Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Avalos.
Hi Rebecca, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I’m a Mexican & El Salvadoran visual artist from Los Angeles who has a background in illustration and film production. I was brought up watching and reading a lot of content when I was younger, which often inspired me. I loved nature and would spend a lot of time watching Animal Planet, reading Eyewitness books, and watching other educational programs about art, culture, and history. I think it led to a natural curiosity in me and need to travel, observe the world different, and get messy. This was expanded upon the fact I was brought up around a family that loved watching movies, and with a large family as the youngest one, I was often exposed to vintage and classic movies and music, which made me love and appreciate all kinds of genres and themes in art. I really started my art journey in kindergarten, like many other kids, drawing all day, but it turned into a more regular thing as I grew older when I realized how I really enjoyed making things and also thought I was pretty good at it. Being inspired by and exposed to many things, my love for art has manifested in different phases, drawing fan art, animals, anime, original characters, comics, and trying art of different mediums and styles. I ended up going to University of California, Davis to study studio art with the dream of getting into animation production to combine my love of film with visual arts, which exposed me to different mediums like fine art and sculpture that allowed me to be creative in different ways. Since graduating, I’ve done a lot more in terms of narrative art, including programs in comics at Royal Drawing School (and creating a zine with my peers!), video editing with the Venice Arts program, and film production with the Academy Museum’s Promise Workshops program to expand my horizons. I love to learn different mediums and see how they apply to creating and expressing yourself differently.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being an artist, developing my tastes, and trying out different things has definitely been a journey. I’ve gone through a lot of changes from how I view art to how I make it, and it hasn’t always been easy, from being rejected to college animation programs as a teenager, to people asking “why” have I been pursuing things like film when drawing has always been my “thing.” Being an artist definitely comes with a fair share of identity crises that makes you forget why you like art in the first place. I like many other artists, have struggled a lot with the inherent challenges of creating art itself, such as art blocks and frustration and not being able to complete things due to lack of funds or technical challenges, and also major life events uprooting me such as family tragedy making it impossible to have the time or motivation to do art. At one point in my life, it seemed to be an entire year of not making anything because I felt so emotionally stressed and burnt out from the year before. Part of it has also stemmed from the fact that I’ve also struggled with the concept of labels and trying to “fit in” within a certain box or genre as an artist — like me questioning if I like the technical aspect of art best, or designing, or film, or illustration. I blame the struggle partially on things like social media and the concept of “imposter syndrome,” which I feel has followed many of us from when we apply to jobs, schools, or other opportunities or even just posting our art. The concept of “adulting” and equating creating art with money with career advancement has also held me back sometimes because of how audience reception can alter how you perceive your art, other people’s art, and standards for what is “good” or “bad” art. I struggle with that sometimes because I feel like I need to be on a certain path career-wise, but the bottom line is I just love art, and everything is also subjective. I have so many interests, from illustration to sculpting, from traditional art to film production, and more abstract art to narrative art, it would be unfair to deny myself from experimenting with different mediums or speak as though I can’t like everything. Because of my stints in physical film production, admittedly, recently, I haven’t been drawing as regularly as before. But I’m slowly starting to do it more regularly now that I made a rule to have a sketchbook near me as often as possible.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I enjoy a lot of types of art, but I especially have an affinity for illustrating. I also enjoy doing ceramic sculpture! For illustration, I enjoy traditional drawing with graphite, marker, colored pencils, and accessible materials like highlighters and ballpoint pens. I also do digital artwork in Photoshop regularly and sometimes paint as well. I do a lot of sketching of original characters, fan art of pre-existing characters, and portraiture. I love art that is guided by who characters are and tells a story — much like my love for film and things like storyboarding and concept art. A lot of my art is inspired by the world around me, including the sights and people in and around LA, and also the films I grew up on, both animation and live action, so many of my sketchbooks are filled with loose drawings of character faces and character types, and studies of people like Al Pacino and their strong characters in film. I would say my process is pretty eclectic and experimental where I’ll start with a loose image and composition in my head, and then I’ll do a drawing that only exists on paper, or I’ll use that sketch for a digital painting in Photoshop where I organically discover the lighting, coloring, and texture during the painting or inking process. Part of what I love about Photoshop is that I can combine photo editing and painting techniques to make art that is a lot more expressive and “weird,” where I can adjust colors easily and combine a lot of different layer modes to add grittiness and really exaggerated contrasts of light and dark. For sculpture, I’ve done a lot of things about animals and characters, either as individual pieces or for short-stop motion projects. I would say a lot of my art for myself exists as standalone pieces, but I really love things like setting the mood through cinematography, so I’m trying to learn more about narrative art by studying concept art and storyboarding through classes, mentorships and projects on the side. There has been a lot of diving back and forth between my time experimenting influencing my other work – I previously completed a fine arts program with a scholarship that exposed me to a lot of comics where I made my own, so after college, it made me want to pursue my early dream of animation again. I have since done a lot of work on my portfolio in creating characters for animation and doing some filmmaking programs where I have let loose trying out different genres. One of the things I’m most proud of is creating an animatic for my own short animation entitled “Sunflowers” at the Academy Museum’s Promise Workshops Program, where I was able to do a lot of research, write a story, and create a narrative solely with visuals. Most recently, I started a mentorship in character design, completed a 3D modeling class, did storyboarding for a friend’s short film, and am now working on background design and painting for another friend’s 2D animated short film.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is definitely to take inspiration from everything and take everything as a learning opportunity – not limiting yourself to a specific medium or style — and to definitely consume a lot of media. I’ve taken inspiration from my own life and things I’ve seen between the countryside of my time in Davis as a student, the grittiness and diversity of LA as a local, music, photography, poetry, comics, art history, and being a fan that has watched a lot of things of different genres and styles from live action rom coms, drama, thrillers, comedies; anime; fantasy; family animation; experimental; and foreign films. I’ve experienced a variety of spaces in my education that have influenced me, from my comic and fine art drawing scholarship with Royal Drawing School, my video editing film program Venice Arts, and independent classes in design for animation that have all helped me see how diverse storytelling and how the smallest changes in composition, colors, pacing, dialogue, etc. changes how you can perceive art and affect mood and symbolism. I love stories of all types and see everything as a fascinating study of a place, a time, or a feeling. I also like to pursue different opportunities in general because I love to learn about and try out different things, including topics like special effects and makeup. Recently, having gone through some personal things with my family that was very frightening and sudden, I’ve thought more how important it is to make art for yourself first and to do what makes you happy, not just what’s expected or what will get you the most likes or money. For the actual act of producing art, I’ve come to find that some of the greatest art grows out of adapting to your situation and finding creative ways around certain problems like trying different materials or techniques, being strong-headed and trying again and again, and also talking to other artists and creatives! Working a bit in film production has especially opened my eyes in the ideation process of narrative art, such as considering how visuals pair with sound, dialogue, in editing, how physical production creates its own interesting limitations in storyboarding. Every type of art offers something fun, new, and challenging in its own way and being able to experience it all is an amazing feeling and also makes me appreciate art more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rebeccaavalosart.carbonmade.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tunnelsnakecooper/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-avalos-32269822b/
