Steve Garcia

Over the past 28 years while working in animation, illustration, games, etc…I’ve gone through my share of interviews!
After a while, they just sort of become a carbon copy of themselves.
In this post, I want to share with you some insight into the interview process (at least from my perspective in being on both sides of the Interview table:
The interviewee, as well as being part of an interview team.

So you’ve made it through the ‘portfolio process’.
They’ve checked your credentials. Gone over your work history and experience.
Maybe you may have even received a call from one of the people that would be your lead on the project.
And now…..The all important Interview!

Now, I’ve always done very well in interviews. Mainly because I go in armed knowing what they essentially are.
For the most part, more often than not they are a sort of ‘personality test’.

Look..you already have proven through your reel and online portfolio etc, that you can do the work that’s required.
So they want to see how you do in the face to face area. What your personality is.
How you come off. And how you might gel within a team environment.
Even while the questions might seem like ‘art related’ questions,
what they want is to see if you’d be a ‘good fit’.
And yeah…it might seem a little on the shallow end. But it also happens to be the truth.
Now granted…this isn’t true 100% of the time.
That sure won’t be the case in the more ‘tech’ areas of the industry (such as programming, and things like that).
But in the art arena…they wanna know two things.

1) Is he a jerk or is he cool. (will this person be easy to work with?)

2) Is this person *fun*?

Now don’t get me wrong.
I think it’s fine and totally valid to see what ones personality is like. Believe me…
There’s something to it.

When I was working at my first game studio, we had someone come in for an interview.
I myself had just been hired and was not part of the team that was doing the interview.
He was coming in for an art gig. And he made it through. I’m guessing due to his experience.
To make a long story a wee bit longer, he turned out to be a complete jerk.
Arrogant. Snide, nasty, and if memory serves me right was even encroaching into the Art Director’s territory.
A big no no.

On the flip side, while there is something *to* the personality interview….I would say that there are also draw backs to putting TOO much emphasis on it.

Example: One of the times I was at E.A. I was asked to be a part of the interview team, as we were starting to flesh out the art crew for the upcoming project.
We had looked at the reels and portfolios of a bunch of people .
And settled on three people.
The process that was agreed to was a one on one with each person on the interview team. (a total of 5 if I remember correctly)

I was one of the first ones to go into the ‘one on ones’ .
I’d see the HR person lead the guy into the empty conference room, He’d sit for a bit waiting for us to enter. (Which were all scheduled for a certain time)

I grabbed my coffee…and headed on in.

“Toby”

“Toby” (name changed to protect the innocent. LOL!) was the first guy.
I could tell he was nervous.
Reading his bio and resume, he had experience but it was limited in the industry.
Yet….his work was fantastic! Great animation and very creative.

As I said…I could tell he was nervous. A tall fellow with a ‘dear in the headlights look’.
I said “hello!” He said ‘Hello’…so..off to a good start to my way of thinking!

I told him a little about myself. And what my job duties were at the studio. Then I asked him the same question I ask almost EVERYONE when I’m in the interview process:
“So! tell me a bit about yourself.”

“Toby” proceeded to nervously tell me about his experience and so on.
I cut in and replied “No no….look bud. Gonna be straight up honest with ya. These interviews are kinda silly. I hate doing them. (we both laughed)
I already know  you can do the work. And so does everyone else here. And you can do that work well.
Again, just gonna be honest with you. At this point people just want to see how you’d mix with the team.
So, I just want you to relax. We’ve got 30- 45 minutes to kill here.
Lets just talk. About anything OTHER than work related crap. “

From that point, “Toby” looked like he had a ton of bricks lifted up from him.
We talked about his family. His Wife, his kids. How he liked Austin (we flew him in for the interview). His passions. His likes, dislikes and I think even about food!

He asked about me and my time here in TX. And about my work history. And he was thrilled to learn about my time working on “Iron Giant”.
We had a fantastic time talking. And the time went by super fast.

