Rejection Is Never The End

In this episode of You’re A Better Artist Than You Think:

Animation visual development artist and background painter Amy Lewis (SpongeBob, Moominvalley) talks about establishing a freelance animation career from Europe, the most devastating rejection of her career and the amazing opportunity that followed…

How To Listen:

Listen to the interview via the YouTube player or subscribe to the audio podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Email and most other podcasting platforms…

This is part one in a two-part series.

…Or Read The Transcript:

Chris: Amy Lewis, let’s begin with you introducing yourself…

Amy: I’m Amy Lewis and I am a visual development artist and background painter for animation.

I’m currently, for work, painting backgrounds on SpongeBob SquarePants and The Patrick Star Show at Nickelodeon.

It’s a dream come true. I love it.

I’ve worked in the past few years, art directing on Mr. Bean: The Animated Series.

I did a bit of art direction on Moominvalley along with concept design.

I worked on The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti for Disney Plus. I was background supervising on that – which was really fun.

…and I’ve done some visual development work for Aardman on their Wallace and Gromit games.

Yeah, there’s been lots of things, exciting things, but those are the ones in the most recent past I’ve worked on.

Chris: Yeah, it’s awesome.

…and you are from Texas, obviously…

Amy: [Attempts a Texan accent] I’m from Texas.

[LAUGHTER]

Chris: Hey, that was pretty good!

Amy: Oh, thanks!

[LAUGHTER]

Chris: Not bad!

Amy: He heh… Oh, good ol’ Texas….

Yeah, I’m as British as they come.

Chris: …and that being important, of course, for context, because, yes, you are from the UK.

…and this is something people are interested in, right?

How does one have a mainstream animation career and yet still live in a different country?

…and you’ve been successful in this regard for years now.

…and, certainly, we’ll have to get into that as we proceed through the interview.

Amy’s Early Influences:

Chris: What were your early influences?

I know you’ve had a few mentors throughout your life that have been really important and supportive…

Amy: As far back as I can remember, I have always loved watching Disney movies.

…all sorts of animated movies, but especially Disney movies.

I don’t know what it was about them. It was just that they were so magical and captivating.

I often found myself rewatching – especially Alice In Wonderland – over and over and over.

…just because it was such a visual treat to look at.

From the age of about six or seven, (this is when the Rugrats were on video) me and my brother, we’d collect them all.

…and I would draw (or copy) every single video cover down to the barcode.

[SNICKERS]

…and I’d go and take them into school and I became known as: “Hey, you’re the kid that draws Chuckie.”

[GIGGLES]

“Can you draw me a Chuckie?”

…and I missed the trick because I should have been like, “Yeah, 50p and you can have a Chuckie.”

[LAUGHTER]

Um, I’m not a business woman, am I?

[LAUGHTER]

Yeah, so when I got to age nine, my mum and dad, they noticed that, you know, I was drawing all the time.

…and there was a girl at my primary school who, had just started watercolor classes with a local artist called Barry Tomlinson.

…and she was bringing in these paintings to school and showing everybody, and they were so amazing…

…and I went home and told my mum about this, and I was really angry.

…because I was thinking, “Hey, I’m the artist in this school.”

…and I said to my mum, “Can you find out where she goes, please?” So she did, and a couple of nights later, she just said, “Would you like to go every week?”

I said I’d love to.

So, yeah, I started at age nine, watercolor classes.

…and Barry was awesome.

He taught me all the foundations of painting, color theory, how to control watercolor, different techniques of painting, different textures like brick and he taught me perspective, everything.

…and then as I got older, I just knew that I was better at art than anything else that I’ve tried and I liked it better.

…and so I knew I wanted to do something with art.

…and it was either between becoming a children’s book illustrator, a comic book artist or an artist for animation.

…and it always came down, at the end of the day, to animation because, you know, it, it just appealed more to me.

I like the fact that you could have action going on, on top of painting.

…and I always knew I wanted to do the painty-painty part.

I knew I didn’t want to make things move.

[LAUGHTER]

…too technical for me.

I took art at A Level in college and then I, unfortunately, fell into the trap of: “Oh, you need to go to university and do some sort of art degree to get a piece of paper that allows you to get jobs.” 


…which is not what happens.

Do you want me to go into that?

Chris: Yes, please.

