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Bored Panda reached out to Ren, the author behind the "Kamping Chicken" series. First, we wanted to know if the artist had any major influences who might've helped them to develop their style.
"Yeah, as a creative I think that I'm constantly being influenced by the media that I consume and the interactions that I have. Right now, I find myself drawn to making comics about small moments because I fell in love with the feeling that I get from reading slice-of-life comics, but I think that my style is still developing. The pacing of my art and my sense of humor definitely comes from my family and the way that they tell stories, and I almost always think of my friends when I write a dialog between characters."
We also were curious as to how long it takes to finish one comic, and here's what the artist revealed to us, "I am an incredibly slow artist! Sometimes I'll try to get a comic out for a specific art challenge or occasion and I can have a finished and colored comic done in as little as three hours. Most of my comics take days before I finish them, though. My process usually starts with an hour of coming up with multiple ideas and then a few hours of scribbling out rough drafts of what those ideas might look like as a comic.
After that, I try to choose the idea and sketch that I have the strongest vision for and I spend the next couple of days doing more sketches and then the lettering, final linework, and the coloring. All the ideas that didn't make it get saved to a folder, and I go through them periodically when I have trouble coming up with a new idea. Even though it can take a lot of time, I really love the process."
Ideas are a very important part of any artwork, so we were curious as to how Ren comes up with the ideas for their comics.
"The best way to come up with an idea for a comic is to write everything down. Get your thoughts on paper no matter how random. I scribble small sketches or just words onto paper and toss all of those pages and scraps into a box that I pull out anytime I struggle to have an idea. When I'm looking for ideas I'm really aware of what I find myself doing and I ask myself questions like 'do other people do this activity?'. If they don't, then I can make a weird comic about doing that activity, and if it is something people can relate to, then I break up the activity or event into smaller parts and see if there is an opportunity for humor there.
Maybe it is an incredibly hot day? That's not especially interesting, but it could get me thinking about what happens on a hot day. Maybe it would be funny to make a comic about my fan dying at such an inopportune time, or maybe I should make a comic about a strange sunburn shape, or make up the sun's perspective, or show how magical it feels to find a little shade under a tree. There are so many small and funny things that can happen if you think hard enough. I try to keep a pen handy to write the good ones down."
Creative burnout is something that we often hear artists talking about so we were wondering if it's something Ren has also dealt with.
"When I feel like I'm burning out, it's usually from pressures outside of creating. Drawing and expressing my ideas in comics is an activity that I find calming. Creating makes me happy. Burnout usually happens to me when I worry about how well my comics are doing in social media engagement, or when I worry about keeping to a posting schedule or making things by unreasonable deadlines. I use my free time to make comics, so sometimes other stressors from my day-to-day life wear me down too. When I'm struggling with burnout I just try my best to refocus on having fun with my comics."
Ren has over 11K followers on Instagram, and it's fair to assume that the more people follow you, the more you are bound to hear their opinions about your work.
"My audience has been extremely positive and kind, I am so grateful for their support! Before I began sharing my comics to Instagram I was really apprehensive about putting my art on the internet, I didn't know if people would like my sense of humor or if they would think some of my comics were too weird. Instead of mean comments, I received a lot of encouragement. Every so often people tell me stories about how a comic I drew felt relatable or made them laugh, and that means a lot to me. I try to make comics that are relatable, wholesome, or silly."
Speaking of Instagram and social media presence overall, we were wondering what inspired the artist to start their account.
"I started my account in October of 2017, but I'd been making comics in sketchbooks for some time. I remember showing them to someone really close to me, and they were really supportive! That person gave me the little push that I needed to put my early comics online. At first, I only shared them with friends on Facebook, and I started my Instagram at the encouragement of a comic artist I attended college with. I didn't actually set out to make a comic page, though! One of my very first posts was actually a digital painting of a pumpkin with googly eyes. It was a little time before the focus of my page shifted to just comics."
The creative process is an important process of doing pretty much anything in our current world. We asked Ren about what part of the creative process they enjoyed the most.
"Coming up with ideas is so much fun for me, but the part that I love most about making comics is drawing the linework. Putting in small details and exaggerating the expressions that the characters are making is the best, and when I finish all of the lines I feel a huge sense of accomplishment! It's really the stage where I feel like I have the most creative freedom, and I think the linework stage makes the whole comic come alive."
Ren also revealed to us how they got started as an artist.
"My parents encouraged me to explore my creativity a lot as a kid, so I've had drawing as a hobby for many years. My first comic I can remember making was a series about a silly boy named Donovan that I made up when I was 11 and only shared with my siblings. Digital art was introduced to me in college, and it opened up so many new possibilities and techniques to me. It really changed the way that I looked at creating, and I use an iPad Pro with the app Procreate to make all of my comics digitally now. Every art form has its own charm, but the flexibility of digital art is my favorite. I'm glad that the ability to create digital art is more accessible now than ever for creatives."
Lastly, we asked Ren to share what motivates them as an artist, and here's what they revealed, "I think that my biggest motivation is to make art that I think people will enjoy while also being true to expressing myself. If I can draw something that makes someone laugh or elicits some kind of feeling, that's huge to me. I put a lot of myself into the comics because I want to make people smile and I want to have a positive impact. Sometimes my comics aren't funny and happy and I think that's important to share too. I want to be able to connect with my audience through my art. I hope that I can still grow a lot with my style and I hope the process of creating will always keep me curious. Maybe someday I'll even learn to draw in a more beautiful way? For now, I'm satisfied with making comics that capture a part of who I am."
