Meet Chris Pimentel | Storyboard Artist & Illustrator

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

Hi Chris, what inspires you?
It’s funny, I feel like I’m inspired by so many random facets of art and design that I usually explore different inspirations depending on what I’m doing. My social media is filled with architecture, fine artists, and recently the world of DND. Growing up though I was very inspired by comics, animal drawing, anime, and cartoons like Disney films and cartoon network. I would find time to watch anime like most artists my age in high-school. I watched shows like Dragon ball Z, Samurai Champloo, Knights of the Zodiac, Digimon, Gurren Lagann, Avatar the last Airbender, Studio trigger shows like Little Witch Academia and now recently Frieren. I think my work still reflects that today, but now I’m more inspired by films and music that make you feel something or give you a sense of escape, movies that are fantastical in nature, I always reference Guillermo Del Toro and his movies like Pacific Rim and even Tron legacy as personal favorite films haha. For me I want the work I make to make you feel something but still through the use of cartoons or with super heroic characters. I’m a sucker for an emotional story with a sprinkle of fun action.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think what sets me apart is I am always trying to adapt and grow from the last piece of art I’ve done. When I start a project it will definitely look completely different from the final product cause I’m exploring so many different ideas from sketch to finish. I always joke that I don’t have a style and it’s because I’m usually always trying new brushes, new execution methods, new styles to draw, and I think it keeps me feeling fresh. I think it’s fun to keep changing my methods because I feel I’m also still learning as I go. With that said, recently I’ve been getting very into fantasy so I’m excited about learning a whole new genre of art, designs and stories to build from.
Getting into Animation was not easy in the slightest, back in 2016 I felt like I had given up on animation and fully committed to working as an advertising illustrator at the Refinery Creative. I never thought I would get hired as a storyboard artist or ever work in animation if I’m being honest. Working in advertising has its ups and downs but it kept me drawing every single day, and it paid more than working as a barista which was huge for me at the time. But really deep down I guess I never gave up since I kept creating my own stories. And in 2020 when the lockdown happened I had all this extra free time so I took more classes and I realized I just never gave myself the opportunity to really try to get into storyboards. I was so afraid to fail that I gave up before I really tried. It made me realize that pivoting away to something different in your career isn’t a bad thing, every route you take in life will bring lessons and growth you didn’t know you needed. There’s a quote someone said to me which was “life will make you into the person you’re supposed to be, not the person you want to be” and now from that time away from animation I have full confidence in my ability as an artist, I’m still not perfect hell no one is, but having confidence in yourself is never bad to have, as long as you have self awareness of your flaws to keep growing and learning.

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?
OK so this is something I love to do! Everyone I know who hears about LA usually has a stereotypical thing they know about so I love to pivot from things they haven’t heard of. I think the typical place to go since a lot of my friends are from Florida is to take them to Porto’s, which I also love to go to just about every other week. But Florida will always have better Cuban food, so instead I try to take them to 85°C Bakery Café or Paris Baguette. It’s got the same vibe as Porto’s but is Taiwanese and or Korean which is not as available back in Florida. Also any restaurant with a Vietnamese style iced coffee will never cease to be a winner for me. Next, people from outside of LA don’t truly know what a good donut is, and let me tell you since moving here I LOVE donuts, I even had a donut wall at my wedding haha. There’s two locations I swear my life on, just from quality, service, and the owners are both mom and pops who literally make it a point to know who you are if you go pretty often. It’s Fantastic donuts in north Hollywood, and Perfect donuts in north Hollywood, now yes maybe it’s obvious i lived in north Hollywood but there’s a reason I go out of my way to go to those spots. They also have great coffee which is a must for me for a donut shop.
Just to add to my sweet tooth, I also love churros and if your favorite churro is from Disneyland then you need to go to churro man truck (they have many locations on IG @thechurromantruck) you will never think the Disneyland one is ever worth it again haha and its definitely cheaper.
I’d be doing my wife’s Mexican family a disservice if I didn’t bring up a street taco spot. Now street tacos are something I highly endorse, and one that is an easy suggestion that can’t go wrong is Leo’s Taco truck. People seem to be weary of street food but I beg people to open their minds and their palettes. And if you do go, do yourself a favor and always order Al Pastor, don’t shy away from Cabeza, and make sure to not skip the toppings cart next to the truck haha.
Lastly as an artist the only way I can get through long nights coffee is key, and I love iced coffee. Getting coffee in this town is also a great place for networking and hanging out. So ill just list some places I always go to cause you will always need great food, great coffee and is close to the studios. Priscilla’s coffee in Burbank, Romancing the bean in Burbank, Groundworks in North Hollywood,

