I adore the fluffy cute work of Marceline Danousha!

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Noah is an Art Director at Pixar Animation Studios. I love his wonderful sense of lighting. Looking at his work, I thought the affable style would help bring a bit of festive feeling to the Lounge, seeing as we are so close to Christmas!

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Sandeep Menon currently works at Blue Sky Studios as a Designer, having previously worked as a product designer in India before moving into the animation industry. It is evident that some of the skills developed as a product designer have been successfully carried over into Sandeep’s animation concepts. I admire his imagination, but he also brings to the table a great attention to detail that really takes us into his world.

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Zar is based in North Hollywood, California. She is a Calarts ’09 graduate currently working as a character designer for Pixar. She creates some stunning ‘wood burning’ paintings, which you can find on her blog along with loads of other interesting visual knick-knacks. Well worth a visit. Oh, and for a little giggle check out her rant about wearing 3D glasses!

Zar has also been interviewed on the Chracter Design Blog, for those who’d like a little more insight.

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Robin is a visual developer working freelance in the animation industry. He has an absolutely incredible imagination! What I found by looking at his work were two things: He can draw anything. He can draw anything in a number of unique styles (brilliantly). I’m glad I stumbled on his website, Patch of Orange. In my eyes, Robin Joseph is a master of visual development. And how about that great colour work?

Robin’s clients include Aardman Feature, BlueSky Studios, Dreamworks Animation, House of Cool, Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation.

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I can’t get over the amazing lighting and mark-making by Dice Tsutsumi. Born in Tokyo, he moved to New York in 1993. He has had a remarkable career so far, particularly in the animation industry. At Blue Sky Studios, he worked as a visual development and colour key artist for ‘Ice Age’, ‘Robots’ and ‘Horton Hears a Who’. He later moved on to Pixar as an art director, giving him the chance to work on ‘Toy Story 3’. Dice has also had a children’s book published, titled ‘I can Hear’. Last but not least, I will mention his work on ‘Sketchtravel’ and ‘Totoro Forest Project’, two excellent projects that Dice has helped organise. To see more from this creative dynamo, visit his fantastic blog.

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Olga Stern is a Toronto-based illustrator and visual-development artist. Her portfolio is a wash of cheerful characters and mediums. Although, it is pretty clear to see her biggest strength is her sweeping background designs. They are exquisitely textured, the colours are vibrant but harmonious, and they are in every sense of the word picturesque. Stern’s previous clients include Pixar, Laika, ACME filmworks, and Head Gear Animation. You can find more of her work by heading to her website.

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Philadelphia-based Lydia Nichols is a illustrator, typographer, designer, and teacher (and anthropomorphizer). After an intern at Pixar, Ms Nichols started freelancing. Some of her notable clients including Bloomberg Businessweek, Chronicle Books, Google UK and MailChimp. She has also taught at MICA and Moore, as well a providing a class for Skillshare.

Squeezing the best out of illustrator and photoshop, Ms Nichols’ work is both lucid and tactile. Her illustrations are clear, sprightly and guaranteed to put a smile on your face, if not, just a simper. Child-friendly too, her illustrations use subdued colour and have a Mary Blair/UPA charm to them.

See more of Lydia Nichols’ on her website and Dribbble page.

Californian Illustrator Bill Cone is well known for his sensational pastel artwork and his ongoing contribution to Pixar Animation Studios. He studyied Painting at San Francisco State University before going on to study Illustration at Art Center College of Design. After his graduation, Cone embarked on a career as a landscape painter and for over 17 years he has exhibited annually, both in group and one-man shows.

Cone is both a Production Designer and Teacher at Pixar. He has produced lighting studied, worked as a storyboard artist, background painter, and character designer. On top of all these roles, for over 10 years, Cone has taught light and color classes to the Pixar alumni. He has contributed to successful animations such as Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Ratatouille (2007), and Up (2009). Interestingly, it was during work on A Bug’s Life that he started using pastels to do lighting studies. Enjoying them very much and seeing their speed benefits, he decided to use pastels in his personal work too.

You can see much more of Bill Cone’s wonderful artwork on his blog, which he couples with eloquent and verbose descriptions.

Don Shank is an Annie and Emmy awards winning animator. Pleasantly planted in California, he is currently working at Pixar Animation Studios. Shank studied animation at the renowned CalArts. Whose alumni include fellow Pixar patriots, John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Pete Docter, to name but a few.

After university, Shank worked at a variety of studios including Nickelodeon Animation Studio, where he worked as a layout artist on the groundbreaking Ren & Stimpy Show, Cartoon Network Studios and later, Hanna-Barbera Productions where he worked as a storyboard artist on Genndy Tartakovsky’s Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack as well as Craig McCracken’s Powerpuff Girls. Shank also wrote for Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls and The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

Around 2004 Shank made the jump into feature films, joining Pixar, aiding them with the visual development of The Incredibles. He has since worked as an environment and production artist on two of the most stunning of all the Pixar movies, Ratatouille and Up. More recent projects include the runaway box-office success, Inside Out and the upcoming, Finding Dory.