Upon nearing the end of our ‘interview’ time, I asked him if there was anything else he felt he wanted to ask or say.
He paused. And said that he’d been out of a gig for sometime. And was hoping that he’d get this gig for his family.
Looking at his work history…it was true.

I said “Toby…Here’s what’s gonna happen. There’s 5 people that you’re going to see today. At the end of the day, we’re all gonna get together in an office just like this and we’re gonna talk about’cha…as well as the others.
And I’m gonna fight for you.”

I continued, “I think you’re very talented. And I think personally that you’d be a great addition to this team”

“Toby” lit up like a Christmas candle.
“BUT….” (I said)…..”YOU… have to relax. And just be yourself. Know that you’re good at what you do, and be confident in that.”

I shook his hand. And told him “Good luck!” , and walked out of the room.
I felt his tenseness creep back into him as I left.

“Chuck”

I approached “Chuck” pretty much the same way. Chuck was a different sort of personality. Kind of a tough guy. But not menacing in any sort of way.
Beard, stout, strong dude.
I could tell that he was using that toughness to hide his nervousness as well.
Once we got to talking, he loosened up. Although still in tough guy mode as maybe that was his comfort zone?
“Chuck” was definitely the most rounded artist of the three being interviewed.
We had a fantastic talk. So much so that they had to knock on the door and tell us we’d gone over the allotted time by 15 minutes!
I asked for just a few more minutes.
In that time, I told him the same thing I told “Toby”. That we were going to get together and make our decisions. But I had a great feel for him, and I was going to do everything I could to get him on the team. But as always…I could make no promises to him.
He seemed relieved that he at least got one vote.

“Alex”

“Alex” was the last of the group.
He was also the most relaxed of them.
Almost…..too relaxed.
We had a good talk. But I must admit, out of the three, I was the most cautious about him.
Mainly, because I didn’t know if I was being snowed.
His work was good. Not great.
And that’s fine…IF….IF he’s someone that can grow and work well within the team.
If NOT, and he’s an arrogant individual, then he’s going to be a drag for production as time is going to be spent working through whatever personality issues he may bring into the project.
And that’s not good.

At the end of it, I felt confident that he would be fine.
A confident guy. But someone that would work well in the process.

END PART ONE.
Next: PART TWO: “Making the case for Chuck, Toby and Alex”

VIVA!!

 

Excuses are your Kryptonite. And they come in many forms.
Recently I had a conversation with someone on facebook about being an artist.
He said something that I hear fairly often.
“I wish I could draw better. But I started late.”

To which my reply is always the same:

“It’s not so much when you start…but how much time you spend doing it when you finally do.”

How *good* you get will depend on how many hours you invest at doing what you say you *love* to do. Figure out what your weaknesses are and throw time into strengthening them.
You have issues drawing hands? Do nothing but hands. Feet? Spend tons of time doing feet!
It’s a ‘time investment’ thing.
You invest the time. You WILL get better.

“The Fear Factor”

Excuse:
“Well….I’ve had a regular job for a while now. I still draw and paint. But I couldn’t make that jump to being able to do it more as a moneymaking thing”

Uh…what?
This is a new frontier my friends. With so many online resources opening a ton of new opportunities.

Let’s be honest. Often times it’s nothing more than fear (or laziness) that is stopping someone from pursuing his/her dream. Whatever that might be.
No different in the artistic realm.
Now, I’m not saying you just up and quit your job and pursue art full time.
Of course not. But you can build towards that.
It just takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it happen.

One such example of that is a guy by the name of Christopher Cayco.
He was a car tech before pursuing art full time.
He had a passion for art. And really wanted to pursue that passion.
Somewhere around the year 2015, he got into the convention circuit.
And he did this by:
1) Drawing his backside off and improving his skills.
2) Going to a convention as an attendee, and watching. Taking notes. Seeing what it all was about on the biz end. In short…how to do it!

And that’s what he does now. Full time.
Again…this is a guy, who put the work into it.
Not just artistically. But mentally. Studying how one can AND DOES make this into a full time gig.

