ANGEL POWER
Hello, I’m Angel! I’m a graphic designer and illustrator from Los Angeles. My work is assembled from bits of nostalgia, fears, dreams, and my fascination with clowns. The dichotomy of horror and playfulness is always at the forefront of my mind. My continuous struggle to find joy in spite of life's terrifying nature inspires me to find the sweet in the uncanny, putting into images those nebulous feelings that I am unable to put into words.
Goal: Animation/Film
Categories: storyboards, backgrounds, character designs
Elevator pitch: I'm an illustrator who creates storyboards, animatics, and concept art. I use my knack for close observation to paint detailed environmental scenes and character designs.
Backgrounds
background art for use as concept art
digital painting (864x1080)
background painting
digital painting (1920x1080)
concept art for an animated action short film
digital painting (1339x1080)
concept art for a horror setting
digital painting (1642x1080)
background painting
digital painting (1355x929)
background painting
Websites in Field:
https://www.artstation.com/jama
https://www.instagram.com/ianmcque/
https://www.evagrello.com/
https://art.marcsimonetti.com/
https://brianflorastudio.com/
https://www.raphael-lacoste.com/
Website Test
I tested this website with a few people, who told me that right now it looks a little sparse. Three buttons on my home pages also lead to nothing but it is because I haven’t yet added any content to those pages. The thin gray text I’ve used throughout against a gray background is also affecting legibility a little. I found that I was missing a button to easily return to the home page on a few pages. I agree that right now it looks a little plain and could. When I have more time to tweak it, I want to draw and add more eye-catching illustrative elements to the background and overall add more aesthetically cohesive personalization.
Interview with an Artist: Eva Grello
To get an insight into what working in art professionally might look like, I interviewed Eva Grello. I had Eva as a professor for an illustration class last semester. I wanted to chat with her not only because I already had a previous personal connection with her, but because I resonate with the attitudes that drive her artistic practice. Her art is very humor-filled, colorful, and cute. She manages to infuse a playful attitude into her teaching and artwork, even when dealing with difficult or sensitive topics. I admire her for her intense kindness, openness and hardworking nature. She is realistic and down-to-earth – characteristics which are reflected in her charming illustrations which often feature familiar and personal objects, figures, and settings.
Eva said her passion for art began as a kid when she loved toys but was not satisfied with the ones that were out there, making her want to design her own. Her first art career aspiration was to be a toy designer. That was what first got her to start drawing. She started her formal art education at an arts high school which she attended for four years and studied digital arts. She then attended CSULB and got her BFA in Illustration. After a year out of school she went back to school for her graduate degree, spending 12 years in art school in total. Illustration began to interest her specifically because in high school she took an illustration course and felt that the freedom to make funny and silly art suited her tastes much more than the fine arts courses she had mostly taken. She enjoys the accessibility of illustration. To her, the key to illustration is to clearly connect with a viewer, which she favors doing over the oftentimes obscured, layered intentions and “highbrow” attitudes attached to fine arts.
In her current day to day, she juggles a week full of teaching, art and emails. She makes sure to set aside days to rest so that she can recharge, which she stressed are an essential part of a routine. She advised me that it is good to have a variety of hobbies and interests and to continually explore new topics so that the places from which I draw inspiration from my art does not stagnate. We discussed the difficulties of balancing responsibilities and staying financially stable as an artist, as well as a few different ways illustrators find niches for their work. Eva recommended that, with my propensity for drawing people, I should try to get into contact with Robin Richesson, who has worked storyboarding for live action films. I thought this would be an avenue for my own art career that I would like to look into further and talk to Richesson about to learn what it is like and how she started doing that kind of work. I think I would find it interesting. We also chatted about managing social anxiety when reaching out to people with whom you wish to network or solicit advice. I brought this question up because I have struggled to be able to reach out much due to intense social anxiety. She brought up experiences she has had in the past and reassured me that having intense emotions should not be a source of fear or shame. At the end of our chat, she showed me her cat Kermit, who is so cute.
