Today we’d like to introduce you to Eduardo Vargas.
Hi Eduardo, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in a set of four (yes, I am a quadruplet!) in a small coffee producing town in Costa Rica. A Coffee plantation to one side of our house and a gravel road to the other. Ever since I can remember, I loved drawing: It was my way of understanding the world, of expressing myself. A blank page was a magical space where I could make my imagination come to life.
I would spend my days as a kid dreaming up stories and fantastic worlds with crazy creatures and brave heroes where me and my siblings would role play and have our own adventures. I think after that kind of childhood, my fate was sealed, I had to be an artist. The problem, and it was a big one, was that in Costa Rica there were no schools or career prospects to learn the kind of art I enjoyed making. No animation companies, no concept design schools, I didn’t even know what concept design was! I only knew one thing, I had to be an artist and I was going to study whatever got me closer to making art for a living. So I settled for the closest thing there was there: Graphic Design (which to me sounded like digital art).
Eventually, I graduated as a Graphic Designer and started working on the advertising industry. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t hate it… I didn’t really even get to draw that much… so what was the point? I decided it wasn’t the right fit for me and it was then when I was 24 years old that I actually found out about the Entertainment Design Industry. Oh and it sounded like such an incredible living like I could be paid to do what I was already doing since I was a kid! But that dream was very very far away and I had no way of actually getting there, no schools around, no company I could be hired by. I concocted a plan to get where I wanted to be and started relearning art on my off time, looking at video tutorials online and religiously practicing my drawing skills. One day, on an online video, I found out about this school in LA called Brainstorm School, that had tuition fees I could actually afford so in December 2018, when I felt ready and comfortable enough with my fundamental skills, I took the plunge and actually decided to fly to LA and attend for as much as I could: 2 terms.
The day came: LAX, Uber to my Airbnb, 11 p.m, North Hollywood. Raining. No internet. I’m standing in front of a closed fence, luggage in hand, no one answers for 30 minutes. Then, a Japanese young man opens the door and invites me in. He points me to a paper sheet on the wall with the house rules in English. It turns out I unknowingly paid for an Airbnb for Japanese dancers where no one speaks English (unless you count the paper sheet) nor Spanish of course. It’s hard to describe the kind of loneliness I felt, being on a country where I knew no one, thousands of miles away from any friends or family, with a rudimentary understanding of English and a barely functional plan of using the not so great LA public transport system to get anywhere I needed to go. And so I walked, got a Metro Card, bought a Wacom Intuos and got ready for my first class. It turns out living for a couple of weeks on a place where you can’t speak to anyone really makes you value human interaction so once I got to my first class I was overjoyed about making friends and what’s more artist friends!
And I gotta say, those six months I took classes at that school, I really met some of the most wonderful people I could have ever hope to meet. You know who you are if you’re reading this. Long story short, I went from the feeling the most lonely I ever felt, surrounded by what felt like an infinite desert of businesses and streets to thriving and learning about what I always wanted surrounded by a truly fantastic group of friends, who taught me even more than my classes did. And what originally felt like a hostile city became a second home. I got my first freelance job in the Industry before I finished my second term. A classmate who happened to be an art director taking some classes mostly for fun and practice liked my work enough to hire me to make some key art pieces for his game. Ever since then, I’ve been working for video game and animation companies and having such a great time with it. To say I am doing something I barely thought could ever be possible would be a huge understatement.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It really hasn’t been a smooth road. Of course, my biggest struggle at first was not knowing that being an artist was a real career option. I tried to fit myself into jobs and trades that were really not for me. It can be difficult for people like me because when we hear someone’s success story, they tend to focus on telling it as a straight line but for me there were so many dead ends and sidetracks. I worked designing logos, web pages, apps, illustrating stuff for museums, advertisements, writing, selling products, so many different things! What I think is important is that all of those things I did before weren’t lost time for me. Everything I learned doing seemingly unrelated things has been an invaluable tool for what I am doing now and has given me a unique perspective that is very difficult to get with someone who specialized earlier. Now that I’m starting to do some art directing, that broad perspective comes even handier. Another big struggle for me was keeping myself on track when I was studying alone in my off time. Waking up everyday and pushing myself to do something I didn’t know was gonna get me anywhere was very challenging.
I had to constantly remind myself of why I was doing all these things. I tried to keep my focus on the long run and not just the technical exercises I’d go through every day. It took even more effort to make myself actually fly to LA blindly to attend a school while having no one to ask things to about the city or the school or anything. That’s when my resolve was truly tested. That first week, sleeping on a bunk-bed, surrounded by people I couldn’t talk to was really really hard. I’d have to wake up and walk for hours on end trying just to get the bare necessities because I didn’t know where anything was. Mostly using Google Maps for directions or I’d ask random people on the street where I could buy something specific or get something I needed. I honestly thought of buying a ticket back home every single night. The thing is, looking back, I remember fondly all those struggles because they’ve really made me who I am today and hopefully some of those sweet and sour struggles will keep on coming my way.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work as a Visual Development artist. That means I paint backgrounds, design objects, environments and basically draw and paint for a living. I also have dabbled a bit in art direction and often do small illustration jobs on the side. I think what sets me up for other artists is that since I have experience in so many different things, I am not afraid of trying different techniques and learning about new things all the time. Because of that, I think I have a broader perspective than most. So in a sense, I’d say my most valuable asset is my learning habits, self-reliance and attitude. Honestly, what I’m most proud of is the fact that I get to make art, tell stories and create stuff that didn’t exist before for a living. I really cannot imagine doing anything better than that.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Networking is a tricky one because it really depends on the person and what they feel comfortable with. For me, there’s nothing like meeting people one on one and just really listening and having fun with theme and make real friends. Eventually, good things come from good relationships, but thinking of them as just networking connections is, I think, a mistake. So I would say be genuine, enjoy life and try to actually listen to people, and not just focus on jobs or qualifications. Also, nowadays, social media is a pretty big deal. And even though I’m still not the best at it, my main advice regarding that is: do the best you can while staying true to yourself and try to be the most consistent possible. Don’t rush it, try to enjoy the journey and eventually some nice things will come out of it.
Pricing:
- 50 USD per hour for visdev or illustration freelance work
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.edvargasart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edvargasart/
- Twitter: @edvargasart
