The American Airlines Center was packed with fans anxiously waiting for Panic! at the Disco to take the stage. Junior Julia Campopiano rushed around the stadium desperately trying to find a crew member. Finally, she saw a man with a shirt that read “touring crew” standing in front of the popcorn line. She rushed to hand him her digital painting of Brendon Urie, the lead singer. Julia asked him to give it to Urie, and the he promised he would.
“That one’s really special to me because I made it with an actual purpose and it inspired me to start doing art again,” Julia said.
That painting is what ended her year long hiatus from art due to her busy schedule. Panic! at the Disco is Julia’s favorite band and part of the reason her art is where it is today. During middle school, she wanted to pursue animation as a career. She began doodling in her notebooks as a result. Those doodles soon turned into full blown pieces of digital artwork.
It was the end of Julia’s freshman year when she posted her first speed painting video inspired by the song “Death of a Bachelor” by Panic! at the Disco. The piece took 10 hours and 19 minutes to complete.
It was drawn on her iPad using only her finger and the app Procreate. The app automatically time-lapsed and screen recorded the piece as it was completed. This sped up video created by the app is what Julia posted to her YouTube channel dedicated to art.
“Editing things and drawing things and just making a video in general takes so much longer than people actually think it does,” Julia said.
This painting is inspired by the music video for Ariana Grande’s “God is a Woman.” It is junior Julia Campopiano’s most recent video and it took her two hours and 40 minutes to complete.
Even though she was excited for strangers to see her art, the thought of people she knew viewing her channel was intimidating. Julia kept her channel under only her first name so she wouldn’t be identifiable.
“The stuff that I liked was so much more different than how I put myself out there in real life,” Julia said. “I didn’t know how I felt for people to see another side of me.”
However, around the time of the concert, Julia began posting more on her channel. She eventually told people close to her about her YouTube, which showed a drastic change in her attitude towards her art in freshman year.
“Once I started uploading more things…I felt a lot better and a lot more secure,” Julia said.
When Julia was a kid, her mom, Marcie Campopiano, had already noticed an artistic spark. One year during Julia’s childhood, Campopiano and her husband decided to skip a summer vacation and build a new house that included a creativity room for their kids.
“I grew up where dreams weren’t really the most important thing in people’s lives,” Campopiano said. “I think they should be.”
Her mom said that growing up, Julia and her siblings watched YouTube often. Julia taught herself to play the piano only by watching instructional YouTube videos.
“Of all my children, she is the one who if she decides she’s going to do something, it’s going to get done,” Campopiano said.
Few people outside the art community watch art YouTube channels. Julia said that an exception to this is if a YouTuber creates art inspired by a band because fans will flock to the videos.
“It feels kind of weird because you feel like you’re in this exclusive little thing,” Julia said. “No one else watches those except people who do the same thing as you.”
Julia wants to expand her channel in the future to more than just art. She discovered her passion for singing. and wants her channel to become something where she can post covers, art, and whatever else she chooses.
In the future, Julia wants to pursue a career in music production. Even though she is going to make music her top priority in college, she plans to not lose her artistic passion.
“I’ll always be drawing. I’m never going to stop,” Julia said.
