Artists' Master Series: Perspective & Depth

Mike Hernandez is a plein-air painter skilled in gouache, oil, and acrylic. He studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and has worked as a Production Designer and Art Director, as well as a Concept Artist at Dreamworks Animation. He worked on such films as Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Turbo, and many more. He is a member of a limited group of the finest painters in the US, called PAPA (Plein-Air Painters of America), as well as a much sought-after workshop instructor. He has 98K followers on Instagram.

Devin Elle Kurtz is a digital illustrator, visual development artist, and background painter working in Photoshop CC. Her focus is magical scenes that combine fantasy elements with environments that feel visceral and real. She has worked in the animation industry as a background painter/designer and visual development artist since 2017. She was the lead background painter on “Disenchantment” at Rough Draft Studios from 2019-2021. She has illustrated for a number of publications including Dark Horse (Beasts of the Four Nations), HarperCollins (Breda’s Island, How to Heal a Gryphon), and Simon and Schuster (Escape from Atlantis series). Other past clients include Netflix, Disney, and SyFy. She has a huge and dedicated fanbase, with over 864K followers on Instagram.

Nathan Fowkes is a working animation artist with screen credit on 12 feature films. He is also a renowned teacher of drawing, painting, colour, and design. His notable clients include DreamWorks, Disney, Blue Sky Studios, Paramount Animation, and many others. Nathan is also author of the bestselling How to Draw Portraits in Charcoal and How to Paint Landscapes in Watercolor and Gouache. He has over 104K followers on X (previously known as Twitter), and over 128K followers on Instagram.

Orenji is an animation background artist from Australia, with over 120K followers on Instagram. He is also very popular on the streaming site, Twitch, where fans tune in to watch him create art live.