Having pieces where a person can say “There’s a lot going on” can be a mixed bag. Mostly, artworks that have a lot going on means it’s a hodgepodge of nothingness just thrown together in a messy piece. But it takes craftsmanship to have a lot going on and compose it in a way that looks beautiful to the audience and is able to convey clear emotions. Mojitopop is one of those rare artists who can fill their media with elegant details while maintaining their overall aesthetic value and emotional impact. Today, Mojitopop agreed to interview with us and share their story, what inspired them, and to talk about some of their pieces.
Hello! Can you tell us about yourself and your relation to the art scene?
“Hey there! Tbh I think I’ve been enjoying drawing all the way back since I was 2 (according to the date on some awful torso-less stickman of mine). Whether it was due to not having game consoles or trying to be more of an interesting person I still remember pulling off all-nighters just for the sake of drawing random doodles inspired from art I’d see on DeviantArt or some Pokémon official art.
And maybe around 5-6 years ago I’ve started peaking on twitter and that sorta gave me a positive feedback loop to start drawing more consistently and improving to what is my art style to this day.
IRL I’m kinda sloppy but for anything art related I usually end up spending a tedious amount of time to make it as good as it can be usually for two reasons: first one is if I already spent so much time working on something, 15 minutes of extra polishing would be worth it when I look back on it later on.
second reason is probably procrastinating because it’s easier to keep working on something almost finished rather than starting something new from scratch. Downside of that is that I’m really slow and can’t really do sketches without them ending up as complete illustrations.”
How do you create these pieces such as your floral Who Am I To Judge and PHD work?
“Finding ideas for what to draw is usually a whole topic for me. I rarely start something with an idea in mind (think of it at best some sort of concept or topic the drawing would be about + rough idea of a pose + rough idea of the composition) and it often ends up different than the beginning sketch because I usually just go with the flow with “what look nice”.
I really hate starting from a blank canvas I always need to have references or art at hand to help me start the process and (thankfully) most of the time the final result looks completely different from the refs.
But most of the time I can’t really force myself to have a pic idea on command, it’s really always about having that random spark of genius random inspiration. I like to expose myself to as much art media as possible in order to increase odds of finding a random thing that inspires me or gives me an idea. I have a dedicated twitter timeline without shitpost accounts and only sfw art account I like to scroll when looking for ideas. Otherwise listening (and watching the animations ) to random asian electro vocaloid-like / indie animations / MAD video can give me ideas, it’s honestly just a gut feeling so I suppose the end result doesn’t feel too much like a bland manufactured product.
More sporadically, the inspiration can be a random metaphorical scene to express my current emotional state which can be pretty cathartic.
For example the obvious PHD art piece started from a small facial expression doodle and I ended up putting it in a whole pic because I was pretty much at the end of my university career that lasted almost nine years and how stressful that was not only from the amount of work but mostly the anxiety of the waiting process for all the administrative paperwork with an almost non-existent student help desk.
For the flowery one I got inspired from this COTL artwork https://www.tiktok.com/@fiorkarttk/video/7491067901659680005 and also cuz I like doodling flowers and I always wanted to draw a “buried in flowers” kind of concept. For the other side it is again related to work life and paperwork, and it was more so an allusion to how much divergence your life path could have depending on what kind of career field you decide to get yourself into.
And for the title? I was listening to some YouTube let’s play of someone causing mayhem in a simulator game and he said that sentence and I thought to myself ‘yeah that’s vague enough to fit in any context’”
I love all the rabbits and cats! Is there a connection you have to these animals that makes you want to feature them in your work so often?
“You see them often because they’re my OCs! I’m honestly quite bad at creating new designs and to avoid always having to wonder what kind of character to draw for a picture just using pre-existing OCs makes it much easier, beside who doesn’t like having lots of art of their own OCs?
When I first started drawing, I would be using those how to draw manga books to get a basic grasp of anatomy, but I’d always hated drawing noses and ears. So I kinda just drew those eyes-only featureless faces dummies kinda art style (think of it like character like those minus the animal ears, those came later to make those bald heads a bit less boring lol https://x.com/Mojitopop/status/1758266629278814597)
As to why I’m more leaning into the cartoonish animal side, I’ve always been disappointed on how lot of Asian media like mascots and ads often use cute critters and such creative stuff whereas western medias have the usual bland corporate human style.
