Disney Character Designer answers your questions about Concept Art, Character Design for Animation, Digital Painting & Illustration.
For over ten years, I've been reviewing character design portfolios online, at comic cons and art school Q&A sessions.
In that time, I've met many artists with charming personalities and impressive technical skills.
…but a true Character Designer is extremely hard to find.
True Character Designers get consistent work.
True Character Designers sell lots of books and prints at cons.
…and some of them create characters who will outlive us all.
Here are some of my favorite articles and interviews that will help you transcend the trends and begin to create characters with soul...
In part one of this interview, Sarah Marino told the story of the struggle to find her calling as a professional artist and how she got her first animation job – not in the art department – but as a production assistant.
In this episode Sarah talks about her success in both animation and kidlit, her new gig as a background painter and VisDev artist at Nickelodeon, her new course at The Oatley Academy and how a single post-it-note doodle changed her life forever…
This is the transcript for the podcast episode Interview With Sarah Marino: Visual Development Artist For Nickelodeon & Reel FX (Part 2) :: ArtCast #77 To listen to the podcast click here.
Chris: This is Chris Oatley’s Artcast, episode 77, an interview with Sarah Marino, Visual Development Artist for Nickelodeon and Reel FX, part 2.
Two years ago, my friend and Oatley Academy colleague Sarah Marino appeared on what is, to date, the most frequently downloaded episode of The ArtCast: The Rising Stars Of Animation.
Like every other guest on that show, Sarah has, as I predicted, gone on to great success.
After wrapping as a visual development artist on The Book Of Life (the gorgeous new animated feature from Reel FX) she moved to Burbank to join the art department on Nickelodeon’s new preschool series Shimmer and Shine.
In this episode, Sarah shares the story of her happy, creative childhood, her positive experience at Ringling College Of Art and Design and the subsequent, disarming struggle of breaking into the animation industry.
…and in the Q&A segment, we respond to a listener question about developing your concept art portfolio.
This is the transcript for the podcast episode Interview With Sarah Marino: Visual Development Artist For Nickelodeon & Reel FX (Part 1) :: ArtCast #76. To listen to the podcast click here.
Chris: Chris Oatley’s Artcast, episode 76, an interview with Sarah Marino, background painter and visual development artist for Nickelodeon, part one.
Think about your best friend.
How long did it take for you to really get to know each other?
Hopes and fears, experiences and expectations, strengths and weaknesses, victories, failures, pet peeves and passions…
Whether he or she is your spouse, partner, close family member, colleague or high school BFF, the friendship has taught you that people are unique and endlessly complex.
The job of the professional character designer is to design characters.
…unique, complex people who seem no less unique or complex than your BFF.
In more than a decade of reviewing character design portfolios at art school Q&A sessions, comic cons and online, I have met many skilled artists.
…but I almost never meet an aspiring or pre-professional character designer who actually understands the job.
Typically, these artists rush into the design without getting to know the character.
So if you feel like your characters are flat or your designs are unoriginal, here are three ways you can add depth to your character design portfolio…