About


Natalie “Tally” Nourigat grew up splashing through creeks, climbing trees, and curling up with books in Portland, Oregon. She wrote and directed the Disney animated short film Far From The Tree, which screened around the world before the feature film Encanto, and which you can now watch on Disney+. She served as Head of Story on Walt Disney Animation Studio and Kugali Media’s groundbreaking miniseries Iwájú, now available to watch on Disney+. She also wrote and directed the animated short film Exchange Student, which you can watch now on Disney+ (Short Circuit, episode 2). She storyboarded on Encanto, Raya & the Last DragonRalph Breaks the Internet, and the upcoming Locksmith Animation feature That Christmas.

Natalie’s graphic novel, I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation, has helped many people find their way into their animation dream jobs. The book is available in comic shops, bookstores, and online.

Natalie has collaborated with great companies like Marvel Comics, Wieden+Kennedy, Nike, Image Comics, Oni Press, Le Lombard, and Dark Horse. She was one of Variety’s 2019 Ten Animators to Watch. Her work has been nominated for the Humanities Award, Hollywood Critics Association Short Film Award, Eisner Award, GLAAD Media Award, and Oregon Book Award.

Natalie loves traveling and learning languages. She majored in Japanese in university. In 2013 she worked in France as an au pair. Natalie married her longtime French partner, Boulet, in 2021, and moved to Paris to reunite their family. You can spot her around Paris with coffee in one hand and a sketchbook in the other.

Click here to view her CV.

Click here to view her IMDB.


Past Clients

Companies: Adidas, Allstate, Amazon, America’s Got Talent, Bitch Media, Brooks, Disney, Dove, Frederator Studios, GE, Kohler, Nike, Nintendo, Portland Mercury, Reebok, Upstream Public Health

Publishers: Archaia, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, Disney Press, Image Comics, Le Lombard, Lerner Books, Marvel Comics, Monkeybrain Comics, Oni Press, Penguin Books

Agencies: Bunker, Conic Group, Eyeball on the Floor, The Great Society, happylucky, Kamp Grizzly, Magic+Might, Vayner Media, Wieden+Kennedy


FAQ

How can I buy your book?

Print copies of “I MOVED TO LOS ANGELES TO WORK IN ANIMATION” are available for sale at comic book shops (use http://comicshoplocator.com  to find shop nearest to you), in bookstores, and on Amazon. Digital copies of I MOVED TO LOS ANGELES TO WORK IN ANIMATION are available to purchase on digital book marketplaces, including ComiXology, iBooks, Google Books, and the BOOM! Studios app.

Do you have any advice / tips / tutorials?

Yes!  I wrote a large post with resources for animation careers HERE, and another large post for comics careers HERE.

I also have a Youtube channel where I share what I know HERE.

How did you get started / break in? What was your career path?

It’s a long story!

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember.  In kindergarten, I was the kid you could go to and ask for a drawing of whatever, and I would draw it for you.  In middle school, I made comics out of inside jokes among my friends, so we had written records of the funniest things that happened all school year.  I started making narrative comics around 2004 when Tokyopop had its Rising Stars of Manga competition; I would submit a short story to their competition every year.  An editor wrote to me to give me some feedback on a submission, and he suggested that I make a webcomic to build my drawing and narrative skills.  I kept a weekly webcomic for many years (160 pages), and I learned a lot by doing that!  In 2010, I joined a syndicate site and started making a little pizza money from my webcomic.

