Meet Ariel Medilo | Artist, Illustrator & All Around Man of Culture

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ariel Medilo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ariel, why did you pursue a creative career?
As years passed I always noticed that I kept coming back to art. Whether it was in high school, college, or in my adult life it has always been a deep part of who I am as a person. I grew up admiring comics, manga, anime, and cartoons as any kid and had dreamed of eventually having a series of my own one day.

From the stories I had read or watched as a kid, I loved the details in a character’s design or the environments they had lived in. I imagined worlds far away and vastly different with characters of my own making. This became an itch I had to scratch and I needed to put these ideas onto paper. I drew my favorite characters from manga and even characters that I came up with while daydreaming in class. I even built cities, heroes, and monsters out of legos to reenact scenes in my head which led my parents to believe I wanted to be an engineer funny enough.

Even though I had studied engineering in college, I had dreaded not being able to focus on art and kept going back to it. At that point in time, I knew I had to just pursue art whatever the means necessary. The feeling of being able to create something from nothing is amazing and the fact that I am able to slowly create a career out of it is crazy.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
If this is the first time you are getting to know me let me tell you about my background! For those of you who do know me, thank you so much for your support! I’m Filipino and I’m originally from Seattle, Washington. I moved down to Arizona when I was about 13 and been living there since. I love food aside from anime and comics so if you see me please let me know of any good eats! My overall goal is to create an amazing series and maybe even a line of anime clothing that people can enjoy! So let me tell you about my work!

What sets my work apart from other artists is that it is very graffiti like and utilizes a combination of vibrant saturated colors and thick lines. I think a lot what attributes to the colors is because I print all my artwork in house. Pretty much every single piece I have finished, I have printed out various versions with minor to major color changes whether it be adding some more reds, changing the tone, etc. Plus since I print on matte paper it gives off a traditional look and it’s always fun to see people get surprised when I tell them its all digital art.

I am really proud that about the amount of work I have done the last three years since I officially started professionally selling my work back in 2019, right before the pandemic. It was rough trying to figure out how to get into conventions and whatnot but I think I am getting the hang of it. There is a good amount of capitol you need in order to start selling your artwork and that was something I had struggled with. My biggest tip to anyone who starts out is to save up. Just save until you have enough to get into a anime or comic convention cause trust me when I tell you you are going to need to spend money before you make money. Social media and networking is another thing that is hard to do but is definitely apart of the job. As an artist you are many hats in the business until you can hire someone. You’re the customer support, social media manager, accountant, business owner, sometimes even manufacturer. So buckle in and start getting ready to be a jack of all trades. Also if you’re in the point of time asking yourself or others if something is going to work, you’re not gonna know unless you do it. So do it and even if you fail you’ll learn some valuable lessons from it.

Definitely do not under value your time especially! There only so much time in the day and if you find yourself working on something for hours and only getting paid chump change you need to re-evaluate how precious that time is. I’ve done some work for people and realized I was getting paid less than $5.00 an hour for the amount of work I put in. Please do not fall into that especially if you think you’re a novice. People will come to you if they want your artwork so you might as well take the time to practice and draw for yourself.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a huge foodie~! First off I would ask them what type of cuisine do they want to try and then pinpoint some local favorites and new places I have not gone to yet. There’s small places like Nanay’s, Taqueria Mi Casita, Taquito Jalisco’s, Little Miss BBQ, and Junn all you can eat sushi that are my go to restaurants. Desserts places would be Cinnaholic, Frutilandia, Snow Time, Bruster’s and the Great Gadsby Bakery. Honestly I could go on and on about different place to go just in the valley alone. If they are willing to drive out with to Flagstaff or Tuscon I definitely have some more spots I would love to explore with them! Fat Olives, the Tourist, Rock Springs Pies, American Eat Co are just a few spots I know that people would love!

If we’re not talking food I definitely love checking out anime or comic book stores. So local spots like Collector’s Marketplace and Samurai Comics I would definitely drop by and hangout at. Activity wise going to the local art galleries would be something as well as crazy stuff like axe-throwing or going to the firing range. There’s a few locations like that which I think anyone would have fun. The & Gallery in Tuscon is another place we would have to checkout since they feature a ton of local artists which spans from all different types of mediums. You can also see some of work there!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shout out my loving fiancée soon to be wife, Cassandra Hershey. She has helped support me over the last 8 years together and has always encouraged me to pursue my passion for art. Not only that she has kept me together when I was in my lowest and was the one who originally told me not to give it up and has continued to push me to improve and get better and better, If there is anyone who deserves this shoutout it is her and I honestly do not thank her enough for all the support and love she has given me throughout these years.

Website: https://www.exodamartworks.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exodamartworks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/exodamartworks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExodamArtworks

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsEyWk6eAYg5JWDpFB4kstw