Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Manor.
Hi Shannon, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been drawing and creating ever since I could remember. I was the kind of kid that just absorbed every piece of a thing that I got obsessed with–I had to watch it all the time, talk about it all the time, have all the toys and cover my room with it. Anything that had a world I could explore, I was obsessed. I still remember watching the VHS for Aladdin and there was a preview for their next movie, The Lion King. They showed the artists working on rough animation or doing sketch studies of a lion cub in the studio and it blew my mind. I was 5 or 6 at the time and it was the first time I realized, ‘Oh! people make this stuff!’ It’s what really opened the door for me to realize that drawing wasn’t just something that was fun; it was something that I could use to create and tell stories. After this, I just became a huge nerd. I was obsessed with reading stories, watching stories, creating my own stories, building those very elaborate Barbie plotlines that parents regret asking about, and all sorts of stuff. I watched a lot of movies, especially animated movies. I was very into anime and comics way before it was cool or totally normal. I was the kid who casually walked around middle school with that huge three-book collection of Lord of the Rings. My friends and I were always coming up with ideas that we treated like they were seasons of television while playing in the backyard. I would fill sketchbooks with comics; I was always drawings. It was pretty non-stop and obvious what I wanted to be when I grew up.
But things cost money when you grow up, so I did three years of regular college first–Southern Polytechnic for a year cause they were the only college to accept me. Even my counselor would ask me why I was there. Then I went to Kennesaw for two years and finally got to do more art. This was back in 2008, when there were way less options at KSU for the art department so I was really frustrated. I was over here drawing comics with my friends and just wishing I could afford to go anywhere that let me do more than Fine Arts or Graphic Design. I got some help from my parents and finally made my way over to the Art Institute of Atlanta. I know; it’s not SCAD. We can’t all afford SCAD. AIA didn’t have a sequential program, so I decided to return to another one of my loves and focus on Animation! It was all storytelling that involved putting pictures in sequential order. I learned that as much as I adore animation, I hate animating. It was a really heartbreaking moment for my inner child that was obsessed with watching behind-the-scenes footage where you’d watch people animate on paper. And here I was animating on paper and going WOW, they really did some good editing to make this look fun.
Luckily, going through school and learning the full process of making animation or movies helped me realize that what I really adored was pre-production. I didn’t have a problem drawing eighty things in a row as long as I didn’t have to make them move. I started to specialize in pre-production, especially character design. Something I knew from the very start that I loved. I was still making comics with my friends on the side! I was having a great time! One day, I got an email from Casey Willis. The producer on the TV show Archer. I distinctly remember I was at my boyfriend’s parents’ house. I was playing DragonAge. Okay, I was taking way too long in the character creation of DragonAge, I was nowhere near playing the game. In fact, I was on my computer looking at my Dungeons and Dragons character so I could model my DragonAge character after him. I checked my email and saw that email from Casey. He was telling me that he had reached out to AIA for upcoming graduates to hire for season 3 of Archer and they were impressed by my portfolio! Let me tell you. I was not graduating. I had like two more quarters left. I also did not have a portfolio.
To this day, I have no idea what they locked at and were impressed by. I called my counselor who I loved, He was so helpful. I annoyed him all the time as I was paying for my own loans so I made sure I was doing everything right. Turns out he just made a mistake–again, I was always talking to him about loans or my schedule. I do not blame him for thinking I was graduating. I asked him what I should do and he told me to email him back! Explain the mistake! See if they still let you apply! So I did all that and yeah, no problem! Go ahead and do the illustration test! They were kind enough to give me some extra time since I was still in classes. Which was great cause I still in the middle of my Adobe Illustrator class. My teachers were excited so they let me work on it in class! It was me and two other students and of the two, I was the one who got the job! I started on season 3 of Archer as an illustrator, I left during season 14 of Archer as Character Design Director and I am now Associate Art Director of Hit-Monkey season 2.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a smoother road than it could have been but there are always struggles. There’s the typical struggles of being a professional artist and no one believing you can make a living. Making a living but maybe not as much of a living as you deserve. No one understands what you do or really values what you do. People that leave mean reviews of your comics. Animation is also a male-dominated industry and almost every woman I know has some level of nonsense they’ve had to deal with within the industry. I started my job in 2011. I got my first promotion in 2019 after years of me asking for more responsibility. And when I did finally get that promotion, I got a lot of people telling me how surprised they were that I was doing a great job. I’d been in this job for almost ten years. I knew what I was doing, I had given no one any reason to doubt me. I know people probably didn’t mean anything by it but it felt very condescending. Like they didn’t expect anything from me. Luckily I am the kind of person that if I am talked to like I can’t do something, I am going to do that thing more to spite you. Within these last three years, I gotten two more promotions.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have a degree in media arts and animation with a focus in pre-production. I am a character designer, an illustrator and a sequential artist. I’m mostly a digital artist but I also love working with inks and markers when I have the time and energy. I am probably most well known for my 11 years of Archer, my webcomic that I started in 2018 and probably for being the person in the artist’s alley with a lot of Power Rangers art. I am most proud of my webcomic since it’s one of the few things I do that is %100 my own. I created it, I write it, I do every step of the art, I post it and manage it. It is completely in my control. I usually say that I don’t think it’s good but I know it’s at least mine. I had to put it on hiatus for over a year to prioritize my own health and learn some better work habits around it but I’m still very proud of where I am with it. It’s helped me learn a lot about myself as an artist and as a person. I’ve really had to confront and overcome a lot of challenges. Also as a professional artist, I am usually doing art for other people or for things I don’t own so it feels good to have at least one thing that has your fingerprints on it.
As far as what sets me apart from others, I honestly struggle with this. I hope it’s my ability to express emotions with my characters and my storytelling. I like playing with characters, giving them things to do and something to express. I know I can draw attractive people in nice clothes, I just hope who they come through with those choices.
I do love when people watch Archer and go, ‘Oh I know you did this character.’ It makes me feel like I design with a voice and I love when that comes through even with a product where I’m put through someone else’s filter. There have been a few Archer characters that are completely mine with little to no alterations and those are the more satisfying moments of the job.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the people and energy of Atlanta. There are a lot of different vibes around Atlanta that are always fun to explore. I’m a metalhead, so I used to go down the old Masquerade a lot and I miss it. A mosh pit in that old Hell just hits differently. Literally, I’ve always loved Little Five and the more creative spots. I’ve got a lot of friends who do street art and I’m a very annoying mom friend who points it out every time we drive past. I also love finding haunted spots in Atlanta. I’m the person that will get us killed in a horror movie and I am so sorry. If you tell me there’s a ghost, I’m finding the ghost. I am fairly introverted, so I rarely hit up a lot of our more exciting spots but I love that they’re here and please tell me every story you have about when you’ve been. My beef with our city is mostly parking and traffic, which I doubt I am alone in. I wish we were more walkable with a more robust public transportation system. There are so many spots I love in the city but after traffic and finding parking, my social battery is ruined and I want to go home.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shannonmanor.myportfolio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannonmanorart/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shannonmanor
