Today we’d like to introduce you to Rey Acevedo.
Rey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been drawing and designing for as long as I can remember. At a very young age, I started teaching myself how to draw, the first book I remember reading from cover to cover was How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. I became very fascinated with comics and the art form. I would spend hours just drawing characters, animals, furniture and anything else I found interesting from around our apartment. As I got older, I became interested in designing. After I graduated from high school, I moved from the Bronx, New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to attend The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and earned my Associate of Science Degree in Visual Communication.
Right out of college, I started working for an animation studio and learned how to animate in 2D and 3D. I worked on many fun projects, from a T.V. show to commercials, motion comics, video game animated shorts, and promotional ads. After four years, I left, simply because I wanted to try something new. I got a position as an entry-level footwear designer and I was in that field for over 15 years. During that time, I did a great deal of traveling for the company, to China twice a year, California, Wisconsin, Chicago, and several more states to meet with costumers. I designed footwear brands such as Osiris, Tony Hawk, Champion, Heely’s, Blackhawk, just to name a few.
In 2016 I became a full-time independent contractor. Since then, I have produced a wide variety of commercial art, logo designs, t-shirt designs, tattoo art, company identities, educational workbooks, sequential comic book work and numerous illustrations for Upper Deck/Marvel trading cards. I recently illustrated a children’s storybook called The Adventures of Wukong and Bajie available through Amazon. You can normally find me at any local pop culture event, selling art, books, trading cards, prints etc. As you can see, I have dabbled in many different art forms; I just love being as creative as I can be and not be limited to just one art form or style.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, no, it has not been a smooth road. There’s been many highs and lows to being an independent contractor. The biggest struggle is getting the work to be consistent. There are times I would land a freelance job that would last from either a few weeks to a few months and if I don’t have another job lined up immediately after that, I will end up with some downtime. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of the business.
To offset the downtime, I try to set up a table or booth in as many local pop culture events as I can to sell my artwork and some of my published work. These pop culture events are a great way to meet potential clients. Luckily for me, that has been the case every time.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
Illustrating is my passion. I love to draw fan art from comics and movies. I fell in love with the medium and developed my own art style by emulating artist that I admired. Artists like Arthur Adams, Walter Simonson, Bart Sears, and J. Scott Campbell just to name a few. My two favorite aspects of comic book illustration are pencil sketching and inking.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I have several moments. Seeing my name in the credits of a T.V. show, in print in published comic books and getting to work on sketch cards for Upper Deck/Marvel, also meeting and working with some great people along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: reyacevedo.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @reyacevedoart
- Facebook: @ReyAcevedoArt
- Twitter: @reyacevedoart
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