In 2011, I was working my university summer job as a bank receptionist, when a bit of idle Googling lead me to the realization that Portland had a comics studio (previously named “Periscope Studio”, now “Helioscope Studio“) just a block away from me.  I went over there on a lunch break to introduce myself, and they were very nice and told me about their summer internship program.  I applied for that and got into the program the next summer.  The artists at Helioscope taught me TONS about drawing, publishing, art tools, ergonomics and health, Photoshop, interacting with clients, and building a sustainable freelance art career.  I started tabling at local comic conventions with prints and self-published minicomics of my webcomic and other short comic stories.  Being visible and meeting people in person lead to some work – Oni Press asked me to submit story pitches and I got some great freelance illustration jobs from indie / aspiring writers.  My last summer break of university, I was able to make more money from freelance art than I would have with a normal summer job, which felt like a huge victory and convinced me that I could really make a career out of this.  Right before I graduated from university, I received a great offer to illustrate a graphic novel for Lerner Publishing Group, which would pay enough for me to live off of for my first year!  There were some delays on the project, so in the meantime I worked at the Oregon Zoo as a zoo camp counselor, lived with my parents for a few extra months (thanks Mom and Dad), took as many commissions and freelance jobs as I could get, and saved my money.  In the fall, I moved out and made the jump into a freelance art career.  I joined Helioscope as a member, so I could work with other people, keep learning from them, and share resources.  That was an extremely positive experience.  I got to give back to the internship program, helping to mentor younger artists and giving lectures on different topics.

A few of my coworkers at Helioscope made really good money by drawing storyboards for commercial clients.  For example, ad agencies would call Helioscope and ask for storyboards for commercials — say for an Adidas shoe commercial — and they needed polished digital artwork ASAP to help pitch their ideas.  Helioscope artists like Steve Lieber, Ron Chan, and Benjamin Dewey were great at taking those jobs and turning around polished commercial artwork within a day or two, for excellent money.  I was interested in getting into that, and they generously taught me what they knew and let me help out on some of their projects.  At first I shadowed them and watched, then I took on maybe the inking or the coloring while they handled the client and most of the artwork, and when I was ready they let me take the jobs that they were too busy for.  I added “commercial storyboards” to my website and put some samples in my portfolio, which attracted more and more storyboarding work.  Within a year I had a decent client base of my own and was much more financially comfortable than I had been on comics alone.

In 2013 I was feeling more and more restless.  I was living in my hometown, which I loved, spending lots of time with people I loved, doing work I loved, but….I felt like something was missing.  I always thought I would live abroad someday; I studied Japanese for 8 years and majored in it at university because I wanted to go into the JET Program.  I never felt like I could afford to study abroad, even though I really wanted to.  Since graduating from university, I’d been taking French lessons with my mom as a fun way to bond, and with the hope that we would get to travel in France together someday.  I started thinking about ways I could afford to have an extended travel experience without destroying my meager savings, and I landed on becoming an au pair in France.  I found a family that wanted to hire me, applied for a visa, and went to a little village outside of Annecy to work for them.  It’s a complicated story that doesn’t entirely belong to me, but long story short, it wasn’t a great situation, and I left after 3 months.  (My advice to anyone who wants to work as an au pair: it can be a great experience, just make sure to go through an agency!  I found my family online, and I had no support when things went wrong.  If you go through an agency, they can mediate the situation or move you to a different family.)  Sooooo I was homeless and unemployed in a foreign country, but I decided to stay, couch surf, travel around, look for work, and go home when my savings ran out.  This was a crazy, emotional, scary year, but it was really formative for me.  A lot of strangers showed me kindness, a lot of artists really stuck their necks out introducing me to publishers and festivals, I started dating the man I am still with today, I saw more art museums and historic cities in one year than most of my life combined, and I got to have the travel experiences I’d been dreaming about for so long.  My art improved like CRAZY, and I felt like I had a lot more to say than I had before this experience.  I got to go to amazing, inspiring BD festivals like St. Malo and Angouleme, and the animated film festival in Annecy.  That reignited a fire in me I’d forgotten…

As a kid, I wanted to work in animation, but I didn’t know the first thing about how people pursued that.  I just drew my own stuff, and in high school I figured out how to animate my own .gifs with drawings I scanned into our family computer, but I felt like there was a huge gap between me and any kind of serious animation program or mentorship or work.  I didn’t know a single person who worked in animation.  I don’t think I knew a single person who knew a single person who worked in animation.  My friends in LA now look at me like, “how did you not know about CalArts?”  Well, nobody was coming to my high school in Oregon telling us about animation schools.  No teacher tipped me off on the right blogs to follow.  No family friend knew somebody I could email to talk about animation careers.  My college counselors, parents, and friends wanted to help, but they just didn’t know what options were out there, and even with the internet (which was less robust at the time), if you didn’t know what you were looking for, it was pretty hard to find it.  I decided to go to a state university to be safe, to get a “day job”, and to just draw in my free time.  Years later, when I did learn more specifics about animation careers and schools like CalArts, I felt like it was too late for me; I couldn’t afford to go back to school, couldn’t afford that school in the first place, and hundreds of younger artists could, so…what chance did I have?  Better focus on comics, which I also loved, and forget about animation.

