Meet Michelle Drennan | Character Designer

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

Hi Michelle, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
I would say it has taught me how crucial perseverance and having faith in your abilities is to achieving success in animation. There hasn’t been anyone I’ve talked to that hasn’t told me about a lull in their career, even the people you would expect to be working non-stop or award-winning creators in this field. Especially right now in the industry it can be so bleak and disheartening, but the one thing I am relying on the most in this difficult time is that I’m not the only one experiencing this. You are not alone!!

Though I think in these lulls it is good to take time to decompress after maybe a stressful job, I think finding that fire to create again as soon as you can and get your momentum back is critical. The main killer of success in this industry I believe has to be stagnation. Though, it can be hard to motivate yourself if you don’t believe that your work is going to get you anywhere, because maybe it hasn’t yet and you’re still waiting to get your foot in the door. That’s where having faith in yourself really comes in and I also believe that is the hardest part. It’s something I’ve been struggling with since the start of my journey, and I still find it difficult sometimes. It’s taken practice and a lot of days where I sit and try to draw and it feels like I’m banging my head against the wall. But then maybe inspiration strikes me from a show I’m watching or a friend I’m talking to, and I just want to have fun for a while and the flow finds me again. I think bad art days happen and I give myself grace in those moments to step away, but I really believe that the only way through “art block” is just to keep at it and you will find the magic again.

I also think that having a support system of people around you to help pull yourself out of those dark places in your mind when you don’t feel like you’re good enough is essential. I wouldn’t be where I am today at all if I didn’t have people in my corner to help me through those hard times. It can seem easier to get validation from social media and I’ve definitely gotten a boost from social media in the past to stay motivated and keep an audience. However, I now really value having a close group of friends that I can bounce ideas off of or vent to when I really am struggling. I also find that I have much more freedom to explore new ideas and my own interests when I’m sharing it with people who know me personally, whereas I feel like when social media is your motivator it can really box you into making content/art that you know will do well for a wider audience. I also know that I can rely on honest feedback from those folks, so having a solid group of art friends means the world to me!

I truly believe the only way to fail in this industry is if you stop trying, learning, and growing. It can take years, and it certainly did for me, but at the end it is so SO worth it.

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 love subverting expectations with my art and surprising people. I love showing one thing on the outside and having a twist in the story that the audience didn’t expect. I think I’m growing in how well I can show these things and I really want to update some stories in my personal portfolio in the future to explore more of those themes. I would really like to update my “Demon Cheerleader” project and make it less surface level surprise. I’ve been thinking it would be fun to expand the cast into a full group of cheerleaders that subvert expectations and represent stereotypical ideas being wrong and shallow.

Another personal project I’m working on now has to do more with vulnerability and acceptance, and especially grief. After losing my father last year, working on this project has really helped me to feel that grief and not just work through it, but I’m also really proud to make something inspired by how much I love my Dad.

It was definitely not easy to get where I am today professionally! I graduated from The Academy of Art University in 2018 and moved back in with my mom in Beaumont, CA to figure out my next moves. Thankfully, I went from serving at a local bar to doing registration at the local hospital so I was able to make decent and more consistent money. My original plan was to move straight to LA out of college and with nothing other than serving under my belt for jobs, I can’t imagine how I would have survived when just under 2 years later Covid would hit and shut everything down! So I did registration for a year and a half and got really stuck being back in my hometown again. Decompressing from college and feeling like I was back where I started with not a lot of friends near me and not much to inspire me definitely had me stagnating.

It took just making the decision to take the leap to LA myself to get me moving. I gave myself a goal of finding a new job and moving out there before my birthday in March 2020, and I’m really proud of myself for making that happen. However, being so eager to move to LA landed me in hot water when the first place I lived turned out to be a total nightmare. Bless my parents for floating me some cash to pay for a deposit on a new place, but I had to move AGAIN a little after 2 months. On top of this, I was working at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena right at the start of Covid. I was still doing registration in the ER, mostly verifying insurance and updating information, but it was a wild time to experience regardless.

Thankfully, once I settled into my 2nd place in LA, I started to get my groove back artistically. I was inspired by shows I was watching like Invincible and My Hero Academia, so I started doing fanart and gained a little traction on Tiktok which motivated me a lot at the time. I had fun doing my thing and I thought I should turn my attention to my portfolio again finally. I was inspired by Invincible to emulate their style to revamp a “Devil Cheerleader” I had designed at my mom’s house and was really proud of the work I did for it, adding technical skills I had not showcased before like more anatomical work, mouth charts, and a solid turnaround. Finally something clicked after that and I just started applying to everything I could find.

I had not applied to any artistic jobs since I graduated, such a regret!! I was so caught up in thinking I had to be perfect to just apply to job postings, when in reality once I started applying to things and just seeing what stuck, I landed my first freelance gig at Warner Brothers in less than a year! I was holding myself back so much, now I just send it and let someone ELSE tell me no first.

