Today we’d like to introduce you to Camilla Boston

Hi Camilla, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

My name is Camilla Boston, I’m a Character designer, Visual development artist, and 2D animator currently living in Columbus, Ohio.

I’m a sketchbook artist at heart, constantly drawing what’s around me, and whatever silly things come to mind. Outside of drawing, My favorite things are my cat, Crumbs, learning how to not fall off of my skateboard, and collecting obscure fashion dolls from the early 2000s.

I was homeschooled for the entirety of my K-12 years, living on a backroad of a backroad in Akron, Ohio. Resting on the edge of a vanishing forest, and close enough to the blimp shelter to make the Goodyear logo a permanent part of the skyline.

In 2023, I Graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a bachelors in 2D animation as the Outstanding Senior in Animation, and have been working as a freelancer ever since.

I am currently open for work, and would love to be help your projects come to life!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

Having been away from the typical school structure throughout all of my childhood, I had to pave my road to college without any guidance. I researched how to calculate my GPA, tracked my grades and progress honestly, studied for the SAT in a month, delved into scholarship and loan resources, and taught myself art principles for a strong portfolio throughout high school.

I knew what I wanted to do, and was determined to make it a reality. During my freshman year, the pandemic began. It made for a year and a half of fully remote learning, and an additional year of heavily hybrid learning.

This made many subjects more difficult to teach, and led to countless hours of research and practice on my own time.

Throughout my degree, I balanced school with Internships, mentorships, campus jobs, and being President of the animation student collective alongside an amazing group of club leaders.

I am so grateful for every opportunity that was presented to me, but have learned the hard way that I need to take care of myself along the way. I had some long term health consequences, and a wrist injury that I have been very lucky to have mostly healed post-grad.

I am now extremely energized and enthusiastic again, and have been happily delving into my work with these lessons in mind.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

Currently, I have been serving as a character designer, vis dev artist, and 2D animator on various projects. I love the challenge of adapting to a new style and finding my place within it.

Ideating and breathing life into characters and environments is by far my favorite part of the process, molding characters and their world into something believable.

My personal style veers towards the exaggerated and edgy, emphasizing bold shapes, distinct posing, and highlighting the things that allow characters’ individuality shine through. emphasizing things such as acne, stretch marks, tattoos, etc.

I love telling stories through design, and am working on getting into storyboarding more heavily as well, with a portfolio currently in development for Lightbox 2024.

I am passionate about so many aspects of the pipeline, and want to learn all that I’m able to!

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?

Patience. With myself, and with the industry as a whole.

As artists entering the animation world, so many of us have conditioned ourselves to meet these invisible goals that are markers of “true success”, that are extremely rare or outright impossible: having constant work without breaks between, or starting in the industry especially young.

I love what I do and I consider a genuine privilege to be a part of the arts. But it is still work at the end of the day, and it’s okay to have moments where you need to step back and focus on other parts of life.

If you don’t let yourself experience new things, your creative well will absolutely run dry.

There is no correct or linear path to success. As long as you keep working and putting yourself out there, opportunities will come your way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://camillaboston.weebly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclopsarts/?hl=en

Image Credits

Nick Osborne