A Conversation with Background Artist/Illustrator Mira Prajapati, by James Scarborough

Background artist/illustrator Mira Prajapati would tell you that two- and three-dimensional animation revolves around a story. A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. With relatable characters, an engaging setting, and a challenge to overcome. You need technique, of course. (I call it visual poetry.) An understanding of structures (bodies; the natural world). Of weight and volume, balance and composition. Of the 12 Principles of Animation (including Anticipation, Squash and Stretch, and Staging). But for an animation to work, technique and production tools must serve the story.

In addition to the make-believe stories that these animators tell, they also have their own stories, their own careers. Careers with beginnings, middles, and, if not ends, then maturities. Their careers offer as much information, lessons, and insight as the stories they bring to life. That’s why it’s interesting to meet artists at the beginning of their careers. Artists like Mira. Before they become household names. Her story may not follow the same arc as her predecessors’. Her challenges, though, are the same. Namely, what is the best way to hone one’s narrative and technical skills and break into the business?

Like all illustrators, Mira has two stories to tell. One personal. One creative. From California State University, Fullerton, she got a BFA with a concentration in illustration. Her interest is in background painting and visual development for animation. Her work has been featured in Illustration West 57 and 58. She’s got a draft of a screenplay, The Mechanical Bird, that she hopes to polish and one day produce. Its preparatory sketches radiate with light. There’s so much to tell with light, she says. Take the same scene and change the lighting and you tell an entirely different story. Indeed, her pre-production work features light that creates atmospheres that ground scenes in reality while making them poetic if not rapturous. She makes fantasy come alive and, best yet, relatable.

JS. First things first. Why illustration and not painting?

MP. When I first started taking art seriously, I actually started with learning painting, and I loved it! I still love it and do some plein air painting, but as I studied further, I was very attracted to how illustration serves a specific purpose. For example, with a children’s book, the illustrations serve to tell the story further. I enjoy the challenge of finding solutions that a project presents and to me, illustration is like problem solving. With background art, I really enjoy imagining how to add realism and character to the environments and how to best design my backgrounds to aid the story. If I design a background of a bedroom, I ask myself questions like ‘how clean/messy is this person?, what are their interests?, what time period do they live in?’ Then I figure out ways I can show this in the background.

JS. What style and subject attract you the most? What mood do you want to convey? Why?

MP. I love to create flows and rhythm in my work using shapes. With painting I love to create an ethereal, elegant quality and play with transparencies and brushwork. Subject matter, I’m attracted to scenes with strong sense of light, nature, ancient history, creating a sense of magic, fantastical things like mythological creatures, mysterious forests, etc. I love using light to create a mood. What I find so interesting about lighting is you can take the same background and light it differently and it tells a completely different story.

JS. When did you realize that you wanted to illustrate stories? Was there a sudden aha moment?

MP. I enjoyed illustrating stories since I was very young. I remember after watching Snow White, I stapled some printer paper together into a book and drew a storybook version of the movie. But it didn’t occur to me that there are artists working on animated movies for a living until much later. I watched the movie Tangled in high school and was completely swept away by the movie with its visuals, story, music, lighting, and all the thought put into every set. It was that moment that I thought to myself, “I want to be a part of this.”

JS. Who and what were your early influences?

MP. Legend of Zelda, Disney movies specifically Tangled, Song of the Sea. Some artist influences were Pascal Campion, Zac Retz, Eli Oli. The Legend of Zelda games have been a huge influence throughout my life. I’ve been playing the games since I was very young and I love the world that its creators made and I see many elements from the game seep into my own work. I was very inspired by the visuals and lore of the latest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, and I was especially inspired by the ancient technology and robots in the game. I found myself drawing more mechanical and fantastical things after playing the game.

JS. Who are your favorite illustrators?

MP. Currently Elena and Oliva Ceballos (elioliart), Alphonse Mucha, Alar Iko, and Aurelien Predal are some of my favorite illustrators! I love the lighting and dreamlike quality in Elena and Olivia’s work and their use of color. I love Aurelien’s shape design and storytelling. With the backgrounds Alar Iko draws, I always get a sense of familiarity and nostalgia and I really like the way they draw architecture. And lastly, I love the flowing and elegant shapes in Mucha’s work.

JS. What are your favorite films?

MP. Klaus, Song of the Sea, Tangled, Nausicaä, and Princess Mononoke are some of my favorite movies. And some of my favorite TV shows are Demon Slayer, Full Metal Alchemist, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

JS. Your favorite character?

MP. Currently my favorite character is Rengoku from Demon Slayer. I love his optimism and encouraging attitude and how he is pure of heart.