And he’s doing it.
Can you? There are no guarantees for any of us. But you won’t know…unless you try.
(And yeah…that goes for me too! Currently I’m in the process of trying something new on my end as well. Are there concerns? Heck yeah! But at some point, you have to move past the ‘just thinking about it’ phase….into the “DOING IT” phase.

Old dogs, new tricks

And while you’d think that this is restricted to just younger artists, a lot of veteran artists also fall victim to this mindset.
“I’m too far along”…
“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks..”
“My best years are behind me….”

And to this I say NONSENSE!
And you only need to look to one example to prove this:

Jack Kirby.

For those few people out there that don’t know who Jack Kirby is, Let me quickly fill you in. Jack Kirby is a comic book artist, who with Stan Lee created most of the Marvel Comics stable of hero’s. Not all…but a TON of them.

And he did this primarily in the 60’s. Starting with the “Fantastic Four” in 1961.
At the age of 45!

Yes, Kirby was already an established talent. Working in comics for a very long time before working for Marvel back in the early 60’s. But his explosion of work and creativity in that time…In the creation of what is known as the “Marvel Universe” in his mid 40’s on up, should prove to dispel the lie of “it’s too late for me”.

It’s never too late.

Never too late to be creative.
Never too late to be artistically relevant.
Never too late to have your voice heard!

The amazing Steve Ditko, (Creator of Spiderman, Doctor Strange etc) who recently passed away on June 27^th,  at the age of 90, was working up until his final days.
Being creative.

Contributing.

Again…never too late.
The only thing that is stopping you, IS you!
The self doubt that has somehow creeped into your artistic heart, and convinced you that your best creative days are behind you.
They aren’t.
But it’s up to you to make sure of that fact.
And the way you do that…is to create!
Pick up that pad. Pencil. Pen. Paint. Get out there and throw everything you can at that canvas. Whether it be a digital canvas, or traditional.

Do your thing and push it into the masses .
Your own creation, even the one you think is your weakest…could very well be the next big thing to rock the public!

But you won’t know that if you don’t get over that hurdle of “It’s too late”.

It’s never too late.

And Kirby and Ditko have shown you the way.

VIVA!!

(Post note: Please check out Chris Cayco’s youtube channel to see some wonderful convention vlogs as well as other art vids he makes. A wonderful talent and a great guy)

https://www.youtube.com/user/ccayco

Well, it’s that time again.
Just some art gigs that I know of. GOOD LUCK!
______

*Electronic Arts.: Guildford UK
Lead Concept Artist-

Work well and collaborate with Art Director and team environment.
Create quickly. Comfortable with characters as well as environs.
Demonstrate wide range of styles.
Check their website for more details to apply for gig:

https://ea.gr8people.com/index.gp?method=cappportal.showJob&layoutid=2092&inp1541=&opportunityid=151421&sid=https://www.ea.com/careers/careers-overview/worldwide-studios

______

*Electronic Arts.: Guildford UK
Animator- (contract gig)
Check their website for more details to apply for gig:

https://ea.gr8people.com/index.gp?method=cappportal.showJob&layoutid=2092&inp1541=&opportunityid=150716&sid=https://www.ea.com/careers/careers-overview/worldwide-studios

______

*Cold Iron Studios: San Jose, California
Principal Environment Artist-

Create props, architecture, and terrain models, textures, and materials. Experience REQUIRED.
Check their website for more details and to submit portfolio and apply for gig.
Portfolio a MUST.

http://coldironstudios.com/careers/principal-environment-artist/

______

*Amazon Game Studios: Seattle, Washington
Gameplay Animator-

Check their website for more details to submit demo reel and apply for the gig:

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/663002/animator

______

*Telltale Games: San Rafael, California
Animator-

Check their website for more details to apply for the gig:

https://telltale.com/jobs/job/oITX7fwp

______

*iGotcha Studios: Stockholm, Sweden
UI / UX Artist-

Create layouts, graphics, interactive elements, icons, style sheets, colour schemes, mood boards etc.
Check their website for more details and to apply for job:

http://www.igotchastudios.com/jobs/ui-ux-designer/

______

Good luck all!!

