Artist: Janet Doan
Exhibition: Magic In the Making
Media: Animation
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Marilyn Werby Gallery
Instagram: @Jananachips
Janet Doan is currently a student at LBSU pursuing a BFA in the school of art’s animation program. She is currently working with a team to produce a show. They have developed both the story and art. On this team, Janet is a storyteller, animator, and illustrator. Growing up, she always watched a lot of cartoons and read comics which lead her to dream of creating her own one day. She’s interested in fantasy and magic because of Harry Potter.
In her illustrations, you can see that the style is very cartoon-like. It seems like a mix of traditional American cartoons and Japanese animation style. You can tell the colors are very light and muted. The people drawn have more rounded faces and use more curved features. There’s usually very little jagged or straight lines when drawing the people. This gives off a much friendlier vibe when compared to some comics such as DC comics. The muted pastel colors make it seem like it’s geared to have a more light-hearted story.
One of the biggest ideas Janet is trying to explore is the idea of necromancy, reviving the dead. In her story, she wants to put a little more light-hearted spin to it because necromancy is usually something that has negative connotations towards it. It’s looked down upon and is considered a pretty dark topic. She simply just wants to make a fun and cute story to share regardless of necromancy’s dark connotations.
I enjoyed looking at the art and reading the storyboards. I also grew up watching a lot of cartoons and was really into fantasy as a kid which is why the display resonated with me. It felt nostalgic looking at their production. It reminded me of all the shows and books about fantasy when I was a child. I liked the idea of fantasy and making something usually dark not so dark.
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