Meet K. Janeé Roberts | 3D Animator, Graphic Designer & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with K. Janeé Roberts and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi K. Janeé, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I always felt like there was a stigma against artistic or creative careers and that’s why a lot of people don’t pursue it. There are a few reasons why I pursued an art career but the main one was I wanted a job I’d be happy to do currently and in the future as well.

I got my first degree in Graphic Design at an HBCU (History Black College or University), Hampton University in Virginia. However, my first year of University I went undecided as a major because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Everyone kept saying college was the next step after high school but no one told me what I was actually supposed to do there. So I ended up taking a year to think about and just taking general education classes in the process.

I knew one thing was for sure during my year of picking a major and that was I wanted to have a job I didn’t mind doing for years to come. During High school, I had seen a lot of the adults seemingly dislike their jobs and complain about it. My ultimate goal was to not end up like that. I went through all the things I liked as a job and all the things I felt I was good at enough to make a career. Having those two things as a requirement for single career made it a very short list. Ultimately I ended up with something in the Art field because I had been doing art and artistic things since I could remember. It was something people sought out from me in high school for projects or events. I was also raised in a very creative household with a grandmother who had her owe business making church hats, flower arrangements and jewelry. That soon lead me to Graphic Design as a major because I had always been fan of programs like Photoshop and making invitations for family functions. Why not make it career?

My artistic journey didn’t end there as I got my second degree in Animation & Visual Effects. I chose it as a major because even though making logos and designing things were pretty cool, I needed more variety in my career for me to reach my ultimate goal of continuing enjoy my job and not ending up being a person disliking what I do after so many years of it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Because I have many mediums of art —Illustration, Graphics and animation— I think what they all have in common is a sense of story. Part of the reason I got into art at a young age was to continue the stories I loved off script. My favorite characters going on any adventures I can imagine on paper. This has manifested itself to humans and character as my subject matter in my art and them in a moment in their own story.

Going to school for art was always different compared to what I heard about other majors. There was no correct formula that can produced the right answer. There wasn’t any strategy made to ensure a successful outcome. Art is subjective. That fact often became apparent when it came to work being graded. There were teachers with certain styles, certain ways, certain views on art. Even though, I’m sure some rendition of that can be applied to every major, I personally think art has a little less rules in its rule book which makes it a little more complex than the rest. Getting my first degree, I had to take traditional art classes. I had a teacher that wanted to mentor me but I wasn’t too much a fan on how he went about things. He considered himself an old school traditional artist with experience in public art pieces and sculptures so he would talk down about digital art and many of the students choices of subject for their work, me included. Eventually, we all moved passed that and it did teach me a few things.

What I did learNed from that experience was that it was never a complete success story for an art career. You continue to create your success until you decide to stop. That teacher was still a working artist in the field and had just decided to give teaching a try that year. There was no other continuous work for him because he worked from commissions. Through him, I had seen an artist constantly at work even into elder years. Another thing I learned was there were going to be people that viewed my work and have certain opinions about it or criticisms. This was going to be apart of my career as much as the art itself that I make so it was something I needed to prepare for.

In that time to becoming an artist, I have learned how undervalued art can be sometimes even to the artists themselves. Working in the art field either as a freelancer or full time, the work force often view art as easy. Because of this, a lot of work is under priced and a lot of tolerance for this is taken by artists just trying to make it, myself included. What we forget is that no matter how others view it, this a career and you need to be able to survive off of it, otherwise it might as well be hobby or side hustle. I hope more artists understand this and create a different mindset of valuing not only their art but themselves as the hands that create it.

What I want the world to know about me and my brand is that they’re always going to be story in it. In everything I do, I think I put bits and pieces of story I’ve seen, heard, or made up completely. I even made a little cartoon version of myself to be able to express myself in 2D form. It’s like getting two versions of me, one being the human version who is realistic and navigating through life and it’s rules. Then there is the 2D version of me, that is bound to no such things and can be in any world, go through an adventure at any given time. I think I put these types of ideas in all of my art because it’s a bit of escapism for me and I want it to be the same for others. Everyone has to deal with life and everything in it, but one of great things about art is you can have a break from that. That’s why I try to give my art story for the audience to find. You can stop everything for a little while indulge in a character’s story completely different from your own or similar.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

One of my best friends is from Maryland, and she’s heard about the famous In N Out. At this point, who hasn’t right? Even friends from overseas had told me that they keep hearing about it when they come to America. So of course, that is the first stop because I’m sure everyone is always hungry after traveling. I always suggest just getting a simple Double-Double with fries and a drink. So far, I haven’t heard anyone visiting complain about In N Out. Of course, there is also the greatest street foods ever. The Downtown LA street dogs, Mexican street corn and ice slushy. Never get a Street dog without the fajita and I personally like the vanilla slushy. The corn will be perfect as is every time. Tam’s Burgers is also a must. Yes, they serve burgers but their burritos is where it’s at for me. Any burrito will do, they are all good. You just had to make sure you get one.

I will forever and always take visitors to Venice Beach especially my best friend. Some might say it touristy but it one of the heart beats to LA in my opinion. It one of the places growing up you can just go and enjoy yourself, enjoy the beach, the performers, the art, the music, the stores, and the culture. And it’s free! Just walking around and sightseeing is doesn’t cost you a thing. Parking is a different story though. Another place to go that is also seen to be very touristy is Universal City Walk. Another place to just roam around window shop and enjoy people watching and the ground water fountain.

A more personal place I would visit is the Magic Johnson Park. That park is special to me because me and grandpa would go there all the time for walks. I had been going there since I was a baby. We would have cookouts, picnics and play pinecone baseball. We’d fine some pinecones and hit them with a baseball bat in the open field areas. I also use to climb the trees near the parking lot even though to this day I’m not sure if I was suppose to be doing that. I even learned how to ride a bike at that park. I would definitely taking my best friend there to share memories and take a lap around the lake if for nothing than to just walk all the food off.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

The first one that comes to mind is a friend of mine in High school. I remember we were seniors and we didn’t have much school left. Everyone was scrabbling doing last minute college applications, preparing end of the year projects and presentations. In one of my last classes of the day, we were free to work anything, kind of like a free period. My friend was going around telling everyone what she thought they should do in college. “Your turn,” she said to me. I’ll never forget how she took my hand while I was working on the computer, looked in my eyes before saying “You’ll be an artist.” At the time, I just wondered “why would she think that?” and mental scoffed it off because I was stressing to get everything finished to just graduate. The thought never crossed my mind to actually be an artist. It wasn’t even a consideration. It wasn’t until years later when completing my artistic thesis in college did I recall that moment with my friend happening and I’ve never forgotten since. So Shoutout to Margaret!

I would also like to Shoutout my grandma for being that artist with her own successful business in hat and jewelry making and flower arrangements for me to look up to as a kid. If only I knew I was looking at partly what my future would be like as well. I hope I made her proud.

Website: https://janeelyrical.wixsite.com/mysite/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kjaneeroberts/