We were lucky to catch up with Erim Cetinel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Erim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

As is common with most people we all start drawing from when we are children. There is a breaking point as we grow up where some people let go of art and some people double down on art. Funnily enough I found that after a while in middle school I pivoted to video games and not art, I gravitated mostly to a little game called Minecraft. That game had so much versatility in play styles, if you wanted to play it like a normal survival game you could, if you wanted a sand box with all the tools you could also do that. I now see that Minecraft was just another outlet for me to be creative and create art as after middle school I came back around to making art, realizing how badly I wanted to create my own worlds and tell my own stories. I downloaded a free drawing app on my phone and started drawing with my finger. I drew everyday, just little doodles of creatures and characters that I wanted to make stories with. I also realized that my skills in drawing people were sub par so I decided to start life drawing in a sketchbook. Living in istanbul it was easy to find people to draw so I would urban sketch all day, building up my skills in drawing. Looking back at it now, I would have stuck to drawing as my creative outlet, if I was drawing back in middle school and learned the essentials like anatomy at a young age, I would be a stronger draftsman than I am today. Especially looking at masters on the internet would have helped take me to another step from a younger age. But alas I did not know If I was gonna study animation when I graduate, I was in middle school after all, regular school work was still a real fact of life, and games seemed like a great way to get my mind off of them.

Erim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a 2D animator from Istanbul, currently studying animation in the School of Visual Arts in New York City. It would be comfortable for me to stay at my mother land but the fact is, there is no work there, I have a deep passion for 2D animation and worked at a Turkish animation company over the pandemic, but after the pandemic was over I knew I had to go to America to reach the next level. At the School of Visual Arts I have become an indie film maker, I release a short film every year and send them to the festival circuit where I get to meet new film makers and creatives working in the industry. The industry is smaller than you would think so I come across familiar faces all the time. In this small community of people everyone has a unique voice, and my voice yells: CLASSIC ANIMATION, Im talking 1920’s, 30’s Fleischer style cartoons. I have a deep love and admiration for the early years of animation and so I take that early style of animation and repurpose through a modern lens for the purpose of storytelling. You can catch my work in the new york film circuits and also over on my website at Xolotal.com

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Being a creative in the current age is not easy, with big companies trying to replace workers with artificial intelligence it feel like our work is at risk of being stolen and we are in risk of being exploited, so it is important for artists to fight the good fight and for the people to support upcoming projects. In this ecosystem where animation is still seen as kids stuff from a big part of society its important that we put in our A game into the work we do because animation is cinema, and artists deserve respect for their hours of work they put in.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Making art is generally a painful process. Animation especially requires a-lot of sitting in front of a screen and doing menial tasks such as cleaning up or coloring frame by frame. Sometimes I think; “is it really worth it?” It feels like Im working like a dog knowing that people will still have a prejudice about my work because its animation. But seeing that finished product, seeing the way people react to your work and seeing other artists perk up with excitement and inspiration, thats when it feels like its worth it. Connecting to other artists, learning their journeys and talking about my journey is a great way to connect to likeminded individuals and that makes it all worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.xolotal.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xolotal/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erim-cetinel-24a903257/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@xolotal?si=6GgaHLj7g8qZWDXx

Image Credits
All art is by me