Aol Artists

Abbi Jacobson, Kristen Campbell and Jon Burgerman

AOL Artists is dedicated to creativity and we are supporting the artistic community by actively commissioning artists from around the world to create the visual identity behind our brand. We are showcasing their work globally and our artist community is growing daily as we continue to discover talented individuals to work with. AOLArtists.com was launched in May 2010 to showcase the incredible talent that is behind our brand. We have worked with over 80 artists and commissioned over 200 pieces of art as canvases to be featured attached to our brand identity. With the AOL Artists program, we are empowering artists, creativity and innovation. We invite you to engage in our Artist community at aolartists.com

Kyle Macnaughton

Kyle Macnaughton grew up in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated from Sheridan College’s Classical Animation Program. Since then, he has worked for various studios including Disney and Blue Sky Studios. Since joining Blue Sky in 2005, his credits include IA2, Horton Hears a Who, Rio, IA4, Leafmen and other projects in development. He is currently working as a visual development artist and resides in New York with his lovely wife, Anaolga, and their daughter, Maya.

Ronnie del Carmen

"Nina asleep inside Bilibin House", Watercolor, 7.5" x 7.5"

"I work in Animation. I stumbled into it.  

Been here for two decades and no-one's the wiser."

 

At Pixar Animation Studios: Director/Writer of Dug's Special Mission, Story Supervisor on UP, Story Supervisor on Finding Nemo, Story on Ratatouille and Wall-e, Production Design in One Man Band, pulled ears off a gundark.

http://ronniedelcarmen.blogspot.com

Daniel López Muñoz

"Espacio Sideral"China Ink, Acrylic,10x10

Daniel López Muñoz is a Spanish-Colombian designer currently developing his career at Pixar. López Muñoz began working at Pixar Animation Studios in January 2006, and has participated especially in character design since such films as "Up". Where he also helped design the lighting of several sequences of the film. Most notably the "Married Life" montage sequence.Natural of the Andalusian province of Córdoba, López Muñoz's family migrated to his father's land,  Colombia, in the early 80's. From there he moved to Chicago to study Film at Columbia College. Before working at Pixar, he joined the staff of Blue Sky Studios, where he was a member of the team that created "Ice Age" and "Robots" for Fox. Consummate devotee of Japanese animation since childhood. In particular the films of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, which inspired him to conduct his professional life. He has participated in art projects connecting world artists by the leadership of Daisuke Tsutsumi. "Out of Picture" book anthology and "Sketchtravel" International Artist junction.

He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay, near Pixar Animation headquarters.


Credits:Brave, La Luna, Up, Ice Age 2, Robots, Sketchtravel, Out of Picture Anthology

Ian Burkard

 

Ian Burkard attended the Ringling College of Art and Design, and graduated with honors in 2004.  After sitting in on a figure painting session in 2003, he fell in love with the process, and has been painting ever since.  Ian has been a full-time modeler at Blue Sky Studios for over six years, and is currently the character modeling lead for an upcoming production.
 

Roque Ballesteros

 

Roque Ballesteros is an award-winning director and co-founder of Bay Area animation studio, Ghostbot. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and has worked with a variety of clients including Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Leap Frog, Hallmark, and Esurance. Roque has had original artwork shown at Double Punch, STUDIO Gallery, and recently a two-man show at the historic 63 Bluxome Street Gallery. 

"Home Coming" Cel Vinyl Acrylic 10" x 10"
by Roque Ballesteros
Co-Founder/Director
Ghostbot
www.ghostbot.com
San Francisco

Patrick Awa

 "Innocent When You Dream" ,Acrylic on Balsa wood,10" x 10"

Patrick Awa Born in Santa Monica and raised in Tokyo, Patrick moved back to California in 2001 and has worked as a character/concept designer for major movies such as "Valiant" (Walt Disney Pictures) and "9" (Focus Features), as well as "Legend of the Guardians" (Warner Bros). Patrick is currently designing characters for " TRON: Uprising " for Disney Television.

www.patrickawa.net

Véronique Joffre

Véronique Joffre graduated from Ecole Estienne in Paris and Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, and started her career as an illustrator three years ago. Currently working on commisioned illustrations for french children’s book publishers, some of her published works include La grande légende de Rama et Sita (Rue du Monde), L'arbre ami du bûcheron (Flammarion) and Ninu et la Mère des vents (Syros). But Veronique's true dream is to write her own stories to accompany her pictures! Besides a recent commission from the Puppet Museum of Lyon, and Pocko People Agency, Veronique’s artwork has been included in the Totoro Forest Project, Gallery Nucleus, Brownstones to Red dirt Project as well as the highly regarded Sketchtravel project. With her collages Veronique doesn’t like to know where she’s going at first, prefering to be surprised by chance, letting shapes and colors create her stories almost on their own!

