Warrior Painters Podcast

Our guests Simon Lok and Calvin Liang have a lot of things in common, but the most important experience they share is switching to a fine art career after working in the animation industry for many years. Find out about these two fine art painting masters’ journeys through this talk hosted by Q (Qianjiao) Ma and Nikita Chan.

Guests:

Caroline lights up every conversation with her positive attitude. She’s worked very hard at the things she does and her “just-do-it” spirit pushes her further in her art and life. Working in animation now, Caroline has a very good reason to consume manga and anime to stay motivated!

Chinese-native Lynn Chen came to the US for her MFA in Illustration, discovered a career path in which she could just do what she liked for a living - making art for the entertainment industry. Now she works as a visual development artist in animation while doodling corgis on the side. Lynn tells us how she got to where she is right now, and also shares her thoughts on becoming a first-time mom.

What is a climate artist, and what does plein-air painting have to do with one’s journey to creating climate art? Sean has some very insightful ideas about this topic. Switching career from fine art to entertainment, Sean finds LA to be the perfect place to pursue both concept art and plein-air painting.

How do concept artists work in live action films? How does it compare to working in game or animation? What are some industry basics that only the insiders know about? In this episode, four concept artists who work at Marvel Studios share their individual trajectories, and chat about their experiences working in live action and beyond.

Eric Prout is a Concept Artist in games and visual effects who also does digital plein-air painting. In this interview, he shares how he got his start as a Concept Artist, his favorite programs to paint in, and tips for outdoor painting with a digital set up. Eric also talked about how he got his first studio job through not having a plan B.

As someone deeply interested in people, Ramon Hurtado considers himself a “person” first above being the successful artist and teacher that he is. Ramon’s independent spirit and core values have defined his approach to life and style of teaching. Ramon strives to make art education accessible as well as approachable to all and loves to dig up funny anecdotes of artists from centuries ago. It was difficult to fit all that Ramon had to share in this conversation full of fun stories and musings on life from a proud Cat Dad.

Architect David Miller spares some time to do plein-air painting almost every day. He says he cannot imagine a life without art. In this episode, he shares how he reignited his passion and rebuilt the routine for painting after years of inactivity. His thoughts and experiences are so inspiring and so relatable to many of us who are in pursuit of a creative life.

The one and only Laura Price (a.k.a. lulusketches) is our guest for this ARTrepreneur Interview, in which she shares her very busy life as a full-time VisDev artist and a part-time YouTuber. You will learn about Laura’s dream career path in animation, her thoughts on YouTubing and many helpful tips and tricks for starting in animation and YouTubing.

Kim DeVera still doesn’t like being called “artist”, although she paints almost everyday since the quarantine. Kim sometimes gets very serious about this art thing and she has to take a step back to remind herself that this is just a hobby, and she should enjoy and have fun. Kim is someone who can instantly brighten up a room (or a chat room). She listens to everyone carefully and she communicates with empathy. We miss her presence dearly whenever she’s not on Discord. You’ll find out why she believes this has been “the best quarantine” for her.

Long-time Urban Sketcher and art instructor, Virginia Hein, sat down with us and chatted about her design career, her teaching journey, and how she supports the growth of Urban Sketchers both in LA and overseas. Virginia finds enormous joy in teaching and also learning from her students. Her motto is “I’m always learning.” We thank her for being such a great teacher and an inspiration to all of us!

Nellie Robinson has a dual-degree in computer science and illustration and now she works as a Technical Director at Disney. In this interview, Nellie shares how her passion for programming and art helped her land this career path that combines the best of both worlds (HINT: her internship at Pixar helped a lot.) She talks about how much she enjoyed exploring LA with plein-air painting, and how taking notes from nature can be very beneficial for her line of work. And also, she’s working on her own painting app!

Before establishing Nucleus, a gallery that is dedicated to showcasing entertainment art and artists, Ben Zhu graduated from Art Center College of Design and worked on Call of Duty I. What led him to his journey to become an ARTrepreneur? What makes Gallery Nucleus unique? What are his secrets for running a successful art business? What suggestions does he have for artists to work with galleries? What are his newest artistic pursuits? In this episode, Ben answers all these questions. He also shares a bit on work-life balance and his measurements for success.

In this episode, India-native artist and illustrator Gunja Bhatt shares her experience living and teaching in the Bay Area, dealing with visa issues, and how art, especially plein-air painting, has accompanied her along the way. She enjoys the art community we have established very much and her "go-with-the-flow" attitude makes her such an easy-going person to paint with!

Want to sell your artwork but don’t know where to begin? In this episode, three expert “con-artists” Larry Quach, Eunjung June Kim, and Mauricio Abril talk about exhibiting at various art conventions. They share valuable lessons learned from successes and failures as they navigated the challenging yet rewarding world of conventions. With no in-person events this year, find out how these artists are adjusting their art businesses to the global pandemic. We are so glad to have Linden Li back to host another exciting topic.

After working an office job for 2 years after college, Randolph decided to pursue a career in entertainment out of his love for art. He got his first game gig literally minutes after walking into CTN Expo. Now he is a Background Painter in animation. Aside from his full-time job, some freelance, and taking care of his 2-year-old, he manages to find time to practice traditional painting after everyone goes to sleep. Randolph is really into reading art-related books and we call him "The Scholar" in the group. His other passion is to share his art history knowledge with people and we look forward to having him on the show again in the near future.

