The Whimsical World of Lauren Brown

Daylight streamed by means of the home windows of the sunroom, illuminating the characters that progressively emerged on the pages of Lauren Brown’s sketchbook. Curled up in her boho egg seat Brown was sketching whereas her cats meandered out and in of the room. 

Brown is an artist whose works supply glimpses into whimsical worlds the place nature and magic are one. That includes Black feminine characters who exude energy and dynamic mysticism, Brown’s artwork can transport you to far-off lands. “I don’t see many faces that seem like mine within the fantasy illustration house,” defined Brown. Right now, she is an Emmy-award successful Artwork Director, illustrator, podcaster, and outspoken advocate for BIPOC within the fantasy and gaming business.  

“I received my begin drawing on the partitions, on my sister’s homework… drawing all over the place I may,” Brown stated. “The vandalism wasn’t inspired however the drawing itself undoubtedly was.”  Her father was a dressmaker and from an early age Brown benefited from having an inventive mother or father. He impressed and educated his younger daughter, instructing her how to attract and enrolling her in artwork and animation courses at round eight years previous. It was at this level that she actually fell in love with animation and storytelling by means of artwork which set her on a path to a celebrated inventive profession. 

Following highschool, Brown attended Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design (SCAD) in Savannah the place she started engaged on pupil movies and realized extra in regards to the animation business. Past animation, she found a love for character design and format artwork. She was employed at Floyd County Productions and labored on reveals like Archer, At all times Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, and Unsupervised, amongst others. She had a chance to be taught in regards to the animation pipeline and more and more discovered herself pulled towards management roles. “I simply needed to be an artist, however I used to be requested to direct for my division with background artwork.” Regardless of preliminary hesitations, she grew to become background director of a brief for The League and skilled the joys of seeing her imaginative and prescient come to life. 

Brown finally moved to Austin, Texas the place she labored as a Senior Environmental Artist at EA Cell and later Affiliate Artwork Director at Zynga the place she labored on video games like Phrases With Associates 2.  It was throughout her time in Austin that she grew to become extra excited by advocacy work. “A few of these studios have upwards of 600 individuals and I wouldn’t see any black feminine recreation devs,” Brown recalled. In response, she fashioned an advocacy group that toured excessive colleges and faculties to speak about BIPOC in animation and gaming. “It might set up that we belong right here, and make it possible for video games have characters represented appropriately in all the pieces from hair texture to pores and skin tone.”

Not too long ago Brown returned to Atlanta searching for group and alternatives throughout the native fantasy and animation business. Along with a task as Artwork Director for Amazon Glow, she is in search of alternatives to steer, direct, and develop her private work. She play with the intersection of nature and philosophy. Her ‘Avant Backyard’ assortment options queens that characterize totally different gardens, every with a corresponding life philosophy. 

“We have now separated ourselves from nature, however I need to use my artwork to tie again to nature. We’re not to this point separated from it as individuals suppose we’re.” Brown hopes to rework these concepts right into a videogame that may train life classes in a world the place feelings change into manifest and achieve sentience. 

“I’m beginning to gear myself in direction of establishing my artwork as its personal enterprise and actually exploring the worlds that I’ve been interested by for 10, 15, 20 years and truly making these worlds a actuality. I ultimately need to make some artwork books, coloring books, a novel perhaps. I’ve plenty of plans for the long run and I need to begin to discover these concepts.” 

Brown co-hosts Painted In Color, a podcast devoted to amplifying underrepresented voices within the arts. Be taught extra about Lauren Brown and her artwork by visiting her website.