About Mayzart

My name is May Camp. When I was about eight years old, I saw a book titled "Mozart", and thought, "That sounds like someone's saying Mo's Art!" Since I enjoyed making crafts and art, it was only fitting that I extended this concept to become my brand: May's Art, or Mayzart.

I did a lot of craftwork and drawing when I was little, and started drawing more seriously in High School, but I also had a lot of other interests. I ended up going to a university for Computer Science. I got my Computer Science Bachelor's degree in four years, and then worked as a Software Engineer for four years after that. However, while I was in college/work, I didn't have as much time to do art and other interests as I would have preferred.

One of the biggest regrets that people have on their deathbeds is spending their entire lives doing what is expected of them rather doing what they dreamed of doing.

I learned about this and thought, ‘well I should learn from their mistakes and do what I dream of doing!’ There was just one problem: what do I dream of doing? I have so many interests in life, how can I pick only one?

After years of intense thought, emotional distress, self-discovery, failure, and success, I realized there is an important factor in many things I enjoy doing: I love creating. I grew up making crafts, drawing, painting, story-writing, music-writing, taking pictures, animating, and I wanted to be an artist. What stopped me was the fear of failure, fear that I wasn’t good enough to make it, fear that I wouldn’t be able to make enough money to support myself and would be struggling for the rest of my life.

So I tried it. I saved up enough money to dedicate myself to be a full-time starving artist, quit my job, and faced my fears head-on, because I felt I’d rather take the risk than to be on my deathbed, looking back, and wishing I would have at least tried my best and given one of my dreams a chance.

In my journey to becoming a professional artist, I've been trying a lot of different things to try to monetize it. First, I used my Computer Science skills to code my own official art website so that I could have a main location to display my work. The area I live in doesn’t seem to have a strong support system for professional artists, so I figured I’d focus on my online presence and offer an online storefront to sell my work from. I may also make some money through displaying ads on my website, but this won't amount to much. Especially since I don't want to fill my web pages with ads.

As for the art side of things, I needed to figure out a way to make money. There was just one problem. I love my art too much to be able to let go of it. So, I thought of the next best thing. Sell photography prints! I decided to focus my efforts on learning how to use a professional camera and take professional photos. I had gotten a lot of compliments on my photos in the past, so I at least have an eye for beautiful shots, and I needed to get out more, so this was a fun way to explore!

However, it seems as though this is a very saturated market, so I haven't made much with selling prints. In fact, I still haven't made any online sales at all. I've only sold a few in person.

The next thing I wanted to focus on was creating a YouTube channel. I've always enjoyed watching art get created from start to finish, so I decided to do something like that. And I also enjoy helping people, so offering tips is something I’d like to do there as well.

I started getting more serious about doing YouTube videos on October 1, 2019. This was during an Inktober Ink Art Challenge, so I had plenty of content to create for YouTube. However, I burned out pretty quick. It turns out, YouTube is more of a marathon than a sprint. It takes a lot of time and effort to gain a following on YouTube, so it may be years before I even start earning money there.

I will need 4000 hours watched within the last 12 months, and 1000 subscribers in order to become monetized on YouTube. The income may not end up being much, but hopefully this can become another revenue stream for me.

In combination with YouTube, I’ve also been trying to gain a following on Patreon. This website allows people to support me monetarily, every month, in exchange for rewards that I would offer. I haven't gotten any support from there so far, but it is something that I'll keep up in hopes that it will go somewhere someday.

Drawing is the medium in which I have the most skill. The majority of my time in high school was spent drawing, since I had so much free time after completing my assignments in class. I learned how to shade really well with a pencil and have a lot of artworks focusing on the shading technique I use.

I also did a lot of coloring while I was in elementary school. I managed to figure out a way to make Crayola colored pencil look very nice. More recently, I've switched to Prismacolor colored pencil, as it is softer and is easier to blend.

However, drawing in general does take a long time to complete, and it's not very forgiving on the hands. So I may shift my focus to Painting.

I'm very new to painting; it's a very different medium from drawing. However, I am learning a lot, and there are definitely art skills that are transferable from drawing to painting that are helping me along. My plan right now is to paint so much that I no longer feel so attached to my work; that way, I can finally sell original art. In the meantime, hopefully people will still be interested in prints!

I would like to get into digital art as well, but drawing tablets that show a screen on the tablet itself are expensive and I need to have a larger income before I invest in one. It is on the todo list!

My other creative interests (that I may or may not be working on at any given time) include: novel writing and character/world building for stories, crafts like origami, paper mache, and clay sculpting, 3D printing, stop motion animation, hand-drawn traditional animation, making/playing music on the piano and guitar, making music electronically, game design, app/program design, and UX design.

After trying to be a professional artist for a few years, I realized that pursuing your dreams/passions and working hard on them are not a guarantee for monetary success. In order to sustain myself, I need to have an income, and for that, I need to find other options for monetary support.

As I mentioned earlier, I have many different interests and had trouble picking a single dream to follow. I tried to do art alone, but it hasn’t worked out as well as I’d hoped. I’ve decided to still pursue it, but at the same time, to make progress on my other interests as well. I realized that I don’t have to limit myself to just one. This opens up a world of possibility for me, and a new mindset to have moving forward.

I have many other interests that are not art related. For those who are curious, here is the nonexhaustive, yet extensive list (in no particular order): cognitive and behavioral psychology and sociology, analysis, solving puzzles, computer programming, artificial intelligence and machine learning, philosophy, epistemology, ethics, logic, math, science, self-improvement, staying mentally and physically healthy, being prepared, others’ perspectives, juggling, fencing, bouldering (rock climbing without ropes/harnesses), playing non-fps video games, playing board games, watching good movies/tv/youtube videos, reading, literary analysis, learning, teaching, justice, laws and the court system, debates, body language, animals, the environment, nature, hiking, cats, and dragons.