Follow Netflix’s Storyboard Artist, Alex Chiu

Storyboard artist and illustrator Alex Chiu has worked with the biggest names in the industry. Those include Marvel Animation, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network. Currently working as a storyboard artist for Netflix, Chiu’s style is very much inspired by manga.

“I always doodled as a kid according to my parents,” she recalled in an interview with Concept Art Empire. “But I didn’t really pick up the pencil and draw everyday with the intention of getting better in some shape or form until I was 10.” All that changed when she started reading manga. “I considered it when I was in high school and deciding where I wanted to go to school,” she said, “but I don’t think it was until sophomore or junior year of college when I narrowed down my career path to art.”

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Larvitar weighs 158.7 POUNDS!!!!!!!

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Her work is very much character-driven, with cartoon-like people being her favorite subjects. But she also very much enjoys drawing pigeons and lizards. “In high school a bit and in college, I was afraid to like anime,” she admits. “I thought I had to exclusively like Disney and that enjoying series like Naruto and One Piece was a bad thing. It took me a while to accept and understand that there are a lot of people that like both, and that’s totally fine!”

According to Chiu, when it comes to storyboarding, your drawing ability serves as a clarification vehicle for your storytelling skills. “I think typically you want to showcase a bit of variety,” she says. “Action, comedy, and drama. If you can hit all 3 of those beats in, let’s say, 1 large sequence and 1 or 2 additional shorter ones then that’s pretty good. But don’t forget to keep it short and sweet.”

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#inktober comic done !!! 😤

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