Frustration With University Art Programs:

Amy: So I did a foundation course – which I felt was the biggest waste of time ever in my life. That took a year.

Basically, to get into any uni for a full art degree over here, you have to do a foundation course, which is a mixture of everything. So, you know, they make you do bits of textiles and bits of graphics and bits of modern art.

…and, you know, it’s fair dues if you don’t know what you want to do in the art world, fine.

…because it gives you a chance to explore, but I knew what I wanted to do.

…and I just needed a piece of paper at the end of it.

…and it was really annoying, and I had to wait a year.

…and, like, one of the practices that we had to do was to cello tape pencils together – like, seven pencils – and then take your shoe off and try and draw with the pencils.

…and I’m like, “How the hell is this gonna help me…”

[LAUGHTER]

Amy: “…paint backgrounds for Disney? I don’t understand.”

[LAUGHTER]

Oh, yeah, I got through that and then I applied to Edinburgh.

…because at that time (this was 2012)…

…and I know that’s not that long ago really, but so much has come out now online. Like, your academy has become so, so much more well known, widespread.

There’s so many things online that you can learn directly from the best in the industry, you know.

…but back then there wasn’t access to that.

There just wasn’t. I didn’t know anything about it.

All I knew is that, “Okay, you need to do an art degree.”

So graphics, fine art, illustration or animation…

…and I looked at the animation, but there was no painting part in it.

There was no arty-art part. 
It was just computer animation. 


…and I’m really not interested in that at all. It’s just, my brain doesn’t like that technical side. 


So I thought, “Okay, well, I don’t want to do fine art, because a lot of that’s that modern art where you throw a bucket of paint at a canvas and sell it for a million quid, and I’m just not into that.” 


…and then graphics was just too computerized and no paint. 


So I thought, “Right, I’ll take illustration then, ’cause that’s best of both worlds.” 


Experimenting With Illustration: 


Amy: Yeah, so I went down that route.

I had a great time at uni, you know, it was a great experience and I loved Edinburgh. I made some great friends.

The course was great if you want to be an illustrator. 


…but I didn’t. I didn’t want to be an illustrator. 


I just needed that piece of paper. 


…or I thought I did. 


…and then when I left uni, I couldn’t get a job and I was really confused. 


I was applying everywhere and they were saying, “You need experience.” 


…and I’m like, “But I’ve been at uni for the past four years and they told me that I needed a piece of paper to get a job.” 


I was just so confused. 


So, anyway, I just kept drawing and drawing, and I eventually picked up a little job at a branding agency. It was very graphics-based. I didn’t like it, but it was, you know, it was something. 


…and then I got a very low-paid internship with an artist in Manchester for a couple of months. 


…but nothing that would sustain me or give me enough money to live.

…and I was getting really upset about it. 


…and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. 


I knew my art wasn’t good enough, but I didn’t know what it was about it that wasn’t good enough. 


“I’ve Found My People…” 


Amy: …and that’s when I came across your advert for The Story Design Conference in Rome. 


Chris: In Rome. 


Amy: Ahh, “When in Rome.” 


It was the most random thing ever, honestly. 


I was just on Facebook, and this advert came up. Someone had reposted it. 


…and I read it and I just thought, “Oh, this sounds really cool.” 


So I clicked on it, and I read, and I was like: “Oh, I’ve got to go to that!” 


…and then I got distracted by something. 


…and, you know, that was it for like a couple of weeks. 


…and then I got a message from a friend that I volunteered with at Manchester Animation Festival and he sent me the link again. He said, “Amy, have you seen this? Are you going to go?” 


I thought, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, I’m going to go. Are you going to go?” 


He said yeah. 


So I was like, “Right.” 


So I scraped all my pennies together because I had no money at this point. I was a broke student living at home with my parents and I bought a ticket to Rome, booked a cheap hotel and I went downstairs and told my parents I’m going to Rome. 


…and they were like, “When?” 


I was like, “Well, next month.” 


They were like, “Oh right, where you gonna stay?” 


I said, “Well, this hotel.” 


They said, “Well, is it a good hotel?” 


“I don’t know, I’m just going.” 


I was so excited. 


[LAUGHTER] 


Amy: I learned more in those five days than I learned in four years of uni. It was just so inspiring. 


There was you, Brian McDonald, Jenn Ely, and Claire Keane. 


