Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to the United States when she was five. She received a diploma in Classical Animation from Sheridan College, and currently works at Laika Inc. in Portland, Oregon drawing storyboards for feature animation. She has done illustration work for clients such as Nickelodeon, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Simon & Schuster. Her first graphic novel, Anya’s Ghost, was published in 2011 by First Second Books.
What you do:
I am a storyboard artist living in Portland, Oregon. I work at Laika Inc., and boarded on the movie Coraline and the upcoming Paranorman (out August 17th!). I also draw comics – my first book Anya’s Ghost was published in 2011 and I’m slowly starting to work on another one. Other things I like to do are cook, bake, spin yarn, knit, … anything old ladies do, I am probably doing..
You can check out the behind the scenes of her book here, with all drawing secrets revealed.
What influenced you as a writer/artist?
I didn’t really read a lot of comics growing up, except for Calvin & Hobbes, which I inhaled. I would read X-Men in the supermarket sometimes while waiting for my mom (remember when they had comics in the supermarket?) but I was never allowed to buy any.
In my tweeny-teens I got into anime/manga/japanese video games. I was majorly influenced by Rumiko Takahashi, and also read a bunch of CLAMP and stuff but I don’t think that left as much of a mark. I made a bunch of webcomics friends in high school, which led me to reading more independent comics like JTHM and Finder. I read Craig Thompson’s Blankets and that single-handedly made me pick up a brush and start inking with that. I don’t read that many comics now unfortunately, but I try to read regular books as often as I can. I really like Haruki Murakami and Michael Chabon. I’m also really interested in folk tales from different cultures, particularly Russian ones. It’d be great to incorporate those into my work somehow.
What led you to become a storyboard/comic artist?
I’ve been really lucky in that it’s been pretty clear since I was really little that there was only one thing I was good at, and that I should probably try and do that thing for a living. Animation seemed like a good compromise between drawing all day and possibly having health insurance. I applied to a few different schools, didn’t get into CalArts, got into Sheridan, and decided to go there.
I did a ton of life drawing, watched a lot of films, met a bunch of awesome people, and made a short film. Making Snow-Bo gave me a taste of the entire filmmaking process, and I figured out pretty quick that storyboarding was the part I liked best. As for comics, I’ve been drawing pictures in boxes since I was a little kid. I guess that’s just how my brain works!
On entering the FluevogCreative contest:
I found out about the competition from my friend, and the thought of getting shoes in exchange for a drawing was almost too good to be true. Heck, I draw all the time for free! I bought a house this year so I’ve been budgeting like crazy, and the idea of HAVING to get fun shoes makes my brain very happy.
On the inspiration behind her winning ad Walk In Peace:
This shoe was a bit of a challenge because of the print, and because it’s so different from my own personal style (I wear a lot of grey and black. Sometimes dark grey). I run a blog with my friend Emily Carroll called Draw This Dresswhere we pick a photo of a vintage outfit and the other person is commanded to do an illustration of it. It’s a lot of fun inventing a character that would wear the clothes, and I decided to treat the contest in the same way – Draw This Shoe. So I just thought about what kind of person would wear this shoe and that’s what I wound up drawing! Sort of a mellow hippie chick who hopefully still looked a bit modern.
On how long it took for Vera to design her winning creative:
I do most of my artwork digitally on a Wacom Cintiq (a monitor you can draw on) so I did some one or two minute sketches on that when I had the chance. Finally I liked one of my sketches enough to clean it up, and spent a Sunday afternoon prettying it up in Photoshop.
Here is a livestream video of Vera drawing this dress in Adobe Photoshop for the blog Draw This Dress that she shares with her friend:
On her first pair of Fluevogs:
I have never owned any Fluevogs, but have long-admired them on the feet of others. I am very excited to finally get some of my own. Portland got its own Fluevog store recently, too, so I get to pick ’em out in person!
On what the dreams and future hold for Vera Brosgol:
My dream is to make it to a ripe old age with my original teeth.
You can buy Vera’s book Anya’s Ghost through First Second Books.
Keep an eye out in Vice, Juxtapoz, UTNE and Wax Poetic magazines for Vera’s winning design in print.
