It is easy to fall under the shadow of the many other talented students at Athens Drive. The staff at Athens do their best to recognize and honor the hardworking and dedicated students, including drama teacher Ashlynn Hayes, who sees many students with unique talents through her classes every day. While her students all have unique talents, junior Jason Roblero Perez has been a stand-out student for Hayes. Although Roblero Perez isn’t just recognized based on his performance in the classroom, his personality and talents truly set him apart from his peers.
“Every day I have no idea what’s going to come out of his [Roblero Perez’s] mouth, and It’s really interesting,” said Hayes.
Though Roblero Perez’s personality is distinctive, his passion for drawing is what truly makes him stand out. Inspired by graphic novels he read when he was younger, Roblero Perez started practicing drawing early in life. He even created his first full comic by the sixth grade.
“Basically when I was in third grade, somehow I went into drawing famous characters. The one I drew the most was Sonic the Hedgehog,” said Roblero Perez. “Once I managed to draw some characters and learn how to draw, I thought I should take it to the next level and do others.”
Roblero Perez says that while art classes were beneficial in giving him a new perspective on his art, he was originally self-taught and just enjoyed the creative aspect of drawing. While techniques and the science behind art is a learned skill, Roblero Perez had a natural talent for stylistic choice and imagination. His instruction of technical knowledge in art only improved his work, and his devotion to comic creation grew.
“I self-taught myself, and then when I went to art classes, I managed to learn some other stuff. I was also like, was my art equal to that or not?” said Roblero Perez.
Few people get to say that the work they do is their life’s goal, a true sentiment of who they are as a person. Roblero Perez has come to find drawing to be a source of calmness or an outlet for stress. Like many artists Roblero Perez works on drawing for enjoyment, channeling the stress of life into creative pieces. In this way, he finds fulfillment in his work.
“There was one moment where I completely stopped drawing and I was questioning why. But after thinking about it, I was just a little bit stressed, after a while I decided to go back and continue drawing,” said Roblero Perez.
However, making comics is time-consuming and is much more than just the artwork. Even for professional comic artists, the process of creating a book from ideation to finished product can easily take several months. Roblero Perez also has to take the time to create characters, story plots, and dialogue for his work.
“Outside of school, I’m trying to basically come up with more ideas. I [recently] had to take a break from doing my comics since I kind of needed time to take a breather,” said Roblero Perez.
The creativity conjured for Roblero Perez’s work requires someone with dedication and commitment to storytelling and originality. After practicing drawing classic, popular comic characters, Roblero Perez has been creating characters of his own.
What I’m passionate about is basically if I can come up with something, like if I can combine two characters or try to make something of my own. I just want to take that and figure out where I can go. — Jason Roblero Perez
Roblero Perez wants to continue doing what he loves, he sees a future with his comic creation. He hopes to be recognized for his signature characters, storylines, and drawings.
“Right now I have one [original] character and I would just like to try to make that character and focus on that one instead of just doing others. I would say I would just work on that main character for the rest of my life and make a long series of comics if I could,” said Roblero Perez.