But being in France, meeting animation artists, and going to Annecy brought this dream back to life.  I saw so many different kinds of animation at the festival, and so many different kinds of people making it.  I felt inspired, and I decided to pour myself into this dream of working in animation when I got back to the States.  My visa and my money ran out and I went home, broke and tired.  Again, thank you Mom and Dad.  Living at home for a few months for free at age 26 is not a luxury everyone has.  I worked like crazy, picked up as much commercial art work as I could to resuscitate my bank account, and spent any free time pursuing this dream of working in the animation industry.  It looked like storyboarding was the best fit for me, my skills, and my passion for drawing and storytelling.  But there were lots of things I didn’t know how to do, and my job applications were not even getting responses.  I took a storyboarding workshop at a film school in Portland.  I spent a lot of time at the library.  I made TONS of new art – character design sheets, figure drawings, zoo sketches, observational cafe sketches, environment studies, digital paintings, 2-D animation studies, and I storyboarded my own short stories.  I did my best to find resources online — there were lots of story artists keeping blogs and posting samples of their work, and some good tutorials here and there.  Perhaps most importantly, and scariest of all, I told people about my goals.  I told my friends who had recently moved to LA to work in animation that I wanted to do the same thing.  They started sending opportunities my way and looking out for me.  On my 27th birthday, Madeleine Flores texted me to say that she got me a gig, storyboarding with her on an episode of Bee & PuppyCat!  That was my first “real” animation storyboarding experience.  I learned a ton from it and I feel like it really opened doors after that, having it on my resume.  Another breakthrough came from making a short film for LoopdeLoop.  One of the organizers, Megan Nairn, saw what I made and got in contact when she came to Portland.  I told her about my goals (scary), and I learned that she was a recruiter for Cartoon Network.  She started giving me story tests for shows there.

A couple of people from Walt Disney Animation Studios connected with me on LinkedIn and Instagram, and I learned that they were hiring story artists.  I expressed my interest, applied, and was rejected.  BUT the recruiter mentioned that they would have an upcoming opportunity for “Story Apprentices” (basically a paid training position that could lead to a story artist job).  I applied for that, got it, and was hired full-time as a Story Artist when the Apprenticeship ended. In my second year at Disney, I pitched an original idea via the Short Circuit program, and my idea was selected! I got to spend 6 months making “Exchange Student”, which you can watch on Disney Plus (Short Circuit, episode 2). After Exchange Student ended, I was invited to pitch theatrical short film ideas. I pitched 4 ideas, one of which would later become “Far From The Tree”, a 7-minute theatrical short film released alongside the feature film “Encanto”. While Directing these shorts, I would still be brought in to storyboard on films like Ralph Breaks The Internet, Raya And The Last Dragon, and Encanto. In 2020, I accepted the Head of Story role on “Iwájú”, an upcoming WDAS / Kugali Media project.

Stay tuned – I’m hoping there’s a lot more to come in this story.

What do you use to draw digitally?

Since 2013, I draw my comic pages and storyboards completely digitally.  I “pencil,” “ink,” and “letter” either in Photoshop CC or in Clip Studio Paint.  At home, I use a desktop PC and a Wacom 22hd Cintiq, and at work I use a Macbook and Wacom 22hd Cintiq.  I highly recommend purchasing the Frenden brush pack, Ron Chan’s brushes, and Kyle Webster’s brush packs; they make it a LOT easier to draw natural-looking lines.  I pencil everything in Clip Studio Paint with the “layout blue” pen and I ink with a modification of the “inker brush”.  I color my pages in Photoshop, mostly just using the pencil tool (so it’s easier to make selections with the magic wand and change my mind about the colors).

