Sammy Khalid a Concept Designer, Illustrator, and NFT artist who works primarily in the entertainment industry, specifically film/TV and animation. Furthermore, he also designs characters, sets, vehicles, and props. His job as an illustrator allows him to create artwork for different brands, games, and publications. On the other hand, as an NFT artist, he creates customized and personal artwork that he sells to collectors through digital ‘galleries’/platforms.
Upon graduating college, Sammy realized that in order to enter the film industry, his work at least needed to be as good as (if not better) the current professionals that he admired. Thus, this revelation resulted in him starting to take painting seriously.
In order to pursue his dream career, Sammy put a hold on his social life and made an 8-hour daily painting schedule to simulate working in a studio. Luckily, he was living with his extremely supportive parents during this time. Therefore, he did not have to pay any rent. This gave him the time to really focus on becoming better at drawing.
At this point, Sammy was already making money through freelance storyboard gigs and editorial illustrations which helped him cover his living costs. Sammy spent his money quite wisely. Instead of wasting money on materialistic things, he re-invested his earnings into mentorships in environment design, matte painting, and character design from some of his favorite artists.
They helped him build a professional portfolio that got him into the film and entertainment industry working in a VFX house as a concept artist/matte painter. Ever since then, Sammy has been working full time as a concept artist/illustrator. He has even gotten the chance to work for dream clients like Disney, Netflix, and HBO on projects such as Black Mirror, Artemis Fowl, and League of Legends. This job has given him amazing flexibility to work from anywhere in the world and garner immense success.
Sammy says that his job has given him some wonderful flexibility which allows him to work from anywhere in the world. Thus, he can focus on his work and career while spending some time traveling. He states that in 2019/2020 he spent the entire year traveling around the world with his fiancé.
They lived in different cities such as Bangkok, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, and Nha Trang where they learned more about different people and their cultures. Sammy absolutely loves the freedom of movement that his career allows him to have. He is not bound by the typical 9 – 5 job which can often tend to get very boring but can even work while he is traveling.
Last year Sammy challenged himself to create 365 paintings daily outside of his client work. Even though this was not an easy task to accomplish, it was actually very rewarding as it helped him grow his following on Instagram from 600 to over 20000 in just a year.
The huge Instagram audience and online fame were also some things that helped him score great projects and gain success. After hitting the 10k followers, he did not find the need to look for clients, the clients came to him. Sammy states that he is ever so grateful and humbled to be able to do what he loves.
This is a Contributor Post. Opinions expressed here are opinions of the Contributor. Influencive does not endorse or review brands mentioned; does not and cannot investigate relationships with brands, products, and people mentioned and is up to the Contributor to disclose. Contributors, amongst other accounts and articles may be professional fee-based.