Creative Mind Podcast Episode 17: Illustrator Robert Revels on Making the Hustle
The one constant thing to keep in mind, and to always be ready to do, as this week’s guest, illustrator Robert Revels, goes into detail on, is hustle.
Your career in the arts is going to last a long time. It is for sure going to change, one day you may get a gig painting on a mural. The next, you may be designing creating card illustrations. Then when all is going great you will need to learn a new technology.
“You never really know what you are going to get,” says Robert Revels. “To be a working illustrator you have to be open to opportunities and open to doing things outside of the scope of what you thought you were originally going to do.”
And his career shows this. Robert passed up on a college career in football at Morehouse to dive head long into art here at the Academy. No small feat for someone who was not exactly spending all his free time drawing like many of his classmates.
However, it was his bravado that helped him to succeed. “You know what, I do know that I have talent, but I am not the only one that has talent,” he says. But he is quick ask this question, “Do you have the courage to go for it?”
Don’t Just Rely on Talent; Network!
While at Academy of Art University, Robert was also inspired by his instructors, many of whom are working artists today. But it wasn’t the talent that inspired Robert, it was their connections and caring for the students that made him realize that one day he would return to teach.
“I have a thirst for learning and a desire to just grow and I know what I want as a student. So, I just project that onto other people,” he says. Then, keeping in mind a few teachers over the years that did not deliver, Robert focus on what he sees as the real needs of a student. “People want to learn, they want to be motivated, they want to be driven, they want to become better, they want to know and see that even happening.”
Today, Robert teaches concept art, digital illustration, anatomy, you name it. He has become the “go to” instructor across many disciplines because of his teaching and motivation.