Tim Bowers

Bowers earned his BFA degree from the Columbus College of Art & Design (Ohio).  He began his career in advertising and editorial illustration, working with clients including Proctor & Gamble, Wendy’s and Owens-Corning.  He was recruited by Hallmark and worked five years at their headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri as a greeting card artist, artist supervisor and as an original member of the company’s humor group, Shoebox Greetings.  Bowers’ first children’s book illustrations were published in 1986. Since then, he has illustrated over 30 additional titles.

For the past 25 years, Bowers has been creating artwork primarily for the children’s book market and the social expression industry. Bowers characters have been licensed for various products including, cookie and popcorn tins, Christmas ornaments, throws/blankets, needlecraft kits, kitchen products, gift bags, puzzles, rubber stamps, and resin figurines.

In addition to his studio schedule, Bowers often visits elementary schools to promote literacy and to share his experience as an illustrator of children’s books.  He has been an adjunct instructor at the Columbus College of Art & Design and a presenter at author/illustrator conferences, covering such subjects as: humor in illustration, self promotion and preparing to enter the book illustration market.  Bowers lives with his wife in Granville, Ohio.  They have three daughters and a son.

His book illustration has received recognition including:
•     Chicago Book Clinic- Honor Book
•    Child Magazine- Top Pick selection
•     Children’s Choice Award
•     Child Magazine- Best Children’s Book Award
•     Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Book award
•      Bank Street College Best Book of the year
•    Chicago Public Library’s “Best of the Best” list
•       Junior Library Guild selections

Tim Bowers’ illustrations have also been included in:
•    Society of Illustrator’s Annual Art Exhibition
•       S.I. Humor Exhibition
•       The Original Art Exhibition- Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book
    Illustration (Master Eagle Gallery, NY)
•    Spectrum 17: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art
•     Mazza Museum- International Art from Picture Books

www.timbowers.com

Lee White

Lee began his illustration career 8 years ago after graduating with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. His clients include United Airlines, National Geographic, Apple, Simon and Schuster Publishing, Disney, Viking Publishing, Bent Image Lab, Laika Animation Studios.  Lee's currently illustrating my 10th children's book for Viking due out in the spring of 2011.

Enrico Casarosa

Enrico Casarosa has been in the animation industry for more than ten years, drawing storyboards that fit into large animated feature films. Currently a story artist at Pixar Animation Studios Enrico continues his quest to create more hours in the day by drawing alternate realities. Sooner or later his experiments will break through and we’ll all have to buy new watches. Meantime he just published an art book “3 trees make a forest” with partners in crime Ronnie del Carmen and Tadahiro Uesugi. Other times he pursues his muse by traveling with his watercolors and sketchbooks. Enrico is the founder of “SketchCrawl”, a world wide drawing marathon event that gathers artists from all around the globe.


http://enricocasarosa.com

Alexandra Boiger

Alexandra Boiger has illustrated several award-winning picture and chapter books. She started her career in feature animation, where she worked for such studios as Warner Bros. UK and Dreamworks Animation. Originally from Munich, Germany she now lives in California with her husband and daughter.

"The idea for my panel came simply from its title. Luftschloesser can be translated into air castles. I thought of what  the dream of a home feels like. I thought of freedom, air and a friend or family to pull the strings."

http://www.alexandraboiger.com/

James Chiang

James Chiang has been an animator since 1999. After his studies at Sheridan College and Walt Disney Feature Animation, he went on to work for Lucas Learning, Lucas Arts, Blue Sky Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Apart from his work on feature films, his art can also be seen in his contributions to the "Totoro Forest Project", and "Brownstones to Red Dirt" project.  He is also a teacher and has lectured on the topic of art and animation internationally in cities such Toronto, New York, Taiwan and Singapore. James currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia,  where he teaches and freelances while working on a long time dream, developing a project of his own. 
http://jcsketchblog.blogspot.com/

Trip Park

 

Trip Park was drawn to advertising long before he illustrated. He first worked as an Art Director with ad agencies Leo Burnett, and Saatchi & Saatchi, but working with and hiring all his favorite illustrators as an Art Director gave him an intoxicating look into their side of the business. He stumbled into illustrating a number of children's books and just kept falling for them, such as the 16-book series, Rotten School, written by R. L. Stine. He has helped develop characters for Blue Sky Studios for some features in development, and helped create the recent animated McDonald's campaign as an art director once again with Leo Burnett. His blog can be seen at trippark.blogspot.com.

