Meet Phylicia Fuentes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Phylicia Fuentes.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Phylicia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born in and raised in the Pasadena area and spent most of my youth living in South Pasadena with my mom. My mother and grandmother in particular were incredible about providing me with art classes and amazing creative opportunities, and my dad is a musician, so I am lucky to have had support and encouragement from my family to pursue art at a young age. I was fortunate to have attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, a small public high school on the campus of Cal State LA with a limited acceptance rate. While I was there, I had the option to take a hand-drawn animation class but didn’t end up doing so because my friends were so exasperated by how tedious it was and it made me not want to give it a try. It wasn’t until college that I finally explored 2D animation – I was attending a small art college in Boston that didn’t force anyone to choose a major. I got accepted for my drawings and paintings, but I thought I wanted to be a filmmaker.

After trying 16mm film, awkwardly directing my peers and struggling with the cost of film development, I ended up taking a traditional animation class and realized that everything I wanted to express I could achieve in animation. Storytelling, creating short films, drawing over and over alone in a totally dark room (haha) – it had it all! I always felt like somewhat of a slacker and aimless about my pursuits, but animation put a fire in me that I had never felt before. It pushed me harder than I thought was possible, and it truly kicked my ass. It really tested my devotion and I loved every second of it! It felt incredible to create something so personal and so “me” from scratch.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I have had my share of rejections and challenges, and I’m certain most every person in any creative field would say the same! The difficult experiences I’ve gone through have only made me a more resilient and confident artist, as I’ve learned that the many rejections and negative experiences I’ve faced in my career don’t define my worth or abilities. It took me nearly my entire career to finally learn and accept this, haha, and I’m almost at my ten years mark! It was really scary to trying to get my first gig, especially since the recession had caused many people to get laid off and there were very few opportunities when I graduated. My roommates at the time were older and had already been working in animation, so they helped connect me to my first few animation tests, which is when a studio gives you an assignment to complete in a few days to see if you can match the style of the show and decide if you’re worthy of hiring. Just getting a test was a major hurdle because I didn’t even know any animation-related computer programs at the time, having only learned on paper, and people were rightfully nervous to recommend me because I wasn’t very industry-ready. One of the jobs I got a “no” from ended up having an opening again a few months later, and I got hired at Titmouse, Inc. in Hollywood at the beginning of 2011.

Since that time, I’ve worked at many studios around LA, including a brief stint at Titmouse New York. It was incredible to have worked at Titmouse at that time because I was able to be an actual animator! Sadly, 2D animation jobs are incredibly hard to find, especially now, because most are outsourced to other countries like Korea and Canada. Due to this, I transitioned into character design on season 1 of Bojack Horseman at Shadow Machine in 2014, and two years later struggled greatly to break into storyboarding, finally succeeding on that front in 2017. Rebranding myself repeatedly was its own challenge, because I had to create new portfolios and samples from scratch every time and constantly re-prove myself. Character design gigs didn’t want me because my personal art style was too crude looking, even though one of my professional skills is being able to draw on model. I’m so glad I didn’t ever change my personal work to suit the needs of random employers. I think it’s so important to not let your career stifle your personal voice and to always retain that side of yourself away from your job.

I have also struggled with chronic illness for years throughout various jobs which was its own awful hurdle. Generally, there are many other challenges that occur in the entertainment industry – there is a lot of exploitation and various forms of discrimination that goes on that affects so many people. While it’s gotten better since I first started, there is still a lot of work to be done and I think it’s important to not glamorize working in animation too much. I’m always happy to look out for new artists and hard-working friends to prevent anyone from going through a lot of the pain I’ve experienced. It’s important to actively look out for each other, help each other out, and spot mistreatment and burn out because otherwise, the flaws of this industry will remain the same and that’s not the future I wanna see!

Please tell us more about your art.
I’m currently a storyboard artist working in the TV animation industry, currently for Netflix! I work primarily on adult comedies, although I love creating children’s content as well. My strength is in character acting, which means to draw various poses for each character that expresses their emotions and interpret how they would behave in each scene. I feel like my origins as an animator have given me such a special strength in being able to understand motion and sell jokes with visual language. It’s so incredible take a still drawing and make it feel alive! It’s such a gratifying feeling that I am constantly chasing.

As a storyboard artist, I am given a script and I draw my assigned scenes from scratch and interpret the best way for the story to be told visually. I basically have to think like a camera, an actor, and a choreographer, all from my ideas and drawings! I love working on projects that encourage me to add my own visual flair to enhance the story, but I also love collaborating with my team. It’s so inspiring to get handed a really funny script and see all the incredible work my peers create to make each episode so special. Working on television content is incredibly meaningful to me because there is so much power in building worlds and telling ongoing stories that can bring joy to people. Knowing that the content I work on might make someone’s day a little better means the world to me!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m working on a 20-minute long short film that I’ve been chipping away at for the last five years! It’s my dream to make something entirely my own and travel to festivals with it. Whenever I attend festivals, I feel so inspired by what people are making – there’s a lot of freedom and endearing weirdness in the festival circuit that isn’t attainable in the animation industry that I long for. I’ve hit a major personal stride by completing my storyboards and animatic this year, but it’s very challenging to make something on the side while working full time – it makes the process infinitely slower. I have already collaborated with some really incredible artists and friends whose work has just blown me away!

Their input has leveled up the project in ways I couldn’t even fathom and I’m honored that they wanted to help out. I’m planning to commission some more pals and cool artists to help me complete this, so I’m excited to finally get the momentum I’ve been hoping for. It’s been a really interesting experience learning how to direct people, especially in fields that I’m not so familiar with like music and editing. I am keeping an open mind for how long this will take me, haha, because it won’t be done anytime soon – hopefully within the next two years!

Contact Info:

• Website: phyliciafuentes.com
• Instagram: @phylville
• Twitter: @_phylville

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