…and it was just: “I found my people!” 


You know? 


It just felt right. 


It just really captivated me and what I wanted to do and I thought, “Oh my god. These are the people I want to work with and these are the people I aspire to be as good as one day.” 


So, I left there feeling like high as a kite.

It was amazing. 


Amy’s First Big Break: 


Amy: And then, literally, I applied what you’d said in that five day course to my work. 


…and then I started to take… 


It was your podcast that was out at the time. 


I was listening to tips that you were giving and two months later (literally two months later) I got my first big break in the animation industry. 


…which was to go over to Belfast and to work at Sixteen South as a junior background artist on Pinkalicious. 


So I was like, “Bloody hell, this is working. That was quick.” 


So when I went over there. 


You know, it was all new to me. 


…and I had to work up from the bottom and everyone was so friendly and kind and helpful. 


…and at the same time as starting a new job, you brought out your First Flight mentorship. 


Chris: Right. 


Amy: So I took that. 


That was amazing. 


I replayed those recordings – your lessons – over and over and over and over and over and I couldn’t wait to get home from work so I could just go and listen to them and draw. 


I learned so much. Honestly, I learned so much… 


Amy: …and it kept me going because I thought, “Okay, I’ve got some great mentors here and I can feel I’m learning. I’m getting better.” 

it was exciting. 


So then I was on – on that job for about a year and four months. 


…and I felt myself… 


I was just getting a bit bored and unchallenged. 


I was at that point where I felt, “Okay, I know I can do more than this and I want more than this now and I don’t want to get too comfortable before I get to somewhere that I really, want to be at.” 


…and so I decided to look around for other jobs and just, you know, see what was out there. 


…and my friend who works at Sixteen South said, “Oh, there’s some openings for designers at Tiger Aspect for Mr. Bean. Why don’t you apply?” 


I was like, “Great!” 


…because, you know, different roles at different studios… 
It’s such a big umbrella… 


…like, you know, you could say, ” I’m an art director.” 


…but what does that mean at one studio to another?

So I just thought, “Designer, cool. Character designer, background designer, whatever. Awesome. Mr. Bean. Love it.” 


So, I applied using the work that I’ve been doing on your mentorship.

I wasn’t expecting to hear back from them because I’d only just broken in a year and a bit before but they got back and said, “Yeah, we’d like to interview you.” 


So I remember getting on the call with them and they said, “Right, we’d like to interview you for art director.” 


…and I just thought, “What, what?” 


It’s like, “Oh, right. Yeah, cool, cool.” 


I was just like playing it cool. 


…and they were like, “So [LAUGHTER] how are you with Adobe Illustrator?” 


…and I was like, “Yeah, yeah. Brilliant.” 


I’d never opened it in my life. 


[LAUGHTER] 


…ever. 


I don’t think I’d ever even heard of it. 


I was like, “Okay.” 


Said, “Oh, great.” 


Because the whole show is, is drawn in it, now I’m sat there sweating, just trying to like smile… 


…and they were like, “Right, we’re going to send you a test. You’ve got (I think it was) a week to give it in. Then we’ll go from there.” 


I was like, “Thank you. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.”

Turn it off, like, “SHIT! SHiiiiT!”

Chris: [GIGGLES]

Amy: So what do I do? 


So I went on YouTube and I looked up: “How to use Adobe Illustrator…” 


…and I took a course for, like, a day… 


…and I was like, “Right, that’s got to do I need this time to draw now.”

So, oh god, I look back now and it’s like a right botched job but it must have been alright because it worked in the end and then I got the job… 


[LAUGHTER] 


I got the job! 


There was about a month in between leaving that job to start the other job. So that month I hammered Adobe Illustrator every day and spent like about four hours a day watching tutorials, you know, practicing. 


Until I could use it… 


…well, kind of use it, when I started. 


I believe in “Fake it till you make it.” 


…you know, if it’s realistic. 


…cause I knew that I could learn Illustrator in a month. 


I would never be like, “Oh, do you know Blender?” 


…or, “Do you know Cinema 4D?” 


I couldn’t learn that in a month. 


[GIGGLES] 


Chris: Right. 


Amy: I think you’ve got to still be realistic, but challenge yourself, if the opportunity’s there. 


It worked for me, and I learned so much on that job. 


