I attended the New York City Comic Con for the fourth time. The first time was on the very same day 4 years ago. At the event I met several well know people. First, I met actor Christopher Llyod who plays as “Doc Brown” from “Back to the Future” and “The Hacker” from PBS Kids “Cyberchase”. Second, I met actor Marty Grabstein who voices the titular character “Courage” from “Courage the Cowardly Dog”. He’s the one I’ve wanted to meet for the longest time in the flesh.

Marty and I took some photos, signed my merchandise and even thanked me for coming out to see him again since March 6th on this year. I’ve met Marty via Galaxy Con at that time. I even gave him a drawing of Victor and Courage as a present and he appreciated it!  Finally, I met a visual and storyboard artist who did work for one of my all-time favorite shows and the one that inspired me to create my own animated television show. His name was Jeff Brennan, and he was a storyboard artist for “Courage the Cowardly Dog”.

I asked him for some advice as to where to start and he told me to have connections. He started off as a visual artist via internship and he worked his way up to storyboard artist and etc. However, he got the job at Courage over connections because he knew someone who was working on that show, and he got the call to work on it and the rest is history. I purchased a storyboard from the very first episode of “Courage” to use as reference on what storyboards should look like on my portfolio. He even congratulated me on my senior project and wished me the best of luck. Out of all the NYCC I attended this was the BEST one yet! 🙂

My performance on the job is adequate. I am continually working on the rest of my assignment that’s been assigned to me. At the same time, I am challenging myself to draw more complex things, receiving and giving constructive criticism to other artists.  I can’t really complain much because I’m still new to working at an animation studio and gaining experience on how the process works. I am enjoying every minute of it. 

By the way I asked Mr. Adams how many hours I have worked so far and right now it is 83.73. I’m close to 120 hours! I will probably be done before Thanksgiving! As far as mentoring goes, the one who has been a mentor for me during the internship so far is Brian aka “Shadow CCO” on Discord. He has been giving me constructive feedback on my artwork and I do my best to make sure it fits Mr. Adams standards.

The collaborative project that I’ve been currently working on during the internship is called “Beta Crystals”. Based on the pitch bible the story is as follows:  

“Pre-Story: The android warlord Console has for the past 30 years been on a mission to cocoon the galaxy. As an android Console has concluded that organic beings are incapable of achieving peace due the generational shift that over time results in wars over the same matters.
Console has taken it upon himself to bring about Galactic peace by concurring it and ruling as an immortal Emperor. The first story that Console concurred was planet Beta. After conjuring a planet Console institutes a monarchy in which he places a single individual whom he feels he can control, in charge of the planet. This individual is then forced to work and report directly to Console and run the planet as Console dictates. 

If a ruler can keep the kind of peace Console demands he allows them to rule as they see fit. Over the 30 years since concurring Beta Console has successfully captured over a dozen planets under his control.  

14 years ago. Klem the ‘Queen’ of planet Beta happened upon a pair of pods that crashed near her. Inside the pods were two babies. Xandr and Kayi. Discovering the two had the potential for great power Klem adopted them and raised them. Training them to harness their powers and explaining the war that had been going on throughout the universe. Raising them to hopefully one day be able to fight and to fight and defeat Console and free the Galaxy”. 

I’ve been working with 28 people on this project, and I communicated formally with them. What was successful is that I managed to get the exterior for one of the locations completed. What wasn’t successful is that one of the interiors was rejected because it wasn’t required for the project. However, they explained that my rejected drawing might come in handy for something else in the future.

Rejected drawing on Tex’s Kitchen:

I kept checking LinkedIn for new job postings morning, noon and night over my summer vacation. I eventually found a job opening from Dream Arc Company when they were offering internships for Visual Development Artists with little experience. I applied for it on July 11th. When I woke up one morning on July 28th, 2022, I received a message from CEO and founder of Dream Arc, Tyler Adams via LinkedIn.

I had a brief interview with Tyler via LinkedIn messenger. The questions he asked me were, “Are you alright with me having you as a Concept Artist?” and some additional questions I had in terms of schedule. Once the interview was finished Tyler sent me a Discord link to the Dream Arc Company’s group server. Tyler sent me a pitch bible outline of the series that I would be working on called “Beta Crystals” to read. After I finished reading it Tyler gave me my first assignment which was to design the home exterior and interior for a dragon character named “Tex”. He then told me to be sure to ask for feedback and give other artists feedback for guidance.