Have you also wanted to tighten up the graphics on level 3? Well, we heard many people went to work for game studios because of that classic commercial. In this episode, three well-established game artists, Jeremy Fenske, Kristina Ness and Tim Kaminski, share their career paths in the game industry, what they think about the future of game art, and other fun stuff. This episode’s host, Esther Wu, has also worked in games for a long time before switching to animation.

Sherwin made a career switch to become an artist after working an office job for a decade. Now he is a visdev artist at DreamWorks and also an art instructor at CDA (Concept Design Academy). Sherwin is passionate about documenting his surroundings with creative methods, and plein-air painting is just one of them.

If you have heard about the Netflix animation series “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts”, produced by DreamWorks Animation, you’d have noticed the awesome backgrounds. We’ve invited three artists who created these backgrounds to chat about their work experience, lessons learned, as well as some memorable things that happened during the production.

Kate had worked in game studios and Pixar before she become a full-time mom, but her passion for plein-air painting never went away. She manages to find time to paint outside of her responsibilities, help organize paint sessions for the SF Warrior Painters, and also actively seek remote employment opportunities in the entertainment art industry. Kate is smart and witty, super fun to talk to, which probably explains why she’s so good at handling all her 7-yo daughter’s existential questions.

Amanda works as an Art Director at Nickelodeon, but just nine years ago, she was working her way up in an architecture firm. What compelled her to make the switch and move to LA without a job offer? How does her architecture background help with animation work? What tips can she offer to people who are looking for a career switch? You'll find out about all these after listening to this episode, plus some awesome tips on job hunting/ portfolio building.

David Merritt works as a BG designer in animation, teaches digital painting, and also creates excellent plein-air paintings. He has taken lots of art classes and he offers great tips on how to take advantage of the higher art education the right way. He believes that artists can’t outdo nature, and that plein-air painting strengths the understanding of light and color tremendously for any painter.

The entertainment industry in the US attracts many international artists. We invited two artists working at Netflix and one at Marvel to share their stories. They talked a lot about struggles, from tangible struggles like getting a work visa in the US, making new friends, to mental struggles like staying true to yourself and your art after working at studios where you are trained to perform.

Wayne Tsay works as a Vis Dev Artist in animation. He contributes a lot of his current career success to plein-air painting and his past architecture school training. He also unfolds how painting with Warrior Painters really helped him get into animation!

Lus Sun (Lus Martinez Cortes) went to school for art and she now works on art related projects outside of her day job at a bank. She has been painting with us since 2017 and she also helps organize paint sessions. In this interview, she shares her experience participating in various art groups, why she enjoys plein-air painting, and how her business-minded husband has been helping her along the way.

Introducing our #ARTrepreneurInterview Series, where we chat with artists who have already established solid art business ventures!  

Gumroad has been providing strong support for thousands of artists/creators for years, and its Founder and CEO Sahil Lavingia, who is an artist himself, has been an occasional warrior painter and painted with us many times before. This time, we had the honor to chat with him in our podcast to discover more about Gumroad, creator economy, art education, and more!

Joy Han works in the animation industry as a Background Designer, and she has been painting with us for years. In this episode, she shares her plein-air journey as well as her "stress-free" approach towards making art.

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The current entertainment art education system often trains artists into thinking that the best way-out is to work for some big name studio so that a non-starving artist life is possible. What if an artist wants to be their own boss? They tend to start from developing art-related side hustles. In this episode, we invited Vaughan Ling and Kirk Shinmoto to share their experience turning side hustles into their main job or art entrepreneurship.

Live action storyboard artist Vincent Lee, who does awesome pen and ink brushwork, talks about how plein-air painting benefits his personal and professional work even though color and painting are not usual tasks of a board artist.

“Depression doesn’t care about who you are, how much money you have, it can hit anyone at any stage of their life.” In this episode, we talk about the annoying symptoms artists experience when going through depression, how making art can help (or not help) in this situation, and most importantly, we encourage all of you to start taking care your mental health, or making peace with depression if you are already experiencing it.

*DISCLAIMER* Please note that we are not here to offer any medical suggestions and you should always seek professional help on your own, if needed. No doctor-patient relationship of any kind is formed if you choose to listen to this podcast.

Linden Li has been managing Warrior Painters' Discord server since the very beginning. He's also a hardworking artist who loves painting with gouache and HEAVYPAINT. In this interview, he talks about his plein-air journey and how he became a bit more social during the process!

In this episode, Michelle interviewed three of her friends from various creative occupations who share the same passion for creating art, and what's more interesting is that, they also have various non-art hobbies that they pursue with their spare time. Hope you find this interesting!

Michelle Lin has been one of most important core members of Warrior Painters since the birth of the group, and she currently co-runs all aspects of the group's operation. In this interview, she shared her plein-air journey, what she appreciates during the process, as well as how the group has grown into a big part of her life. Hope you enjoy!  

Four artists from both concept art and fine art industries talk about their journeys as self-taught artists (who don't rely on formal art schools).  

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Aside from the group discussions, we also produce 1-on-1 member interviews with a focus on their plein-air painting journey. These shorter podcasts form the #NoPleinNoGain Interviews.  

In this episode, Angela shared how she began to do tradtional/plein-air painting, what she loves the most about it, and how she can apply these skills to her day job in the animation industry. She also talked about why she started the Warrior Painters and her vision for the group. Hope you enjoy!  

In our first episode, Angela Sung, Michelle Lin, Alvyn Villanueva, and Larry Quach talked about their first art job experience, offered tips on how to break into the entertainment art industry, and shared insightful insider knowledge on how to survive this increasingly competitive environment.