I’ve learned so much on every job, because every job’s been different. 


I loved that job. 


It was great. 


Another Year Of Skill Building: 


Amy: …and at the same time as starting this new job with Adobe Illustrator, which I didn’t really know how to use, I decided to torture myself and join your character painting mentorship at the same time. 


Chris: Mm. 


Amy: Oh, that was awesome. 


Chris: Mmhm. I remember that… 


Amy: Oh, so good. 


Again, I felt like, yeah, it was hard juggling all three new things… 


…but I thought, you know, I’m at that point where I wish that I’d grown up in LA or, you know, around the animation industry with people I could have learned this stuff off years ago, but I didn’t.

You know, I’m British and I don’t know people. 


I didn’t know the connections, you know? 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: So I thought, “Right, this is my chance now, I’ve got to catch up… 


…and I’ve got to do everything I can to catch up without dying.” 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: So I did. 


…and after that six months on Mr. Bean, I decided that I needed… 


I was very burnt out. 


I felt quite poorly, but I took the next year. 


I worked three days a week at Factory Create as a lead background designer and painter on Mimi And The Mountain Dragon, which was a Christmas special for the BBC. 


So yeah, I decided to work three days a week and then I could have the rest of the week to just work on my own stuff at my own pace and chill a bit… 


…whilst I lived back at my parents’ house, which was really, really good for me. 


So that lasted a year. 


Moominvalley & Art Directing In Lockdown: 


Amy: …and then 2020 happened.

…and you know what happened in 2020. 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: Luckily, in this industry, we can work from home a lot of the time – which is great.

Because, for me, it didn’t affect my work apart from the fact that I then got a job on Moominvalley. 


So I should have moved down to Bristol and worked in the studio with my team. 


…but we never met each other. We were always over Zoom.

…which was still fine. 


That was another job that I learned so much on too, because, I was painting concept art for the modelers to build the worlds and the locations. 


…but I was painting them in neutral light, which was all new to me. 

I hadn’t heard of this, neutral light thing. 


Chris: Mmhm. 


Amy: I just thought, “Oh, you, you see a lovely lit painting. That’s how you paint it.” 


Like, sometimes, yeah. 


…but in 3D, a lot of the time, these backgrounds are painted in neutral light, so then they can add lighting effects on top after and change it very easily. 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: That was a really big learning curve for me. 


…and I love the style of Moominvalley. 


It’s so playful and soft. I loved it. 


I learned a little bit of Blender in there as well, which was helpful. 


…and so that lasted a year.

…just over a year. 


Knowing What You Don’t Want: 


Amy: …and then I got a job on The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti for Disney Plus, and that was in Helsinki. 


I’d started getting emails a few years ago (and people were)
 reaching out to me when I hadn’t even sent things… 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: …which was really nice. 


It was all because of what I was producing from your mentorships that was driving them in because my work was improving so much from your mentorships and also learning on, on different jobs. 


Chris: Right. 


Amy: So instead of moving over to Helsinki, I worked from home ninety-five percent of the time. 


I went over for a month in the middle which was awesome. It was great to meet the team. 


…and it was a very full-on job. It’s a very new studio. It was their first big production, you know, and with that comes a lot of trial and error… 


…and it was fun, but it was a lot of work. 


So on that job, I realized I don’t want to be a supervisor… 


Amy: I want to paint. 


In the interview, I remember them saying… 


Well, I said, “Can I paint? Can I still paint things even though I’m supervising?” 


…and they were like, “Yeah, yeah, of course, paint as much as you want.” 


…but I think what wasn’t said was: “…but also supervise.” 


…you know? 


Chris: Mhhm… 


Amy: Make sure you do everything else as well. 


So it was kind of like my own fault because I wanted to paint. 


So I thought, “Okay, well, the only way I’m going to get to paint is to do all my supervising work anyway, and then work extra to paint.” 


…because I wanted to. 


…but yeah, I definitely don’t want to be a supervisor. 


I just want to paint the thing. 


I’d like to art direct again… 


…but different studios mean different things, so I wouldn’t like to be an art director who just supervises and manages deadlines and hands work out and stuff like that. 


I’d rather be sort of more like production design, so it’s very painting based and, you know, hands on. 


…but I love being a background painter.

I love it. 


