This week I’m sitting down for a chat with Andrés, (AKA @dystopiancomics) creator of the webcomic series, Dystopia. Andrés was one of the very first artists to give PanelJam a shot back when we first launched, and since then he has grown his following to more than 58k on Instagram.

Read on below…

jamdaddy: Alright! Let’s start from the very bottom. What were you like as a kid? Have you always been doing art?

dystopiancomics: I don’t remember a lot of my childhood but I do remember I always told everyone that I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up.

Of course, I enjoyed drawing but I wasn’t that dedicated so I never learned to draw as a kid. In fact I don’t consider myself good at drawing even at this point because most of the stuff I do that looks good has design tricks. I’m not that good at free hand drawing.

But uumm… Yeah, as a kid I was kind of introverted, my mother said I used to cry a lot haha. I do remember I liked to do stuff I saw on Art Attack which was this art tv show for kids where they made “art” using normal stuff.

jamdaddy: I loved art attack! I used to watch that all the time too.

dystopiancomics: Yeaaah, I especially loved when this guy just went out there and created a big drawing using random stuff he found.

Well, of course, it wasn’t just random stuff, all was planned, but it was impressive for me as a kid.

jamdaddy: Absolutely. Did you actually end up doing of the projects he showed?

dystopiancomics: Yeah, sometimes if I could find the materials

But of course, it didn’t look as good as the ones on the show.

jamdaddy: Haha, the story of every aspirational child… You said that you wanted to be a cartoonist as a kid, but did you actually draw cartoons back then?

dystopiancomics: No, I used to draw random stuff on my notebook but I wasn’t really passionate about anything so I never practiced my drawings.

Most of the time I was just playing videogames online. That was pretty much my childhood haha, but I guess it helped me develop my English skills. At least vocabulary-wise.

jamdaddy: Runescape or Club Penguin?

dystopiancomics: Both, definitely. But RuneScape a lot more. Like, a lot.

jamdaddy: Hey man, gotta get to the top of that cooks guild! Those pies aren’t going to bake themselves.

dystopiancomics: Haha, yeah. I was in a Mexican clan and all that shit so I spent most of the time just hanging out with people and doing woodcutting. That was my life back then.

jamdaddy: I can relate. I knew the addiction was real when I was getting up at 6 am to get some mining in before school. Ah, to be 10 years old again..

dystopiancomics: Yeah… Life was easier back then.

jamdaddy: Alright, so if you weren’t developing your skills as a child, when did you start?

dystopiancomics: When I graduated from school and started graphic design. I think that’s where I actually became aware of how I was doing nothing with my life, so I took French classes for a couple of years and started drawing again for my university assignments. But it wasn’t until maybe 2 years ago when I actually bought a drawing tablet and started practicing digital drawing.

jamdaddy: You went to school for graphic design, right?

dystopiancomics: Yeah, I studied graphic design for like four and a half years and then did an specialization in advertisement.

jamdaddy: Nice. Was there much of a focus on drawing in your courses?

dystopiancomics: Not as much as I would have liked. We had a course called digital illustration and guess what? The university wouldn’t lend us the graphic tablets…

jamdaddy: Seriously?

dystopiancomics: Yeah… unfortunately I studied in a shitty place. But at least I got to learn from a couple of good teachers and also a couple of really talented people that I know are going to be very successful.

jamdaddy: I think that’s how it usually goes. Especially for art and design, I’m not sure that institutions are all that relevant. It’s the people that matter.

dystopiancomics: True, but umm… the institution is your place to develop. If you’re paying them you would expect to at least have a damn tablet to draw.

jamdaddy: Oh, without a doubt! I guess what I mean is that we should expect more from them…but I haven’t seen many that meet my own expectations. They’re only irrelevant by their own failings.

dystopiancomics: Yep!

jamdaddy: But you’re working as a graphic designer now, right?

dystopiancomics: I do freelance jobs. I don’t want to work as a designer here (Colombia) because they get paid horribly. Like, really, really bad.

So I’m not going to waste my time on that.

jamdaddy: Got it. So you mostly do freelance design work online?

dystopiancomics: Yeah. Actually, my main clients are just people that know me already, friends of mine, or people that recommend me.

But it’s not like I have a lot of work or clients, I currently live with my father so I don’t spend much money, and I’m studying another career, so there’s also that. Applied for a scholarship recently to see if I can go develop an art project in Germany but even if I don’t get it I’m planning on leaving Colombia.

jamdaddy: Are you looking to leave because of the economy? Or is there something specific about the art culture there?

dystopiancomics: Both, I don’t really like how society perceives art here. And of course, I want to explore new places and learn from other cultures.

jamdaddy: For sure – there’s definitely a lot that you can’t learn at home. What would you say about Colombia’s perception of art?

dystopiancomics: Well, I think you can define Colombia’s perception of life overall with the following statement: people here are more worried about football than about politics, people here demand more of our football players than from our politicians.