VIVA!!

 

The most important part of any drawing is something that many people spend so little time in doing.
The “Gesture drawing”. Or the ruff sketch.

I get it…I do.
It’s much more tempting to just jump right into it and start laying down the folds, the muscles, the details!!
The ‘FUN STUFF’.

But unless that ruff sketch is nailed down.
Unless that gesture is well worked out…ALL that ‘fun’ detail that you toiled over for hours and hours…is nothing more than wasted time.

Your drawing will be stiff. Lifeless. Wrong.
I’ve seen people do all that work AND THEN…go beyond that and actually start laying paints over it.
And that well rendered, even well drawn piece is flat and dead.

It’s kinda heartbreaking really.
And it’s not just young artists that fall victim to this.
We’ve all been guilty of it at one time or another.

The Foundation:

The foundation to any good painting or work of art…is a good, solid drawing. And the cornerstone to that drawing, is the gesture drawing.
If the detail and polish is the ‘skin’ of the drawing…then the gesture drawing is surely the soul of it.

I was always surprised that not enough emphasis was spent on gesture drawing.
Even in many art school figure drawing classes. The emphasis was to ‘draw that figure.’ Keep an eye out for the bumps in the body, where the fat meets the bone. The bends. Drawing that form that stood before you.
So…what many people had at the end of that day, was a technically well drawn study of what was standing in front of them.
And 8 out of 10 times…it was stiff. Lifeless.
Which is ironic, being that the classes were called “Life Drawing”.

What is the ‘gesture’?

Gesture drawing is THE place to explore. And perfect your pose, as well as the feel for your final piece.
Keeping it loose, and exploring all of the possibilities for that pose. And not just settling for the first thing that pops into your head.
finding the right movement.
Finding the life and the energy.

 Finding the flow

One of, if not *the* most important thing to keep in mind when approaching quick sketch or gesture drawing is the “line of action”.
Many people attribute this (mistakenly) to only action poses. But really, it’s even more important in quiet poses or standing still poses. Because I find that those types of poses are the easiest to stiffen.
Lines of action can be the line from the head to the foot. But not always.
The only constant is the line that acts as the spine.
Below are some examples of line of action.
Most obvious in action poses. But also can be seen in just standing poses.
It is something to always keep in mind when approaching your drawing.

 

Dynamics: Pushing the pose

Mind you…(and this is only MY opinion) you should not and never feel like you’re a slave to any rule.
Whether your out at the park doing gesture drawing at a sports event.
Or gesture drawing from scratch to find a pose for your illustration (or keys for your animation)… The point of gesture drawing is pushing that pose.
Keeping it loose…finding that line of action and pushing it.
Sure, you can push it too far. But you won’t know until you see it. Then you can pull it back if need be.

One of the reasons gesture is so important is that it allows you to find that perfect pose, ROUGHLY…without spending too much time on it.
You can’t build a good house on a shoddy foundation. And that foundation for your drawing is a good strong, loose gesture!

Part of your mindset on approaching gesture drawing should be actions vs counteractions.
The body is made up of different units. Each one individual. But all acting and counteracting off of each other.
Pushing and pulling, stretching and constraining pending on the action itself.
Here are some examples I did off of some photo’s of sports figures:

Remember…in gesturing, your want is to capture the *essence* of the pose. As loosely as possible . And again, that should mean pushing that pose. Notice how my gestures aren’t exactly the poses in the picture. The legs are clearly stretched beyond what they are in the pics. The angle in the torso is as well.
And that’s as it should be!

Again, you can always bring it back if you go to far. The whole point of gesture drawing is to explore and find just the right amount of push and pull that gives you the perfect dynamic for your final drawing.

More examples of beautiful gesture drawings:
Notice the clear line of action. The push and pulls. The pinches that give way to the stretches.

 

 

Even in these much rougher gesture sketches, the line of action, and stress points of push and pull are clearly evident.
And the motion is beautifully clear.

Some of the most wonderful examples of gesture drawing are from animators, who are masters of the gesture . Capturing motion, energy, personality….LIFE. In every scribbly sketch.

