meet | creators + innovators
Chris Ayers: Master of His Daily Domain
Article by Richele Kuhlmann with Chris Ayers | Photos and artwork courtesy of Chris Ayers
Click here to view a gallery of artwork from Chris' new book, The Daily Zoo.
Download a printable version of this article here.
How much, exactly, would you be willing to pay for your dreams? Ask Hollywood character artist, Chris Ayers and he will tell you about the fateful silent auction at a high school carnival that afforded him the rare opportunity to bid on his future. Literally.
“I had just moved to Los Angeles and the only person I knew upon arrival was a childhood friend,” Ayers recounts. “He was teaching at a local high school and invited me along to the weekend carnival they were having. A silent auction was part of the fundraising activities and I happened to see an item up for bid: ‘A Behind-the-Scenes Tour to Academy Award-Winning Special Effects Studio, ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.)’"
Chris was familiar with ADI’s work in such films as Starship Troopers and some of the Alien films. The prospect of getting not only a firsthand glimpse of their studios but the chance to shop his portfolio around was extremely enticing.
The only problem: the minimum bid for the tour was $100 and the LA newcomer had just signed a one-year lease on an apartment and had no job -- money was tight! Thankfully, Chris’ friend convinced him to throw caution to the wind and enter the winning bid.
“[It was] probably the best one-hundred bucks I have ever spent,” says Ayers. “A month later my family came out to visit and we went on the tour. I had a chance to show my portfolio to Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., ADI’s co-founders, and a week later was called in for a few days of work. From there - it snowballed."
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“I have enjoyed coaxing interesting and odd characters out of my imagination for as long as I can remember. I believe the oldest surviving piece of art that I have is a woolly mammoth and stegosaurus, done at age 5.”
Born and raised in south Minneapolis, Chris grew up in a nurturing and creative home. If he wasn’t drawing he was often found holed up with his action figures, Legos or a trusty yellow bucket filled with small plastic animals. When asked about his earliest recollection of coming into his love of art, the talk appropriately turns to: dinosaurs and Star Wars.
“I have enjoyed coaxing interesting and odd characters out of my imagination for as long as I can remember. I believe the oldest surviving piece of art that I have is a woolly mammoth and stegosaurus, done at age 5. My very first movie was Star Wars at age two. My parents expected me to fall asleep but instead I sat transfixed through the entire film. Of course I don’t remember any of this, but I think I may have imprinted on Darth Vader and the Cantina menagerie.”
Chris’ artistic endeavors played a large part in his childhood and youth. His parents, devoted to cultivating their children’s creativity, instituted the practice of helping Chris and his sister make their own Halloween costumes each year instead of buying them. Among his favorite creations was a memorably received papier-mâché toilet that he donned to march in the student parade at school.
As business-savvy as he was imaginative, Chris did not shy away from his inner entrepreneur and sought a way to bring his pen and ink drawings to consumers at an early age. “I developed a line of greeting cards rather unoriginally called ‘Chris Cards’, and sold them door-to-door in my neighborhood,” he recalls. “The line soon expanded to include most major holidays plus birthdays, thank you cards, invitations, and I did rather brisk business for a 5th grader, once the word spread amongst the teachers and parents at school.”
Chris went on to study at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin, where he completed a degree in Graphic Communications. It was after returning from an exceptional semester abroad in Florence, Italy that he came to the realization that he was ready to open his mind up to the possibilities that awaited him if he simply, believed.
“I had always dreamed of someday working in the movies, creating monsters and aliens or working in animation,” says Ayers. “But it wasn’t until I came back from studying abroad that I knew concretely that I would attempt to realize this dream, and preferably sooner rather than later.”
After returning to his native state for a few years to work as an illustrator for a sculpting and design studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, Chris knew it was time to pack up and pursue his dream by heading West to Los Angeles.
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“What does this dragon, extra-terrestrial, or Mayonnaise-demon look like?"
After arriving in California and making the fateful winning bid at the high school carnival, Chris was hired by ADI and began learning the ropes of designing in a new, fast-paced environment. As much as this different world brought excitement, so also did it make Chris keenly aware of the challenges that he faced. Because many of his early jobs were for live-action films (as opposed to animation) he was being asked to draw in a very realistic style, a departure from the more caricatured, “cartoony” fashion that he had developed early on. In an effort to become more comfortable working in the new style he attended life drawing sessions at the local YMCA, which greatly increased his ability to draw realistically.
