Meet Andrea Sutjipta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Sutjipta.

Andrea, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I honestly have only started doing art professionally just in the past year where I got hired as a freelance illustrator to illustrate a full-color children’s book. I am still a student in ArtCenter College of Design and still learning and looking for my own style and voice. I have always been insecure doing art and always get the feeling that my artwork is not good enough and not qualified to work professionally. But recently I have been experimenting with other type of art and been growing a lot. I have a lot of support system around me and I have been fortunate enough to be able to get the chance to work professionally.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not. Coming into ArtCenter, I was surrounded with many many talented artists. People that already working professionally or people who have had prior education in the art industry. It was very intimidating at first and honestly after spending a couple of terms in ArtCenter, I wasn’t even sure if I belong here. I am working towards my BFA in Illustration with the focus of entertainment arts right now and after doing it for a couple of terms, I often question myself if this actually is what I want to do in the future. I got stressed out and insecure a lot. There were always those questions “Am I drawing enough?” “Am I getting enough practice?” “Does my artwork have a voice? “Is this worthy to be posted on Instagram?” “What are my friends going to say about my work?” “Am I good enough?” Even sometimes “Do I deserve to be here?” And so on and so on…

The first couple of terms were really hard on me. I found myself not having a strong foundation skill to continue my work. My school work was all over the place and I was burnt out. I found myself very unmotivated and the idea of picking up a pencil or paintbrush was just too hard on me. I was so sick of drawing and I almost quit.

I have always have a passion in art but I was not in love with it anymore. Drawing was supposed to be something that I enjoy doing and now it has become a burden. I hated every moment at it.

It was not until I took a couple of months off away from art and took a step back from it to focus on other thing in life when I realized that I have been living in this bubble. Art is not just doing figure drawing. Art is not just about doing a character design or doing key-scenes for a movie. There are so many things out there that I haven’t explored yet.

I started taking classes from other department outside of entertainment arts. I took children’s book illustration, I took fashion history, sewing, and etc. It was very refreshing to try something new and I think it was the term that I was starting to enjoy making art again.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a freelance illustrator trying to focus on children’s book illustration. It was not until I took a children’s book Illustration class (shout out to my mentor Steve Turk) that I realized that I enjoyed it a lot. I have grown so much in terms of my skills and finding my own style in the past year and actually had a chance to work professionally in this field. I was hired by a local writer back in my home country (Indonesia) to illustrate her beautiful story into a children’s book.

I am still learning and will always continue learning to be a better artist, a better author, a better illustrator, and also a better storyteller.

Recently I took a big step and encouraged myself to put myself out there and attended Society of Children’s Books Writer and Illustrator(SCBWI) where I was exposed to so many different talented writers and illustrators. I partook the portfolio showcase where we had the chance to show our work to the other attendees. It might not sound like a big deal to most people but I was really proud of myself for doing that.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think luck, skills, and timing are the main thing that would give me a boost in this business. Just luck itself is not going to fulfill the Clients needs. Just skill itself without luck will not get us Clients in the first place. Of course a lot of hard work as well. I honestly don’t really have that much or an experience to tell more about this matter because I have just started working professionally this year.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.andreasutjipta.com
• Phone: 626-560-9527
• Email: andrea.sutjipta@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/deaivana

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