Channel Frederator Blog

If you’ve ever watched Kim Possible, the animated series Clerks, or Nick’s hit show Danny Phantom chances are you’ve seen Stephen’s work. I met Stephen at his first industry gig as a character designer for Histeria where he did some of the best caricatures I’ve ever seen!

You can check out more of Stephen’s work on his blog

I.) Who are you and where are you from?
My name is Stephen Silver I am 34 years old and was
born and raised in London, England for the first ten
years of my life. I moved to San Diego in 1982 with my
family and now live in Simi Valley, Ca with my wife
and two kids.

II.) What have you worked on?
In the animation industry I have been a character
designer and designed shows such as Clerks the
animated series, which I still work on today,
designing Kevin Smiths Clerks inaction figures.
Disney’s “Kim possible”, and Nickelodeons “Danny
Phantom”

III.) How did you get into the business?
In 1997 I called up an acquaintance of mine that I had
met at a cartoonist society meeting and asked him if I
could show him my portfolio, He invited me up to
Warner Bros animation in Sherman oaks. He took my book
straight up to the director of Histeria Bob Doucette
and he gave me a test. In about a month I was hired.
Thanks Bob!

IV.) Do you have any personal projects your working
on?
I have been self-publishing my own books for the last
3 years, which you can see on my website
www.silvertoons.com. I have also started my own
character design school, which I teach only six
students at a time, one night a week so that they get
a lot of one on one. And next year I will be teaching
through the internet, in order to teach globally. I
have also recently developed my own animated project
that I am in the process of pitching

V.) Why do you do what you do? Passion? Talent?
Making people laugh?
I simply do what I do because I Iove it. Drawing is a
true passion for me and keeps me sane. I really
wouldn’’t know what to do with my life if I wasn’’t
drawing.

VI.) Where do you see the business in 10 years?
Yourself?
I see the business expanding even more globally, which
means I feel we are going to see a lot more content on
the web as well as cell phones. This business will
always have its ups and downs, but as long as there
are kids on this planet, animation will never go away.
And as far as myself, I’m not sure, but what ever it
is that I am doing, I just want to be happy and have
fun.

VII.)What are your influences?
a.)books?
I have never been one to read for leisure. So Art
books would be
Mad magazine, Preston Blairs complete animation, a
book called getting started as a freelance
illustrator.

b.)films?]
All the early Disney animations, one of my favorites
is the sword and the stone. I like epics. Braveheart,
Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan.

c.)art?
So much, Rockwell, Lyendecker, frazetta, Hirschfeld,
Drucker, Davis, Denis Bodart, Uderzo. And many more.

VIII.) What kinds of tools do you use? Special
Pencils? Paper? Computer? Brushes? Desk?
I like using col-erase pencils, pitt brush pens, and
any type of paper. My new favorite tool is the Cintiq
computer tablet. And the program Sketchbook pro.

IX.) Any vents on the industry as a whole? Any
praises?
I won’t express my vents, because I am still in the
industry, And as far as praises, I get to draw
cartoons for a living, say no more!

X.) If you could change the way the business works
and is run how would you do it?
I would just say, let the artists create, and do what
they know best. It seems to have worked really well
for Pixar.

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