Examples:

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Animation industry advice for students Nourigat image 2

I also draw on a 2017 iPad Pro. I draw in the app “Procreate” and I use the standard brushes “Ink Bleed” and/or “6B Pencil”, plus Georg’s Procreate MEGAPACK brushes.

Example:

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What pens/tools do you use to draw with on paper?

I made a Youtube video about this!

In my sketchbook (Bee Paper’s Super Deluxe Mixed Media Paper), I use a Platinum Carbon Pen for my line art, a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to fill in big black areas, a Pentel Aquash Waterbrush Pen for gray washes (I fill the cartridge with water and add about 10 drops of black India ink), and a generic white gel pen or white paint Sharpie for corrections and highlights.  Sometimes I mix it up and draw with a Kuretake disposable pocket brush pen.  Sometimes I draw with pencil, but often I draw directly with ink (it makes me commit to my lines and draw more confidently and quickly).
Examples:
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I also carry a little palette of 12 Winsor & Newton watercolors (I’ve swapped out the colors it came with for a more basic palette). With another Pentel Aquash Waterbrush Pen, this time just full of water, and a paper towel, I have a totally mobile watercolor kit. The Platinum Carbon Pen ink is totally water-proof after it dries, so it pairs really well with watercolors!
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On rare occasion I’ll carry Copic markers with me and use them in my sketchbook.
Example:
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Do you recommend the iPad for drawing? What brushes do you use? How do you post those time-lapse videos of you drawing?

I post a lot of sketches from my 2017 iPad Pro. It’s really fun to draw on; I love sketching my coworkers during meetings and taking the iPad to figure drawing.
I mostly use the app “Procreate” for drawing, and I use the standard brushes that came with the program (mostly the “Ink Bleed” brush and the “6B Pencil” brush), plus Georg’s Procreate MEGAPACK brushes.
Procreate comes with a feature that automatically records you while you draw and gives you the option to create a time-lapse video.
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How do you do those life drawings of people on the street?

I started doing this in 2012 to improve my “everyday” characters, like the people who populate the backgrounds of my comics.  I took my sketchbook and a couple of pens (no pencils!) to any cafe around town with a seat looking out on a street with good foot traffic, and drew the people that I saw walking past.  Like anything else, practice makes it easier and easier to take a quick mental impression of a person’s defining characteristics and body language, and then transfer those to a drawing.
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People don’t tend to stand still, but it’s good practice to try drawing a “moving target”!  I watch people while I can see them, and begin my drawing as soon as they’re out of sight.  I make up what I can’t remember.  I go quickly and focus on the overall impression of the person–trying to get across their mood or motion more than a photo-realistic impression of them.  The more I do this, the better I’ve gotten at knowing what to look for and remember in those brief seconds I’m able to see the person.  I focus on the person’s posture, proportions, and where their eyes are looking.  Hopefully, I remember a couple of things about what they’re wearing, too.
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If you’re in Portland and want to try this exercise, I recommend the cafe in Powell’s overlooking the intersection of Burnside and NW11th.  That’s the best life drawing spot I’ve ever found.  The bar-style seating is great for drawing, people in the cafe are absorbed in their books and unlikely to bother you, the foot traffic outside is a diverse cross-section of Portlanders, and pedestrians tend to pause at that intersection before crossing the road, so they might even stand still for half a minute!
In LA, I recommend Grand Central Market, The Grove Farmer’s Market, Muscle Beach, WoodCat Coffee Bar in Echo Park, Echo Park Lake itself, Figaro Bistrot and Tacos tu Madre on Vermont Avenue.
If you’re not in either city, I recommend going to a shopping mall, a beach, a cafe or restaurant downtown, or finding a spot across the street from a bus stop (read: a rotating group of people standing still).
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Once in a while someone on the street or in the cafe sees what I’m doing, but in several years I’ve only had one or two people ask to see my sketches, and they’ve always grinned and been supportive.  Of course you need to be respectful, and try not to creep people out.  An art teacher once told me that if someone makes eye contact with you 3 times while you’re drawing them, you should stop.  I’m a little more anxious, so I stop after just one instance!

