MANILA, PHILIPPINES — This year, Graphika Online 2022, one of Asia’s most influential design conferences, brought creativity and inspiration to the fore once again. Graphika has acted as an arena for the most talented and imaginative creative forces in Asia and around the world for the past 17 years.
Graphika Online 2022 hands the microphone to some of the most creative leaders in the industry — such as RossDraws Founder, Ross Tran.
Tran is an illustrator and concept artist who just recently landed on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. His YouTube channel, RossDraws, is where he aims to educate aspiring artists, entertain viewers, and flaunt his Shiba Inu, Milo.
Currently, he is working on expanding his studio and planning to turn his first feature-length book, NIMA: The Black Lotus, into an animated series. As this year’s first speaker at Graphika, Tran shared his distinct story as an artist and gave insights on how he found his light.
Ross Tran (@Rossdraws),#illustrator and concept #artist, sets the stage as the first speaker of the day. Using his skills and imagination, he creates a whole new world with different characters.
Here at @GraphikaManila, he shares with us how to find our light💡 pic.twitter.com/9y0myxWzpp
— adobo magazine (@adobomagazine) February 5, 2022
From imaginative child to successful artist
It’s easier to understand where Tran’s got his talent for creativity, when you take a look at how he grew up: an only child who explored a fantastical world of make-believe in his grandmother’s backyard. Through his imagination, he conjured his own dungeons and monsters. This creative ability to form images and create scenes in his mind was the precursor for his love for drawing.
In highschool, Tran spent eight to 12 hours a day honing his craft.
“With any creative endeavor and skill set, everyone starts somewhere. I believe people sometimes have a natural ability to be good at something, but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be successful. Because the people that weren’t born with that natural ability, they have to work really hard and build that work ethic. You can only get true success by putting in those hours, and there’s no shortcut to it,” he said.
By 19 years of age, he was a character designer for his first feature film, Disney’s Earth to Echo. A while after, he took a break to try his hand at acting only to return to drawing and finally launching his channel RossDraws on YouTube in 2011.
In the pursuit of greater artistic creativity, Tran launched a Kickstarter campaign for NIMA: The Black Lotus, a cinematic art book, in 2017.
“My channel was a stepping stone to get me to where I am. I realized that even with YouTube, I didn’t have a world of my own. I realized that I was hustling to gain a following and to grow that number. But at my core, I really wanted to create something massive and immersive.”
Despite his book’s success and positive reception, Tran said this is only the beginning. The artist is expanding his studio, and currently pitching to turn the story into an animated TV series.
In his final remarks, Tran emphasized that a person’s value isn’t in his following, wealth, or looks. “That’s just material stuff,” Tran said. “But how you feel on the inside, when you’re all alone, is the most important thing… I just want to say that you can always find that light within yourself.”
@Rossdraws looks back on his own experiences and says, "I think something we forget is all the struggle, the hard work, & where we came from. We forget to reflect on the journey & how hard it is to get to where we want to be. I want everyone here to cherish that journey." pic.twitter.com/dV55wA8Tf5
— adobo magazine (@adobomagazine) February 5, 2022
Follow Ross Tran on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also visit his website here.
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of Graphika Online 2022.
