To Become a Pokemon Master, One Must Train: Art Lessons and Anime Education

In the 90s and beginning of the 2000s - I trained and studied my ASS off.

As a kid in school, I read and watched and was a fan of and grew up on Indie comics like Bone and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac; Comic Strips like Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes; Imported Japanese untranslated manga magazines similar to Shonen Jump, that friends of my parents gave me, that I didn't know how to read by would constantly study the art of; Superheroes like Daredevil, Punisher, X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, and Battle Chasers by artists like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, and Joe Mad; Cable Television Animation like The Simpsons, 90s Disney Afternoon, early formative Nicktoons, Batman, Dexter's Laboratory, Doug, Beavis & Butt-Head, Spawn Animated

Then came the 2000s when I took actual formal and less formal art lessons. I studied under 2 main art teachers, who were both locally renowned by the local Central and South Florida community: Rima Jabbur and Phil Ferretti. The lessons were structured differently for each teacher.

Rima's lessons were with other students, in an art studio setting at a local community college and a community program that still operates currently in Florida, the community college  being Valencia, in Orlando, and the Crealde School of Art, in Winter Park.

Phil's lesson's were kind of like having a sports trainer, except it was 1 on 1 training with drawing, and learning about how the animation industry and community works. Phil is the Tony Robbins of animation, and is quite famous and admired for that fact. 

I was trained actively in 2 seperate style early on at the ages of 17 and 18. Rima trained her students in humble photo realism and every form of classical painting known to man, no Photoshop or pencils for the most part. She had her students study the Masters of Renaissance and classical fine art; artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Vermeer, among others of that variety. Very serious, very epic and painstaking. All the drawings I did in her classes were done on paper that is almost as tall as I am (and I'm 6 feet tall).

Phil was more laid back. He was always calm, cool, and collected, and never lost his temper easily. He was very patient and encouraging and forgiving. He was less harsh in his critiques like Rima was. Phil trained at the School of Visual Arts, and taught himself a classical Warner Brothers, Disney, and Hannah Barbera influenced style

Neither of those teachers is much of a fan of anime or manga, nor will they ever be. That's just how they are.  But they taught me things like textures, perspective, anatomy, foreshortening, composition. I was raised in the most traditional of styles. Then the internet and Deviant Art came along sometime after art school at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, which I attended briefly. I've never had a mentor or teacher in anime and manga, with the exception of recently when I've gotten to interact with pros in anime and manga a bit more. It was quite a shift I had to make, switching from traditional classical and stylized fine art and classical design to a more Asian based composition and style. Being trained in the fundamentals of classical status quo art on all levels other than comics, is kind of like training as a classical pianist in music, and then choosing to become a progressive metal musician, INSTEAD of a classical pianist, because it speaks to your sense of structure, and well learned sense of the fundamentals and complexity. They look different on the surface, but structurally they have  a similar emphasis on fundamentals and complexity, knowing rhythm and instruments and melody and tempo and whatnot. That's the  best way I can think to describe what  being trained by a professional America animator from the 90s and a Fine Arts Master, but redirecting my talents into anime and manga and indie comics and indie noir anime is like. I enjoy the challenge of it. Of switching gears and seeing if I can.