Mermaid Drawing

I’ve never done animation. I don’t really think it’s a course Art Center College of Design offers. I was a straight up illustration major. At the time I was attending ACCD (2001-2005), there wasn’t an entertainment track. Publication was celebrated, everyone who was anyone did editorial illustration- or they’d suffer the harrowing hardships that is the fine art gallery world. I never really bought into that whole thing. I loveeee illustration and it’s obviously great. It takes a lot of work to create a story in a single image. Illustration has it’s value, and the skills I learned in the foundations at Art Center were beyond measure. I didn’t want to do editorial though, I am not one for continually trying to sell myself or hitting the streets with constant barrages of self promotion. (I know, I know, I have a blog now; the irony isn’t lost on me that I am self promoting).

Instead of going the editorial route, I wanted to have a “real” job or somewhere I could have some type of security. I have no issues psychologically with being a “corporate artist” in fact I rather enjoy it. I like working for Disney and I like the collaborative nature that a film, animation and gaming bring to artistry. While I am pretty introverted personally, I never particularly held much value in my work as an individual. So while I was at Art Center I changed majors twice to get classes I thought would be more valuable than Illustration 1,2 & 3 along with the other required editorial based courses. Instead I took film classes, storyboarding classes, and 3D modeling classes. In the early 2000’s computer graphics were just starting to get good, the computer was being utilized more and more as an industry medium and physical painting was on it’s way out. So I sort of paved my own way through the education system of Art Center and created what I thought I needed to make it as a corporate artist. I guess I was successful!

Though I don’t do animation I have been trying to get that style in my drawings. I love the fluidity that story artists and visual development artists have in animation. They have such a playful style and their line work and expressive drawings are enviable. Gestural drawings were not all that celebrated at Art Center. Realism and anatomy coupled with technique were definitely emphasized. As a result you end up with that cookie cutter design style you see from the students graduating from ACCD. Not bad obviously because they’re fantastic artists… just sort of stiff.

This mermaid has nothing to do with anything, though it is an animated gif.