Plunging headfirst into his new job as a character designer, Chris began to learn about the important role he played in bringing the creatures from the ephemeral world of imagination to life on the screen. “Character designers are involved most often in the preproduction stage of a film, before the cameras start rolling,” he explains. “Basically, as a character designer, I help give visual form to a character that only exists as words in a script, thoughts in a director’s head, or as preliminary rough sketches. Helping to answer the question - what does this dragon, extra-terrestrial, or Mayonnaise-demon look like?”
The day-to-day duties of his job include meetings with directors and producers about the fundamental direction a character should take, as well as maintaining a dialogue about specifics as the process moves along - color palettes, textures, and all kinds of other assorted details. He often spends a healthy amount of time gathering reference material to work from. “If an alien is described as part beetle, part seahorse, I pull the books on insects and aquatic life from the shelf,” says Ayers.
Much of his work is the product of small, loose thumbnail pencil sketches that are then expanded upon and evolve into more detailed drawings. Those drawings are often then scanned into the computer and manipulated or colored digitally.
Chris lauds the role technology plays in his job, “The power and flexibility of using digital software such as Photoshop and Painter mix well with the tight deadlines and inevitable revisions required by the film industry. Producers will say, ‘We love him! But can you make him blue instead? By this afternoon?’”
Since his early days at ADI, Chris has gone on to work on a robust number of film projects, including Men in Black II, The Santa Clause 2, and the most recent X-Men film. He also has enjoyed working on several projects that explore the behind-the-scenes creation of creature effects for films such as the Alien vs. Predator movies. “Learning the nuts and bolts of book design and production layout was great,” recounts Ayers. “It was a lot of fun to produce an in-depth look at how some of these movie monsters are brought to life.
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“A good belly laugh can often punch a hole through those dark and foreboding storm clouds. I had made up my mind that if I was going to go, I was going to go laughing.”
On April Fool’s Day, 2005, Chris’ world sustained an unimaginable blow when tests revealed that he had acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). While he and his family struggled to absorb the news, doctors moved quickly, admitting him to UCLA Medical Center within hours of his diagnosis. With family, friends and fiancé firmly by his side, Chris embarked on an arduous journey through chemotherapy, tests, biopsies and surgeries that culminated in a final, major treatment in July of 2005.
Chris claims that throughout his illness his mainstays have been his ability to live one day at a time, the support of his loved ones and -- humor.
“Humor was an extremely powerful and helpful tool in my battle against cancer,” Ayers says emphatically. “It is true what they say about laughter being good medicine. I, for one, can personally attest that it is great medicine. A good belly laugh can often punch a hole through those dark and foreboding storm clouds. I had made up my mind that if I was going to go, I was going to go laughing."
In 2006, on the one-year anniversary of his diagnosis, Chris began a project to celebrate the journey he had both endured and experienced. He started a sketchbook with the goal of drawing one animal each day for a year. Combining his love for animals with his artistic talent, Chris’ daily sketches carried him throughout his continuing recovery and beyond. This past month, a collection of his first year’s sketches entitled The Daily Zoo was published by Design Studio Press and is now available for purchase on his website, as well as through major retailers such as Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Borders.
Chris’ message through the book is one of inspiration and awakening. “It is my hope that now that it is published, The Daily Zoo can inspire a wide range of people to pursue their own creative endeavors,” he comments. “Before cancer, I appreciated life. After cancer, I really appreciate life. I want to make sure I do my best to truly appreciate each and every day. I figured a good way for me to do that would be to take a little time each day to do something that I have always loved to do: draw an animal. I encourage others to start a daily pursuit of their passions if they are not doing it already. Life is short. Make time to play!”
When asked to express how creativity and imagination has impacted his life on a daily basis, Chris expresses an emphatic desire to approach every aspect of his life with creative zeal and imagination. “Certainly [creativity] is a necessary part of my work, and many of my leisure activities also make use of it,” he shares. “I think that living within close and constant proximity to one’s imagination encourages an open mind – one which can breathe, and dream and be a good companion while traveling along the path of life.”
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Be sure and read the introduction to Chris’ new book, The Daily Zoo in this issue’s “Read” section!
Purchase The Daily Zoo in the "Acquire" section!
Artist Info
Website: http://chrisayersdesign.com
Email: chris@chrisayersdesign.com