Yanal Sosak Joins BlenderNation as Art Editor

I’m super happy and proud to announce that BlenderNation has made its first hire! Yanal Sosak will be joining me as part-time Art Editor for a period of at least two months. Yan will focus on discovering the best Blender art projects and interviewing the artists behind them to learn the secrets of their projects. He’ll also take the occasional detour to discuss new or upcoming Blender functionality.

Yan did some art editing for me last year, and you will recognise him from ‘Yan’s Daily Tips’ – a column that he will continue under his own brand.

During these two months, we will figure out if I can financially sustain this and how we can grow his role. I’m paying him from the donations that I receive on Patreon (and then some more), so if you appreciate his articles here, please consider contributing too!

Hi Yanal! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi Bart, I feel like you gave a great introduction already but I’ll do my best.

Hey guys! Introducing yourself can be quite hard am I right?

I am a self employed character artist in France (15 minutes away by metro from the beautiful Champs-Élysées in Paris) working my very best everyday to achieve my dreams. In-fact, I am not so different from each and every one of you. I struggle everyday as an artist and as a human being, which I believe is the beauty of life.

I graduated at the end of last year, however I consider myself completely self taught. I believe that we live in a beautiful age where everything is available one click away.

I spend a lot of time creating art, doing videos for my Youtube channel, and maintaining my daily routine. That said, art is only one part of my life.

I keep a healthy lifestyle by hitting the gym almost everyday, eating healthy and dedicating some free time to enjoy my life.

In my free time, I watch TV-shows, anime, play games, hang out with friends and party!

I am a strong believer in living life the way you want to, and not the way you are told to, you just have to earn it.

What is your history with Blender?

People often say, it is the artist and not the tool. While there is truth to that, Blender sure is a fun and powerful tool.

As I mentioned earlier, I went to University. It is more of a management school, but the first 2 years we did some 3ds Max and Maya.

We had a transfer student who sat next to me, he used Blender. He was quite proud of it, and completely rejected 3ds Max and Maya. The majority of the students and teachers dissed the program no matter how hard he tried to sell it to us. Sad part is, he was actually very skilled. People were just blinded by the fact that it was Blender.

Being generally open minded, I was always curious on why he was so stubborn with this program. I decided to go against the flow and give it a go for a month.

Surely enough, a few months later I completely dropped Max and Maya and switched to Blender. This didn’t always sit well with my classes but I simply enjoyed Blender, knew how powerful it was, and the potential it has.

After a while, I was introduced to the community, which completely blew my mind. You definitely won’t get that with the other programs. Either way, 3 years later and I am completely satisfied with the choice that I made, ignoring everyone who told me that I would regret it.

What are you hoping to contribute to BlenderNation?

BlenderNation brings so much for the community, and I want to help take that even further.

There are great artists out there that go unnoticed, I will make it my mission to find them, and bring their art here to get the exposure that they deserve. I will also reach out to artists for interviews as well.

Moreover, I would like to focus on the readers. I will make sure that the articles are interesting, fun, and helpful. Last but not least, I would like to see the readers interact even more, ask questions, and give comments.

Do you guys want some specific news? Want me to interview your favorite Blender artist? Maybe you saw some great art and would like to know how the artist did it? Just let me know in the comments below or send me an email with a request. I’ll reach out and make it happen.

I am very excited to join the team, and bring in as much as I can to the table. I have a lot of great ideas, and hopefully you guys will like what is coming!

How can people reach you?

You can reach me either on: [email protected] or on twitter @yanalsosak.

Thanks!

Please give Yanal a warm welcome :)