You get your work, you get your reference and whatever, and you just sit down and do it, and it’s great. 


…but yeah, that, that was a great job. That lasted for, I think it was another year? 


Amy’s Dream Job Disappointment: 


Amy: …and then… 


…then the most heartbreaking thing happened, Chris. 


I’ve always wanted to work for Disney. 


You know that. Everyone I know knows that. 


…and I’d been applying for seven years? 


Seven years. 


I’d never even had a reply. 


Nothing. 


Chris: Long time. 


Amy: Yeah. Long, long time. 


…and I finally got a reply. 


I applied to be a background painter on the Big City Greens movie with Disney TVA and I finally got a reply and they said they’d like to interview me. 


…and I was absolutely ecstatic. 


I couldn’t believe it. 


It’s very hard to describe, but when you’re from the other side of the world and you’re not actually allowed to work in the US without being sponsored or having a visa, it’s incredibly difficult to get the attention of studios over there because it’s going to cost them money and time to hire people overseas when they’ve got hundreds of talented people on the doorstep, you know, that are fresh out of CalArts or wherever.

So this was like, “Okay, I’ve got one chance. This is it.” 


…and I had the interview and it went better than I’d ever expected. 


You know, when you just have a good feeling and the interview happens and it doesn’t feel like an interview, it just feels like a chat? 

It was like that, and I just thought, “Oh, I might actually get this job.” 

But then I didn’t hear anything for eight weeks. 


Um, they said, “You’ll hear soon.” 


…and eight weeks passed, and I checked in about two or three times in that eight weeks, because I, you know, I was getting other offers from other places, but I had to turn them down, because this was my dream job. 


I thought, “I don’t care if I lose anything else, and I don’t make enough money for a couple of months. I really want this job.” 


…but, yeah, I ended up not getting the job and they couldn’t give a reason. 


They said they couldn’t give a reason. 


I was just shattered. 


I just felt like, “That’s it. I’ve put my heart and soul and effort into everything. I had one chance and I’ve blown it.” 


…and everything was so shit for a few months.

I just felt so bad. 


Yeah, it just took a while for me to get my momentum back up again. 


…to actually want to try again. 


…because, to me, I’d put everything in one basket.

…you know, the Disney basket. 


It’s that or nothing. 


…which isn’t right. 


I wasn’t enjoying the journey. 


I should have enjoyed the other gigs more. 


…because I’ve always half focused on getting away and being at Disney.

I learned then that, “Okay, I’ve got to enjoy things because I might not get to Disney for another ten, twenty years and I don’t want to go through my life not enjoying what I do because I want to be somewhere I can’t be. 


SpongeBob SquarePants: 


Amy: So then I was just on Twitter one night…

…and I’m not a big Twitter user. I have an account. (I much prefer Instagram.) It was just by chance I was on Twitter. 


I was just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and someone from SpongeBob at Nickelodeon, they tweeted this tweet out saying that SpongeBob needs help from traditional painters. 


“If you can paint traditionally, please comment here, leave your portfolio and send me a DM.” 


I was like, “I can!” 


Again, I didn’t expect to hear anything ’cause this tweet had so many likes and so many comments and I just sent my work through DM (sent it in the comments as well).

…and I heard straight back.

They said, “Oh, great, we’ll send you work to the correct people.” 


…and then, literally, it was like a day or two (it wasn’t very long after) they said that they’d like to test me for the job. 


…and I could not believe it. 


…and it was a dream come true as well because this was traditional paint. 


…and to work in the industry traditionally in this day and age is unheard of for me, really. 


Not a lot of places do it. 


Chris: Yeah. 


Amy: …and I love traditional painting, you know, it’s my first love and I thought, “This one, this might actually be better than Disney,” you know? 


Oh my god. 


The process is amazing. It’s so different to anything else I’ve ever done. 


So, I’m sent the layout. I take parts of the layout and blow them up you know, put them on a canvas on Photoshop and I go to the print shop and I print them out A3. 


…and then I come back and I trace the layout parts down onto my gouache paper with graphite paper. It’s like transfer paper. 


Chris: Mmhm. 


Amy: …and then I paint them in gouache whilst I have the reference in front of me on my iPad. 


Then I go back to the print shop and scan (because I don’t have my own A3 scanner and printer)… 


…come back home again and then I put all the painted parts together on the computer, draw the signature wiggly lines over the layout on top and then paint in the shadows and the light and everything else. 


