Artist Feature: April Johnston
April Johnston is also known as @AprilSketcho on Instagram. Her Lore Olympus fanart is easily recognizable for its fun, quirky crossovers and unique humor.
Who did you get on our Hades' dog character quiz? And do you agree?
I got Cerberus, the largest dog with the smallest steps. I’m pretty loyal to Hades, so yeah, I would agree. Also I’m an old dog that eats leftovers and would defend our cinnamon roll to the ends of the earth.
Art by April Johnston
How long have you done art? What mediums have you tried?
Um, I remember the 80s? Although I liked comics and cartoons as a kid, I didn’t really get into art until after high school, I went to a simple 4yr college for graphic design and did an emphasis in traditional oil painting. So I took all the basic classes for figure drawing, painting, color theory, etc. I feel it was pretty well rounded since I didn’t have the money for a true “art school” but honestly it was an average education. I don't have natural talent, I REALLY have to work at it. I then got a job as a production artist for web design and moved up to being a creative art director for quite a few years, but after having a family, I changed gears, and now I’m a commissioned oil painter.
Art by April Johnston
I didn’t get into digital art until just a few months ago when we all got stuck at home and I had some time on my hands. It was one of those, "I'll get to it someday". Well, now I could dedicate some time into learning something new. At first I was only sharing on some private Facebook groups, then some Twitter, then Discord galleries, then I'm like, I need to put this ALL IN ONE PLACE. So Instagram @AprilSketcho was born.
Everything has been self taught, tutorials online and following artists I admire. Technology is light years ahead of where I started, but the techniques and story telling of traditional art has let me transfer over to this digital medium pretty seamlessly, it’s just another tool for an artist to use. But like, thank goodness for the undo button, amirite?
My setup now is an iPad Pro, Generation 2 Pencil and Procreate software with a few custom brush packs.
How would you describe your style?
I’m still developing but for my current fan art, I incorporate a ton of bright saturated colors, textures, splatter, dust and noise, luminous glow and glitter. I color my fanart like I would paint on traditional canvas, throw it on, see what sticks.
Art by April Johnston
For line art, I use solid black inking lines unlike Rachel’s signature textured cutout style, and my faces are more exaggerated in emotion. More ridiculously comical I suppose? I’m going for the quick laugh or a feeling, not necessarily perfection. And it’s evolving right now. Stuff I posted just a month ago is already different from what I’m doing now. Hi! I’m April: totally inconsistent.
(Someday I secretly hope people see my art and say, oh yeah, April did that.)
Art by April Johnston
What made you interested in doing crossovers?
I’m a pop culture junkie that eats way too much popcorn and binge watches too many streaming services.
I suppose in a different life I would have loved being a movie director, or like a storyboard artist, or heck, maybe just being the guy that drives people around in the golf cart between sets? So maybe it’s just personal wish fulfillment.
But honestly, I like breaking down character tropes and in this case, crossovers make me dissect the similarities when compared and contrasted to other stories.
What makes good storytelling? Why are we drawn to certain stories? What makes these characters tick? What can we learn from the actions taken by these characters and contrast it with our own reality? How do people react when the story is being told? Do we empathize, sympathize or vilify? It’s like a deep dive into the psyche of fictional characters and understanding their motivations. Welcome to my TedTalk.
Tell us your Lore Olympus story. What got you into Lore Olympus? What made you stay?
Humor is very important to me. I need it in my life. A lot of the Webtoons I subscribe to are actually in the humor or Slice of Life category, not necessarily the romance but I don’t back away from a good story. So when I had found LO, (it had just moved over from Discover at that time and was only a few episodes in), I was initially drawn to Rachel’s use of color. It was so high contrast and textured and different from what other Webtoons were doing, I thought “this is so unique” and I liked it. I knew quite a bit about mythology, so the spin on making Hades and Persephone modern and changing the narrative was also very appealing. So I gave it a subscribe.
And then, I started reading and could. not. stop.
I was pleasantly surprised at Rachel’s injections of humor. Dry, clever, relatable, right up my alley. I think I turned the corner on episode 7 when Hades is like “What’s Cerberus losing his sh*t about?” And starts running down the hall screaming. I felt this in my bones. Then Rachel hit me with Persephone’s internal screaming “find a filter!”, then the idiot trio at brunch with the “guuuhhhh”, Eros at the mall throwing the list away over his shoulder, so many good moments! And when we got to Ares!? Lord! *Throws hands up and waves them all around*
Art by April Johnston
And the cliffhangers?! OMG, so well done. It’s a Never-ending Soap opera. I’ll die from them. “Here lies April: died from Rachel’s slow burn.”
