Artist 1:
Name: John Nevarez
What: Concept and storyboard artist
Where: Visual Development and Story Artist at Sony Pictures Animation / Freelance Story Artist at Illumination Entertainment
Past: Art Director at Ken Duncan Studios / Freelance Concept Location Designer at Rovio Animation / Former Storyboard Revisionist and Storyboard Artist at Walt Disney Studios/ Sketch Artist at Pixar Animation Studios / Storyboard Revisionist and Story Artist at Walt Disney Television Animation / Story Board Artist at Walk Disney Television Animation
School: Studied Studio Art at University of California Santa Barbara
Home: Concord, California – from East Los Angeles, California
Resources:
https://www.facebook.com/john.nevarez.752?fref=ts
http://john-nevarez-interview.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onXBzj9AJuQ
John Nevarez is an amazing character and storyboard artist. He is constantly producing work and is able to do it in such a fast and clear style. He isn’t afraid of messy lines, it’s what gets the information there. A lot of his quick skills are thanks to his life drawing class he took while in college. It’s what taught him how to get information down on paper in a short period of time. In an interview, Nevarez explained how he creates the characters found in a lot of his work. He believes getting to really know the character helps. Focusing on the expression and attitude of the character is what brings about the pose or physical characteristics they portray. Studying everyone around him and films has really helped him bring life to his characters as well. Seeing how other people act or express themselves is what gives his characters that ability as well. He loves to tell stories through his characters and storyboards which he believes is the “foundation to anything you want to do.” Storyboarding is so important to him because it gives him that ability to construct what they story will look like. And that is what I want to do, I would love to tell stories through my characters and boards. One important piece of advice that Nevarez and his art express is to “stay loose!” I have an incredible issue of paying attention to detail way too soon within a drawing. I get so caught up in one corner of the drawing that I lose sight of the piece as a hole. It’s hard for me to just spit something out and then go in and refine it. Staying loose would allow me to break out of that habit and be comfortable with being messy.
His work:
![14289817_1733111793608594_3072740712129961362_o](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/14289817_1733111793608594_3072740712129961362_o-300x205.jpg)
![13668729_1723225634597210_177899767074608991_o](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/13668729_1723225634597210_177899767074608991_o-300x231.jpg)
![13221278_1691920824394358_2340158235149143505_o](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/13221278_1691920824394358_2340158235149143505_o-300x126.jpg)
Artist 2
Name: Steve Simpson
What: Illustrator
Past: Animator
Home: Dublin, Ireland
Clients: Vodafone / Djeco / Guinness / Heineken / Bushmills / Absolut / Three Mobile / 7up / Kellogg’s / Rowntrees / Hertz / Jameson / Aer Lingus / Penguin Books NYC / Dettol / Modelo / UNREAL / Hamlet / Franke / American Airlines / Wired Magazine / New Scientist / Wall Street Journalz
Resouces:
https://www.behance.net/stevesimpson
http://www.stevesimpson.com/
http://www.headstuff.org/2015/02/interview-steve-simpson-illustrator/
Steve Simpson is an amazing illustrator. His style is whimsical and fun which is something I really resonate with. While he is an amazing drawer, he did start out in the animation industry. He worked on shows such as Danger Mouse and Duckula in Manchester. Then in 1990 he moved to Dublin and worked on Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. By 28 he became an art director, but realized he wanted to do more drawing which led him to leave animation to pursue a freelance illustration career. Now he designs many labels, signs, posters, illustrates for books, packages, and pretty much anything. A lot of his work is just so fun and creative it makes me excited to be able to do the same.I already find that creative drive within my own work, and I would love to continue to push it further. Simpson also believes his experience in both technical illustration and animation cells has helped him develop a “highly flexible style built on traditional drawing.” His illustrations may vary based on the experiences he has had at the time or what his interests are as well. At one point South and Central American folk art influenced the look of his drawings in a major way. They started looking having a more Spanish/Mexican theme to them. Much like Nevarez, Simpson is constantly drawing, filling sketchbooks with both personal and client work. That’s definitely something both of them, and almost all artists’ stress – practice drawing every day! It is also amazing to see digital illustrations printed on tangible objects. What Steve may design on his computer could be printed on a bottle or package and then become something people interact with.
