abilities of AI
Not really. AI is improving by the day but I don’t feel threatened by its presence. Almost anyone can use AI so there is no individuality in it. There are also certain aspects of art that an AI cannot imitate and that is the imaginative mind of a human. What is in my head is different from what is in someone else’s and that much is enough for me to be confident in my abilities. AI gives you a sort of fixed output, there is little to no way of exploration and in terms of art, AI users are less imaginative than real artists.
A Queen charlotte digitalization by the eye catching illustrator
9. We saw your queen charlottes post. Are movies a way for you to avoid burnout what other methods do you employ?
Yes. I am easily captivated so watching movies is a way I deal with burnout. I particularly enjoy movies with psychological meanings and a story to tell. I find that in japanese and Korean movies. My main relief from burnout is anime. A lot of people think it is just silly cartoons but anime has helped me in a lot of ways than I could write about. What made me take up art again was a certain anime called “Naruto”. It might sound ridiculous but Naruto made me believe in myself again, have confidence in being me and doing what I love, that no matter how many people say I can not and how many times I fail at it,i can always get back up. Most of the time that I feel tired, depressed and angry at myself, I remember scenes from the anime of how he pushed through his big obstacles. It gives me so much motivation to keep moving, I am forever grateful to the person who introduced me to anime. So whenever I am experiencing burnout, I watch cartoons or anime or movies and it helps a lot.
1o. What does success mean to the creative Ozegbe Ada ?
Success to me would be creating a haven where children would be able to live happily and healthy, grow up with the right morals and become important figures that will change the world for the better. Success will be creating a life where my parents can rest healthily and my siblings can access whatever they want without having to wait or give up on them.
Fuel your passion with engaging reads.
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