So the timing was perfect, I started looking forward to updates. I thought to myself, this is my kind of humor, kind of a rom-com but better, if she keeps this up, it’s gonna be gold.
The next wave that hit me was after the winter hiatus where Webtoons implemented Fastpass and I could visibly see the fandom growing exponentially on multiple social media sites. I became a Patreon, I got on Discord, I’m in multiple FastPass groups, it’s crazy the amount of LO fans that wanted to talk about this story 24/7, me included. And Rachel shared back with us! Retweeting cosplays are artwork, recording chitty chats, tons of Patreon content, Discord previews! It was refreshing to see a creator so open with her process. I was hooked.
Art by April Johnston
So people all over the world started sharing their opinions and their theories after an episode drop of what was going to happen next which then evolved into the memes, vibes, in-jokes, nomenclature, and thirst. This dialogue sparked an enormous influx of creativity. Amazingly talented cosplayers brought these characters to life, thousands of fan artists would draw LO in their style, podcasters started talking about it, people were doing Tik Toks, video essays, writing fanfic, sculptures, tattoos, any and every medium was not left unchecked. It’s glorious and I also wanted to share!
So we were all hit with an overwhelmingly evolving creative storm and it’s beautiful to watch and to be a part of. At this point I’m just riding the chaos wave.
Art by April Johnston
If you could body snatch one LO character for a day, who would it be?
This is a ridiculously hard question, Hades and Persephone are a given and Eros would be my ride or die, Ares is my go-to chaos boy and we would start some shit...
Art by April Johnston
I’m kidding, I’d probably just hang with Hermes and play video games all day.
Art by April Johnston
Which Lore Olympus fan art are you most proud of and why?
I’m proud of my Labyrinth crossover because it was specifically drawn only for Rachel. When I heard the Henson Company picked up the rights, I was so incredibly happy for her. It amazes me that I can support an artist I admire on the other side of the world. Her comic has inspired me and thousands of people to create again or maybe create for the very first time. That is a very special gift to give someone: motivation.
Art by April Johnston
Art by April Johnston
Any advice for someone looking to build their art skills?
I’m by no means an expert, I’m really not even that talented or fast so I feel weird dealing out advice, but here is what I did:
Practice. Every. Day.
It’s not some magical medium, or expensive tool or top of the line software. It’s practice. And practice takes time and discipline and not all of us have that. And that’s okay. It’s not a race.
2. Forget Perfection.
Fail! Screw up! Try something different! I’m serious! Keep doing it over. I redraw all the time, and still my lines aren’t perfect, my lighting isn’t quite right, the colors are off, I know that. There are some projects that I’m like... yeah, no one is going to see this trainwreck. But who cares! It’s fan art and it’s just practice. If I waited until it was perfect I would never share it! And if I’m really burned up about it, delete and move on!
3. Follow mentors
I follow a lot of artists and I’m always fascinated that they share so much so freely online. Processes, techniques, tools, tutorials, speed paints, brushes, I feel like anything I want to learn about I can find online. So find your community of mentors and artist heroes to follow. Study what they are doing. Figure out why you like the things they create. You will be surprised at the schooling you will get just by having a constant stream of artwork being thrown at you!
4. share your work
As for sharing, it’s hard to open yourself up to criticism, I get that. People online can be harsh and hide behind a screen name but they can also be very supportive as well. We live in a world of likes and comments, but that doesn’t define your artwork or it’s worth. Sift through the comments that help you, throw away the ones that don’t. I’m sharing my fan art with a fan group that I admire, that makes me laugh and inspires me to push harder. I’m showing it to other artists so they can see my process and screw ups and maybe help me get better since that is a goal of mine. So don’t be scared, share yours too. I’d love to see it.
5. give thanks
I’m still flabbergasted that people want to see my dumb drawings. I love that I can elicit a laugh or comment or even a small connection to Lore Olympus fans that have like minded in-jokes or crossover prompts. While my fanart is for myself, I’m glad I can share a piece of me and my dumb humor to so many that find it entertaining. I love making people laugh. So thank you for following and thanks for reading! Can't wait to talk LO with you on the flip side.
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