Tell me a little bit about yourself, about your life? Where did you go to school, and what classes did you study (if any)? What helped prepare you to become the artist that you are today?
Well my name is Joseph and my life is pretty simple. I’m an animator that spends almost every day working on something. I went to school in Texas, I studied the usual classes alongside some art classes. I mostly learned how to draw and animate on my own thanks to always being on the computer and having lots of paper. I just kept doing what I did until I slowly got better over the years.
How do you go about designing a new piece of art, and what goes through your mind, from start to end?
For me, it really depends on what kind of animation it is. I can give a good example for how designing a new episode of my webtoon “Roommates” is. It starts with my forming ideas for the plot, next I start writing the episode (either script written or storyboarded) that usually forms for an 11 minute cartoon, then I get the voice actors to do the voices I need for the episode, and finally I do the animation for the episode. Animating the episode is definitely the longest and most tedious process of making an episode.
What is a typical day for you, and who are the people you work with?
A typical day for me, besides eating and sleeping of course, is usually just getting on my computer to work on my cartoons and sometimes play some video games.
What are some of the things that you have worked on?
The most notable things I have worked on are my two currently running series “Roommates” and “Life of Sam”.
Is there a character or illustration you have done that you are most happy with?
None of them. Hah, just kidding. I suppose at the moment, the happiest I’ve been with an animation I’ve done would be “Cyrus: Gourmet Chase”.
What projects are you working on now? (if you can tell us)
I’m hard at work making a bunch of new projects. There’s an animation I’m making that is using Garry’s Mod that will be 20 minutes long, a pilot episode of a show I’m planning to make called “Cyrus”, a webseries based on “Paper Mario”, and a brand new series that will be premiering soon called “No Signal”. Of course, I am still working on older projects like “Roommates” and “Life of Sam”.
Who are some of your favorite artists out there?
I have way too many to count! I guess some of my favorite artists on the top of my head would be Sr Pelo, Piemations, and TheBourgyman.
Could you talk about your process in creating your art, as well as the types of tools or media that you use?
I draw the things over and over again until the cartoon is done. Sometimes I use puppet rigs to make the job easier if I can. I use Adobe Animate to draw and animate, Audacity to record and edit audio, a Blue Snowball microphone, Swivel to convert my .swf files from Animate into .mp4 files, and Adobe Premiere Pro to edit videos together.
What part of designing is most fun and easy, and what is most difficult?
When it comes to designing an animation, I would say the most fun and easy part would probably be the writing/storyboarding process. It’s fun to think up cool ideas and imagine how they would play out in your head. The most difficult part is animating the animation itself. It takes a long time to do and you have to translate over what you wrote/storyboarded into a moving format.
What are some of the things that you do to keep yourself creative?
I don’t know really. I suppose drawing, but I rarely sketch drawing in my sketchbook because I usually just draw for the current animation or comic I’m doing. I guess just laying around and thinking to myself helps me to just think of ideas.
What are some of your favorite characters from other creators that you enjoy?
Some on the top of my head are “Year of the Rats” by WittyUsername and “Paper Zelda (A Crafted Parody)” by 64 bits.
What is your most favorite subject to draw? And why?
I don’t really know. Sorry if this isn’t much of an answer.
What inspired you to become an Artist?
I liked watching cartoons and reading comics when I was a kid, so I decided that I wanted to make my own.
What are some of the neat things you have learned from other artists that you have worked with or seen?
I learned some pretty neat tricks from other artists that you could do in Adobe Animate over the years that help me with creating stuff.
What wisdom could you give us, about being an Artist? Do you have any tips you could give?
I guess I would say to never give up and to keep going. Everyone starts off bad, but you’ll get better if you keep at it.
If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?
People can tweet at me @FlowJoeCartoons or email me at josephgonzales654@gmail.com
Finally, do you have any of your art work for sale (sketchbook, prints, or anything) for people that like your work can know where and when to buy it?
Yeah, I have some shirts and stickers and stuff available to buy over at teespring.com/stores/flowjoe
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