Daily Inspiration: Meet Alex Untoria

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Untoria.

Hi Alex, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in New Jersey and from a very young age, found that I was always drawn towards art. Sports and other activities never really interested me but storytelling and visual art were always exciting to me. So like most art kids, I decided I would go to college and get an art degree! The thing was though that I was unaware of any of the prestigious animation schools and the few I did know about were way out of my price range. After graduating, I finally realized what others had already known; a degree in art means nothing if you don’t have the skills to do the job. But that brought up the question of what I actually want that job to be. I knew I wanted to do something with animation, but at this point, I still had no idea what a job in animation actually looked like. After college, I spent three years working in graphic design, trying to learn more about the elusive animation industry. I spent hours listening to different podcasts and youtube videos explaining personal success stories and how to build a portfolio. Finally, I decided to make the plunge. I quit my graphic design job and packed up everything I owned into my Toyota Camry and drove across the country to Los Angeles. I had no job and no contacts, just a dream and a very subpar portfolio. Fortunately, I did have a place to stay. I was able to crash at my cousin’s place in Glendora for a few months until I was able to support myself by working another graphic design job. Soon after moving to the west coast, after some feedback sessions, I was told that my portfolio and the body of work I spent years creating was complete garbage.

Then a couple of months later, the world shut down due to Covid 19 and I was laid off. With all that had happened I refused to give up so I took the quarantine and unemployment opportunity I had in front of me and enrolled in a plethora of online classes taught by industry professionals. It was grueling work as I ended up taking way more classes than I could really handle especially with the stress of moving to a new city and of a global pandemic. However, fast forward a year and a half and I now had a body of work that was “industry ready” — at least that’s the feedback I had kept getting. It took a little bit but I eventually landed my first gig as a character designer for animation. I have to thank all the people who reviewed my portfolio over the years, my teachers, and the communities of Sketchtoonz and Rise Up Animation. Without all their help, I wouldn’t have gotten very far! Now another year and a half later I have worked for Studios such as Bento Box Entertainment, Disney TVA, and ShadowMachine. The road to improving my art is everlasting but I find it is important to look back at my journey and recognize the massive steps I have taken and the success that I have found along the way.

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 has definitely been a bumpy road. Moving to a city, I know virtually no one and living through a global pandemic alone are two massive hurdles I had to overcome. However, the greatest struggle as an artist is constantly trying to improve your art. Imposter syndrome and putting all your worth into if you have a job or not can be massive threats to your mental health and during the height of the pandemic I put an unbearable amount of pressure on myself. Depression is something I have always shrugged off, tried to ignore, or dealt with in some very unhealthy ways. After quarantine, art block, and the unbearable weight of thinking I wasn’t good enough for not only a job but for myself the depression was no longer something I could ignore. I made myself go touch grass and was able to make some new friends finally. Also, I did eventually get a job in animation the animation guild has a great deal for mental health insurance!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a character designer for animated TV! What that means is I get to create and draw pretty much anything that speaks and moves on whatever project I am on and give those drawings to the animators so they can work their magic to make it all move. I am most proud of my work on HouseBroken a show airing on Fox and Hulu. It was my first and longest gig in the industry and I met a lot of great people while working on the show. I am also proud of the various personal projects I have been creating and hope to turn them into a show one day. Some things that set me apart from others are my expressive shapes and gestures in my work as well as my shiny bald head and my undying love for my cat.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I learned a lot during covid 19. One thing, in particular, is how to keep myself going and how to delegate my time in a wiser fashion. It could have been easier to sit on my couch, collect unemployment and play video games all day but I knew that was unsustainable. Don’t get me wrong I still played a lot of video games during lockdown but I was able to figure out a way to divide my immense amount of free time between play and work. I might not have been paid to do the work but separating practicing my craft and creating art between goofing off around the house helped me stay motivated and pushed me to get better and achieve my goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexuntoria.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexuntoriaart/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexuntoria/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexuntoriaart