Los Angeles Firm Inc. Magazine March/April 2016 | Page 72

How would you best describe your
art work?
Who are some of the individuals
that influenced you as an artist?
Too many to name. I have learned
a lot from my peers. There was a
cartoonist for the big magazines
named Henry Syverson who I still
love. He drew little captionless cartoons, kind of like MAD’s
Sergio Aaragones, but sweeter. He
had a very cartoony, animation-y
flair to his work. Because there
were rarely any captions, I remember gravitation to them when I
was still a toddler because even
a kid could get the joke just by
looking at it.

WILL FINN
THE GREAT

The work that I gravitate
is
LOS to
ANGELES
FIRM INC MAGAZINE
usually buoyant and lively and a
bit subversive. I’m eternally MARCH
at/ APRIL 2016
tracted to the aspect of cartoon
that questions authority and satirizes foolishness. Everything
from BUGS BUNNY to SOUTH PARK...

How can someone hire you for a
project such as an animation
movie?

Email or text. I’ve done a bit
of commission work but most of
my employment comes thru contacts I have made on previous
jobs. Almost never have I gotten
a job from someone I didn’t know
directly. I think that’s the way
of the world. Right now I have a
pretty full schedule.

How long have you been doing art?
I am pretty sure I was drawing
before I could talk. That was a
long time ago. To my amazement
more than 50 years.

We are very glad to have you as a
featured artist. It’s not everyday we run across such a talent
as yourself.
What made you want to become an
artist?

What motivates you to keep coming up with this amazing art work
from project to project?
It’s less a motivation than a
compulsion to me. I sometimes
find myself scribbling away without meaning to. And any time I
see someone else’s work that’s
new and inspiring it gets me going. Very often that is coming
from talented people I know and
work with...

I consider myself very lucky in
that I always loved drawing and
that gave me something I could
enjoy doing pretty much anywhere.

Who recognized you and gave
you the break you needed to
become recognized?
Eric Larson, one of the great
Disney animators visited my
art school and he gave me just
the right amount of encouragement to get started. I moved
to LA and it took a long time
but he ultimately got me my
first job. He was a mentor
to almost everyone at Disney
in my generation. He was very
perceptive in recognizing talent and nurturing it.
What is it about Art that
first attracted you?
I come from a family of six
siblings and my mother and her
mother were artistic. Everybody drew. My older brother
Jim was very good at drawing and he taught me a lot of
little tips and tricks... But
it wasn’t a big deal. I assumed everybody went home and
drew comics and cartoons with
their families after school.
It took me a long time to realize that there were people
who didn’t even want to draw
in the world. For me it was in
the environment and on TV they
were showing all the classic cartoons from the 30’s and
40’s, which peaked my interest. Like oxygen.
What are some of the projects
you have lined up for the near
future? (after April 2016)
Like many experienced animation artists I try to keep
as many irons in the fire as
possible. But you never know
which ones will take off and
which ones won’t.

WILL FINN
THE GREAT
Like many experienced
animation artists I try to
keep as many irons in the
fire as possible. But you
never know which ones
will take off and which
ones won’t.

What kind of mark to you want
to leave on the art communities
worldwide when it’s all said and
done?
I don’t think in terms of that
any more. I don’t know what, if
anything lasts of anything in the
grand scheme of things. If anything I have done entertains or
amuses or inspires someone else
then I am glad.

What other publications have featured your work?
I can’t think of many right now.
Most of what could be called published work by me has been on the
screen. A few times things have
wound up in books about animation
or in the movie trade papers.
Sometimes credited, sometimes
not!

How many major projects have you
done throughout the course of
your career?
I think I have worked on about
20 theatrically released feature
films in my career to date. Working on Disney’s ALADDIN, BEAUTY
& THE BEAST and LITTLE MERMAID
are probably the most well known
things I’ve been involved with.
I also worked on the last Road
Runner cartoon directed by the
late, legendary Chuck Jones.
Recently I have been working on
independently produced features
and currently I am back in a big
studio as part of the story board
crew on a forthcoming feature. I
also just storyboarded about a
dozen TOM A ND JERRY cartoons for
CARTOON NETWORK. I haven’t seen
the finished films yet tho.

What are a few highlights of your
career as an artist?
Well three of the seven or eight
Disney pictures (mentioned above)
were very gratifying. So was
working with Chuck Jones. Also
early in my career I got to work
on the DRAGON’S LAIR and SPACE
ACE animated arcade games, which
were very innovative back when
they came out. I hope there’s a
few more highlights to come but
regardless of whether an assignment is high profile or not,
I have almost always learned
something valuable or met someone
meaningful on just about every
project. Anything creative is a
constant discovery. Which keeps
the mind occupied and the spirt
engaged.

Describe the feeling you get when
others recognize your art work as
some of the best in the world?
Recognition is flattering, but it
is also hard to put into perspective. I have what I like to think
is an objective opinion about my
own work and when I feel I have
done something well it is secondary to me whether anyone else
likes it or not. Working in something as commercial and as highly
profiled as animation is humbling
because like everybody, I have
gotten both positive and negative
reactions to things i have done.
It goes with the territory.

Where can our readers catch up
with you and view more of you
amazing art?
Instagram is my favorite social
networking place for art. I can’t
seem to get any traction on Tumblr. I have done a bit on YouTube
but not regularly enough. I did
a short film back in 2009 called
QWERTY THE DINOSAUR that is still
viewable on there.

LOS ANGELES FIRM INC MAGAZINE
MARCH / APRIL 2016