Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Reynolds.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Taylor. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I drew constantly all through childhood and high school, but it wasn’t until senior year of high school that I started exploring animation as a career. I enrolled in Chapman University’s animation and VFX program, where I started to learn how to use digital art tools as well as 3D animation software. By my junior year, I had completed an internship at Nickelodeon and started working on my CG animated thesis film, Aki. Aki gave me the opportunity to connect with artists in the LA community and beyond, and gave me my first taste of voice directing as well as working with a composer. The storyboarding, character design, modeling, and animation were handled solely by me in that year and 1/2. I collaborated with other creative’s on everything else and learned the joy of camaraderie that comes in building a story together.
After college, I immediately started working at ingenuity Studios in Hollywood, where I animated humans, animals, vehicles, and objects. I learned how to motion track cameras and set up and record motion capture. Most of the time I was a part of a small three-person team of animators at this very small studio. My favorite projects I got to work on there included animals – penguins sliding behind Adam Levine, snakes slithering over a golden throne, lines of ants crawling through an underground tunnel.
In the summer of 2018, I attended a comics workshop at the Center for cartoon studies in Vermont. After the workshop, I moved to working on illustration and comics full time, focusing mainly on a graphic novel and a YA fantasy chapter book. During that time I’ve released four multipage full-color comics, as well as a 30 page autobiographical comic series. In October 2018, I made an inktober series of Post-it illustrations that were reported on by Twitter and buzz feed. At the moment, I am preparing materials for my graphic novel and revising my chapter book draft.
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?
I’ve had both inward and outward challenges on my path through storytelling and making art. Most of them were inward – dealing with chronic anxiety and imposter syndrome, and being very hard on myself about creating constantly and without rest.
I have also had to deal with several emotionally abusive creative mentor/mentee relationships with adults who took advantage of my naivety and anxiety during high school and college.
As result of these experiences, I believe strongly in self-care, taking breaks, encouraging yourself, encouraging others, and breaking the cycle of toxicity in creative workplaces.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a freelance artist, and the majority of my work is commission based and single sale at the moment. In the future, I would love to sell my own prints, as well as zines or T-shirt designs. I do sell designs of my work on red bubble, but I would like to expand beyond that.
I would say that I’m known for emotive artwork of characters, people mostly, though I do like to draw the occasional monster. With the ease of digital artwork, I absolutely love to put color into everything I draw. When it comes to storytelling, my work can be a bit somber, but I constantly take inspiration from the spark of innocence in illustrated storybooks and chapter books I grew up reading.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood is spending time outside in the backyard of our house in the Sierra Nevada’s, with the national forest on our doorstep. I can’t think of a place that encompassed me more in the joy of exploration and storytelling. I would pretend that my swingset was a time machine. I would pretend that the trees were great guardian spirits. I would lay on the top of giant boulders and turn them into trolls. I grew up an only child and had no problem making my own entertainment. Books fueled me, and the mountain air still smells like home whenever I get to visit.
Contact Info:
- Website: taylor-reynolds-art.com
- Email: tayloreynolds13@gmail.com
- Instagram: tayloreynolds13
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tayloreynolds13\
- Twitter: tayloreynolds13
- Other: tidytay.weebly.com
Image Credit:
All artwork drawn by Taylor Reynolds.
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