January 20, 2017

Meet South Central LA Freelance Story and Caricature Artist: Monica Urquieta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Urquieta.

Monica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been drawing since I was a child, I remember getting in trouble quite often for drawing all over my mom’s walls! My parents always encouraged to pursue the art field, initially I wanted to be an Art teacher because I always enjoyed working with kids but around the time I started college the recession had hit and a lot of teachers were losing their jobs. I decided to go into the animation field with a focus on storyboarding, I’ve always enjoyed animation as a child so it felt right. I was working at Universal Studios as a caricature artist while attending different art schools and taking different art courses, once I graduated from Gnomon School of VFX in Hollywood I started to focus on developing my career. I’ve worked on many different projects from illustrating books to working on commercials and I’ve never stopped drawing caricatures, every weekend I draw at all kinds of events.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s definitely hard being an artist in LA. There are so many talented individuals out here, it’s extremely competitive. Sometimes it can get very frustrating since everyone wants a job or wants to work on a project, they’re willing to sacrifice their pay to get it. That in turn affects all other artists, it lowers the value of our work. Aside from having most jobs go overseas, we have to compete with other artists here at home that don’t understand when they accept pay that is way below their pay rate, they hurt fellow artists. Most clients think it’s okay to pay us with a “can of beans” for the work we do because of artists just trying to get that job.

Is there some part of you work that is particularly difficult?
Usually it’s two things that are consistently difficult to deal with, one is self-criticism. The toughest critic for every artist is themselves, sometimes it’s a good thing but, sometimes… it’s bad. I have found myself messing something up when it was perfectly fine, you keep trying to improve something that needs no improvement and end up making it bad! The second one is dealing with certain clients, you occasionally get clients who come to you for your artistic abilities and they end up telling you how to do your job. They think they’re helping and you can’t necessarily tell them they’re wrong. So you just sorta have to deal with it, usually you can steer them in the right direction but when you can’t, you can only hope for the best! In the end, they have to be satisfied.

What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
When I first began working in the art field, I used to think the only marker for success was the amount of money you made. After 10 years or so, I’ve come to realize that’s not the only thing that’s important. There’s a lot of fulfillment you get from being satisfied with the work you’ve done. I used to work on projects that, aside from getting paid, I didn’t get much from. Art started to become a chore and not something I enjoyed, so I started to focus on making projects more enjoyable and not just mindlessly doing the work. It even improved the quality of my work, I hit the success sweet spot.

What are your plans for the future?
I want to continue working on storyboards and caricatures among other things but, I’ve been looking into creating my own games. At the moment, it’s something I want to try out for fun but, if it turns into something I can do full-time and something I can live off of, I’d definitely want to take things in that direction, I’d ultimately want to work on something I’m completely in charge of and provide for myself.

Pricing:

For caricatures, depending on the city (quotes vary by mileage) it can be anywhere from $100-$200/HR
For storyboards, it can vary greatly, depending on the detail and length of the boards it can be anywhere from $500-$5k

Contact Info: