JC Little’s Journey from Filmmaking to Exploring Magical Realism
JC Little is a versatile artist from Montreal with over 35 years of experience in animation. Known online as The Animated Woman, JC has moved from creating animated films and commercials to exploring watercolor painting. In this interview, JC Little shares her journey from her early days in animation to her current love for painting, focusing on magical realism. JC talks about her creative process, the stories behind her art, and what inspires her. We learn about her way of telling stories through her art and the emotions she puts into each piece. JC’s story is of constant growth and passion, inspiring anyone who loves art and creativity.
Montreal-based Canadian artist JC Little is an award-winning filmmaker, visual storyteller, and painter with an animation industry career spanning over 35 years. JC has worked as an animator, producer, creator, and director on TV commercials, animated series, movies, and independent short films. She is best known online as The Animated Woman, a collection of illustrated stories and films with a distinct visual style. A life-long artist, JC is currently immersed in her work painting in watercolours: pleinair practice, pet portraits, birds, and landscapes, and she is especially interested in magical realism.
1. JC Little, your career has varied from animation to painting. What made you decide to move from animation to watercolor painting?
My first real taste of watercolours was as an 11-year-old child. We lived in Hong Kong for two years, and my parents arranged for Chinese Brush Painting lessons (I am one quarter Chinese). That continued for six years and fostered a love of the medium and brush technique and a fascination for colour dispersion on paper. So, I think it’s safe to say I was already primed with a base attachment to watercolours even though I spent decades working in the animation industry. That industry is not what I would call gentle. I started as an inbetweener and became a producer and, finally, director. I witnessed the digital revolution first and taught myself how to use different software professionally and for personal projects. Digital art can tend towards minutia, though, and after many years of “zooming in”, I suddenly felt an urge to zoom out. After working digitally for so long and being able to adjust anything quickly, it was terrifying at first to go back to the unpredictable magic of watercolors. We can control very little in this medium, so it represented a kind of freedom for me. I let go of the control in favor of merely “influencing” the direction of the pigments. I fell in love with watercolours all over again.
By reducing a visual narrative to its simplest form, even stick figures might become a poetic force, which led me to produce a collection of illustrated stories and short films as The Animated Woman.
JC Little
2. You’ve done a lot in animation over the years. How has working as an animator and filmmaker influenced your current watercolor paintings?
Much of my work in the animation industry was creating ads for television. Those thirty-second spots are typically for sugary products and can be pretty pacey. The goal was always to tell a story and show off a product with high-quality animation with as small a budget as possible, usually in a concise schedule. The story part was the most fun and rewarding, and I learned a lot from some of the directors I was blessed to work with: the Oscar-winning Alexandre Petrov and the Oscar-nominated Cordell Barker. Consequently, the importance of “story” was drummed into my creative thinking. I look for stories of human experience and observation everywhere and strive to imbue them into all my artistic processes, whether my animated short films, illustrated stories, or paintings.
3. The Animated Woman is a unique collection of stories and films. How did you develop the idea for this project, and what do you love most about sharing these stories with people?
Once I started moving away from the animation industry, I had trouble expressing my creative ideas. They seemed to be bursting forth all the time, and without the demands of a sometimes 90-hour work week, I had to find an outlet for these ideas. My solution was to create comics and films in a simple, effective, and fast production style. I did not want to be held back by having to serve up labour-intensive visuals. What resulted was what I like to call “enhanced stick figures.” I designed these to showcase many human foibles and emotions, helpful in illustrating the stories I wanted to tell. Much of my journey as The Animated Woman was on my blog, where I posted the stories and films. I primarily enjoyed creating these stories for myself but sharing them with others through my blog was extremely rewarding. When my stories resonated with others, it was especially wonderful. And remember, just because it looks like a cartoon, does not necessarily mean the story will be funny. Some of these stories are quite tender.
4. You’re really into magical realism. What attracts you to this style, and how do you bring magical realism into your watercolour art?
I do love magical realism! I didn’t even know what that term was until an artist friend told me that’s what I was doing with my work. So, it would be disingenuous to say I’m attracted to the style. Instead, it’s coming out of me based on my love of story. I don’t want to be hindered by reality – why would I limit myself in that way after being immersed in animation for so long? I want to use watercolours to poke and prod at the human condition, whether it is our deep love of our dogs, our creeping mortality, or the celebration of our diversity. Even a carefully observed painting of a bird has a story: who is watching who? The viewer, the artist or the bird? The medium lends itself beautifully to magical realism, particularly the granulating pigments; I’m continually captivated by how they flow and settle into the grain of the papers, adding depth and texture.
I’m drawn to magical realism, and classical images with a twist, combined with wordplay and emotional depth. I’m pushing the medium of watercolour to carry my stories with contrasting layers of granulation and transparency.
JC Little
5. Your artist statement talks about capturing moments like a bird being aware of being watched or a steer looking at a balloon. How do you pick these subjects, and what do you hope people feel when they see these scenes?
It’s not a matter of me picking the subjects – they like me! I mentioned earlier that my creative brain is overactive and constantly coming up with ideas. Sometimes, they assault me as I’m trying to sleep or have a bath so that it can be super annoying! I’m just thinking about how the world is crooked, so I want to fix it, which gives me ideas. Quite a few of my magical realism concepts came from using wordplay, like with Inktober. The ideas shape my head, and I throw them down in my sketchbook, usually as straightforward stick figures or ink drawings. Later, I developed some of these into complete paintings. I am terrified that I will not finish all the ones I want to during my lifetime. I always hope that people will at least feel what I feel when I work on a painting: a sense of wonder, hope, and the medium’s magic.
6. What advice would you give other women who want to make their mark in art, especially animation and painting?
Navigating the world as a woman artist, particularly in the animation world, was always challenging. It’s essential to know your worth as an artist, whether commercial or personal and push to be taken seriously. I found that aligning myself with other women and women-based projects and companies has been particularly empowering. Make your art and film; if you want to make your mark, be brave and show it to the world.
JC Little’s shift from animation to watercolor painting shows her versatility and love for storytelling. Whether through her simple but powerful illustrations, such as The Animated Woman, or her detailed watercolor paintings, she captures moments and emotions that deeply resonate with her audience. JC’s exploration of magical realism and her storytelling through art inspires us to see the world with wonder and creativity. To learn more about JC Little, click the following links to visit her profile.
