Meet Aaron Loftis of AaronCanDraw in Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Loftis.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in a small suburb just north of Detroit. My story probably doesn’t differ all that much from most artists. I spent a lot of time with paper and pencil in my hands. My dad dabbled in painting and drawing, and all I ever wanted to do was spend time with him and draw.

For good chunks of my childhood, I was kind of left to my own devices. My dad passed away when I was very young, and my mom had to work a lot to make up the slack. So it meant a lot of time at the babysitter’s houses entertaining myself. I had always hoped that being an artist was somehow in the cards for me. I remember giving a speech in 3rd grade where I said that “I want to be a world-renowned artist.”

I don’t think I’m quite there yet, but it’s kind of amazing to think that I strayed very little from that path. I didn’t really know how to actually make that plan come to life though. I wanted to become an architect for the longest time because it had some sense of drawing to it. I eventually thought I’d be a mechanical engineer because it seemed like everyone in Detroit was a mechanical engineer. I remember sitting in my Calculus two class, staring at the board and knew that this wasn’t for me.

I spent a couple of years at a community college knocking out my prerequisites and was fortunate enough to meet a couple of very talented artists there. They might not know that they really helped show me that a career in art was somewhat obtainable. I then applied to a big fancy art school in Detroit where I was able to finish my degree and landed my first job at Microsoft games in Seattle, Washington.

After a few years there I burned out a little, went back home, met a wonderful girl, moved back to Seattle and got my next job at Electronic Arts. After nearly six years of working in games, it was time for me to try my hand in the animation industry and finally make the move to LA.

Great, 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?
Honestly, it has been pretty smooth. Nothing is ever perfect, but things could always be so much worse. My mom having to work all the time stunk growing up, but she always did such a great job with every second she did have to spend with me that it was alright. I was fortunate enough to get my first job in Seattle, the same city that my mom is actually from.

So I had uncles and cousins all over that could help me out if I really needed it. Same thing goes for LA. While we don’t have family here necessarily, I’ve been lucky enough to have done this job for so long that I have made friends in the industry here that were willing to help us move or look for apartments. I’ve been really lucky so far.

There are some personal struggles that I have faced in terms of just general mental health. I can think of several times in the last decade that I had been so overwhelmed and overworked that I completely shut down. It’s something that is hard to realize when you’re in the thick of it.

My girlfriend is a huge advocate for mental health and has taught me to take much better care of myself that I need to be more aware of when I’m pushing myself too far and when I need to stop and just enjoy life.

AaronCanDraw – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Over the past couple of years, I have been very project oriented. After a full day of work, I would rather use my time for projects that I have more creative freedom over as opposed to doing freelance projects. I had worked on an art book for a personal project of mine, pitched a cartoon with a buddy of mine and recently have been trying to make a short film.

My strong suits tend to be on creating environments for characters and establishing styles for projects. I know incredibly talented character designers that can imbue such life and charm into their characters, something that I don’t do all that well. But I do feel like I can tell a story through environments that I design. I can bring a sense of believability to them.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
At my very first job in the industry, something I designed ended up being on the cover of the game. I could go to store shelves, point at something and say that I painted that.

From being a kid that loved playing games growing up, it was a very surreal moment for me. Very rarely do artists in the entertainment industry see tangible evidence that your hard work paid off.

Contact Info:

• Website: aaronloftis.squarespace.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaroncandraw

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