…and it’s great! 


You just send it off and I get notes, do the notes, send it back, done. 


Get another one. 


…and I love it. 


I absolutely love it. 


I can’t believe it. 


It’s still not really hit me that I’ve been working on this for a year and five months now… 


…and I’m hoping they’ll always have me and I’m really, I’m just really grateful because they only have two permanent painters there and a few freelancers. 


…but they’ve made me a permalancer. 


So, I’m basically full-time but working from home in the UK. 


…and I just love it. 


The Brave Locomotive: 


Amy: I’ve met the team. I got to fly out there, you know, I’ve networked with them… 


…and I went out to watch a screening of a short film that I was working on called The Brave Locomotive by Andrew Chesworth.

I was doing art direction on that as well and lead background painting.

Honestly, that premiere was amazing. 


It was at the LA Film Shorts Festival… 


…and John Musker… 


…it was so… 


…it was just like, oh… 


It was amazing, Chris. 


Oh my god. 


I was like, it was like seeing Justin Bieber for like a…

Chris: [GIGGLES]

Amy: …like a super fan. 
It was like, honestly, we pulled up… 


Andrew picked me up from Nickelodeon and drove to the big cinema, about forty-five minute drive. 


…and then there was this old, old man outside and I recognized him…

…and Andrew went, “Oh, it’s John Musker.” 


…and I went, “What?” 


…and he went, “John! John!” 


…and he didn’t, he didn’t hear him, so I put the window down and I went, “JOHN!!!” 


…and I was like, “He looked at me!” 


[LAUGHTER] 


So then when we got inside, it was amazing because he was chatting away to me… 


…and he came and sat next to me and watched the film with me… 


…and he pointed my name out at the end on the credits… 


…and I was like, “I’m sat next to like Walt Disney himself here. This is insane.” 


…and then we won. 


…which is cool. We won.

…the short.

…which is awesome.

But yeah… 


…and then I went back to Nickelodeon and, you know, it was, it was, it was so valuable … 


I met the art director, Peter Bennett, who’s been there since the beginning. 


I met the art director of Patrick Star Show, Martin Hudson, who is lovely – so lovely. 


…and the whole team.

…and I absolutely love working there.

I can’t actually describe how perfect it feels for me. 


Chris: Ah, that’s great. 


You earned it, Amy. 


I mean, you really… 


You’ve earned this. 


Amy: Thank you. 


Amy’s Artistic Development:

Chris: I was thinking about our time at The Story Design Conference.

That’s when you and I first met – as you mentioned…

…and I was thinking about your work in your portfolio at the time.

…and at the time, I recognized that you had talent and imagination, certainly.

…but the degree to which your work has developed, has improved in that time… 


…which hasn’t actually been that long. 


I mean, again, that was 2016. 


So… 


What is that – eight years? 


Seven years? 


Amy: Yeah, yeah. 


Chris: How do you think about evolution of your work since then? I won’t say anything more. I can provide more specifics, but let’s start in that general kind of way. 


What do you think about that when you just think of… 


…not so much the work that you’ve been hired for, but your skill?

Your skill level and your, kind of, personal aesthetic…? 


I don’t want to say “personal style,” because you’re an animation artist, so you do lots of different styles. 


…but you have preferences and interests and tastes and that kind of thing, and that’s what I would call “aesthetics.” 


So yeah, what do you think about that? 


Amy: Well, you know, I look back now at the work that I did just before I met you, which was my 2015 degree show at uni and I cringe so hard. 


I mean everything about it is absolutely bloody awful. 


Like, it’s just awful. 


The idea is great, but it’s the, the execution was awful. 


I mean, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I really didn’t. I was just doing the best I could do with what I had. 


…and I was like… 


It was just shit. 


It’s absolutely shit… 


[LAUGHTER] 


I feel so embarrassed now. 


When I came to The Story Design Conference, I came along with my massive portfolio, which is, like, as big as me… 


…so, A3. 


…and it was really heavy, and the work was just so bad. 


It was just so bad… 


Right, the imagination was there… 


…and the ideas were there… 


…and the fun was there… 


…but values were out the window. 


I didn’t even know what values were, to be honest.

I was good at mixing colors, but I wasn’t good at color theory and creating story with color. I was just like, “Oh, that looks nice. That looks nice.”

Chris: Yeah.

Amy: Everything looks airbrushed because there was no edge control.

Chris: [GIGGLES]

Amy: Everything was just blurred. 


Oh, it was awful. 


I get memories now, you know, on Facebook where it says, “Oh, here are your memories from seven years ago.” 


…and I’m like, “Oh for God’s sake, delete that off the Internet.” 


So I’m like deleting it. 


I never want anyone to see that ever again
!

Oh, I’ll probably be like this again in another ten years. 


I mean, I hope I am, you know…

I hope it’s like, “Oh, that was shit.” 


I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I was just flying blind, like literally. I had no idea. 


I was just like this little British thing with a blindfold on, just, doing whatever and hoping for the best. 


I didn’t know what plein air was.

I never heard of it and I love plein air now. I like to go out and I like to sketch on my iPad, I like to paint on my iPad on Procreate. 


I also like to paint with traditional paint. 


…but, you know, I don’t drive. So it has to be somewhere quite local in walking distance, for me to carry all my stuff. 


…but, yeah, I love painting on location. 


I also love going out and sketching and then coming back and then working on a bigger piece from my sketch. 


I never used to do anything like that. 


I’ve seen a lot of people over the years do that, a lot of artists do that and I remember thinking, “Oh, I should try that!” 


…and I actually really enjoyed it. 


I think that’s where some of my best work comes from and that’s really annoying as well because a lot of them don’t take that long. 


They’re just very expressive, big brushstrokes. 


They are the ones that end up being my best work… 


…and I’m like, “That is so goddamn annoying!” 


…because then there’s this concept piece I’m working on my own time and I’m like, “I’ve been spending like fifty hours on this and that’s nowhere near as good as this thing that I’ve just spent an hour on.” 


[GIGGLES] 


…but, yeah, artist problems… 


I just feel like… 


I have more of a direction now. 


Back then, when I met you, I knew I wanted to work in the industry, but I didn’t know exactly what… 


I knew I could paint. 


I liked color. 


That was it. 


I didn’t know technical terms like ” visual development artist,” the different types of visual development artist… 


I didn’t have a clue about lighting or special effects or anything. 


I knew nothing. 


…and now, I know that I want to… 


I want to do the painty-painty stuff. 


I want to do the thing. 


I don’t want to supervise. 


I would love to do some traditional background paintings if they come in again for a feature film like the old classics at Disney. 


I would love to learn how to do those. 


Yeah, I love painting traditional. 


…but there’s so much that I want to do as well. 


…because a lot of my work has been in TV. 


…because, in Britain, a lot of the shows that I made over here are shows, you know, they’re not… 


They don’t tend to be feature films. 


So I would like to break into the feature film industry because I feel like that would be a way for me to make it over to America. I do want to move over to LA at some point in my life to work in the industry over there. 


…but in order to do that, I need to be sponsored by a studio and Nickelodeon, unfortunately, won’t do that. 


They said they can’t. 


I feel like I have more chance with feature because they usually need you for longer. 


Chris: Right. 


Amy: …and I’ve heard people are sponsored more for feature rather than TV. 


So, yeah, I would like to get into visual development and concept art for features. 


That being said, I’m very, very happy on SpongeBob and I have no desire to move away from SpongeBob anytime soon. I absolutely love it.

Chris: So, then how would you describe your current work compared to that very colorful description you gave us of your, uh,[LAUGHTER] of your work circa 2016? 


Amy: Oh god… 


Yeah, if you put it side by side I wouldn’t say it was from the same person.

Um… 


Chris: I would call it confident. 


Amy: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Much more confident, much more confident. 


I think I know what I want to say in my paintings. 


I know what feeling I want to get across in a painting. 


…and then I go and, I do my best with the skills I’ve learned. 


…instead of just throwing colors at the page and sort of smudging things and like, “Yeah, there you go.”

Next, In Part Two:

Amy shares insights about the vitality of professional networking, balancing perfectionism with self-acceptance and the attitude she expects from her students and crew…

Listen now >

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Credits:

I’m your host, Chris Oatley, and our production coordinator is Mari Gonzalez Curia. Our music is by The Bright Sigh (which is me) and this show is made possible by The Magic Box Academy.