Being a multidisciplinary company, The Studio has artists who work in a variety of fields such as animation, illustration, live action, concept design, etc. Andrew Wilson, a full-time 3D animator at The Studio, was our direct supervisor and oversaw the projects we worked on during our stay. The first project was for Grace Ramirez, a Food Network chef who specializes in South American food and was looking for artistic content to boost her social media presence. I was tasked with making a selection of food and pattern illustrations for Grace, as well as helping the other interns make GIF animations. Throughout the course of a few weeks, I managed to get better at animating in Photoshop and learned a bit about After Effects as well. With our second project, we had the opportunity to pitch and design a logo for ex-astronaut Mae Jemison and her organization 100 Year Starship (which was, without a doubt, the coolest job I ever had as an intern!). Although I was only able to do a few final iterations of the logo for the client due to time restraints, it did give me more experience with graphic design, an area important to illustration that I have not explored much during my time at MICA.
During my stay at The Studio, I made a lot of work that I am proud of - most of which include patterns and food illustrations, things I usually do not focus on in my personal illustration work. One great perk about working here was that each intern got a free sketchbook as well as access to all of the art books in the studio space, and in my free time I was able to browse through them and do drawings and studies from my favorites.
Overall, working at The Studio has definitely broadened my view of what it means to work as an in-studio artist. The work environment was warm and friendly, there were food parties each week (we ate everything from fancy Venezuelan food to pizza to donuts!), and I made a lot of new connections, from my fellow interns to full-timers such as Andrew, to Mary Nittolo, the CEO and creative director of the company. As my original goal for this internship was to get to know what it is like working as an illustrator for a production company, I am excited to say that an in-studio job is what I will likely pursue after graduation!
