Exhibition Information:

• Artist: Janet Doan
• Exhibition: Magic In The Making
• Media: Animation, Illustration, Concept Art
• Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Marilyn Werby Gallery
• Website: https://jmd6633.wixsite.com/janetdoanart
• Instagram: @jananachips
• Email: janetdoan63@gmail.com
• Twitter: @jananachips

Janet Doan is an undergraduate student who is majoring in animation and a minor in web design. She is from the Illustration/Animation program at the CSULB School of Art. Her main interest is storytelling. In high school, she did web design that correlates to her style of art. Her work explores in animation and story boarding. As she grew up, her personal preferences changed so her characters changed as well.

The piece of art I selected is a storybook called “Of All The Horrible Things”. The storybook is on the smaller side, it is about the size of an ordinary book. The book contains lines and shapes that create the animal necromancers and other various animal characters. The book does contain colors and texture. The shading and different variety of colors gave the characters life within the comic. The book is cadenced because the book is formed like comic book panels. The storybook has vivid primary colors on the cover and inside the book is black and white. The book is staccato because of the color and style difference which show the details of the story. Finally, you have to have the book in your hands to experience the story. You can’t see the dialogue or the character interactions from a distance.

Her work explores, as she describes, animal necromancers. Her storyboard focuses on Ringal and her friends growing up. She didn’t know what was on her mind at the time, but she described her work as primarily storytelling. There was no underlining explanation for her work; she just wanted to create a story based on her own imagination. She wanted the freedom to make her own story about her own characters. She created everything on her own from character design to the story script.

I enjoyed reading her book. She was a little embarrassed about people reading the comic because she made it in the 7th grade. It had a different name and plot from the original, but the main premise was still there. I liked reading her story; I could tell she put a lot of passion into the story. I resonated with the book because I love to read a good story. The book reminded me of anime, Japanese film and television animation. My life experience resonated with her work because I remember in elementary school, I used to create little stories just like her. My pictures were never up to par like hers, but I enjoyed creating stories like her.