Perhaps the most recognizable work of this week’s digital artist Sean Charmatz would be his work as a storyboard artist and director for SpongeBob SquarePants. It’s true, SpongeBob is a really big deal, but SpongeBob was just the beginning of his career.
It all started when he was working as a tour guide and a phone service personnel at Nickelodeon in 2001. He worked at that position for 3 years before someone noticed his work and asked him if he wanted to work in the animation department. Barely able to keep in his excitement, he moved onto work with Spongebob for 6 years.
Since his work with SpongeBob he’s worked on several projects including both Disney and Dreamworks films. He even created a character for the Penguins of Madagascar. No, it wasn’t one of the penguins or any of the major characters… It was a cricket. (Look it up, it’s small, but it’s pretty hilarious!)
That is his professional work, but if you search for “Sean Charmatz” in google, you’ll likely see his personal work first. Basically, what you’ll find is a bunch of faces on stuff. Literally. It’s like he puts personalities into everything that he sees.
He puts fruit in strange or awkward positions and imagines how they would react and he draws faces that turn his imagination into reality. He even has a YouTube series called the “Secret World of Stuff” where he makes quick animations showing random things happening to stuff (like objects falling, pencils drawing, or bubbles popping). He uses universal reactions, so anyone can understand what is happening.
As far as his process goes, Sean says that he creates art in various ways. About 80% of the time he gets an idea and works to make it happen (this may mean waiting for the right moment to take a picture or sitting down at his desk to draw it out. The rest of the time he just creates on the fly, meaning he improvises his idea as it evolves.
His constant goal is to always be adding and evolving when he makes art. He asks himself: “How can I make what I’m doing better?” or “What haven’t I done yet?” So if you’ve learned anything from Sean Charmatz, just try stuff! Get an idea and do whatever it takes to make it happen.
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