Meet Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria | Visual Development Artist in Animation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yaxaira, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
Focusing on intention.

I remember one day perusing YouTube and finding a TED Talk by the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, as she reflected on her life. At the conclusion of her presentation she talked about “focusing on intention” to achieve one’s goals. She explained that if you focus on force, you will fail or you will break. If you focus on energy, you will stagnate. But if you focus on intention, one’s true potential can be achieved.

I realize it probably sounds cliché to say that a TED Talk “changed my life” since it seems like every single TED Talk nowadays promises to do that very thing. But by happenstance I watched that talk at the right time in my life.

I had recently left behind a career as a theatrical costume designer. Little did I realize what burn out was at the time, but by the end of my theater days, I was focusing on force, and I broke. Now left with the looming void of what to do next, I did anything and everything, always working but with nothing to show for it. I had been focusing on energy and stagnated. But a small voice in my head was whispering the word “animation” as I considered the next phase of my career.

I had dabbled in animation and considered pursuing it professionally, but wasn’t sure. Yet, through a further series of happenstances, it turned out to be my proverbial soulmate all along. When I made the conscious decision and focused my intention towards entering the animation industry, I finally began achieving my goals; realizing the aspirations I’d hoped to achieve. And while I know I still have a long way to go, I’m on the right path.

Intentions don’t have to be set in stone, they can change, especially for those of us who are scatterbrained. However, it is important to reflect and make intentional decisions. Focusing on one thing at a time, acknowledging that these goals will take longer than expected, but knowing it will be worth it in the end.

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’m still in the baby steps of my new career in animation, so I, too, am trying to figure out what will set me apart! Time will tell . . .

When things are difficult, I think it’s important to remember that nothing worth doing will be easy. Challenges are necessary to grow.

As a youngster in elementary school, my classroom was decorated with dozens of slightly cheesy motivational posters. In the midst of the illustrated rainbows and smiles, one of the posters stood out to me. It read, “If you reach for the moon but miss, you will land among the stars!”

Fast forwarding some years later, I decided at age 14 to become a costume designer and spent my teens learning how to sew. I would design the most fabulously outlandish dresses I could think of, only to fail and end up recycling the remnants of my young ambition. Even though I failed, I didn’t really, because I would spend hours researching new techniques and growing my skill set. Eventually, the costumes I designed stopped ending up in the recycling bin, because I learned so much along the way. I would describe this process as “failing upwards”, you may not achieve your end goal, but you never leave empty handed.

In my 20s when I was re-learning how to draw, I would imagine the most detailed, complex stories and worlds to illustrate. My skills weren’t at the level to replicate what was in my head, but I would constantly challenge my skills so that I would one day be able to translate my imagination into reality.

Failure paves the way to success. Just try and fail upwards.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is my fantasy!

The artist in me would drag my “prospective best friend” to all the art museums in Los Angeles: the Norton Simon, the Hammer Museum, the old and new Getty, etc. I would take my friend to the LACMA’s German Expressionism section, where one of my favorite paintings of all time is displayed, titled “The Orator”, painted by Magnus Zeller circa 1920. Then I would take them to this one sculpture in the modern art section that kind of looks like an avocado.

The Huntington Library is a must to see the Pinkie and Blue Boy paintings and they also have a copy of the Canterbury Tales from the 15th century that I think is pretty sweet.

Of course, Mexican food will be on the itinerary. One of my favorite taco places is Tacos Baja on Whittier Blvd, followed by a mariachi restaurant in the evening.

Returning to Pasadena I would spend the whole day at my favorite bookstore in the world: Vroman’s. Afterwards, a trip to Hollywood Blvd to peruse Amoeba Records and spend the rest of the day people watching along the star-studded sidewalk.

I personally recommend going to the beach in the evening, the breeze is cool and gentle, most of the crowds are gone, there’s inevitably a musician strumming a moody guitar which adds to the ambience as the Pacific Ocean laps against the pier.

The freeways at night are almost surreal, driving past the lights of downtown as they glitter in the dark. In my humble opinion, it is one of the best views in the world. It captivates you, or at least it captivates me. So I would like to show it to as many people as I can, in the hopes that they see the same beauty in this city as I do, for better or worse.

I would conclude the itinerary with a day trip to my hometown of Whittier, California. Show the local dive bars, strip malls, perhaps some ice cream from La Michoacana, donuts from Mother Made Donuts on Lambert Rd, and enjoy delicious Vietnamese cuisine at Pho 45 (which is technically in La Mirada but it still counts).

All of this itinerary with the assumption that we never hit any traffic, ever.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think that many of the big influences in our lives often come in little ways, a passing comment, encouragement from a teacher. These moments or people are like water ripples, something that starts small but reverberates with an impact greater that can only be recognized in hindsight.

With that said, I often think about a note of encouragement a professor wrote to me. I was taking a Dynamic Sketching class at Fullerton College, where we were practicing the fundamental skills of concept design to work in the games and animation industries. The professor of this class, Michael Matsumoto, is an incredible artist and teacher whose work has spanned for top clients like Disney, Blizzard, and Riot Games.

He had a generous amount of patience for a student like me, who spent the entire class completely lost. I didn’t know the fundamentals of drawing, struggled completing the assignments, and knew my work was subpar compared to many of my peers. We sat down one on one, as he tried to explain concepts like shape language, perspective, line quality, to no avail. At the end of a frustrating semester, I turned in a personal sketchbook that was part of the class final. After the sketchbooks were graded I received mine back, I saw he had written a note. Though that sketchbook is sadly long gone, I remember he wrote that my drawing skills were strong and they would only get stronger, so long as I kept on learning and practicing.

It’s simple advice really, but advice that is often forgotten in the midst of all the immense skill and talent that makes up the animation industry. However, I think it is the single most important piece of wisdom to give regarding any discipline: if you practice you will get better. There were many times I thought about giving up on animation as a career, yet I would always remember that note. So I kept on going. It was the best encouragement I could have received and has impacted me in ways far greater than I expected.

So thank you Michael Matsumoto!

Website: https://www.yaxairamcnear.com/

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