Student Showcase: Connie Hernandez
INTERVIEWED BY ALEXANDRA BADIU
PHOTOGRAPHED BY CONRAD MAXWELL-GIROD
When did you decide you wanted to pursue a career as a comics artist?
When I was in about 7th grade I did that thing a lot of young anime fans do and decided, “I’m going to go to Japan and become a Manga-ka!” I wanted to have a published series by age 15, which was ridiculous. But then when I was actually 15, I went to a comic shop and checked out the smaller print, independent artists’ works in the back and discovered Becky Cloonan’s short stories. That’s when I remembered, “Oh hey, I can do the same thing but in America,” and thus started my more realistic comic artist career.
What was the strangest thing that inspired you in the past?
It wasn’t directly related to comics but my art in general — in 7th grade (again), I was trying to draw a piece of Kleenex, and I realized that the issue I was seeing right then was something no one else would ever be able to witness. Because the air was constantly touching it, and it was shifting in fractional ways on an extremely small scale, no matter how much you tried, there would be no way to make that tissue fold or wrinkle that exact way ever again. It made me feel like literally everything in existence is beautiful. How the things around us are overlooked even though everything is a once in a lifetime experience. It’s one of the reasons I really like trying to capture small moments and feelings in comics. Besides the fact that I’m kind of a cheesy person.
What is your creative process?
A lot of what I draw and write about is just feelings. As in, I think about a feeling I had once or a feeling I want a set of characters to have, and then I run those feelings through my head until I think up dialogue. Most of it I think is pretty standard after that: thumbnailing and sketching, penciling things, inking them, coloring them sometimes.
What is the most challenging part of being an emerging comics artist?
Definitely getting over my fear of talking to people. I’m incredibly scared of reaching out and trying to make connections (which is the entirety of how my job is going to work). It’s mostly because I don’t know where to start and I psych myself out when trying to talk to people I admire.
What advice would you give to aspiring comics artists?
Make things you want to make. Don’t worry about trying to draw or write things you think other people will find interesting. When you do that, you’ll get too absorbed in trying to make the thing happen, instead of actually making it happen. When you draw what you’re passionate about, it will show and people will get passionate with you. Also, just draw a lot. Draw everything. Work on the things you’re bad at. Don’t avoid them. Things get better with time and you don’t have to be the best right this second.