28 Days of the Web: An interview with Maika Sozo, Freelance Concept Artist
We’re sponsors of 28 Days of the Web, a project that recognizes black designers, developers and creatives in celebration of Black History Month. In this interview we meet honoree, Maika Sozo.
Key Links:
- Maika Sozo on: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
- Maika’s Twitch channel
- James Jean
Transcript
Jenn: Hi, I’m Jenn Schiffer. I’m the community engineer for glitch.com, the friendly community where you’ll build the app of your dreams. Part of our mission is helping creators, and we have one now today Maika Sozo.
We are doing this as part of 28 Days of the Web, which is being sponsored by Glitch. It features a different black designer or developer every day in the month of February in conjunction with Black History Month. Thank you for being here
Maika: Thank you for having me.
Jenn: So you are a designer, an illustrator, a character artist. What do you do by day?
Maika: All of those things. I just literally, I’m just home all day getting work done.
Jenn: And how long have you been freelancing?
Maika: Let’s say about three years of doing it for other people. Yeah.
Jenn: But you also do stuff for yourself?
Maika: Yeah, when I have the time. Lately it hasn’t been the case, but I do have many personal projects that hopefully once I am more situated I can work on. It’s just about stability at that point.
“If I don’t post for a while that could mean that I lose like 20%-30% engagement”
Jenn: So what kind of side projects do you have going?
Maika: I have several stories that I have been writing since I was very young, and as an adult I can apply new logic to those stories. I’m still developing them. All the characters and designs and things that go into them. Then I have sketch books that I wanna release and merchandise and things like that. Those are some of my side projects and also some of the other collaborations I’m doing with other artists currently.
Jenn: You work is very, from what I see, is very influenced by the East and fashion. So I’m assuming you are very interested in fashion.
Maika: Yes, that’s actually… as a child that was what I wanted to be more involved in. I wanted to be a fashion designer, and I would these sketches and croquis and stuff like that. Ironically I actually do more comic book work and stuff like that, and it’s really funny because my friends who don’t care anything about fashion are getting the fashion jobs and am like “I hate you, I hate you so much,” but I do enjoy working on comics though, it’s rewarding in the end either way.
Jenn: All the people I’ve been interviewing have been talking about, like when I ask what their influences are comics comes up a lot. How long has been a part of your life? Besides making them, but were you influenced by comics?
Maika: Absolutely, definitely. More so the Japanese ones than the western ones. I think as an adult I have been more so exploring western comics because obviously I live in the West and I have, my friends are in the comic industry now. So, it was just interesting how things turned out, but yeah. My dad really loved like the Avengers and stuff. I do have some recollection of reading his comics books and stuff occasionally, so yeah that’s a thing and now I’m working on them.
Jenn: So what kind of freelance projects are you working on now? I know you’ve worked for Under Armour, jewellery designers and comics and stuff like that.
Maika: I did do something concept illustrations for Under Armour and I did some like fashion illustration for the jewellery designer as well as an illustration for Wired Magazine.
Jenn: Nice.
Maika: Right now I’m doing some NDA, I can’t talk about it type of stuff for DC, and a few other projects that I can’t talk about. I’m sorry.
Jenn: That’s fine, because in tech there is a lot of consulting work where you build something and you put all of your creativity into it and you can’t like talk about that. Is this a new thing for you working on things that are under non-disclosure?
“When you take on NDA work you gotta compensate for the lack of posting”
Maika: No, I think that since I started a lot of this stuff would be like “you can’t show this”, just a lot of that. I’m kinda used to it. The only thing is that when you get NDA stuff… If you’re like me and you have to use social media to kind of help to perpetuate your income, when you take on NDA work you gotta compensate for the lack of posting. You won’t be able to post as much and promote yourself as much. So, you have to take that into account, because that will cut into other things and that can be a headache. Sometimes I’m reluctant to take on NDA work, but I still do, it’s just like that’s just something I have to keep in the back of my head.
Jenn: I imagine that NDA work sort of opens you up to like more networking that you wouldn’t have through just like social media, so it’s sort of a trade-off in that sort of way?
