ANDREA BLASICH
Milanese sculptor and handyman Andrea Blasich has worked in layout and sculpting for Warner Bros., DreamWorks, and Blue Sky. He always manages to ride a bicycle to work and he builds his own furniture. See a crib and an outdoor table on his blog—he can beat Pottery Barn prices by 500%. Andrea now lives on a beautiful hilltop in San Anselmo, California, with his wife, Alexandra, and daughter, Vanessa. andreablasich.blogspot.com
NASH DUNNIGAN
Since the nineties, Nash has designed, storyboarded, and drawn on lots of animated shows on the isle of Manhattan. For the past four years, though, he has been at Blue Sky Studios as a production designer and layout artist on such films as
Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and
Horton Hears a Who! Nash still wants to be a kids’ book author and illustrator when he grows up. As his friends can attest, he is full of…stories. Lots of ’em.
Luckily, his day job pays the bills. Nash also makes a mean batch of scones. www.nash-dunnigan-art.blogspot.com
DAVID GORDON
Dave Gordon is a children’s book author and illustrator who has a passion for airplanes, trucks, tractors, construction equipment, and other cool heavy machinery. He was born and raised in Colorado and later moved to the big city to attend Parsons School of Design in New York. After graduating, Dave moved out to northern California, where he created concept art for many of Pixar’s films. He also worked on the acclaimed animated television series
SpongeBob SquarePants and Blue Sky’s
Robots. Dave has authored and illustrated three vehicle fairy tales for HarperCollins:
The Ugly Truckling, The Three Little Rigs, and
Hansel and Diesel. Dave now lives in New York City with his lovely girlfriend, Susan, and their dog, Subway.www.illustrationranch.com
MICHAEL KNAPP
Michael Knapp is an avowed workaholic who occasionally dabbles in laziness. For years he teetered between a dismal career playing in rock bands and a sporadically paid career as an illustrator. Through some strange twist of fate, he now pursues neither while working at Blue Sky Studios as the art director on the third
Ice Age movie. Somehow, working at Blue Sky led to drawing comics. Go figure…
He previously worked as a designer on the animated films
Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and
Horton Hears a Who! and spent a few months art directing the Academy Award—nominated short
No Time for Nuts. His work can be found in
Spectrum 12 and 13, as well as the Society of Illustrators annuals
48 and 49. www.michaelknapp.com
SANG JUN LEE
Sang Jun Lee was born and raised in South Korea. He received a degree in illustration at the school now known as Academy of Art University in San Francisco. After graduating, he worked for various entertainment companies such as ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Lucasfilm.
Lee specializes in illustrating and creating characters, costumes, and creature design for movies and games. Exploring depths, cultures, and fascinating new worlds never before imagined plays an important role while creating content for these projects.
His film credits include
Star Wars: Episode III, Men in Black II, Hulk, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, and
War of the Worlds.Lee is currently working as a character designer at Blue Sky Studios in New York.
BENOIT LE PENNEC
Born in France in 1962, Benoit was raised mostly on comic books. After studying graphic art in Paris, he gained experience working for both publicity agencies and TV animation studios. He then moved to London to work on the movie
Balto (a 2D animated feature) for Amblimation. When that company dissolved into Dreamworks California, he moved along with many of his colleagues to the United States, where he had the chance to work on all of Dreamworks 2D movies (from
The Prince of Egypt to
Sinbad) as a layout artist. He recently had the opportunity to work at Blue Sky Studios on
Robots and got to meet the great talents of that neat east coast studio. He currently works for Disney.
KYLE MACNAUGHTON
Kyle MacNaughton grew up in Toronto (the Little Apple), Ontario. Being one of the only Canadians who could not skate, he was forced to refine his real passion–scribbling.
Kyle graduated from Sheridan College’s Classical Animation Program in 1999. Since then, he has worked for various studios, including Disney and Blue Sky Studios. His main interest is visual development. He currently resides in the Big Apple, New York City, with his lovely wife, Anaolga.
PETER NGUYEN
Peter Nguyen was born in the city of Philadelphia. At an early age, his family relocated to Houston, Texas, where he would spend his next years drawing every single day. Inspired by the work of Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, he wanted to pursue a career in comic books. Somehow things didn’t work out and Peter ended up in animation instead.
