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Meet Chelsea Akpan

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Akpan.

Chelsea, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had an inclination towards illustrating and creating characters. I never took it seriously until I was around 12 or 13 years old when I started making comics. There were many nights I would sit down at my dining room table, drawing out 3-4 panel comics to then take to school the following day to show to my friends. It was fun! I really felt strong contentment creating work for myself and being able to share that work with others. This only heightened when I started joining sites like ‘DeviantART’ around the same time, where I was able to show my work to a wider audience. Through this, I was able to make friends who shared my same interests and gradually grew as a digital artist. A lot of my inspiration comes from the cartoons I watched during this period of my life, as well as a lot of the internet media I was consuming at the time. I often look back at that time of my life with a fondness, because I produced so much work and was so excited to post anything and everything I created.

High school and my first years of college were a bit more tumultuous. I come from a Nigerian family and my parents did not believe it would be worth it to pursue art as a degree, despite me doing art from a young age and being recognized for it throughout the school. When I graduated high school, I went into university as a Pre-Pharmacy student with no interest and only a slight understanding in biology and chemistry. Long story short after about two years and taking the entrance test for pharmacy school, I realized I wasn’t happy with myself or the choices I was making. I wasn’t drawing much and the time I set out to study seemed like it was pointless. Nothing was sticking, nothing made sense. I was making a lot of decisions that I wasn’t for me, but rather for the appeasement of other people. I applied to change my major to animation a day after I took that entrance exam.

Since then, I’ve been trying to make up for a lost time. Currently, I’m trying to figure out the freelance illustration world, which is both intriguing and nerve-racking. I’ve sought to create work that speaks to my odd, but genuine experiences and thoughts, all while having fun. Cartoons are a big part of my world and work; I want to illustrate my outlook and stupid humor through that. I want to create work that the 13-year old me would have loved!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I feel like I deal with arrested development to an extent, because of my upbringing. Having strict parents, coupled with constantly being self-critical with both my art and other aspects of myself, has been difficult. I’ve had to reconcile these issues in different ways, which oftentimes affect my work and the stories I want to tell.

These are things I still deal with now as an almost 23-year-old. Feeling like I haven’t done as much as I can at this point in my life and that my work isn’t where it should be. There are many days I still feel like I’m a pre-teen stuck in place, but I’m aging so rapidly. It’s crazy! I’m getting better at dealing with this as the days go by and knowing what I want my work to reflect.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
I am a freelance cartoonist and the design editor for The Shorthorn, the University of Texas at Arlington’s newspaper. Being an illustrator for the newspaper has exposed me to the world of editorial cartooning and brought on my decision to pursue freelancing more seriously. Most of my work includes drawing comics, portraits, various illustrations and just random doodles. My work can be characterized by color and expressive lines, as well as making you feel nostalgic in a way. I also do limited animation and enjoy creating little gifs and animations, when I do get the chance.

I also run a small online print shop where I sell prints of my work! This is the first year I’ve taken it somewhat seriously and I always love packaging prints and sending them off. I always have the deepest appreciation to people take the time to buy my prints or commission me for personal work. I am proud of my work because I know it’s work only I can do. It’s personal to me and how I interpret the world. It’s very reflective of the person I am and the person I want to be.

What were you like growing up?
I think I am very much still the same person I was probably ten years ago in many ways. I cracked stupid jokes. I can’t hide what I think because my expression will give it away and in many ways, was a weird character of sorts. I loved being dramatic for the sake of humor. I often daydreamed and fantasized of various situations that would never come to fruition and zone out in different locations. I talked out loud to myself, pretending I was in a music vid and choreographed horrible dance moves when I vacuum my mom’s room. These are still things I do NOW, by the way! I was, and still very much so, an introverted extrovert.

Pricing:

  • Personal Commissions: Vary 25 dollars and up

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