So, my earliest memories of drawing would be at the age of four. Back then, I was just a little boy who enjoyed doodling in my spare time. I can remember tagging along with my mother to her job every once in a while. Quite content to sit in her office and burn through legal pads with nonsensical drawings. It kept me busy and allowed her to do her job.
This hobby continued. I was a decent young artist, but there were other kids in my class who ran circles around me at that time. Now, I’m not sure if it was blind ambition or flat-out stubbornness, but the competitor that resided in me would become the fuel to push my blossoming talent to new heights.
I never really noticed, but it was during this time that my mother was ill. Something she and my father kept hidden from me. There I was, just an eight year old child who had just lost his mother to breast cancer. This might have been the time period in which my relationship with art changed. It became more than just something to compete against my peers with. I found solace in my drawings, not only was it a way of distracting myself, it had became a form of therapy for me.
By this time I’m in middle school. Other students and a few faculty members are starting to notice my talent. One particular day in science class, we had a free period in which we could do whatever we wanted. I got three sheets of pape, folded them in half and went about my way making my first comic book. I guess there was a breakdown in communication because that’s what I would do in class. The teacher didn’t like it and took the comic and sent a letter home to my father. Unbeknowst to her, she dated my very first comic book and R.SquaD (Rival SquaD) was born 1-13-92.
The problem was that she requested that my father sign the report slip and, that wasn’t in my best interests…There’s a possibility that I may have used those talents to, maybe draw my father’s name on the slip, but that’s another story for another day. I had convinced myself that I wanted to be the youngest cartoonist EVER. I was always a fan of animation and the comic books of the time, so I began to focus more on character development and storytelling.
In high school, I took film and video class to learn more about putting the whole package together. Scene composition, scores, absorbing anything I could to give me an advantage. I took creative writing class to strengthen my writing skills. All the while, not exactly being a favorite of my art teachers. My art was viewed as…not art int the traditional sense, I guess. Yet, I was chosen to design my senior class t-shirts. One of my earliest artistic milestones. The design was so popular that majority of the senior class didn’t get their shirt because they were stolen.
I wanted to go to Memphis College of Art, but my father didn’t view art school as a proper college, so I went the university route. This is when I was introduced to the world of Adobe. I took to Photoshop fairly well, but that that Illustrator, specifically that pen tool, gave me fits. I would use a program called Adobe Streamline to digitize my lineart and once that program was discontinued, I purchased a pen tablet to make lineart a bit easier for me. This was my creative golden age. I was drawing constantly. Sometimes pulling all nighters working on one of my titles.
What originally was coined “Immaculate Inks” would eventually become R. Leland Arts. I must confess, I loved the way M. Knight Shyamalan’s name was setup in regard to his movies…Robert Leland Arts doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same way. A chance encounter with a somewhat known rapper had finally put me in postion to animate. Had a track lined up, courtesy of my good friend and all I wanted to do was make an animated music video. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out but the silver lining was that it forced me to figure out a way to animate without the classic way of creating twenty four frames per second, yet still requiring long nights of rendering due to substandard equipment.
I began to realize my dream was becoming a reality. Tired of burning through cheap laptops, I upgraded my equipment. A gaming laptop would have all that I needed to render faster and I went all in. What use to take sometimes, days to render was done in seconds. This success was not without tradegy. Emboldened by what I knew since a small child coupled with unyielding devotion to my craft ultimately cost me my marriage. Sure, there were other reasons that led to the split, but in the end, she felt that she had to “compete” with a God-given ability.
I’ll be honest here, things got ugly. Not trailer park, barefoot and pregnant-ugly, more like “I know what you did last summer” ugly. It was that pain. That anger and raw emotion that led to my often chased acheivement of animation…
“The Handsome Devil“.
Much like when I was a child, my artwork allowed me to cope with the events taking place in my personal life. With both of my parents gone at this time, I threw everything into the family that I believed I was creating. Not realizing that in that process, I had lost what made me “me”. The completion of that video reignited my passion for success via artwork. Truly a crowning acheivement and solidified that I was more than just someone who drew constantly. I was a writer, I was an illustrator, colorist, editor…I was a one man production company. This is the story of R.Leland Arts, 2025 & Beyond!