Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimbo Henry.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kimbo. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Well, it started off REALLY slow. I always loved to make art and I was always really good at it. The issue is, I was always restricted to a pencil and paper. I never had the resources to create images as awesome as I had seen them in my mind. I looked into getting a digital art tablet and in 2012, my mom got me one for my birthday. Now I felt a lot more like “true” artist because now I had access to all the colors on the spectrum and not just a few colors I had with the few markers I had.
Now I was in business. A great man once said, “if you’re good at something, never do it for free.” and that kind of resonated with me. So I figured I would take commissions here and there and I’ve been doing so since 2012. I didn’t really get a lot of clients at first and wanted to give up a few times, but I found the strength within myself and my family to help me persevere. As long as I continued to make art, I knew I would get more attention, and more attention means more clients.
Then in 2016, I had one dumb, silly idea and took Huey and Riley from the Boondocks and mashed them together with Goku and Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. It was just for the sake of a cool picture, and then at the last second, I decided to add dialogue. Huey: “Riley, what does the scouter say about his power level?” Riley: “That he a b**ch” It was a silly idea to me, but to the internet, it was comedic gold and I went viral. Business started booming after that. It just goes to show you, when you least expect it, your talent can take you further than ever before.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It absolutely was NOT a smooth road. But then again the path to success never is. I still wouldn’t say I’m necessarily successful so I’m still on this bumpy road. Most of the struggles honestly came from within, dealing with depression and lack of motivation. But one thing that keeps me going more than anything is my 5-year-old nephew.
Every time I think about giving up, I think about him and how I want him to be happy. In fact, here’s a perfect story. One day, my sister had dropped off my nephew at the house so she could go to work and my mom and I were babysitting. But of course, it was mostly my mom doing the heavy lifting, so to speak.
However, I was in a low point mentally about my art around that time, and I struggling to complete a piece. But then my nephew came into my room and came right up to me and said, “what are you doing, Unc Kilimbo?” (that’s what he called me haha).
I said, “I’m drawing, Elijah”.
“You make that? That’s so cool!” … when I tell you my face lit up, I was happier than I’ve ever been. As we all know, kids tend to be brutally honest so hearing that from a young kid was so reassuring. It wasn’t somebody complimenting because they’re my friend, or because they feel like they have to, but just because they really think it’s cool. And of all people, my nephew? It got me out of my funk and helps motivate me every single day. I love that boy.
Please tell us about Art of Kimbo.
Well, I’m a freelance illustrator and I do mostly commission work. I’ve done portraits, logos, album covers and I’m currently working on my first children’s book with a client.
I specialize mostly in nostalgic art. That sounds weird I know, but I’m a huge fan of re-imagining some of my favorite characters from creative media, whether it be an old cartoon, tv show, movie or video game. I like when my art makes people happy, and nothing makes people happier than thinking about their favorite childhood cartoons.
One of my most well-known collection is known as the Saturday Morning Remix where I take some of my favorite cartoon characters and redesign them with a more modernized look. It’s a lot of fun, especially when redesigning an originally non-human character and figuring out how to them human while still represent some of their most prominent non-human features.
Of course, I’m most proud of my viral image. Usually I’m not a fan of just doing fan art all the time so at first, I figured people just liked it because of the mix of two very well-known shows, Boondocks & Dragon Ball Z. But it turned out that most people loved it for the dialogue. That made me feel much better when I found that out because it made me feel like people actually respected my talent (and wit) and not just the fact that it’s their favorite characters. I always appreciated that.
What sets me apart is my ambition. Granted, it took me a while to find it, but once I found it, I couldn’t stop creating. There are days where I’ve lost sleep just because I wanted to finish coloring a piece or even times when I’ve woken up from my sleep because of an idea I had and I wanted to get it on paper as soon as possible. It’s crazy how much of a transformation it’s been for me. I used to be the kid who valued sleep over everything, the “eh I can do it tomorrow” type of mindset.
Now, to me, sleep is nothing but a 6-hour interruption to my creative process. Another thing that I feel sets me apart a lot are the ideas that run through my head. A lot of times I feel like my ideas can be silly or dumb but those are the ones that end up being the most creative and popular. There are so many ideas flowing through my head at any given moment, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to create all of them.
Sometimes my ideas expand past just artwork, but go into music and filming as well, but unfortunately, I don’t have the talent for those and I don’t have the time to learn how to make music from nothing, though I always have ideas in my head as to what I would do in terms of making a beat and whatnot, I just don’t have the time or patience to learn to create a beat in the many programs that allow you to.
Hence, why I developed a knack for beatboxing. So even if I can’t make the beat, I can always direct someone to do it the way I would want to with ease. After paying them of course, because people in creative fields deserve to be compensated for the use of their talents. But I digress, to answer the question, my ideas and ambition.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would just be a bit more selective about my clientele and also learned to balance my day job and the business better. The reason I mention the clientele is because I have gotten ripped off in the past but that’s when I was first starting out and very naive. I’ve learned much since then.
Pricing:
- Twitch Emotes & Badges – $20
- Custom Snapchat Filters – $40
- Custom Character Design – up to $80 (depending on details and size)
- Logos – $90
- Cover Art & Custom Illustrations – $150
Contact Info:
- Email: artofkimbo@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofkimbo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artofkimbo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Artofkimbo
- Other: https://kimbohenry.artstation.com
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