Can you advise me on art school / no art school?

Everybody’s situation is different, but here’s my two cents:

If you can afford it and you got into a great school, go for it! A good art school will put all of the resources you need at your fingertips. It can really level you up quickly, and introduce you to a big network of other artists and people working in studios who can help you get a foot in the door.
But…art school is really expensive, and a lot of art schools are predatory (they will accept anyone, they don’t have rigorous courses, they are just out for your money).  Check who the professors are exactly, and how long it has been since they worked for a studio you want to work for.  There are some animation jobs that require a specific art degree, but a lot of them don’t. I didn’t go to art school, and I know and work with many people who did not go to art school. If you’re worried about taking on debt, or you aren’t sure about the art schools you got into, I recommend not going. It was incredibly helpful for me at the beginning of my career to not have debt; it allowed me to take art jobs that didn’t pay very much instead of forcing me to take more lucrative day jobs, like some of my friends with hefty art school debt. You can teach yourself almost all of the same things as an art school; it just takes a lot more work on your part!  I list a bunch of alternative art learning resources in this blog post.

Also, I highly recommend everyone listen to episode 8 of the Animation Happy Hour podcast. They take a DEEP dive into finances for artists, talking at length about art school and loans.

Do you have any tips for life drawing?

Yes I do! I made a whole Youtube video about it!

If you are a beginner or intermediate artist, just going to life drawing is already an accomplishment, so pat yourself on the back!  It can be tough at first, but figure drawing will get easier and easier the more you practice, I promise.  If your teacher offers advice, or if you can talk to other artists at the session, try to see what they are doing, talk to them about their philosophies while they draw, and learn as much as you can.

If you are getting more advanced, and especially if you want to be a cartoonist (draw comics or work in animation, for example), my biggest advice is: don’t draw what’s in front of you; draw what you see. Meaning: it’s OK to exaggerate, it’s OK to change the pose, and it’s OK to invent things. You can make the model more interesting or entertaining or appealing or clear in any way you see fit. You can give the character you’re drawing more personality or a bolder gesture, exaggerate their proportions, change their facial expression, move their arm so it makes a stronger silhouette, give them an outfit you think fits the pose, add a background to change the context of the pose, etc.

There’s value in trying to accurately copy what the model looks like; you can learn a LOT from that and I think it’s a good goal when you are starting out. But once you are feeling more comfortable with that part, and you want to push yourself a little more, try drawing a character inspired by what you see, with the freedom to invent things yourself and draw something that’s as much from your mind as from what’s in front of you.

For example: here is a pose I saw a model striking in figure drawing class, and what I added to it from my imagination to make it more of a “story moment”:

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What can I do if I can’t go to figure drawing in person?

If you can’t go to a figure drawing session in person, here are some online resources:

FREE:
Line of Action
Quick Poses
SketchDaily
Croquis Cafe
Senshi Stock
Proko
New Masters Academy

SUBSCRIPTION:
Bodies in Motion

What books do you recommend for drawing / storyboarding?
  • Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure
  • Andrew Loomis’s books
  • The Animator’s Survival Kit
  • Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
  • An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists
  • How To Make Webcomics by Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Dave Kellett, and Brad Guigar
  • How to Draw Anime & Game Characters (especially volumes 1-3)
  • How To Cartoon The Head And Figure by Jack Hamm
  • 100 Tuesday Tips (volumes 1 and 2) by Griz and Norm
  • Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers by Marcos Mateu Mestre
  • Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes
  • Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators
  • Color and Light: Life Drawing for Animators
  • Storyboards: Motion in Art by Mark Simon
  • Art of Storyboard by Don Bluth
  • Five C’s of Cinematography
  • Animation Writing and Development: from Script to Pitch
  • Directing the Story by Francis Glebas
  • Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz
  • Setting Up Your Shots by Jeremy Vineyard
  • Story by Robert McKee
  • The Visual Story by Bruce Block
  • Projections 5: Film-makers on Film-making
  • From Script to Screen
  • Professional Storyboarding
  • The Big Lebowski by Robertson Cooke
  • Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film
  • Movie Storyboards by Mulligan
  • Kingdom of Heaven: The Ridley Scott Film and the History Behind It
Do you have sketchbooks?

