#020 — Léa Pinto

Hello Léa! It’s so cool to have you here on our Artist Spotlight. Could you please introduce yourself?

Ok ok I'm not very good at introductions, my brain finds it too formal, ​​but here we go ahah! The short intro would be: I'm a Vis Dev - Concept Artist/Background Painter working for the film and video game industries! 

I work and have worked for clients such as Sony Pictures Animation, Disney, Netflix, HBOMAX, Pinkman TV, Riot Games, Sony IMS, Playstation and more... 😊

That’s an incredible resume! If we look at a project such as Jibaro in Love, Death + Robots, there is an incredible sense of atmosphere and realism in your paintings. 

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What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced while working on it?

First, thank you so much!! 🥹🥰

Well, this project was one of my first as a professional artist, before that I had worked for one animated film broadcasted on Netflix and I had done some concepts for the video game Dislyte.

Working on a project like Love, Death + Robots was one of my dreams. 

When I decided to delete my portfolio and start a new one from scratch, I aimed to work with the Pinkman TV team! So when I was contacted, I can't tell you how panicked I was. I even thought it was a mistake for a moment, ahah! 

And that's where I can really answer the question “what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced while working on it?”

I think one of my biggest challenges has been myself. I had to fight my imposter symptom, I was facing artists much more experienced than me, so I had to face my shortcomings, and overcome them while sending quality paintings. Well, it was also the first time in my life that I painted forests, ahaha!

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Oh wow, you jumped straight into the deep end! That must’ve been a great learning curve. 

When working on these productions, where animation and visual effects will be integrated into your artwork, layers and organisation must be so important!

How do you approach anticipating the future needs of production in your paintings?

Yes it is! Communication is the key in my opinion, if you have any doubts, there is something to clarify! I always do my best to outline in advance what my images will be used for, and thanks to this I can anticipate the needs of the team, organize my layers, create texture flats, etc 😊

Because of or thanks to my private life experiences, I am someone who is very (even too much ahah) organized by default, I think that helps too ahah 😊

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You recently opened Atelier Usagi. A visual development, art direction and production design studio. First of all, congratulations! 

I’m incredibly excited for the journey that lies ahead for you and Pierre-Alexandre! 

Do your bunnies keep you company during work? And maybe a difficult question, but what’s Bulma and Bob’s opinion on your work? 

Waaaa thank you so much!!🐰

Ok I'll send you an image that answers your question ahaha! 

I think they love our work from the moment we make vegetable offerings…

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Awhh! They’re the cutest! Thank you for sharing :) 

Your work has an incredible balance of realism and abstraction. I’d say you manage to capture the pure essence of each environment’s feeling without giving us an exact replica. 

But in that abstraction of realism, one could accidentally “destroy” the natural beauty of said scene. Where do you find beauty in the stylisation of each object? 

I understand! Well, when I look around me, I don't really see objects to be honest, I see shapes, functions, but not objects strictly speaking (I don't know if it's very clear ahah).

I sincerely believe that beauty can be found in absolutely any subject, the important thing is how we see it, understand it, digest it and interpret it! 😊

And of course almost nothing can be called done the first pass, you have to experiment in order to find the right balance, painting is like cooking! 👩🏼‍🍳

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What’s your relationship with imperfection in your work?

You got me ahaha! "Perfection" does not exist because it is very subjective and varies from one individual to another! But I have big problems with perfectionism, I need my paintings to be "perfect" in my eyes. Spoiler, I never get there ahah! 

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Hahah yeah… In that same train of thought, how often do your ideas surprise you as you make them real?

Hmmm I'm not really surprised by the ideas I have, I don’t really think about “my ideas”, on the other hand I am sometimes surprised to have a click on a subject that has blocked me for a moment!

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I see, that’s always a great feeling! The environments you create, both nature and urban, immediately transport the observer to that world. 

So this leads me to wonder, when creating environment paintings, is photography part of your process? Do you take photographs yourself as reference? 

Yes yes yes and yes ahah! I love taking pictures, I take them almost every day, sometimes just walking without even looking at what I'm taking a picture of ahah! 

It creates memories for me, it allows me to have a huge and very personal reference base 😊

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Ahh that’s so nice to hear! :) 

You’ve painted claustrophobic worlds like Jibaro, nostalgic ones like Apollo 10 ½, and even frightening ones like The Hunt. 

What creates those feelings? The mise-en-scène, the techniques, or the subject matter itself?

In my opinion, it's a mix of all of that! The storytelling, the subjects covered, the compositions, the colors etc, it's really a whole!

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When do you know when something is right? Do you have that special feeling when something just clicks? 

By experimenting! I compare, I test! 

I do several tests to be able to compare them and say to myself "okay this one is better! It meets expectations, it checks all the boxes" ✅

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Interesting to know you do so much testing! When it comes to continuously improving ourselves as artists, do you feel inspired and pushed forward by your peers in the industry? 

Well, yes and no! I think we have to be able to compare ourselves and motivate ourselves in the right way, according to who we are and our personal experiences! 

When I was younger, I tended to look too much at what others were doing around me, and it ended up affecting my self-confidence and my paintings, because I was too inspired by others and not enough by my own experiences! I spent too much time scrolling on Artstation when I was a student ahaha!

Today I have the chance to work alongside my husband Pierre-Alexandre every day, and we have become our own source of motivation! Our strengths and weaknesses are very different, so this helps us a lot 🥰

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That’s so important! :) So good that you two can compliment each other so well!

How do you ensure that you are pushing yourself creatively from one project to the next?

Ahah well, I see each of my projects, each of my tasks as a personal painting! 

I also tend to accept projects outside of my comfort zone to help me experiment and improve! 😊

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How do you imagine your work will evolve over the next five years?

I don't even know what I'm going to eat tomorrow ahaha! 

To be honest I don't really know, we mainly have projects for Atelier Usagi, opening an independent and fully equipped space for our remote artists who would like to work there in Japan, and creating our own short film eheh 😊

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I wish you the best of luck with that! That sounds amazing! Also, very excited for an Atelier Usagi short film :) 

Do you ever feel artistic paralysis after completing a project? Or are you ready and set for the next one?

It's more fatigue than paralysis I would say! I often take a few days to do at least one personal painting before a new project, to take stock of what I have learned 😊

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The art and entertainment industry has been on quite a rollercoaster in the past few years. 

So on both an industry and technological level, what do you expect to see evolve there? 

I wish Photoshop would stop crashing 🤣

I also would love to see less quantity in favor of more quality 🫠 I don't want to see yet another Disney remake 😅

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Oh 100% hahah! 

What kind of advice would you give to someone thinking of a career in Art and Design? There is always a new generation taking their first steps into this adventure.

Be curious! Learn to know yourself and your surroundings 😊

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That’s very good advice. And that was already it Léa! Thanks so much for being a part of this! :)

As always, we like to end the Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist. Any good films, books, habits, or anything else you’d like to recommend to the reader?

A good habit to adopt would be communication! 

I also have lots of great books that I love to read and rediscover at least once a year, like the book “Vision: Color and composition for film by Hans P Bacher” 😊

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