How do we expect to have a developed society that focuses on arts and culture, and other types of sports, if people don’t really care? By football, I mean soccer, of course.

jamdaddy: Got it. It can be frustrating when you have a vision of what could be… but so much can be stifled by low expectations.

dystopiancomics: Yeah.

I actually developed a project for my university for them to have some design awards, because, you know, any respectable university should have at least a place for students to show their work and be rewarded.

It was my project for the specialization and they were like, yeah, sure, it’s fine… but they never applied it.

jamdaddy: Ouch.

dystopiancomics: Yeah, since everything here is a business…

No way you’ll be a successful artist without being part of the business, and I don’t want that.

jamdaddy: Can you elaborate on that? What do you mean by business?

dystopiancomics: Like everything is made expecting a profit.

For example, my university sacked some of their best teachers because they didn’t have postgraduate studies, and the university needed teachers with that so they could be certified by the Ministry of Education with something called a “high-quality seal”, or something like that.

They’re after that seal just so they can increase the tuition… So they hired a bunch of useless people that had post-graduate degrees but were not really passionate about teaching. People are more worried about profit than they are about quality.

jamdaddy: I hear you…but I’m not sure that that’s something which you can escape. We have the same kind of issues here in Canada.

dystopiancomics: You can profit from anything you want, but the moment you take passion out of it you’re just becoming a useful idiot.

If you’re not doing what you’re passionate about you’re just a cog in a big machine that only benefits the ones on top.

So, if you’re teaching at a university just for the money (which isn’t much anyway) and not because you enjoy teaching, it will show in your students. It damages the whole education system.

jamdaddy: Yeah, that makes sense. You’re not anti-business on the whole though, it’s just that there are more important things to you than just profit?

You’d like to be able to live off your comics if you could, right?

dystopiancomics: Yeah, of course. Everything is part of a business in a certain way, but I don’t like the thought of “profit is the most important thing”.

It took me one year and a half to actually release a Patreon. And not because I didn’t need the money before, but because I didn’t consider myself ready yet. My product wasn’t good enough either, so how can I ask people to support a work that it’s not good yet.?

jamdaddy: I can definitely relate to both points there. Quality and artistic integrity are so important.

I’ve had a few people try to convince me to raise venture capital funding for PanelJam, but as soon as I do that I’d no longer be in control. Once investors are involved, the only focus is profit – and that would mean censorship of everyone’s art just to be “advertiser-friendly”.

dystopiancomics: Yep, there you go, that’s a perfect example.

jamdaddy: It’s good that you have a Patreon going now. Your work is definitely worth it.

dystopiancomics: Thanks, hehe. Let’s hope it allows me to focus and explore more stuff.

jamdaddy: I think that as creative people with good taste, it can be a real struggle to feel like we’re ever good enough.

dystopiancomics: That’s the eternal struggle of an artist haha, or a designer.

jamdaddy: We can only get good because we have good taste, but it can be a real trap as well.

Speaking of being good… you said that you rely on “design tricks” in your drawings. What are those?

dystopiancomics: Hahaha. Let me show you.

jamdaddy: Alright.

dystopiancomics: So… this is how it usually goes, as you can see there are some things that change a lot in the process, what I mean by design tricks is that I normally just sketch some random stuff to see where each character is going and all of that, then I do draw the character and fix the shapes and anatomy.

All of this is in Photoshop, so it allows me to control a lot of stuff. In the end, I always add another layer to fix the color and saturation so it looks better. There’s a lot of stuff that’s just more related to design than it is to actual illustration.

Since I didn’t learn Photoshop to be used as an illustration tool but rather as a design tool, I take a different approach when I draw.

jamdaddy: Okay, that makes sense. I’m not sure a different process makes you any “worse” though.

dystopiancomics: Oh no, definitely not. But what I mean is part of the way you handle it helps in making things easier, or even look better. So if someone doesn’t know how to create a color scheme or how to fix the color, contrast, and saturation, well, the one that does already has an advantage.

jamdaddy: I’ll agree with you there. As a designer myself, I guess I do feel like I’m cheating when I can get by (as an “illustrator”) thanks to some decent composition and color combinations.

dystopiancomics: Haha, yep.

jamdaddy: You said that you’ve only taken drawing more seriously in recent years. Do you keep any kind of routine for your practice?

dystopiancomics: I really don’t practice much my drawing besides what I have to do.

Like, I don’t do sketching or anatomy research or any of that… I’ve kind of just been learning by drawing every day. That might be a comic or at least the start of an idea. Eventually, I can see what works, what doesn’t work, how I can improve my drawings, how others do it.