Yes, I publish a lot of my sketchbook material to social media.  Once in a while I collect the highlights into larger PDFs and sell them on Gumroad.

I’ve had a few people ask about buying sketchbook art, but I don’t want to cut up / separate my sketchbooks, so I don’t sell sketchbook art.

Where can I buy prints your work? Do you have merchandise or a shop?

Cadence now carries my prints, and you can buy some of my digital comics and sketchbooks on Gumroad.

Can I buy original artwork from you? Can I commission you?

Not at this time. My day job keeps me very busy and commissions take a lot of time.

Can you suggest any comic titles that are appropriate for young readers?

Yes!  Comics make excellent reading material for people of all ages.  For parents of young readers, it can be a little scary to see how much adult content is out there, but there are lots of great all-ages and teen titles to check out:

All Ages Comic Recommendations:
Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
Asterix by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover
The Big Bad Fox by Benjamin Renner
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Chi’s Sweet Home by Kanata Konami
Cucumber Quest by Gigi D. G.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Dragon Puncher by James Kochalka
Fantasy Sports by Sam Bosma
Moomin books by Tove Jansson
Smile and Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
Owly by Andy Runton
Mouse Guard by David Petersen
Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

Teen Comic Recommendations:
Adventure Time by Ryan North, Braden Lamb, and Shelli Paroline
The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé
American Born Chinese, Level Up, and Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegender
Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba by Kiyohiko Azuma
Batgirl: Year One by Scott Beatty, Chuck Dixon, Marcos Martin, and Alvaro Lopez
Bone by Jeff Smith
Card Captor Sakura and Angelic Layer by CLAMP
Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales by various creators
Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi
Courtney Crumrin and Polly & the Pirates by Ted Naifeh
DC Superhero Girls by Shea Fontana and Yancey Labat
Foiled by Jane Yolen and Michael Cavallaro
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
Giant Days by John Allison, Whitney Cogar, and Lissa Treiman
Ghosts and Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl
Hilda books by Luke Pearson
I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura
Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
Lumberjanes by Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, & Noelle Stevenson
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Mercury, Gray Horses, Compass South, and A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson
Ms Marvel by Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson, and Adrian Alphona
Nameless City, Friends with Boys, and The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Primates by Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks
The Prince and the Dressmaker, In Real Life,and Koko Be Good by Jen Wang
Relish, Age of License, and French Milk by Lucy Knisley
Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim
Seconds, Scott Pilgrim, and Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and various artists
Super Pro K.O. by Jarrett Williams
Teen Titans Go! by J Torres
This One Summer and Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Tomboy by Liz Prince
Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Erica Henderson and Ryan North
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
The Witch Boy and Strong Female Protagonist by Molly Ostertag
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

I feel like I’ve seen your work before somewhere…
Can I ask you questions about working at Disney / getting into Disney?

I am not a recruiter or a spokesperson for the studio. Please visit the Disney Animation website to get the most accurate and up-to-date information. Click on the “CAREERS” tab to see open positions and apply for them.

Will you look at my portfolio? Will you mentor me?

I cannot do that, I’m sorry. Please do not send me your portfolio or any pitches for stories that you may have. I DO volunteer as a mentor for Rise Up Animation, which offers free portfolio reviews to BIPOC artists, and I highly recommend signing up for a portfolio review through them.

I have to interview an artist for a class assignment…

I’m so sorry you got that assignment. It’s notoriously hated among working artists. Most people, myself included, will decline because we don’t have the time. We really wish teachers would stop assigning it.

I’m coming to L.A.! Can we hang out? Can I visit Disney?

I’m sorry, but I don’t meet up with people I don’t know like that. Thank you for understanding.

Will you attend a convention in my city? / Will you attend an event at my shop? / Will you speak to my class?

At this time, I am too busy at work to prepare for speaking engagements (panels, presentations, tutorials, storyboarding 101, meet-the-artist, etc.).  I hope to do these again in the future, but I cannot commit to any new speaking engagements at this time.

 

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