I have always been in to T-shirt designs, so seeing how one artist can create something and turn it into something completely new just by having it printed on an object inspired me to do the same. I finally decided to print two of my old designs on to T-shirts to just see what it was like to have my work as a tangible object – something people could wear and walk around in. It’s amazing! Like many people have interacted with the packages Simpson has designed, and the bottle labels he’s made, others can see or wear my shirt as well. While it’s on a much smaller scale (as far as who is seeing and interacting with my shirts), it is still similar in that kind of way. Having this excitement towards a process/experiment like this, really makes me want to push harder to pursue a career that could give me this same satisfaction. Whether it be concept art, animation, or T-shirt design – I know I can be excited and happy doing it after looking more into these artists I look up to!
His work:
![45c6f6b1-4cee-484c-a19b-0d9882bc1e8e_rw_1200](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/45c6f6b1-4cee-484c-a19b-0d9882bc1e8e_rw_1200-230x300.jpg)
![c4196234183887.56c6d97eb6860](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/c4196234183887.56c6d97eb6860-300x300.jpg)
![a5b42e27598491.56367aa87af11](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/a5b42e27598491.56367aa87af11-230x300.jpg)
![db5da037415165.56066792606c3](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/db5da037415165.56066792606c3-216x300.jpg)
My Work:
![IMG_9791](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/IMG_9791-225x300.jpg)
![Rabbit Stages](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/Rabbit-Stages.png)
After looking through much of John Nevarez’s work, I decided I wanted to develop my own character as well. I sketched out a rabbit character, testing out his facial expressions and how fast I could sketch them out. None of my initial sketches really stuck out to me, but I finally sketched another portrait of the rabbit and decided I wanted to take that specific expression further. So I then took a picture of my sketch and brought it into Photoshop to turn it into a digital illustration. After painting him in, I still decided that wasn’t enough. I wanted him to have more character and be more whimsical like both John’s and Steve’s work. So I looked again at John’s sketches and tried to mimic his technique and quickly painted an astronaut helmet on top of the rabbit in order to get down the form without worrying too much about line-work and detail. After I found the size, position, and shape of the helmet I wanted – I then refined it into my outlined, clean version. After the process I am very happy with how my character turned out.
Here are also the old designs I had printed into T-shirts:
![FullSizeRender (2)](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/FullSizeRender-2-300x224.jpg)
Seeing my designs on T-shirts was such an amazing experience. It’s one thing to have a design printed out on paper, but having it on a shirt creates a completely different way of looking at it. It seems to draw peoples’ attention more. It then becomes something they want. Which is very interesting. With this in mind, I decided to create another illustrative design, inspired by some of the designs and portraits Steve Simpson creates, that could possibly be printed on a shirt as well.
![SunnyMan](https://blogs.bgsu.edu/meradig/files/2016/09/SunnyMan-250x300.png)
I began the sketch with marker, continuing the same expression I liked within the rabbit. Drawing with marker also forced me to continue even with the mistakes I made. After completing the sketch, I took a picture and began painting it in, in Photoshop. I made a few minor changes on the computer, but overall kept the design similar to the original. The process was a lot shorter than the process of creating the Rabbit illustration.
Both Nevarez and Simpson have experience in the animation industry, which is where I would love to continue to pursue. They both create beautiful work that motivate me both within the concept stages of an animation, and also the final look of an illustration. I would love to continue to create fun, whimsical illustrations, but then take it a step further and bring it to life by adding movement.Printing my designs on shirts was just an experiment unrelated to my goals for the BFA. It’s something I have always been interested in and intrigued by. But for my final project I am focusing on animating the illustrations I create whether that is in a two-dimensional animated short, or a series of gifs – I want to make my characters and artwork move!