Maika: Yeah.
Jenn: I was gonna ask like how do you handle the sort of pressure of not being able to show as much as work because of NDAs, but it’s kind of like you sort of stress out or you try to make more side stuff and post.
Maika: I think I have a tendency to… I produce high volumes of work. Luckily, I can do something pretty quickly. I do sketches and stuff like that and try to post them frequently. Recently I’ve gotten back in into live-streaming, which is also another really great way to kind of help promote so that like when I do do work that is not NDA on the side, because I’m usually working on at least 10 things at once which is not recommendable, but I do it.
I will try to do other things to kind of help supplement my social media although sometimes like right now, I’m in a period where I’m slowing down because I’m working on a lot of private design work for these people, companies and whatnot. But I will try to do sketches and stuff like that to kind of fill that void, because it’s very crucial for at least me anyway that I keep it updated. Especially with like algorithms and stuff, the way that they are if you don’t post frequently. Then that can be detrimental, if you are like a social media based artist or something like that. I’m not like James Jean. If I don’t post for a while that could mean that I lose like 20%-30% engagement, and I have to keep a lot of marketing tactics in my head while I’m also managing, just putting the art out there. I have to think more on a business level than a normal person would I think.
“Using Twitch, it becomes a bit of a performance art”
Jenn: Yeah. One thing I noticed when I was looking up your work is that you are spread out over a lot of different sites, like all the art sites and stuff. I’m like “she’s on top of this”, but as you mentioned it’s a business. Were you expecting when you were starting to put your work out there how much business and being on top of things like algorithms you’d have to be?
Maika: Kind of yes, because as a teenager I wasn’t really… I didn’t really have access to the internet, or at least, I’ll just put it this way, I wasn’t really allowed to partake in social media, but I did look. I would watch other artists who were already successful and their behavioural patterns and stuff like that. And I was like, “Okay, so I noticed this artist does this, this, that’s interesting. I see they post these types of things here. These type of things here.” Then I would research best times to post et cetera and things like that.
I watched a lot of stuff go down, some petty art theft type stuff. I’ve watched artists fight with each other online, I’ve watched artists makes mistakes, so I knew not to make some of those mistakes. I just kind of keep things to a minimum. And then I would also like keep things to a minimum like on a personal level. Here is a tip like on your…
I’ll just say this, maybe not now but when I first got on Facebook it was actually more beneficial to use your private profile than a Facebook page. So I just set it up so that I could have followers. As far as my private page is concerned, I don’t post anything that I wouldn’t want anyone to see. It works just fine, and I built an audience way faster than I did on my Facebook page and I had them for the same amount of time.
That’s just like one thing like posting pictures in albums is better than posting single pictures if you have a consistent collection in a style. That’s another thing.
So watching these artist do this, and watching how people engaged with their posts helped me to figure that out. And then even just over time I’ve learned a few things, so I can approach social media in a certain way. Also, I would research just social media in general, not even on an artist front. As far as me being everywhere is concerned. I’ve learned that the more you saturate the internet, the better. Get in people’s heads so that they see you. Make Senpai notice you. That’s my approach. Do it in a classy way, not just like hashtag this, hashtag that. Just space it out, take your time and eventually it will add up and you’ll have your own Google search results.
Jenn: I think when you are spreading yourself along a lot of different services that are made for posting art it’s a lot more beneficial than if you are just spamming people on one single sort of space.
Maika: Yeah, and then “why am I not getting any likes?” If you put a whole paragraph of hashtags people are gonna be like “I don’t wanna look at this, scroll”. It takes time. Also there are programs and things that I have set up so that I don’t have to manually post everywhere. That’s another thing. Save myself the headache. I just approach it that way.
Jenn: Streaming, you stream on Twitch?
Maika: Yeah.
Jenn: How long have you been doing that for?
Maika: Like three months consistently.
Jenn: I guess streaming for me, sometimes I code live, it forces me to set a schedule to like sit down and write code, which is useful for me because I require structure but also as the anxiety of any number of people can be watching. Sometimes I think, “what if nobody watches?” But then I’m like “what if people watch?” How has the experience been for you?
