Full name
Laura-Susan Thomas
Title
Freelance illustration & commissions
Location
California Central Coast
Blurb
Whimsy, line & storytelling
Biography
My Resume and Artist statement
I love visual storytelling, and there are a lot of characters with backstories and personalities that live in my head and spill onto the page. I adore creating creatures, and work in multiple mediums, from traditional to digital. A lifelong love of all things sci-fi and fantasy fuels my inspiration in pop culture and imaginative art. Interested in playing also with the concept of overlapping traditional media, digital media, and technology and how that can become art or be shown in a gallery setting, with many outputs and ways of exploration.I currently work as a Freelance illustrator and as an Educator teaching college fine arts & digital media arts. I have been involved in several large-scale mural projects in my area.
I began my career in the screen printing industry designing, and from there, I spent over a decade as a Walt Disney Imagineer, lead designer, and illustrator on many of the parks from Paris, Animal Kingdom, and Tokyo Disney Seas, creating and world-building.
Skills-
I work in many mediums and cater the mediums to what the job speaks to for look and storytelling.
Traditional mediums-
Oils, Gauche, Acrylic, Pen & Ink, Mixed Media
Digital mediums
Adobe suite, Procreate, Rough Animator. Editing experience in Adobe Premier.
Fine Arts Faculty- Allan Hancock College- 2015 - present
As a member of the Fine Arts Faculty, I have taught classes in Digital Painting, Traditional Animation, and Art Appreciation at Allan Hancock Community College for the Fine Arts Department.Freelance Illustration - ongoing to Present
Freelance & Past Work-
Primarily children’s literature, magazine publications, Baby Bug Magazine, Los Angeles Times, YA book cover art, and an upcoming picture book-“A Bobcats Tale”Walt Disney Imagineering- 1987 - 1999 full time
1999- freelance contract work
Mural and large scale Public art works
Walt Disney Imagineering
Lead Designer- responsible for original thematic concept art through to fabrication and installation in the parks. Illustrator, themed graphics and large-scale props for Euro Disney, Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Disney Seas and various smaller projects in the parks for California and Florida.
Degree- University of Arizona 1987
After earning a BA in Fine Arts, emphasis in illustration
Society Memberships-
SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)
SLO Digital Arts Group. A group invested in exploring and creating experimental digital media for installation and gallery exhibits.