We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leigh Huddle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Leigh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I think about having a “regular” job every day. With all of the help wanted signs popping up in the last few years, it’s difficult to avoid. But I’ve had regular jobs, so I don’t have to think about it too hard. I know that it’s nice to not have your livelihood bleed into your hobbies, and to not have your self-worth so tightly tied to your work. But if it’s in your nature – like it is in mine – to put so much of yourself in everything you do, then maybe it doesn’t really matter whether or not the job is regular. The frustrations will always be the same. On the opposite end, know that a good portion of “creative” work consists of the mundane. You have to check emails and organize your files. It’s something you can never escape, so it’s best to just embrace it.
I would consider myself happy as an artist, or at least happier than I’ve ever been when I wasn’t one. After I had set aside cello performance as my focus and before I picked up animation art, I was actually pretty miserable. It took a year of wrestling with that feeling before I realized that art was what was missing. Art, as in putting yourself fully into something.
But I think “happy” is sort of a misleading word, because I’m not trying to be happy when I make art. I’m trying to be fulfilled. I’ve learned that there’s more that goes into art than the literal act of making The Thing. I used to feel dread when I’d be working on an animation or storyboard, and start to get bored or frustrated. I thought that I’d made a terrible mistake, because I wasn’t doing something that I loved. But I’ve realized since then that nobody (sane) is sitting down to draw and enjoying every second of it. Setting out to make something and then making it, the time before and after, is also part of the creative process. Do you feel excited to create? Are you satisfied when it’s finished? These answers were important to take into consideration when I was questioning my path.
Leigh, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a storyboard artist, specifically for animation. A storyboard is a series of pictures, like a comic, that is used by animators to animate, or background artists to create backgrounds from. I use a script, character designs, and audio to guide my drawings. Ideally – but rarely – I have all three to work from. However, since the animation pipeline is always in flux, these things can be constantly changing throughout the production.
I work together with other storyboard artists and a director to move characters around in a scene, change the camera angle, and time out a sequence of events. Because animation is very time consuming, it’s important for these things to be planned out beforehand as much as possible. The most important thing though, is that all of these elements come together to make the audience feel what we the creators want them to feel. Occasionally, I’ll also be responsible for designing minor side characters or props that appear in the boards.
I think it was this act of storytelling that drew me to storyboarding in the first place. Obviously, storytelling can be found in all of the other aspects of animation, but I felt that storyboarding was the perfect blend of writing and drawing for me. The most satisfying part of my job is being given the freedom to put part of myself into the characters, and then seeing someone else connect with the characters because of that.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
In general, I think the best support you can have as an artist is an audience that thinks critically. When you’re constantly pushing yourself to create something better, it can be frustrating when the viewer doesn’t reciprocate that enthusiasm. And enthusiasm doesn’t have to be positive either. I think we should all challenge ourselves to take in media that is a bit more challenging from time to time, and refrain from being so reactionary. Just having basic media literacy is something that is really lacking in society, so it would be nice to see people improve on that.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is taking something that has significance to you, that might even just exist inside your head, and portraying it in a way that makes a connection with other people. For instance, being able to take something that’s outwardly mundane, and exaggerate certain features of it, to make people laugh. And as someone who draws cartoons for a living, that’s a huge part of my job.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.arthuddle.com
- Instagram: @leighhuddle
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-huddle-a7458287/