Today we’d like to introduce you to Doryan Nelson.
Hi Doryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, so naturally, a love for animation, comics and things followed. Turner Broadcasting launched the Cartoon Network about a year before I was born, so I was around when the channel was at its peak with its run of original programming like The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, and Codename: Kids Next Door. On top of that, Japanese Anime came in and impacted everything. I should also note that Cartoon Network was also responsible for this as well for us kids, running shows like Dragonball Z on their action block called: Toonami. It was an artistic revolution! I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better time to be a kid.
I was purely self-taught as I grew up and went through high school, experimenting with different styles and influences, eventually leading me to college at the Kansas City Art Institute, where I majored in animation. Being in an academic setting really challenged my normal way of doing things as a solo act. It was hard at times because I had to learn how to work with and deal with other kinds of artistic people. After a short while, I came to the conclusion that I love taking on leadership roles like a director, producer, lead designer, etc., and once that spark ignited, I went to take on tougher challenges.
As the years passed, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animation and produced works like Sonic Prologue in 2014, a 30-minute spec film based on my childhood hero: Sonic the Hedgehog and an original short film called: Trikuma in 2015.
After two years, I decided to apply to SCAD’s master’s program 2018 to grow to the next level. The road was intense, but I loved every minute of it because it pushed me beyond my limits and made me the artist that I am now. Two years later, that brings us to today. I’ve graduated with a master’s in sequential art, I’m doing a multitude of personal projects, and I’m currently looking for work here in the city of Atlanta. It’s funny that I wound up finishing my education, fully prepared to go out into the world of the visual arts in the same city as Turner Broadcasting, the very place that helped set the stage for the kind of content that influenced me as a child. Fate is really something, isn’t it?
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an artist isn’t easy at all, and the road isn’t just a struggle. It’s at times incomprehensible. Finding one’s self and how to properly express it visually is tough on its own, but I’d say the hardest part is finding the road to earning a living doing it. When classmates of mine in the past, along with myself, have asked pros what exactly we’re supposed to do post-graduation, we’re typically told that it’s about the connections we make and luck. While that may be true to an extent, it’s also no different from telling someone to go out into the wild and find a unicorn.
After I graduated with my bachelor’s in 2015, those two years before I went to get my master’s were very depressing. I had no direction and no idea what to do. Connections were made or at least attempted, and a lot of content was created, but it ultimately leads to nothing but seasonal retail jobs that didn’t play well and the crippling idea that everything I ever worked work was for nothing. After some time, I was able to snap out of it and find some direction on the path to my master’s, but during my studies, I never stopped contemplating a possible road map for myself, my fellow classmates and others who want to have a career in this field to follow.
Today, I’m a lot more seasoned and understand that while luck does play a part in one’s success in the industry, you increase your chances by knowing where to plant seeds that lead to the connections you can make with other amazing people. The foresight of where the market is going, what trends are on the rise, and knowing how to reach people by really understanding what they need, amongst other things, are all important to understand. Though it was hard, I’m thankful for my experience six years ago. It made me mentally stronger, more resilient, resourceful and gave me first-hand experience of what not to do post-graduation, so now I can pass that information on to others.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I love storytelling and every tool used to communicate it! Storyboarding scenes, flat out writing the story, designing the characters or all three at once or more, storytelling is my absolute passion and my specialty.
To me, a story is the beating heart of any production because that is going to be the element that elevates everyone else’s contributions to the project. Yes, the characters may look cool, an exciting moment may happen, the score might be amazing, and the production value may be spectacular, but if all of those elements don’t converge into a well-told story, none of it is going to matter.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is being of service to others. As artists, we have the power to create entire worlds, characters, and experiences that represent real things in people’s lives. Life is very hard, and a lot of the time, people feel like they’re trapped in total despair with no support. When they can look forward to seeing characters they admire go through their own struggles and thrive, it has the potential to make them feel like they can do it too. The work we create serves as pillars of support for others as they go through life.
When I was a small child and was bullied by others or generally just going through misfortunes, I always counted on Sonic the Hedgehog to be my support. His confidence and ability to smile no matter how bad things got always reminded me to believe in myself, and as an adult now, with the training and skills to create something like that for others, there’s truly no higher honor in this line of work, in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Email: doryannelsonwork@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/doryan_nelson
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doryannelson/