Shank is an incredibly skilled draftsman and painter, as such, he enjoys experimenting with different styles, mediums and techniques. Shank’s personal work is very influenced by Cubism, especially the artist Pablo Picasso. A few years ago, about a year after the launch of the first iPad, Shank made the news for the beautiful paintings he was creating with the Brushes app. Which I assure you was a very novel concept at the time and had people perplexed by the implications.

Be sure to see more of Don Shank’s work on his website and follow him on Instagram.

For over 20 years Andrea Blasich has worked in the animation industry as a Layout Artist and Visual Development Artist, but is best known as a CG and Traditional Sculptor. Lending his skills to prominent animation studios DreamWorks Animation, Lucas Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Blasich graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera with a Master in Scenography. After graduating, he worked a for theaters in Milan, before going on to sculpt for Animation. Over the next few years he travelled to London, back to Milan and then to Munich until he finally landed his dream job in America, working for DreamWorks.

Some of the feature animations Blasich has worked on include DreamWorks’s Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) and Shark Tale (2004), Blue Sky’s Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), and Pixar’s Brave (2012). He has also worked on video games BioShock 2 (2010) and The Witness (2016), as well as a few short animations, notably The Dam Keeper (2014) by Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo.

His sculptures have appeared in exhibitions at Pixar Animation Studio, Cartoon Museum in San Francisco, Nucleus Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Society of Illustrators in New York. Recently, Blasich has started to dedicate more time on his personal sculptures. His bronze animal Swimming Tiger and Dancing Bull were selected as a finalist for the National Sculpture Society 80th and 82th Annual Awards. Blasich has a shop where you can find and own some of his personal sculptures.

You can watch a couple great videos featuring Blasich at work in his studio and sharing his thoughts on the creative process, Making The Dam Keeper #03: Character Sculptor Andrea Blasich and Andrea Blasich – Portrait of a Sculptor.

To see more of Andrea Blasich’s work, check out his website, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

H.B. “Buck” Lewis is an animation artist, author, and illustrator. Since the late 1980s, he has worked in animation for leading studios Aardman, Blue Sky, DreamWorks, Pixar, Warner Bros., and Walt Disney. In 2005, he was inducted into the Walt Disney Features Hall of Fame.

Lewis’s path into animation was a winding one. Born and raised in a small town in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In school, he became known for hiding away in the art room to draw. With the exception of his art teacher, Lewis didn’t know anyone who knew anything about art. When it was time to graduate, Lewis was unsure of what to do next. He was faced with the option of joining a biker gang or going to college. College wasn’t really looking like much of an option for him.

That was until Lewis found about art schools. He applied to all the ones he found and got accepted to all of them. Lewis chose Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he gravitated to illustration.

After graduating from RISD, Lewis moved to New York. He played guitar in a band, making music and performing around the city. That was until his guitar was stolen. Lewis saw it as a sign and took the unfortunate opportunity to pursue his first love, art. He lugged his portfolio to all the magazine art directors, only to face rejection after rejection. That was until he was given a shot at a boat magazine. From there, one job led to another until he was having a successful career as an editorial illustrator.

It was not long before Lewis developed a new itch he had to scratch. One rooted in his childhood. An ambition to become a painter. So Lewis saved up his money, said his goodbyes, and moved out of the city. He moved to Connecticut to start a new creative chapter. But once he was finally there, he felt he was out of his depth. He was felt uninspired. He felt an all time low.

Then, almost out of nowhere, Walt Disney Studio called. They had a movie in production that wasn’t going well and needed a new direction. After hearing about Lewis, and his prize-winning editorial work, they reached out to him.

Since then, Lewis has worked as a character designer and visual development artist on more than 20 animated features. His credits include Tarzan (1999), The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Lilo & Stitch (2002), Ice Age (2002), Treasure Planet (2002), Madagascar (2005), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), Kung Fu Panda (2008), and Arthur Christmas (2011). I am sure you will agree, that is an incredible list.

You can find out more about Buck Lewis by watching this 4-part in depth interview with Bobby Chiu, and reading this wonderful article on his career in the RISD alumni magazine. You can find more of his work on his website.

Carter Goodrich is an award-winning illustrator based in Los Angeles, California. He has illustrated for children’s books, magazines and designed characters for animated feature films The Prince of Egypt (1998), Ratatouille (2007), Despicable Me (2010), Hotel Transylvania (2012), Brave (2012) and The Croods (2013). Goodrich is the proud recipient of two Society of Illustrators, New York, Gold Medals and six ASIFA Annie Award nominations, including two wins.

Goodrich Graduate of the Rhode Island School of design. In 1983, he began his career in editorial illustration, sharing a New York studio space with fellow illustrator, Buck Lewis. Working for publications Time, GQ, Playboy and Connoisseur. To date, he has also illustrated seventeen published covers for The New Yorker.

In addition to his editorial work, Goodrich has written and illustrated six books A Creature Was Stirring (2006), The Hermit Crab (2009), Say Hello to Zorro (2011), Zorro Gets an Outfit (2012), Mister Bud Wears The Cone (2014), and most recently, We Forgot Brock! (2015). Goodrich children’s book work has won two Junior Library Guild awards in the “author/illustrator” category, the first in 2009 for The Hermit Crab and again in 2012 for Zorro Gets an Outfit.