As an animator myself, my thumbnail gestures would serve as the basis for my keys. Which I’d blow up, and time out for a pencil test. And upon director approval, start my tie downs from them.
Below are examples of ruff gestures from assorted animators including master animator Glen Keane:

Gesture tie down

So let’s say after you’ve searched and explored, you’ve finally found the gesture that you’re satisfied with. Let’s say it’s some agile ‘spiderman-esque’ figure. Leaping into action.

If your gesture is in pencil, chances are you’re gonna want to put a sheet over that (on lightbox) and do your tie downs over that.
If your working digitally, you can scan that gesture in your computer, and turn down the opacity so the lines are lighter.
Put a layer over that.
And work in passes. Clarifying your shapes.

 

I for one am STILL changing things from the gesture drawing. Shifting things as I go..(angle of feet and hands, feet, etc)
Still trying to keep the energy of the gesture..and as much of the looseness (not in lines, but in feel) as I can. Still working roughly!

 

As you can see, with each clarifying line of tie-down, we’ll be loosing some of that energy, and the drawing will start to slightly stiffen up.
That’s just the nature of any tie down. But the want is to keep as much of the power and life of the original gesture as possible.

Continue to tie down the pose, tweaking and altering where you need to. Keeping as much of that energy and movement as possible!
Don’t get the ‘chained to your drawing table’ syndrome. Get up and walk away from it for awhile. Get a drink. Eat something.
Stepping away from your drawing even momentarily will help you approach it with a fresh eye when you return to it.

 

And so on and so on, until you get the desired result that you’re looking for.
Again…the importance of being able to gesture and gesture draw well can not be overstated.
Try it yourself! Get yourself a ‘gesture’ drawing pad and fill it with nothing but ruff fast sketches!
Get your mind in habit of getting it down quickly, and out of ‘tinker mode’ .
There’s a time for that later. But unless you get that corner stone down of capturing the energy and looseness, all the tinkering in the world won’t help your drawing.

Have any questions of comments? Feel free to send them my way. I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts about gesture drawing.

Have fun and get loose!

Viva!!

Today’s post is about the dangers of trading your health for your passion.

Now I know that at first glance this seems like a no-brainer sort of thing.
“Of course you shouldn’t trade your health for your passions! Uhh..Duh?!”

But it’s not as clear cut as that.
This is probably more geared as a warning for younger artists, just getting into their careers in the art industries..But it should also serve as a reminder of sorts to all my old industry veteran friends out there.

When I was a young animation student at Cal-Arts way back in 1990, there was a printout that made its way around the school.
It showed several drawings of the progression of an animator through the years.
Starting off as a strapping young energetic lad and ending with him as a hunchback, old fat guy!
At the time I don’t think many of us (being energetic strapping youngsters ourselves) really thought all that much about it other than it being funny.
But boy oh BOY! Is there a lot of truth to that little cartoon.

Again, in school, you are passionate! Driven! Full of energy and zeal!
Even obsessed!
And you take that right into your pro years after animation/art school.
But I’m telling you, It’s very easy to fall victim in many ways to your tunnel vision passions. So much so, that it’s a shocker to find out that the very thing you love…..is harming you. Maybe even killin’ you.

When I was starting out, brand spanking new in the animation industry, I weighed a pretty lean 145 pounds. Slim and trim! Heck….I even had a little bit of a six pack goin on!!
But it didn’t take long for that six pack to dwindle down to a very *fluffy* 1 pack.
Before I knew it, back problems started creeping in from too many countless hours at the animation desk, and in recent years from being hunched over a wacom tablet.

This didn’t change later when I got into game development.
And one day in November, 2013…I doubled over in pain.
Leaned over and whispered to my Art Director (whom I shared an office with)
“..dude…I think I have to leave. I’m having some serious chest pains…”

I drove myself home (foolishly), and called my doc. Who then told me to get to an E.R.
FAST!

