What are you currently learning?

I lately find it paralyzing to create for enjoyment rather than for “purpose.” As a form of play, I’ve learned to make little things like D&D tokens or pop-up paper maps with hand drawn artwork. It’s important to remember the fun of making things you like.

Social Media Q&A

I was just curious how you went about putting yourself out there cause it seems really daunting?

I’m one of the more reclusive people at Scholar, so I don’t get out there most of the time. Not really being on social media, I rely on in-person connections that I made as a student and as a professional to get to know others in the industry. What I found most helpful was being excited to learn and connecting with fellow students or professionals by asking questions about their work or specific techniques. In general, you don’t need to put pressure on yourself to be the best or most unique right away. If you do good work, show curiosity, and seem pleasant to work with, that will stand out to people.

How have you carved your own path in the industry and what advice do you have for artists to find theirs? 

I lucked out and went from intern, full time, to lead, even though I’m as charismatic as a worm. I can only attribute it to meeting good people and having the right blend of skillsets to come in handy. My advice for finding your path is to first know what you want out of your own career, and create work that highlights how well you do in that role. Often staff artists have flexible skillsets to work on different projects; freelancers might specialize in a niche and be known as the Person Who Does That Cool Thing; directors have to show they can channel the creative energy of a team into executing a cohesive vision. The more you do something well and have it be known, the more people will look for you to create something similar.

What anime would you recommend? 

Dungeon Meshi animated by Studio Trigger is the love of my life at the moment, and it's fascinating to see how closely scenes are boarded to match the panels in the original manga. If you're looking for fantastically thrilling action sequences, Jujutsu Kaisen is probably the go-to anime in recent seasons. Personally, the pieces of animation living rent-free in my head are the ones directed by Mai Yoneyama for stunning, flowing beauty, and the MV for Eve's "Fight Song". Mariyasu's work on "Fight Song" has a fresh, clean digital art style, and the action hits hard despite using less frames because of its clever use of anticipation and smears.