Maika: I’m not really bothered by people watching. I think I’m kind of used to people hovering over me while I draw. I think that’s something you have to get used to at a young age, because it’s like, “are you drawing? What is that? Why is their eye not finished?” Those kids. I’m used to that. Sometimes those people appear in the streams, stay out of my chat. I think some of the stuff that bothers me more about streaming is actually the schedule aspect, because for me I’m the very opposite. Schedules give me anxiety, planners, the look of planners, just seeing a planner on somebody’s desk it just gives me hives. I had a schedule and it was really hard to keep up with, because I’ll have so much work bogging me down that keeping up with a schedule, I get so much stressed and it’s like, “oh no, if I start late, should I even start at all?” Oh my God, I can’t schedule, because people are like, “When are you gonna stream next?” I don’t know.
Jenn: It’s super stressful. It’s rewarding though because you… I’ve watched some of your past streams, just like little clips of it. I’m fairly new to Twitch, but there is some sort of currency there of them being able to choose what songs you play when you are drawing?
Maika: Yes. Oh my God-
Jenn: Which I thought was really rad.
Maika: They troll me in there so much with the song request. Yeah, you can… I have it set up so that you can accumulate made up currency so you can request music in the stream. Some people abuse that privilege.
Jenn: That’s pretty cool though, because it’s a different way of interacting with the people who are fans of your art that you can’t get from using Twitter, Instagram or YouTube, and stuff like that.
Maika: Yeah. I would say using Twitch, it becomes a bit of a performance art at that point, and it’s less about getting to work the best I can and more about “hey look, it’s me, I’m an artist”. You have to put on a show for people. I will say that it was good in some ways, and then it has a few drawbacks, because I have to focus on what people are saying to me, and redeeming certain things. Somebody sends me money, then I’m like, “oh my God”. Then I freak out, because I am genuinely freaked out. I’m like, should I draw something for you? Then people coming in like, “Oh my God. You are good. Can you draw this?” I’m like, “Oh, yeah sure.” Then I get distracted, because I’m like “Squirrel!”.
Jenn: I think you and I are quite alike, because I feel the same stress with streaming. Especially with the chat. Do you moderate the chat while you are drawing?
Maika: Yes. I can’t tell you the kind of stuff that people have come in there saying, I’ve had people come in and say racist things. I’ve heard people say obscene things. I’ve had people… People came in there and saw me while I was nearly finishing a piece and then accused me of stealing said piece. I’m like, you realize I’ve been in here this entire time, right? You can go rewind if you want to see, why? And of all people, me. If you know me at all you know I hate art theft. I hate it.
Jenn: You have a Patreon.
Maika: Yeah. I do.
Jenn: I guess Patreon is just another sort of scheduled thing that you add, that can sometimes cause anxiety?
Maika: It definitely causes me a lot of anxiety. I just like… At first I was like I’m gonna put Photoshop files and stuff on here. When I first started, which was years ago. Then that made me so nervous that I got physically sick. I could not deal with it so I shut it down, and then I recently in the past year brought it back, just as a tip jar, because that’s also an option. If you want to see me continue do art and not die, because I have no food, money… You can support me if you want to. That’s an option. I don’t expect anyone to contribute to it. It’s just like if you want.
Jenn: You have stuff all over. You have a Patreon, your handle is sozomaika, S-O-Z-O-M-A-I-K-A.
Maika: Yeah.
Jenn: Your website is sozomaika.com. SozoMaika is your Instagram handle, and also your Twitch.tv handle.
Maika: Yes, and that is another thing. If you are trying to build presence guys, be consistent with your name. Don’t have 30 different names. Nobody is gonna find you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell people that.
Jenn: Yeah. Everyone should check that out. Especially when you are streaming your drawing sessions and you can buy some cool stuff on your website.
Maika: Yeah. I have prints and stuff for the most part. I’m working on getting more done.
Jenn: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Maika: Thank you.
Jenn: It’s been great, and I’m looking forward to more awesome work from you in the future.
Maika: Yes. Thank you so much.