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Oooh boy, I definitely have too many people I want to thank individually and I’ll try my best to not make this a never ending list haha. First and foremost of course I got to give so much credit to my parents and my brother who have been my consistent supporters for my entire life. Being a first generation American, I know how hard my parents worked to get to America from Brazil and give my brother and I the best life we deserved in their eyes. I know telling them I wanted to be an artist was definitely not something I think anyone would think is a successful career. But I’d like to believe my persistence and dedication to my craft showed them I was very serious in what I do. My amazing wife Abbie, who is truly one of the greatest humans I have ever met, I actually wouldn’t have fully pursued storyboards again if it weren’t for her pushing me to tell more stories. On top of being the best partner I could have asked for, she’s always the person to get me out of any self doubt that I think we all as artists go through. Then there’s all my cousins which as any Latino family knows there’s SO MANY, but I’m blessed to have a majority of my cousins as my best friends, and my siblings from different beginnings. I truly love every single one of them with all my heart, and the same goes to all my extended family of Aunts and Uncles! My Godmother who is also an artist, she definitely sparked that artistic fire in me. There’s my best friends from back home, Robert, Jason, Ken, Jeffrey, Jonathan and big shout out to the best friend who took a chance moving to LA to be my roommate Tony. Tony was also my Barber at the time, he did not let me leave the house without a clean haircut! He really was like a brother in a new city and I couldn’t survive without him. There’s the friends I made in LA from either work, discord, my DND group, or fellow industry folks and to only be fair I’ll list them out somewhat alphabetically so there’s no favoritism haha. They are Avenley, Amy, Andy, Caleb, Carly, David, Derek, Dou, Elena, Ernesto, Errol, Francesco, Freddy, Gabe, George, Hannah, Harimo, Ibey, Javi, Jacques, Jeff F, Jenny, Jevon, John Y, Jordan, josiah, Justin, Kate, Karon, Kaela, Kaitrin, Krista, Lisa, Luis, Lorena, Luke, Matt R, Millz, Nicole, Omandi, Paul, Rodrigo, Ross, Sedona, and lastly my In-Laws and my wife’s family. Many of them inspire me in different ways but every one of them pushes me to keep being creative and always support me, and if I forget anyone I really do apologize to them but I always make sure to tell people to their faces just how amazing they are. Now there’s also the mentors I’ve learned about storyboarding which are Jane Wu, Chase Conley, Stanley Von Medvey, Justin Copeland and Chris Copeland. My first ever industry team Tanner Johnson, Lora Innes, Matthew Carbonella, Chris Palmer and Suzi Whifler. There’s also my college and highschool professors, Jon hunt, Tom De Vita, April Beckenhauer, Daniel Meyer & Mimi Botscheller, they may never see this but if they did id like to specifically say to them that you took a chance on a kid who was never good in school and you never put out the light in me, and always told me to keep pursuing arts and making what made me happy and I thank you greatly.

Website: www.chrispimentelart.com

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispimentelart/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpimentelart

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrispy242

Image Credits
Jynx fanart based on the Character Jynx from Arcane & League of legends. “lavi” character created by @Alt0phone