Goodrich first foray into animation came in 1995, as the lead character designer for DreamWorks’ Prince of Egypt. He went on to work on a host of brilliant and blockbusting features for DreamWorks, Pixar and Sony Pictures Animation. His work on Ratatouille earned him the 2007 ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award for best “Character Design in an Animated Feature.” A few years later, in 2014, The CROODS also won ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award for best “Character Design in an Animated Feature.”

Most recently, Goodrich was lead character designer for the upcoming animated film Animal Crackers. It will be directed by Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft. It has a host of stars voicing the character including Emily Blunt, Sylvester Stallone, Sir Ian McKellen, Danny DeVito and Patrick Warburton. You can find out more on the official Facebook page.

You can see more of Carter Goodrich’s work on his website, Facebook and Twitter.

Chris Sasaki is an Annie Award-winning character designer. He works at Pixar Animation Studios and has designed characters for Monsters University (2013) and Inside Out (2015).

Sasaki was doodling from a young age. Spending hours drawing with his grandfather, who was an architect and constant source of encouragement. Knowing that he wanted to study animation, Sasaki applied to CalArts but did not get accepted. This fortunately lead him to attend Woodbury University, where he was surrounded by inspiring tutors and students.

He graduated in 2006 and joined the Jim Henson Studios, where he worked as a character Designer for animated film trilogy Unstable Fables. He then moved on to Disney Television Animation, Blue Sky Studios, and LAIKA Entertainment. In 2009 he joined Pixar. As well as serving as a character designer, Sasaki was the production designer for the Pixar’s short film, Sanjay’s Super Team (2015)

In addition to his animation contributions, Sasaki’s illustrations have been featured in Gallery Nucleus, New York Times, and the Society of Illustrators yearly annual. He contributed a story to GHOST. Sasaki has also taught at the Animation Collaborative.

You can see more of Chris Sasaki’s work on his website, Instagram, Twitter. You can find out more about him in this video interview with Bobby Chiu and this interview with Randall Sly on the Character Design blog.

Philadelphia-based Lydia Nichols is a illustrator, typographer, designer, and teacher (and anthropomorphizer). After an intern at Pixar, Ms Nichols started freelancing. Some of her notable clients including Bloomberg Businessweek, Chronicle Books, Google UK and MailChimp. She has also taught at MICA and Moore, as well a providing a class for Skillshare.

Squeezing the best out of illustrator and photoshop, Ms Nichols’ work is both lucid and tactile. Her illustrations are clear, sprightly and guaranteed to put a smile on your face, if not, just a simper. Child-friendly too, her illustrations use subdued colour and have a Mary Blair/UPA charm to them.

See more of Lydia Nichols’ on her website and Dribbble page.

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Californian Illustrator Bill Cone is well known for his sensational pastel artwork and his ongoing contribution to Pixar Animation Studios. He studyied Painting at San Francisco State University before going on to study Illustration at Art Center College of Design. After his graduation, Cone embarked on a career as a landscape painter and for over 17 years he has exhibited annually, both in group and one-man shows.

Cone is both a Production Designer and Teacher at Pixar. He has produced lighting studied, worked as a storyboard artist, background painter, and character designer. On top of all these roles, for over 10 years, Cone has taught light and color classes to the Pixar alumni. He has contributed to successful animations such as Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Ratatouille (2007), and Up (2009). Interestingly, it was during work on A Bug’s Life that he started using pastels to do lighting studies. Enjoying them very much and seeing their speed benefits, he decided to use pastels in his personal work too.

You can see much more of Bill Cone’s wonderful artwork on his blog, which he couples with eloquent and verbose descriptions.

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Don Shank is an Annie and Emmy awards winning animator. Pleasantly planted in California, he is currently working at Pixar Animation Studios. Shank studied animation at the renowned CalArts. Whose alumni include fellow Pixar patriots, John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Pete Docter, to name but a few.

After university, Shank worked at a variety of studios including Nickelodeon Animation Studio, where he worked as a layout artist on the groundbreaking Ren & Stimpy Show, Cartoon Network Studios and later, Hanna-Barbera Productions where he worked as a storyboard artist on Genndy Tartakovsky’s Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack as well as Craig McCracken’s Powerpuff Girls. Shank also wrote for Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls and The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

Around 2004 Shank made the jump into feature films, joining Pixar, aiding them with the visual development of The Incredibles. He has since worked as an environment and production artist on two of the most stunning of all the Pixar movies, Ratatouille and Up. More recent projects include the runaway box-office success, Inside Out and the upcoming, Finding Dory.

Shank is an incredibly skilled draftsman and painter, as such, he enjoys experimenting with different styles, mediums and techniques. Shank’s personal work is very influenced by Cubism, especially the artist Pablo Picasso. A few years ago, about a year after the launch of the first iPad, Shank made the news for the beautiful paintings he was creating with the Brushes app. Which I assure you was a very novel concept at the time and had people perplexed by the implications.

Be sure to see more of Don Shank’s work on his website and follow him on Instagram.

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