I’m not the kind of person to just sit and draw 50 hands and feet because I don’t like that. Though I do want to take this more seriously and start working on more complex illustrations. I’ll start doing those soon for a project I have in mind, not related to comics though…

jamdaddy: I was just going to ask. Do you think webcomics are a longterm thing, or do you have artistic sights set somewhere else?

dystopiancomics: I would like to be a writer actually, and create my own books. I’d do all of the writing, illustration, and design.

That’s like what I have in mind right now and hope I can develop that further if I get the scholarship.

So yeah, my goal in life is to find a common ground between literature and illustration which are the two things I am passionate about. I also love skateboarding but I don’t know how to mix that in there, haha.

jamdaddy: Nice. I think finding a path to blend your passions is the only way to go, too. Do you do a lot of writing for your comics right now?

dystopiancomics: Not really, I usually come up with the ideas, write them down, try to create a dialogue that doesn’t seems too forced and actually makes sense, or is funny. Then just go with it and do the drawing.

I would like to develop more complex things, of course, but that’s probably a plan for the future when I can use more of my time on this.

jamdaddy: That’s smart. I think a lot of artists, designers, or creative people in general shoot themselves in the foot by trying to start off with projects that are too grand.

dystopiancomics: Yeah, I think I’m focusing on quantity right now, I want to grow more, involve my followers more in what I do, and eventually do something that’s bigger than just a couple of 4 panel comics every couple of days.

Something like what Pet Foolery does. That’s the reason it works for him.

jamdaddy: I’m actually unfamiliar with Pet Foolery. What’s special about their approach?

dystopiancomics: The guy gained 1m followers in the span of like 3 months.

jamdaddy: WHAT?! How?

dystopiancomics: He created two characters that work really well together. Have you seen them? His comics are around 8 panels long…

jamdaddy: Somehow I missed these… but I’ll be looking through them all now.

dystopiancomics: It’s about this badass dog who retired from the army and this cute cat who become siblings, I guess.

jamdaddy: That’s cute. Definitely a wide appeal.

dystopiancomics: Yep.

jamdaddy: That’s one hell of a success to compete with, but you’ve done a great job growing your own following over the last couple years.

Do you have any tips for other artists?

dystopiancomics: The most important thing about succeeding I believe is: be passionate about what you’re doing, if you don’t enjoy it, the people won’t either. Be consistent. Try to do your thing every day, even if it’s just for half an hour. Learn from others and from yourself.

jamdaddy: Simple, but so true. Have you ever struggled with consistency yourself?

dystopiancomics: Every day. I get easily bored and I like to do a lot of things so sometimes I just feel like I don’t want to do that comic and I would prefer just lay down and read a book.

I try to find a balance between doing what I like and doing what I need to do at that moment. So there’s always like a dualism in passion because even when you love something, you might sometimes feel a burden.

jamdaddy: Do you just press forward even when you feel that burden?

dystopiancomics: I try to avoid doing things I don’t want to.

So if I don’t feel like drawing at that moment I just take a break. Maybe I’ll watch some videos, eat something, take a shower.

Whatever let’s me relieve a bit of stress so I can get back to work.

jamdaddy: That’s a good tactic. You make the most of your time by doing what you can do best at that moment.

dystopiancomics: Yeah, exactly! It helps me be more productive. Focusing on a single thing for a whole day can be annoying. So I sometimes spread my time along the different things I have to do so I don’t feel stressed about it.

jamdaddy: Good advice! One more thing I was wondering…

You often do style switch-ups or use different degrees of detail in your panels for dramatic effect. So, you’re obviously not limited in what you can draw. How did you decide on a style for your comics?

dystopiancomics: I was really influenced by John Cullen.

I wanted to draw like him and I completely love his comics. So I eventually started to try and add more detail to my work.

Even though I love what Shen does, for example, I wouldn’t be able to go with something that simple. It’s not my style I guess.

But also I didn’t want to do something too complex. So I guess I found a common ground, sometimes I go for a bit of complexity and sometimes I just keep it simple.

Depends on the idea and sometimes on my mood, haha.

jamdaddy: Cool. We should probably wrap things up here. Is there anything else you’re burning to say?

dystopiancomics: Uumm… the hardest step is the first one, haha. I guess those are some philosophical words to end this.

jamdaddy: Preach! Where can people find you?

dystopiancomics: Bucaramanga, Colombia, if you want to do the trip. Otherwise, you can find me online as @dystopiancomics on Instagram, Facebook, Webtoons, 9gag, Reddit and probably in other places I don’t even remember.

jamdaddy: I just might swing by someday. Thanks for the chat!

dystopiancomics: Haha thanks to you too, it was a pleasure!

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And that’s a wrap! Have any feedback, or maybe you’re interested in joining me on a call for one of these talks yourself? Shoot me an email at [email protected]

Happy Jamming!