I laid in the hospital bed with my wife by my side…I couldn’t move I was in so much pain.
And it wasn’t just pain…It was as if my entire body was being crushed.
It hurt to breathe!

They gave me a cocktail of drugs

(including Nitroglycerin), to get my pain and blood pressure in check. Which, by the way was off the charts high.

Like….red alert dangerous.

With my wife by my side, we waited for them to come back and give us some news as to what the heck was going on!

Turns out it wasn’t a heart attack (Thankfully), but  extreme hypertension.
Due to their tests, they wanted to admit me for the night so they could monitor me and take additional tests (which included an MRI)

To make a long story even longer, I went home the next evening…with the news that I was seriously teetering on either a massive heart attack or even possibly a stroke. And was put on meds to quickly stabilize my blood pressure (of which 4 of them I STILL take to this day.)

I needed to change some things in  my life.

So…how did I get here? This once young and energetic kid!!
Reduced to an over night stay in a hospital, barely able to move, tied to an I.V.
Well….quite simply, I let go of the big picture. Fell victim to a sort of tunnel vision that we artist types get.
And that’s “the passion”.
The passion for what we do. The passion for what we love.

So we hunker down.
We do long, long, LONG hours at work. And then go home and work some more!
Early mornings…long nights.
Hunched over a desk.
Eating badly.
(many times with the studio catering those lunches so that they have you STAY at your desk to get more work done. )

Lack of exercise. Because well…it’s hard to exercise when you’ve chained yourself to your desk.
And of course, lack of good solid sleep!!
If any sleep at all.

So!

*Long hours and over working.
*No rest.
*Lack of sleep.
*Exhaustion.
*Bad diet.
*No exercise
*With extreme stress…

Is it any wonder why you find yourself in a world of hurt?

And, if I’m being totally honest about it. It also has a bit to do with fear.
Like the fear of being FIRED.
Much of that is irrational fear. But there is that thought turning around in our heads..
“Man!! I gotta really have my nose to the grindstone. I don’t want them to think I’m just sluffing off!”
Look. The studios (or your clients) don’t really care about your health. They don’t.
Yes, they’ll say they do. And yes, they’ll tout all of their HR health awareness programs. And you may have a GREAT health care benefit plan with them.
But really, what they want is the work in on time or even better- ahead of time.
And quite honestly…your health is not their responsibility.

It’s yours.

It’s up to you, to keep yourself in check.
To push away from your passions.
To take a dang a break every now and then.
To look into what you can do to make your work days work FOR you. (health wise).
To make sure you’re eating REAL food! Hah! Not just non stop burgers that balloon your weight as well as your blood pressure.
Get some sleep!! Good sleep!
As well as getting a little exercise every now and then.
Something I STILL need to get better at.

And don’t forget:

Remember the ‘little’ things

Or more accurately put, Remember the important things.
Your Family!
Wives, Husbands, Daughters, Sons, your girlfriend, boyfriend, friendships, pets!

Remember…LIFE!

Take a day, go to the park. Breathe in some fresh air. Get out of that wonderful, stuffy studio and take a real look around you.
Share a laugh with the important people in your life.

All of this stuff feeds into eachother. You’re Life experiences will make you not only healthier…but it will make your work better.
It will help you approach it all with a fresh eye.
Give you MUCH more to actually ‘draw’ from!

Ironically, when you only ‘hunker down’ at your desk., it’s a lose-lose situation for you on both issues.
Grinding away…..day after day after day.  Willingly and happily….for your passion and love.
You actually *rob* from those passions, by robbing yourself of those IMPORTANT life experiences, that feed your soul as well as feed your creative muscles.
AND…
You also rob from those important life experiences:
Your Wife, Kids, pets, friends, health, etc when you deny spending any real quality time on that front.

It is a never ending battle we as artists fight day after day. But if we don’t find that balance, and fight to keep that balance and perspective…The ultimate loser, is US.

So find that balance.
Do your art. Do your work.
Squeeze your loved ones. Walk the dog! And every now and then eat a dang salad and take a long walk.
Then, hopefully you won’t turn into a hunchback before your time!

VIVA!!