Don Bluth on Being an Artist

Before I was involved in design, user experience, crowdsourcing, social media and the various other aspects of my professional life, there was animation. I’ve always been a seriously dedicated fan of cartooning and animation – the creativity, energy, innovative techniques and most importantly, how it made me feel creating it and the audience feel watching it. So when an animation legend like Don Bluth speaks, I listen.

At the recent CTN Animation Expo, Don spoke about animation, creativity and several other topics (via Xsheet). One part of his interview (shown below) provides some valuable insight into being an artist and loving what you do. It’s good advice for all the designers and creative professionals out there, myself included.

An artist is someone who is really sensitive to his feelings. Really sensitive to all the emotions that pass through your brain and your heart during the day. And an artist is a person who figures out how to express those to those around him. ~ Don Bluth

BTW – Dragon’s Lair, the Don Bluth hand-drawn, animated laserdisc arcade classic, is now available for the iPhone. It’s going right next to Space Ace, the follow-up Bluth classic, on my phone’s game screen.

Enjoy.