Noah Klocek

Noah Klocek was born in Neptune New Jersey to artist parents who encouraged him to draw but discouraged him from pursuing a career in the arts. Thankfully the discouragement didn’t work and after trying every thing from wildlife biology to paramedic training Noah decided to go to school at San Jose State and pursue a career in art. Near the end of school Noah had the opportunity to apprentice as a matte painter ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) where he worked on T3, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Hulk. Following a year at ILM, Noah spent several years as a Matte Painter at PDI/Dreamworks on Shrek 2 and Madagascar. In search of new challenges, Noah was lucky enough to find a place as an Art Director at Pixar Animation Studios. Noah lives in Berkeley with is amazing wife and two kids.

Studio: Pixar Animation Studio

Title: Art Director

Credits: Shrek 2, Madagascar, Wall-e, Up, Partly Cloudy (short).

http://imageblock.blogspot.com/

Nicole Gustafsson

Nicole grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska where much of her youth was spent playing in the park across the street from her family home. These outdoor adventures helped form Nicole's love of nature and fueled her imagination. Nicole currently works as an illustrator and fine artist exhibiting in galleries and exhibitions throughout Nebraska and California

http://www.nimasprout.com/

Mattias Adolfsson

Mattias Adolfsson lives with his wife and two children in Sigtuna outside of Stockholm, Sweden. Mattias has an Masters of fine arts in graphic design( at HDK , school of arts and crafts Gothenburg). Have been a professional 3d artist since 1995 when he left school making first animations for music videos and film then involved in making computer games. Restarted his drawing when starting a sketch blog (on line web log) in 2006, which since then has been one of the most visited sketchblogs in the world and has given him freelance work from all over the world. Has also started to exhibit his work, the last one being a group exhibit in Melbourne Australia. 

Is currently working on a childrens book

http://www.mattiasadolfsson.se/

Jason Sadler

Trained as an industrial designer and a student of animation at Sheridan College, Jason's professional career began as a designer and animator on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? for Broderbund Software. In 2000 he joined Mondo Media's animation team where he designed and directed the award winning Heavy Metal Guy series, the Happy Tree Friends special short Ski Patrol and animated many of the regular episodes. In 2005 Jason joined the visual development department at Blue Sky Studios to design characters and environments on Horton Hears a Who! and is currently working on the studio's next feature Rio. In addition to his many animation-related projects, Jason has designed educational toys for Leapfrog Enterprises, contributed artwork to the national trust Totoro Forest Foundation, and illustrated a story for Random House’s Out of Picture book series. Jason's art has also exhibited in both the Society of Illustrators' 2009 Sequential Art Exhibition in New York and the Galerie Arludik in Paris.

Mike Boldt

From Jigsaw puzzles to pop-up books, iPhone apps to toy design, Mike Boldt has been illustrating almost exclusively for children for the past 11 years.  Last year he completed a lifelong dream and published his first picture book that he both wrote and illustrated (The Gophers in Farmer Burrows' Field).  Mike is now continuing his love for storytelling and children's illustration in several other books and graphic novels that he is developing and works as a freelance illustrator.

Mike lives where the sky is bigger, just outside Edmonton Alberta, with his beautiful family.

www.boldtmanstudios.com

Ric Sluiter

Art Director Ric Sluiter, another major artist in the animation world. His amazing work as a background artist for Disney can be seen on movies such as The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Prince and the Pauper, to name only a few. Ric then went on to art direct both Mulan and Lilo & Stich.  He was recognized with an Annie Award nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement For Production Design for Lilo and Stich. Ric has lectured at Siggraph and his artwork is featured in many films' "Art of" books. Currently at Blue Sky Studios, Ric is a Color Designer for one of their upcoming films.