Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475662
D E PA R T M E N T 31 KEYFRAME Mentoring isn't just a destination. As these TAG members share, the mentor- mentee relationship is a journey of career discoveries and mutual respect. When David Rodriguez started at Disney Television Animation as a clerk in 1994, he was told that if he stuck with the office job for a year, "they would consider what I could do as an artist." During those 12 months he became aware of color styling (now called color design). He told management he was interested. They sent him to Color Stylist Jill Stirdivant. "It never really occurred to me to teach someone what I knew until the idea was brought up to me," Stirdivant says. "We just hit it off instantly. And I knew at that moment when I first met David that I was going to do this. It was my way to pay it forward. To take my knowledge and my skills and hand it off to him." Now retired, Stirdivant started at Disney features in the 1980s as a painter on The Fox and the Hound, learning from "the very best women in Ink and Paint," she says. "There was a process to produce these high-quality productions. It translated a little differently at TV … but there were still the key components." "It was at the tail end of Ink and Paint, so she taught me using cels and paint," Rodriguez says. "I was like a kid in a candy store." Stirdivant also taught Rodriguez to use the computer painting program and a Wacom tablet and pen, which were just coming into use in the mid-1990s, and he points out that she did all of this on her own time, without pay, for about six months. Then, along with Director/Producer Karl Geurs, she pushed to get him hired as a color stylist on Pooh's Grand Adventure. "I was the first guy color stylist at Walt Disney TV Animation," he says. One of the reasons they both feel their mentor-mentee relationship worked was because Rodriguez wanted to put in the effort. He values what he's learned from her so much that "I want to pass it on to somebody who wants to learn—not just wants a higher paycheck. I want to pass on how to do it correctly. You have to know the story. You have to talk to your director. You don't just start throwing color down." Over the years they have worked together on numerous projects, and Rodriguez—who is currently Lead Color Designer on Alice's Wonderland Bakery—makes it clear that he credits Stirdivant for his career. "I don't think you can learn having a color sense, but I think I had a color sense that she brought out of me," he says. "She was honest and fair and knowledgeable. She's the one person I still trust in my career when I need help or advice." Stirdivant, in turn, says Rodriguez taught her to always keep her sense of humor. "I wasn't engaging enough in that prior to my relationship starting with David. He also gave me an appreciation of what I knew. Realizing the valuable lessons I was taught came from mentoring David." BY KIM FAY JILL STIRDIVANT & DAVID RODRIGUEZ All photos by Tim Sullens SPRING 2022 31