Also probably questionable looking animal cartoons may have an influence too but who knows.”
What are your likes and dislikes regarding texture and line quality?
“Concerning lines depending on the type of work I want to do. For a minimalistic piece with flat colors and the minimum of cell shading I would go for the sharp basic pencil brush tool. Downside is it have to be very perfectionist as each lines can’t be as vaguely places as it’d be with a more fuzzy brush.
For sketches or more painting-ish pieces, my go-to brush is any brush with a fuzzy noise texture to inherently give some texture and more interesting than just a flat line (i.e the chalk brush in CSP or Spectra in Procreate), usually I tweak it so that pressure affect the brush size but barely impact the opacity or else I end up with almost invisible detail lines. If the lines feel too light duplicating and merging the line art layer usually helps. Downsides are since the lines are fuzzy, the process of putting the color flats have to be done manually as the colors can smear under the lines and it looks weird.
With both type of brush sometimes at the end I manually add an extra layer of thicker outline to “frame” and make the character pop out more out of the background.
As for the hatching, I think it’s an interesting kind of texture, especially when it is hand drawn rather than using a template texture (not sure how but it looks better to me imo). Usually, I try my best to make my pieces look “clean”, almost “professional” and sometimes rendering with painting brushes looks a bit too messy, scratches and hatchings is a good way to improve any drawing without risking making it “complicated yet barely decent” kinda vibe (imagine reading mangas without texturing and only ink flats that’d be quickly boring).
But most of the times when I use hatching it’s mostly because I see a piece with those textures and I tell myself ‘This looks cool I got to try that’”
What’s your preferred thematic/aesthetic you like to bring out in your art?
“My preferred thematic and aesthetic in art tends to revolve around a kind of emotional ambiguity, I like to evoke a vibe or gut feeling that can’t be easily put into words, but that resonates on a subconscious level. It’s often a blend of something cute or visually simple displayed inside a more ominous or liminal atmosphere i.e simple characters whose whole purpose is just to exist in a sterile, hermetic void or surreal backgrounds. It gives a strong contrast and almost makes the character feel like a visual anchor in a dreamlike or symbolic space.
Some of my pieces are more introspective, like vent art, even though it seems not to always be obvious (which ain’t a bad thing ig) it’s more about channeling a sentiment/feeling than illustrating it directly. Overall, I enjoy experimenting with mood, contrast, always to create in fine something with some sort of context that’s open to your own interpretation. (even though my own interpretation is the true one lol but I’m never openingly expressing my opinion, so you’ll have to make up your own).”
Do you work on animations? If so, what’s that like? If not, any mixed media works?
“I suppose I’m pretty straight forward and hardly get out of my comfort zone so I wouldn’t really come up with something original like abstract stuff or mixed media stuff unless I’ve seen something beforehand that’d inspire me (so again it’s really about exposing yourself to as much pieces and inspirations as possible until something clicks).
For animation I’m not really sure I never really delve too deep into animation techniques and such, I just stuck to the very basic of drawing each frames individually by hand. I’ve mostly done idle animations loops where it’s mostly doing the same line art several time over the same sketch and let the small difference and imperfection make the animation feel a bit more alive. Kind of less scary than starting off with a complicated dynamic action pose. And only then as I get more comfortable and start making very simple gesture loop and so on.
In the end it feels really rewarding especially when you can synchronize the animation to some song that inspired the animation and that you’ve been listening in loop during all the work process lol.”
What are your future plans with art in your life?
“During my years I often had periods where I just didn’t draw because I got tired of it but I’d always end up going back to it so I think I’m in it for the long run. Probably will never monetize it as I’d rather keep it as a hobby and do what I want. I’d definitely want to try new medium and style but that’d probably only depend on how much motivation and energy I’d have left to spare to try something new.”
Connect today!
We really enjoy looking at the intricate details in Mojitopop’s work and their open-ended themes that can be seen throughout their works. To keep up with their work, you can visit their X account or BlueSky online!