At the same time, I was dealing with a lot of stress at the hospital due to understaffing issues and then our landlord wanted us all to move out of the house my roommates and I lived in so they could “move back in” (i.e. take advantage of the wild Covid LA housing market). So in under a year and a half, I had to move for the 3rd time. I was sending out applications and doing my best to stay motivated, but this was probably the hardest time in my journey so far. I was leaning on my support system hard and thanks to them I was able to make it through and in the beginning of September 2021 I got an email from WB asking for me to do freelance character design! All the stress and putting my nose to the grindstone and just having blind faith that it would happen eventually PAID OFF. I got to work on Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match and it was such a blast! I’m so proud of my work on that movie and seeing it all come together once it was released this past October was truly a full circle moment for me.

However, just because I got my foot in the door once did NOT mean that things were a breeze from then on. I was out of work for 4 months after WB, just doing what I had done before and applying to everything I could find. Unfortunately, since I was freelance I wasn’t able to make many networking connections through zoom and email, so I was hoping to get lucky once again. It didn’t work out like I had hoped and I had to take a PA job for 10 months to pay the bills until finally a good friend put my name into the ring at Titmouse and they reached out to me! All through that lull I was second guessing myself, desperate to figure out what I was missing to land that next job. Sometimes, it really is just about patience and having faith in yourself, backed by you refusing to give up and continuing to put yourself out there.

Looking toward the future, I’m really excited to see what shakes out of this tumultuous time in the industry! Now that I’m a TAG union member and the negotiations are coming up, I’m stoked to rally and fight for all TAG members to get the contract we deserve and fight back against AI, outsourcing, and the general shrinkage of this amazing artform in America. I’m so excited about indie animation studios popping up and growing traction in response to the seemingly endless mergers and consolidations of the animation studios we’ve loved for decades. I’m so excited to see where we are in a year from now.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I really have become a foodie in LA, I have a whole playlist saved on Tiktok of places I want to eat! I would probably pick a few new places from that list, but also some favorites of my own like Cento Pasta Bar, Farmhouse Thai, and Jincook in Glendale.

I would also take them to Smorgasburg to gorge themselves on probably the best variety of foods all in one place. It happens every Sunday and it’s so fun to check out, they also have small sellers there and the area has cute shops to check out too.

I would definitely take them out to see a drag show one night either in WeHo or to Precinct DTLA, drag performers and queer artists continue to inspire me and I love living in a place where I get the opportunity to see some of the best performers in the world. I might also take them to Akbar to see “Learn the Words, Bitch” which happens every 1st Monday and is always a blast!

I’m also a karaoke person and I would love to go belt it out at The Goodnite in Burbank or having some tasty themed cocktails and play board games at Guildhall also in Burbank!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to shout out my parents that allowed me to follow my dreams and figure out my own path, who have supported me through the hard times and have never lost faith in me. I’m really so lucky to have had a mom, dad, and step-mother who have never stopped being in my corner and never doubted me. I am also so lucky to have two little brothers that make me feel like the best big sister, even when I might doubt myself, thank you Sean and Chris.

I would also like to thank all the friends who have supported and inspired me, from my art friends in high school, Alyssa, Stephanie, and Sam, who helped me discover my passion for character design and never put me down even through the awkward early stages of my art journey!

To the friends I met in college who continue to be there for me now. Aleisha Marmon, Danny Neou, Luke Brady, and Sabrina Ranellucci, you guys have been there for me through thick and thin, always listened to me and valued me especially in my weakest moments. I can’t say thank you enough and I’m so glad we’re still so close. I love you so much and you make my life so rich!

And friends who support me long distance like Monica Labrecque, even though you’re on the other side of the country, you’re one of my closest friends and the best art collaborator. You inspire me daily and I am so excited to see where you go in this industry. I believe in you so much and thank you for helping me believe in myself!!

And especially shout out to the friends I made at Titmouse on my most recent project, I literally just tried to list the names but it basically became the entire crew!! I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to be a part of on my first full time job and I really hope these friendships last a lifetime! Here’s hoping we work together again soon! I would also like to thank David DePasquale for putting my name forward and helping me land such an awesome opportunity at Titmouse! I can’t thank you enough for that and also for shaking me out of my funk when I really needed it, you’re the best!!

The person I most would like to shout out is my incredible boyfriend Kristopher Satterwhite. You have been in my life since the start of art school and motivated me and supported me since I met you. In the decade we’ve known each other we’ve had our ups and downs, gone on our own journeys separately divided by hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. We’ve grown on our own but never really stopping communicating or leaning on each other. I am so blessed to now have our story come together in LA and be with you as your girlfriend. Your tenacity and drive is something I admire so much and strive to achieve in myself. Your dedication to always better your own art and reach the next level moves me to work harder every day. You are the best, most supportive, most loving partner I could ever imagine and I am so lucky to have you!!

Website: https://www.michellekdrennan.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-drennan-126b66107/

Other: https://bsky.app/profile/meeeshbug.bsky.social