Meet Caleb Blue | Storyboard Artist & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Caleb Blue and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Caleb, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Ambition. Setting challenging goals for myself and doing everything in my ability to achieve those goals has shown to be extremely rewarding in my career as a storyboard artist. Lots of crazy ideas and dreams enter people’s minds, but what sets a lot of them apart is the drive to achieve them. It’s easy to believe that your ambitious goals can’t be brought to fruition, which may cause a fear to try. However, when that thought comes to my mind, I think of my favorite quote from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, said by Yoda, “Do or Do not. There is no try.”. With hard work, consistency, and passion, even the most ambitious undertakings and can be completed. Failure may come, but with that, so will lessons that will bring you one step closer to achieving success.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I strongly believe in the power of storytelling, and it is that power that inspires me to be an artist. In my experience, impactful stories have done so much more than inspire me to make art. Engaging stories have gotten me through hard and depressing times, whether it was being motivated by the struggles of its characters to overcome my obstacles or by just being entertained enough to distract myself from whatever was bringing me down. Not only that, narratives and the positive messages they can communicate have educated me about different perspectives and philosophies. I’m very grateful for the effect these stories have had on me, and I would very much like to pass it on in the form of my own stories.

Part of the reason why I would love to pass on my own stories is to add my own unique perspective to the mix. Growing up, a lot of the movies and shows that were the most popular and beloved were ones that did not feature many characters that looked like me. As an African American, positive representation was extremely sparse, especially in animation. This led to me feeling extremely alienated. As a person, I did not feel heard or seen on the screen, which eventually gave me the same feeling off the screen. Put simply: I didn’t see myself as the hero. And this negative effect on myself self-esteem is exactly what I want to eliminate for Black viewers. So that they can have the motivation and self-worth to believe that they can overcome anything in their way, just like the characters that they see in their favorite stories. I also think this will have a positive impact on everybody. With more diverse voices in film and television, we’ll be able to humanize other cultures and see our similarities as well as our differences.

This is the reason I decided to become a storyboard artist for animation, so that I can play an influential part of the storytelling process and eventually be able to create my own series. Though I am still early in my career, I have already begun taking steps to make this dream a reality.

In my sophomore year of college, I decided I was going to create a 2D animated musical short titled “Light in the Dark”. This short film features a group of shadows dancing to get through a dark night. This film was meant to uplift those going through any sort of struggle. This was done through the musical style of swing, originated by Black musicians. This also used similar choreography of Black artists like Bojangles, Michael Jackson and New Edition. I believe that this influence in African American culture was a great way to channel the important message that this film conveys.

Another film of mine is “The King and the Pawn”, features a Black father and son bonding over a game of chess. This film was important to me because I wanted it to feature Black characters and use them to communicate a universal relationship of a busy parent and a longing child. It would have been very easy to stereotype these characters, by having the father not be in the child’s life or have them bond over something like basketball. However, I thought it would be best to portray a black child engaging in an intelligence-based game like chess and have the father be present but occupied with a successful work life.

In addition to uplifting communities and spreading positive messages, I also just want to make diverse characters do awesome stuff! For the longest time, I’ve been a fan of anime and action cartoons (Avatar: The Last Airbender was, and still is my favorite), which is why my focus as a board artist is based on action and fantasy. Not only do I find this stuff really cool, but I find it to be one of the genres that could use diversity the most and one that could reach the widest audience.

I already see great films like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Black Panther”. making great strides in showing positive representation for African Americans with strong and impactful storytelling. With my past projects and ones that I have in the works, I am currently working and will continue to work to push that movement forward. I believe these stories will improve the lives of its viewers and will possibly even play a small part in changing the world for the better.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I don’t always leave the apartment, but when I do, I go to one of my favorite places, the Westfield Mall in Arcadia. If I were to have a friend visit, this is definitely the first place I’d take them. I was a huge fan of anime growing up, and it was not super popular in my hometown. That is not the case here. There are so many stores with tons of anime shirts, figures, and merchandise that I love to check out and sometimes buy. One of my favorites is Chalice Collectibles, which has Funko Pops covering every single wall in the store. It’s fun to just walk around and see all the popular and obscure collectibles from our favorite properties. It also features a mini gallery of one of my favorite artists, Wizyakuza.

After that, I’d probably take them to eat at one of the MANY diverse restaurants in the mall. It would probably end up being the restaurant that I forget the name of, but their gimmick is that they only sell fries, which happens to be my favorite food. It’s also a great snack to walk around with and check all of the other amazing stores. There’s even an arcade that I haven’t been able to visit yet! But the road would eventually lead to the AMC Santa Anita. where I would probably watch whatever blockbuster is out that weekend in one of their IMAX auditoriums.

Another place I visit pretty often is the Playhouse District in Pasadena. There they have ANOTHER movie theatre, the Laemmle, that shows smaller budget indie films. Next door is Vroman’s Bookstore which is an experience all by itself, so the two buildings feed into each other pretty well. It’s also not too far from Comics Factory, which is another place I like to take people.

As you can tell, art and storytelling even play a big part in my free time. I’m still looking for other places to check out, so I look forward to reading the answers of other artists on this site!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
One of the hardest points of my career was…well…the beginning of it. Breaking into the animation industry and getting my first job was an accomplishment that was almost two years in the making. For some, it’s even longer. This is especially the case for others in the African American community. That’s why I’m extremely grateful for Black ‘N Animated, an organization geared towards the education and mentorship of Black students and artists in animation. Here, I was able to get advice from industry professionals regarding my portfolio, network with other aspiring artists, and even learn of possible job opportunities.

Website: https://www.calebblue.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_sappharaoh/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-blue-65365150/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlueYourMind

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnnXNWRAgoGt3b6ChmMgLcGl19a7JiNzv