Meet Melissa McIndoe | Story Artist

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

Hi Melissa, how do you think about risk?
Risk is necessary for anything that means something. Nothing extraordinary comes without risk!

I took a risk when I moved to LA by myself in 2018. I had a few thousand saved and I moved there with only an interview for a part time minimum wage job locked down. It was a risk because if I didn’t land the job, I’d be completely without income. I had quit my 9-5 office job for this.. and the part time job wasn’t even in animation. It was at a kid’s museum.

But my day job wasn’t doing anything for me- I was a call center agent after graduating art school, and although I continued to practice my art at night, I knew I had to have more if I was going to make it in any art industry.

Although the finances were hard and I eventually had to move back home during the pandemic, I’m glad I took the risk because I grew so much out in LA by myself. I was able to take art and animation classes from working professionals that were only in LA. I made friends with people who had the same goals, and to this day we push each other on. My skillset grew exponentially because of this move and a few years later, I started to get real opportunities in my field. Opportunities that would never have happen had I stayed in my hometown as a call center agent.

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 am a Story Artist because the gist of what I do is write and illustrate stories. But I went to school studying animation and had no idea that my job title would be Story Artist!

When I first graduated art school in 2012, I thought I would apply to some Studios and land a job as an animator. Boy was I wrong! My alma matter did not have a good animation program, so what I thought was an industry ready portfolio wasn’t up to par at all. I learned that from showing my portfolio to people who already had jobs in the industry.

After graduating art school, I worked a handful of full time jobs in customer service. I worked on my art practice around my 9-5, sometimes getting up at 5 am before work, and other times working through the weekend.

I still have a day job, but I’m working on diversifying my income so that I don’t have to rely on it as much in the future.

I’ve illustrated children’s books, made illustrations for schoolbooks, websites, published small comics for independent zines, and most recently, I’m working on a graphic novel. I’m also excited to get back into storyboarding!

Here are some tips that I live by as I continue my art practice:

1. If your day job is making you feel terrible, get a new job.
Remember you’re only at your day job to fund your art business. Consider it a patron to your practice.

2. Surround yourself with people who understand your goals.
Don’t waste time explaining your goals to people who don’t understand. They will only project their fears on you. No successful person became successful by listening to what everyone had to say. Only speak your goals to people who root for you.

3.Taking breaks will help your career grow.
Burnout can set you back years. It happen to me a few years ago and it was hard. Be better than me and take breaks. And I mean like, long breaks that last over a few weeks (if you can). It’s hard to work multiple jobs… You have to take care of yourself!

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?
In LA I’d take them to the Huntington Gardens to walk around and look at the gorgeous plants. The we could go to Kyo Chon chicken for the best Korean fried chicken…Wanderlust for the best ice cream flavors.. And if we had time, a road trip up to Santa Barbara for the bikeride along the coast.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shoutout a few of my teachers.

My family didn’t always think that art was a viable career, so most of my encouragement came from my highschool teachers.

Mr Hanly was my art teacher for a few years in high school. He made me believe that I could do anything I wanted to do. He also encouraged me when I wanted to take on ambitious projects. He let me borrow a tripod one summer and I made my first animation with it, by drawing pictures on tracing paper and snapping photos of each drawing with a camera on the tripod.

I’ll also shoutout my English teacher Ms Matrose! She was so passionate about teaching English to 10th graders. She challenged me to recite poetry in a statewide competition. She challenged me to write a short novel with NanoWrimo. She challenged me to read books and write papers on a college level.
I saw the value of challenging myself and I saw how powerful storytelling could be!

Website: https://www.melissamcindoe.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mcindoe-4a767167/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/melissamcindoe