Believe it or not I almost went to college to study Physical Therapy, I never thought about Art as a career until after touring a school and I wanted to be able to wake up and love going to work everyday. I've been drawing since I was very young, kindergarten young, I was always creating. Towards the end of my High School years I got really into a lot of the Pixar films, the 3D work and visual effects blew my mind, and I would always sit through the ending credits and imagine seeing my name on it...I still do that today. Not really wanting to go the "Physical Therapist" route, a cousin of mine told me about a school he had been attending and that one of the majors available was Animation. Anyways, when it came time to picking a screenname, at the time, I chose Anim8ergrl (Animator-Girl) in an attempt to announce to others what I wanted to become. I later used Anim8ergrl as my email address, then Gamertag, and even as a DJ name. Pretty soon everyone just got used to calling/seeing me as Anim8ergrl.
My very first semester I was asked to create Character Concepts for a student game project and discovered I had a knack for illustration. To practice I'd draw my characters whenever I'd play D&D (yes, I was a Dungeons and Dragons nerd). It was great being able to take a character sheet during the game and having something visual attached to it. It made the games easier on the imagination and soon everyone was asking me to draw their characters. From there I began to study the work of other concept artists to try and learn how to make my characters better. As I got asked to do more Character Concepts on various other student game projects I began to love the idea of Concept Art more and more. I flipped out when I saw a sprite sheet I made come to life for the first time. I became so enveloped in the traditional/digital art world that halfway through college I ended up changing my major to Digital Art & Design. I still want to do 3D Animation/Modeling, and am currently teaching myself, however, my main focus right now is making more dynamic illustrations and concept art.
No. It's nice being able to say you have a degree and all but at the end of the day it's about the quality of your work that's going to get you a job in the art field. I always have friends tell me that they can't draw or that they wish they could...well you can if you really want to! I've been drawing since a young age and I would hope that by now I'm not still drawing stick figures. Everyone grows and improves at different rates but it's not the "talent" it's how much effort and hard work you are willing to put towards your craft. I started traditionally working from foundations all the way up to where I am now with my digital work. I think knowing the fundamentals and learning with traditional media is essential if you want to become a better, more well rounded artist. Though I later majored in Digital Art, I would say about 90% of my artistic abilities have been self-taught...it is a lot of practice and patience.
I love Traditional but I prefer Digital. On occassion I simply can't stand drawing on my Cintiq, sometimes I just need to have the feeling of pencil lead running across the paper's texture. I also love painting traditionally with acrylics. Molding something by hand is much more rewarding than having a computer assist. However, creating things digitally saves me so much time. Erasing, coloring, resizing or redoing is priceless when working digitally.
I tend to occupy sites like DeviantArt.com or ConceptArt.org...a lot. I also frequent bookstores with all kinds of art magazines (my favorite is ImagineFX), there is a ton of useful tips and tricks to be had!
Ha! Free time? Just kidding, aside from art related things, I enjoy playing video games with friends (First Person Shooters are my favorite). I've been practicing Martial Arts on and off for some time now (Muay Thai has been a staple recently), UFC fights are also fun to watch and I'm not afraid to grapple with someone. I've picked up various other hobbies on the way including DJing, Singing, Hip Hop Dance, and I'm slowly trying to learn French. I'm very much a kid at heart so I tend to want to try anything and everything. :)
Salutations! My name is Anita and I am an Illustrator based in Phoenix, AZ. Here you will find a variety of my digital works that portray my technique and personality. If you would like to know how I became "Anim8ergrl" thenget to know me or if you'd prefer you cancontact me.
