Meet Tenzin Sopa | Concept Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tenzin Sopa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tenzin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I chose to go into the arts, specifically Concept Art, because I grew up playing video games all the time and drawing constantly–whether it was in my sketchbook at home or on my math quiz at school. One day, when I was maybe 15, I watched a behind the scenes documentary Naughty Dog had made about their game “The Last of Us” and it blew my mind. I didn’t even know what a concept artist was until watching that video. I thought, “Of course! All these games I’ve been playing were made by artists!”. It was genuinely shocking because I didn’t know about this industry for the longest time. So my brain switched gears and I started taking art classes to build my portfolio for college applications. I also felt excited to go to school for once. I had such wonderful teachers who supported me and helped me apply to an art school which I eventually attended and graduated from in 2022. The idea of coming together with a group of artists and writers and building a story and concept from nothing and turning it into an interactive medium for people to enjoy and inspire is everything I’d want out of a career. Many artists would agree that the things you make are a part of you and so it’d just be a dream to see it all culminate into reality. Also, video games are just so cool!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think my art so far has been very bright, cozy, and engaging at first glance. I tend to do a lot of scenic paintings, plein-air studies, and recently have been working on more concept design work. I have a wide variety of genres I’m interested in such as horror, action, sci-fi, and slice-of-life so my subject matter can differ a lot. Something that I am really proud of is when I started learning Blender and incorporating 3D into my work. It was a really big step towards my art journey and creating more grounded work. It also opened up space for me to experiment and dive into the 3D realm of things as well which has been really fun. One of the biggest challenges I’ve been facing since graduating has been keeping up my motivation and discipline. It’s a bit hard now that I’m not surrounded by artists and working from home has been tricky. Keeping a schedule and good habits has been a challenge but I’m definitely a lot better now than I was before. I’m not where I would like to be but I can’t discredit all my achievements such as graduating art school and working with PBS Wisconsin right out of college on a project that soon won a regional Emmy award. Also working on a very big freelance project for a whole year and meeting such wonderful artists. Despite the ups and downs, there’s a lot to be proud of. If there’s something to take away from my story, it’s that life as an artist has so twists and turns and sometimes personal matters can affect your creativity and motivation. As long as you remember your roots and your passion, things will keep on moving towards the direction you want!

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.
I would take my friend out to see our downtown area. I’d take them to the Farmer’s Market on State Street. There’ll be a lot of food, cute knick knacks and music–just a great spot to get tasty vegetables and fruit and my favorite cheese bread. We can also peruse around the square and grab burgers from The Old Fashioned restaurant. I’d grab breakfast with my them at the Bassett Street Brunch Club restaurant and afterwards we could go to the Memorial Union and enjoy the lake and food/ice-cream there. It is also near the Chazen Art Museum where we can go and admire art for free! On another day, I’d go on a nice drive to Devil’s Lake where we can spend the day hiking and swimming and also visiting the Dells for water parks and good food. I would also take my friend to the Henry Vilas Zoo and visit the animals there and enjoy some picnic food. Another place to visit that day would be the Olbrich Botanical Gardens and walk around their beautiful gardens and the indoor exhibit for their tropical plants/flowers and animals. There are also a lot of nice trails and parks to walk around and lakes to rent little kayaks and boats!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Throughout my years at art school, I received so much support from my closest friends Jessica Aliano and Olivia Soloria. They’re my best friends but also great peers when it comes to critiquing my work or giving me advice. There were many stressful nights and it was even more chaotic during the pandemic, so I will always be super grateful for having them in my life! Also, my friend Patricia Hart has been a great help with motivation and just support with my work. She had a lot of influence when it came to fixing my negative mindsets regarding productivity with my work and it has been super helpful. I wanted to give a shoutout to my high school ceramics teacher Geof Herman! He helped me a lot with figuring out how college applications worked and organizing my portfolio for art school. He also just supported me in general and I feel like he was the kind voice I needed to gather courage to pursue this path in life. This is a very short list considering how so many of my friends, family, and college professors have been there for me when I needed them most, so shout out to literally everybody in my life.

Website: https://tenzinsopa.myportfolio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heytenzin/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenzin-sopa-5b79461b4/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/heytenzin

Other: https://www.behance.net/tenzinsopa