Residing in New York for the past four years, Peter now works at Blue Sky Studios along with the most talented group of people he’s ever known. His comic-book dream was fulfilled when he was invited to do a short story for something called
Out of Picture. saigonradio.blogspot.com
VINCENT NGUYEN
Vincent Nguyen grew up in Houston, Texas, where he began his art career drawing cowboys, monsters, and superheroes. Frustrated by his inability to draw Aquaman riding a six-headed sea horse, he decided to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he earned his BFA in illustration.
A longtime fan of comics and graphic novels, Vincent has always wanted to create sequential art to tell a story of his own. He illustrated children’s books for three years before joining the art department at Blue Sky Studios. This book gave him the opportunity to draw and paint all the cool stuff he’s always wanted, with the exception of Aquaman riding a six-headed sea horse. www.vincentdi.com
GUILLERMO “WILLIE” REAL
“Can I have two fish tacos, please? Along with some salsa verde…nothing too spicy, and do you have horchata?” Willie was born in 1979 in San Francisco, California, where shortly after, he started scribbling on anything within reach. While his older sister ate snails and his oldest sister hair-sprayed her bangs, Willie managed to capture his fifth grade teacher’s “likeness” in his drawings. He was suspended from school. In 1997 Willie’s high school English teacher was also aware of his ability to not pay attention in class. Instead of suspending him she encouraged him to join an after-school program called “Student Illustrators,” where Willie illustrated book reports, hand-lettered banners, and even got paid with books and art supplies! “I could do this for a living!” he thought. After spending way too many years in college, Willie finally graduated in 2005 from the Aca-demy of Art University in San Francisco. He now resides in New York City, where he gets to throw objects at the super-talented artists he works with. Willie’s a pretty lucky guy…besides doing what he loves to do for a living, Willie finally gets to enjoy his tacos. williereal.blogspot.com
JAKE PARKER
Jake Parker was born in Mesa, Arizona, and began drawing shortly thereafter. He drew his first comic at the age of four. These days he still draws comics, some of which can be found in the
Flight anthologies. Jake currently works at Blue Sky Studios. He lives in Connecticut with his long- suffering wife and three spirited children. www.agent44.com
JASON SADLER
Jason Sadler grew up in Raymond, Wisconsin. He was trained as an industrial designer and studied animation at Sheridan College in Ontario. In 1994 he moved to San Francisco and worked in the animation industry there for eleven years. He now is a concept artist/designer at Blue Sky Studios and lives in White Plains, New York, with his wife, Deborah, and their daughter, Elise. www.sadlerish.com
DAISUKE TSUTSUMI
Born and raised in the beautiful country of anime and karaoke, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi was determined at an early age to become a baseball player. When faced with the reality that he wasn’t actually that good, he immigrated to America to look for something else to do.
After receiving irresponsible compliments from his nice old retired classmates in his first painting class in a small community college in New York, he decided to define his American dream as making a living painting pretty pictures. Once he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York, his pursuit of painting pretty pictures continued.
He has been a concept artist for Lucas Learning LTD and Blue Sky Studios and recently joined Pixar Animation Studios as an art director. Many years later, he still innocently believes in his old retired classmates’ compliments. www.simplestroke.com
LIZETTE VEGA
Born in California in 1980, Lizette grew up in the suburbs of the beautiful San Francisco Bay area. She spent most of her childhood yearning to be like Wonder Woman and She-Ra: Princess of Power. Somehow, amidst her rigorous superhero training regimen, Lizette found a passion for sketching in her spare time. Eventually that passion grew and Lizette sketched her way through the Animation and Illustration Program at San Jose State University. With a BFA in hand, she gained professional experience in various creative fields through freelance work. Companies that she has worked for include Hallmark Cards Inc., EA Games, and LeapFrog. Lizette currently lives in New York, working as a designer for Blue Sky Studios.
WILLIAM JOYCE
William Joyce has written and illustrated a number of award-winning children’s books and does occasional covers for
The New Yorker. He has won four medals from the Society of Illustrators, three Emmys, two Annie Awards, and was nominated as a producer of t...
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