Today we’d like to introduce you to Radiance Francois.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Radiance. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
From the very beginning, I grew up surrounded by creativity. My mother is an immensely creative person. When I was little, she would always be making some type of craft or project. Most times she’d let me help or would give me an activity of the same nature to do alongside of her. While she was crafting, I was too! Also, my father used to love drawing. He’d have this big sketchbook that he would pull out every once in a while, and I was always mesmerized at how well he could draw. My parents are a huge influence on why I started making art.
Fast forward some years. I’m 13 now. I just got Instagram and I’m seeing all this amazing art. There were these drawings called “chibis” that a lot of artists were making. Chibis are like short, cute characters. A lot of people would use them for profile pictures and I wanted one. Problem was, every single artist drew white chibis only. I’m black. No matter where I looked, there was never a chibi that looked anything remotely like me. I got fed up and decided I’ll just make my own. That was my motivation for creating my account that I have now! I wanted to share art that looked like me and people that I know, so we could be included.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course there will be obstacles in anything you do. I can remember 2017 and 2018 were very hard years for me. I believe I burnt myself out and I was going through a very harsh artist’s block. I didn’t have motivation or inspiration for drawing at all. Every time I even picked up the pencil to try and make something, I would get a headache. I felt guilty even getting on my art account, so I just logged out for months and months. I was even debating on switching my major (I’m an art major!), deleting my accounts and quitting art altogether. I thought I was losing my passion, and that was really hard for me because all I’ve ever known was art! I took a long break after that.
During that time, I started taking on different forms of art. I can’t just NOT create. I would go crazy. I started getting into making music and poetry. I tried sculpting, painting, making YouTube videos, etc… just keeping myself busy doing other creative things. I gradually started getting back into drawing and found my love for it again.
Other challenges I’ve faced are things like art theft. There has been instances where people would take my art and put it on unauthorized products. I always see things with my art on it all over the internet. I get DM’s from people congratulating me, saying they’ve seen my art at actual stores thinking I’ve landed a deal or something…when in reality my art was stolen. It’s discouraging seeing things like that happen because there’s really nothing you can do to prevent it, besides not sharing your art at all.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
I love drawing cool character in cool places. I’m hoping my art can be a bit of joy for whoever stumbles upon it. At the moment, I do make custom art! I do illustrations, cover art, logos, character design, paintings, pretty much everything honestly! Most people buy my art to give as gifts, to hang up on their walls, or just to use as their profile pictures! Very soon, I’m opening an online store to sell prints, coloring pages, stickers, and other goodies, so please be on the lookout for that!
What I’m most proud of is, I’ve done it all myself. I started out, just a kid trying to spread some representation around Instagram haha. It really grew into something else. If I told my younger self that my art would enable me to do the things that I’ve been able to do, I don’t know if I would’ve believed myself.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I think being genuine is something that’s really important to success. Especially in art, you have to be yourself. Don’t make art to please others (unless they’re paying you… that’s a different story lmao). Art is very see-through in my opinion. When you’re doing something for the sake of getting something out of it; be it followers, money, clout, whatever… It might work for a second, but I can tell you it won’t last long. Most often than not, people can tell when you have a passion for something versus when you’re doing it for other reasons.
Connecting with the people who support you is another big factor for success. I always have conversations in my DMs with my followers… whether it be about art, their families, music or even memes. I love talking to them. If you’re seen as untouchable, there are few people who will stay when things get hard. They don’t know you, they don’t have a connection with you. It’s easy to unfollow, stop supporting, and forget about you. If people can connect with you, they want to know how you’ve been, or see what you’re up to. They want to see you thrive.
Contact Info:
- Email: rxdixncef@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rxdixnce/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7LDxFbA6eokCwbJ0YToeg?
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