Life & Work with Lydia Wynne of La Brea

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lydia Wynne.

Hi Lydia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I was young, I loved spending time in my room by myself, listening to music or books on tape and drawing. I had a hard time thinking of myself as an artist. I didn’t feel my work was worthy of that title. Art was simply something I loved to do.

I became serious about art when I got an iPad. I downloaded Procreate and could draw anytime, anywhere. Before long I was spending most of my waking hours drawing. It was meditative, but it could also be obsessive because I had very high standards for what I wanted my work to look like. I started posting my art online, and people began contacting me to request commissions. That was when I realized creating art could actually be a career.

My goal is to tell stories through well-designed characters. I chose to attend ArtCenter College of Design’s Entertainment Design program because of how intense and rigorous it is. When I looked at student work on their website, I could see how dramatically students improved in just their first year.

One of my favorite classes was Lighting Fundamentals. My teacher had worked on films that were very important to me growing up, including James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. On the first day we met, he jokingly called me “that crazy red-headed girl,” and we instantly hit it off. He eventually became my mentor.

In his class we built miniature sets, scenes, and puppets. That was the moment I realized I wanted to do more than draw characters — I wanted to build them. Creating three-dimensional sets and creatures felt like a natural extension of character design. I began designing my characters, sewing their costumes, making their jewelry, weaving their hair, and building their props like lanterns, backpacks, and weapons.

The process made me feel like I was one step closer to the characters I was creating.
In the age of AI, it feels especially meaningful to work with my hands. Through fabrication I’m learning many different skills — sewing, soldering, sculpture, weaving, jewelry-making, and armature building.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s difficult when you look around you and see so many people whose skills are better than yours, whose process is faster. It’s difficult when you know in your mind what you want to produce, but what you turn out doesn’t fit that image. The greatest challenge is to keep at it, to keep going. Because sometimes other people don’t say the same thing the way you will say it, or maybe you’ll have something different to say.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in fabrication, illustration, and design with a focus on characters.

I am most proud of my college graduation project in which I created 13 puppets based on my own character designs. I also created a stop-motion style scene that people could walk up to during the show. I have been world-building around that story concept for four years and to have it all come together in that way is incredibly meaningful and something I am deeply proud of. I also graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Entertainment Design with distinction.

How do you define success?
Giving children self-respect and confidence in themselves could be one of the most effective ways to change the world. It’s the way I hope my work can make things better in the long term. I’ll feel successful when every kind of child can find something on the television in which they can see themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lydiawynneart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lydia.wynne/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-wynne-26a10a335/
• Other: https://www.artstation.com/lydia_wynne

Image Credits
Eric Ng