JS. What story would you love to illustrate?

MP. It would be a dream to work on something with The Legend of Zelda! I love the story and world and the games have a special place in my heart.

JS. If you could snap your fingers to accelerate time, career-wise where would you be in five years and what would you be doing?

MP. In five years, I hope to be working as a background painter on a TV show and have some work as a visual development artist on an animated feature film. It is so interesting to me how lighting can completely shift the mood of a scene and I’d love to keep learning how to utilize lighting to tell a story. I’d also love to have my own online art print shop on the side!

JS. What’s your goal at this moment?

MP. Right now, I’m working to break into the animation industry or any related industries as a background painter/designer, color designer, or prop designer. I am also open to all other opportunities that can help me get started with making art into a career. I love to paint traditionally, so I want to make it a habit to plein air paint as much as possible.

JS. What’s your plan to reach that goal? Would you go back to school?

MP. Currently I’ve been taking classes from Concept Design Academy, Warrior Art Camp, and Fullerton College to work on my portfolio and continue to develop new skills. I have really enjoyed taking them and have learned so much! The last class I finished was Background Design for Animation Production Pipeline with Linda Chung and Nikita Chan and it was such a great experience. I learned in depth about designing backgrounds for animation and built up my portfolio for the area of animation I am interested in. Other than classes, I just finished a mentorship circle with Women in Animation and also learned so much from my mentor and peers!

JS. How would you characterize your career to date?

MP. I would describe it as requiring lots of perseverance. I’m the first in my family to pursue something in a creative field and it was a tough decision to study art in college. But from support from my teachers and eventually my parents also, I decided to switch my major and pursue art. Sometimes it felt like I was aiming in the dark because everything was new to both me and my parents. There were lots of ups and downs throughout pursuing illustration. But I had support from my teachers, mentors, and family and even got to do an internship at a theme park design company. Then once the pandemic hit, many internship programs were cancelled, and I wasn’t sure how to navigate this new environment. But I kept taking classes to continue to practice and work up my skills to be ready for the animation industry. And currently, I am trying to break into animation ideally as a background painter or designer but am open to any other opportunities to pursue art as a career. It has been difficult, but I haven’t given up yet!

JS. What’s your biggest thrill to date?

MP. The thing that has excited me the most so far in my career is the internship I did at The Hettema Group, a experiential/theme park design company. I really enjoyed being a part of the projects they were working on and I’m so grateful to all my mentors and the artists there for being so generous with their advice. I learned a lot about theme park design and concept design in general in such a short period of time and understood better the process of how rides/experiences are envisioned and designed.

JS. Biggest challenge?

MP. The biggest challenge so far has been grounding myself in what I want to focus on after the pandemic. I was in my last semester of college when the US went on lockdown and was just figuring out that I wanted to pursue background design and painting for animation. Internships were being cancelled and I was not sure what to do. I knew my portfolio needed more work to be able to break into the industry. So I started to take more classes after graduating to strengthen my skills and slowly learn what was needed for a background design/painting portfolio. Without the structure of classes in college, it has been a challenge working more independently and finding what I need to do to get to where I want.

JS. Any lessons learned so far?

MP. I’ve learned some things that have helped me the past few years. I started to reach out to more people working in the animation industry or other creative jobs and I learned the importance of asking questions. I found that I learned something from everyone I’ve spoken to because everyone has their own unique perspective and experiences. From speaking to others, it made it easier to figure out what I wanted to pursue within animation and other options outside animation that I can pursue. Another big lesson I learned was during the pandemic. After everything switched online, like many others I had very little human interaction and it was easy to spend days at my desk working on projects alone. Even though I was still taking classes, it was not the same as being there in person. The pandemic made me realize how important it is to have a community of artists so we can support each other. Having a group of friends with similar goals really helped with the isolation and motivated me to keep trying when I felt discouraged. Lastly, I am beginning to learn to acknowledge my accomplishments more. I feel many of us get caught up on where we are lacking because we want to break into animation and get to our dream career. It is a great thing to always strive to do better, but I learned it is also important to take step back and appreciate my progress, big or small.

JS. If you could be any movie or TV character, who would you be?

MP. I think I’d relate most to Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender. Katara is a strong, motherly, and supportive character in the series and has a clear moral compass. She is a constant support to Aang to help him realize his powers as the Avatar throughout the series. I see a lot of myself in her in that I am the motherly one in my group of friends, and I really enjoy supporting and helping people close to me.

JS. What now?

MP. I want to keep trying to break into the animation industry or find illustration work!