Meet Christian Alvarez | Character Designer & Production Coordinator

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

Hi Christian, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
I feel like this is the most generic advice I hear throughout the animation industry. But honestly, drawing everyday helped me so much when I was in school and since I’ve been out of college. I personally just like drawing from life, I feel like I get alot out of going to a nearby cafe, sitting there, and listening to the strangers pass me by and capture the little moments around me. It’s definitely strengthened some of my shape language, I think it’s also helped me think more about story telling as I watch people interact with each other. It just feels very natural, and you can get some nice poses out of people just lounging or walking by. I believe sketching all the time has made me be less precious with my drawings. There are tons of mistakes, super scratchy lines, just a mess of a page when I’m sketching, but I think this allows me a lot of freedom and since I’m drawing for myself I don’t feel like I need to draw to please anybody. These sketches are for me and me alone, sure, I post them on instagram, but it’s more of a record for myself to see how I’m progressing overtime. I know this is the thing most artists have heard time and time again, but it’s true, drawing everyday really does help.

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.
Oh gosh, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning. When I was a kid I would draw all the time, I remember specifically drawing Spongebob from this commercial on Nickelodeon where Stephen Hillenburge showed us how to draw him. I would draw everything that I’d watch on TV, like The Fairly oddparents, Hamtaro, Mucha Lucha, just to name a few. But in 7th grade I took my first art class and I failed the class and that absolutely destroyed me and I felt like I should never draw again. So, after that I started funneling my creativity into making mini movies around my neighborhood with my friends, and I thought the next step would be to go into filmmaking. From there I signed up for all of the film classes offered by my high school, studied every book or movie that I could to get my hands on. Then, something unexpected happened, I had a free period my Senior year and my counselor suggested I take this Graphic Design class cause according to the students it was “easy.” So I took the class, put very little effort into it and the teacher would love my work and constantly would praise me, telling me why I don’t draw, why I’m not interested in art. And I would dismiss him every time, it wasn’t until I got a letter in the mail from the state of California that I was put up for an artist award by said teacher that something ignited inside of me. That artistic flame sparked and I knew at that moment that all I needed was for a mentor-like figure to believe in me for me to get back into drawing. So, I immediately pivoted back to art, I went to Fullerton College to get some of my basic classes out of the way after high school and I saw on the class list, a class called “Sketching for Animators” and at the time I didn’t even know animation was a job possibility. So I went in blind, and the teacher, Phil Dimitriadis, completely opened my mind to the world of animation and then I was hooked. I did everything in my power to get into Animation. I went to CTN, I would follow all of these animation artists on twitter, I bought book after book about animation. I DIVED headfirst into animation, I was fascinated with the pipeline. After that, I transferred to Woodbury University in Burbank. The location was prime, I was constantly going to animation events, book signings, gallery openings, etc. I took so much advantage of where I was and, I would use the “student” card a lot with professionals where I’d cold email them, ask them if they could meet up for coffee and ask if they had any advice and I met with amazingly talented people that I didn’t think would be interested in talking to me. But, there were challenges, that got in my way while in school. Between my Junior and Senior year of college, I felt like I hadn’t gotten better at art, so I kinda made a deal with myself, that I would draw all day, every day to keep myself in check. I would force myself to post a drawing I personally felt was “good” on instagram every 4 hours. And, it was tough, it was very hard since I was my biggest critic so sometimes I would post things I wasn’t necessarily proud of but it definitely started showing in my work. My stuff started getting better and I started gaining some traction and people started knowing who I was from all of this drawing. And it wasn’t until I was at CTN my senior year and tabling that I was shoulder to shoulder with the people I looked up to and I felt like I was walking with giants. Which was extremely intimidating for a college student, and I didn’t really know what to do. But luckily that convention helped a ton and it actually helped me get my first job in the industry which was an internship on Big Hero 6: The Series at Disney TVA. And, since then I’ve been lucky enough to stay employed within the animation industry for 7 years now. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some great shows like Wacky Races, We Bare Bears: The Movie, Kamp Koral, Robot Chicken. I feel like I’ve also gotten such an expansive look into animation, working on almost every type of animation that’s out there, 2D traditional, CG Feature, CG TV, Flash, Harmony, Stop Motion. I’ve been given such a well rounded look into the animation world, and I am so grateful and so appreciative of the journey I’ve been on, and I hope I continue to be fortunate enough to continue working in this field.

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.
Oh man, I got some great places to draw or sketch. I definitely try to hit up little spots around Burbank, Glendale or Pasadena. Gas is getting real expensive and sometimes it’s just not worth the trip. But, some places that I hit up are Priscilla’s in Burbank, I always get the Nutty Mocha and the Banana Bread. Go Get Em Tiger in Highland Park, that’s a great place to draw and they have pretty good breakfast burritos. The Highland Cafe is another one, you get a lot of interesting characters around there that are super fashionable. I was also hitting up Romancing the Bean in Burbank for a while but I haven’t been in a hot second, but it’s a great place nonetheless. As far as bars go, I am definitely a frequent at Guildhall in Burbank, love the team there and love the atmosphere and like I said for Highland Cafe alot of interesting characters to draw. And, lastly The Lost Parrot is a good place too, a little quiet in the morning but I’m sure it picks up later in the day.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wanna just shoutout my friends, there are way too many to list out, but all the people that encourage me to go sketching with them, and hang out and really make me feel included. I really appreciate y’all’s company and it means a lot to me. I know it’s been tough times out here for all of us in the animation industry but having this support system and all these people who take time out of their day to hang with me, share laughs and draw and challenge each other, it’s truly a remarkable thing and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. So thank you for that.

Website: linktr.ee/Christianalvarezart

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