@ozhichige

Instagram: @ozhichige

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

My name is Jon and I am digital artist born, raised, and currently living in Wisconsin. In my opinion my story is actually quite young has still has a lot left to it. My love for digital art doesn't have an exact beginning but I would say that digital art definitely made its way into my life through music. I was pretty obsessed with guitar in high school and almost everything I did revolved around it. I played with friends, I made videos for YouTube, I tried to start a band with anybody I knew who played and instrument, and all sorts of other things. As I became more and more entrenched in music I began to realize how entwined it was with art. I learned bits and pieces about art here and there to support what I was doing with guitar like learning how to edit photos so I could take cool pictures of my guitar, or learning how to animate some text for the beginning of a guitar cover. Nearing the end of high school I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Up until that point I was convinced that I wanted to be in a band or work as a music producer somewhere but I began to realize that even though I loved guitar and music it wasn't something I could see myself doing as a career for the rest of my life. It was around this time that I began to learn more about graphic design and decided that I was going to pursue that instead. After high school I completed the graphic design course at a local college after graduation worked a few odd design jobs here and there. Unfortunately the design industry wasn't really what I thought it was going to be and even though I still loved doing my own personal projects I ended up giving up on art for about 2 years because I was so incredibly discouraged. It wasn't until about a year ago that one of my close friends from college inspired me to get back into art and coming back to everything with fresh eyes and a different perspective on life and art has filled me with a passion for it like I've never had before. I am currently working on uploading a new piece of art everyday to further increase my knowledge and skill set in 3D art and I plan to branch that out in any way I can.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I've always been a fan of images that feel huge. One of the things I'm probably more known for in my art is trying to implement a large sense of scale by using characters that are very small within the scene itself. I also try to incorporate a sense of discovery as well by using objects or environments that are a bit open-ended and not fully defined.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

3D art is my favorite medium. I'm a huge fan of photography and digital art and illustration, but the idea of creating a world within a 3D space is absolutely incredible to me and I have a hard time trying to do anything else at this point.

4. What is your artistic process like?

If I'm being completely honest it depends on the day. Some days I have an idea that I'm creating from scratch, other days I'm trying to recreate and effect I saw and give it my own twist, and sometimes I'm making a piece just to test out a piece of software that I'm learning.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Ash Thorp, Stuz0r, Beeple, Dan Mumford, Dan Seagrave, and many others

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Art plays so many roles in my life that it's pretty hard to narrow it down to one. The biggest way that art has changed my life is that I've learned to slow down and enjoy the details. I spend hours trying to simulate the perfect lighting scenario sometimes but then I look out the window and the perfect lighting is 30 feet away in my yard.

7. Where did you study?

A local technical college.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

In 5 years I would like to have expanded my knowledge enough to push more into animation and hopefully be producing some short films.

9. What about in ten?

In 10 years I plan on doing more art that's related to music and combining the two because they're my 2 biggest passions. I would also like to sit down and put some serious time into learning more about traditional mediums.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

All I can ask for is that my art inspires someone else to start doing their own. I love teaching others as well and eventually I'd like to get to a point where I can put out resources for other people to help them on their artistic journey.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

As of late I'd have to say that steak and eggs would be my favorite food. I never understand that combination until just recently and now I have get enough of it. A little more about me, I'm a pretty big family person and I love making absolutely terrible puns. I spend most of my time with my family in some form or another and when I'm alone you can usually catch me watching any sort of Sci Fi movie.

12. Favourite book?

I recently read At the Mountains of Madness and I loved every second of it!

13. Favourite genre of music?

I think I listen to heavy metal more than most other kinds of music but Hip Hop and electronic music are both very important to me as well.

14. What are your hobbies?

Playing guitar, digital/film photography, and hiking when the weather permits!

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

In the past few years I've come to love photography, both digital and film. If I wasn't doing art I'd probably be focusing my efforts into pursuing photography more.