We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Omar Gomet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Omar, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Keeping my creativity alive is something I strive to do almost daily. It’s common to have artist block or moments where a drawing doesn’t seem to work, but I always challenge myself to push through those thoughts. It’s important to me to finish a piece during the sketching phase whether the characters are working or not because I feel that it’s always best to have some sort of a product compared to having nothing. When I’m not drawing, I’m usually thinking about different ways that I can add to my creativity. For example, I create prompts for myself that allow me to open my imagination for new characters and styles that help keep the creativity flowing. The prompts have allowed me to create a new character line up where I showcase such diverse characters and show off my ability as an artist to create pieces that fit my style but also form their own universe. To help enhance my motivation, I like to put on a soundtrack from my favorite movies while I’m drawing because it inspires me to step into that fictional world that was created for our enjoyment. The best part about being a creative in this industry is how you see the world, and I love to continuously challenge myself as an artist.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
As a kid, I would always fill up sketchbooks with characters from my favorite films that inspired me to open my imagination to take on art as a career. I went on to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where I graduated with my degree in Visual Development. Before I graduated, I was able to achieve my dream job with Marvel Studios animation which was something I didn’t imagine happening until later on in my career. During my time on this project, I was able to learn from a variety of artists that inspired me to get to this point. It was such an amazing experience that helped make me more confident in my ability as an artist. After experiencing this opportunity, I feel more comfortable being a character designer in this industry and look forward to adding more projects throughout my career.
The most important part of what I do is getting people to understand the character before seeing it on the screen. I like the audience to get a reaction from my art and make them feel that they know my characters. Knowing that someone can understand my characters through my designs shows me that I am on the right path in this industry.
In my career, I have been very fortunate enough to have such guidance from other artists to help me through my journey. With everything that I have had to overcome and learn, I wish to be like my mentors and help those that are branching out into this industry to inspire them to continue to pursue their dreams and what they can do to enhance their opportunity.
I recently became a production designer on a Pixar co-op short where I’ve stepped into a new phase in my career. This role holds more responsibility in overseeing a team of artists to bring out the director’s vision through animation. I’m extremely grateful to have the director trust me in creating a specific style for the short film and working amongst many talented people. Also, this year I was awarded the Rising Star Award at the Concept Art Association awards ceremony. This award is given to those that have worked less than five years in the industry and have been making a name for themselves. I was truly honored and grateful to have the opportunity to receive this award as well as share the stage with so many other artists that I have looked up to throughout these years.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Definitely drawing about 3-5 times a week. I had an instructor who would say that it was like exercising and in order to get stronger you have to continuously put in that “gym” time to get better. Eventually you’ll start to look at it more as a natural act that will help you once you step into your first job. Drawing from life is also very important as a designer, because in order to learn how to push characters into unique designs, you need to understand how real life proportions work. Lastly, make time to recover and refuel as well as make time for personal life because as an artist our imagination and creativity is super important and learning that balance between personal and professional life will make for a fruitful career.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I think it is very important to have a clear goal of what you want to do in this industry, but well rounded enough to give you new opportunities to achieve in different phases in your career. So when you’re working on your main goal, having side goals that are improving your weaknesses are very important. For example, when going to school, I studied Visual Development with an emphasis in Character Design. I chose this major as it covered the whole pipeline of the Animation Industry, having me learn things like props & environments that could enhance my character designs and really set forth the idea of whatever project I was creating. And later on when I feel like I’ve mastered Character Design I can move on to the next goal that could bring more opportunities in my career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meezart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omarsharif.creates
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omargomet
