Artist: Janet Doan
Exhibition: Magic in the Making
Media: Animation
Gallery: LBSU School of Art. Marilyn Werby Gallery
Website: N/A
Instagram & Twitter: Jananachips
Janet Doan is a student in the School of Art’s Illustration/Animation program. She is currently and undergraduate student and her goal is to one day work in a studio to produce a fantasy show. The exhibition showcases a show that Janet and her team are working on. On this team, Janet is the storyteller and animator, which means she gets to control what her art does. One of the biggest things she likes to do is tell stories, and her animation is what brings stories to life which is why she choose animation as her major. She says one of the biggest genres she’s into is fantasy because growing up she would watch a lot of cartoons and read comics.
In her artwork, you can see that it is very cartoon-like. All the people drawn have round faces which makes them seem less threatening and friendlier. The colors aren’t very bright and doesn’t pop out too much. The muted pastel colors make the story seem more mellow and calming. The main character, Ringal, is drawn to be more colorful to portray her upbeat personality, but not too bright that it overpowers the rest of the show. There’s very little jagged lines or angles in the people which makes them not as intimidating. Overall, I feel that the nature of the animations as a whole make the art more attractive to the viewer, which is the point of an animation show – to receive views.
One of the big things Janet said she wanted to do was make a light and cute story about necromancy. She has also been fascinated by magic and fantasy growing up. One of the big things though is that necromancy is a very dark topic since it involves reviving the dead. She wanted to make it seem more normal. It’s normalizing something that, in another setting, might not be accepted. One thing that stood out to me was that a large part of her childhood was the movie/book series Harry Potter. The idea behind magic and being a part of another world helped her through her life, so I feel that she wants to do the same with future generations with her work. So, people who are dealing with deaths in their life who happen to stumble upon Janet’s work will greatly appreciate her normalizing the ideas behind death.
Her art stood out to me mostly because I grew up with similar styles of art, and it made me feel really nostalgic. I just turned 18 recently, which means I’m starting the whole “adult” thing, but I don’t really want to let go the things I enjoyed as a kid, and her art reminded me of those things. I was also really into Harry Potter and hearing her inspirations behind her animations made the pieces a little more meaningful to me. After having to draw cups, trees, and people, I have a lot of respect for her art because she can actually draw proportions that look correct. Her art style is pleasing to the eye and is very welcoming. It makes me want more at the end of the day,
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