My name’s Gunnar and I’m an artist living in LA, with an animation degree from Laguna College of Art + Design.
My best art always comes from a subconscious place, when I’m drawing but I don’t really know what I’m doing or why, and something happens on the page that my intellect can’t take credit for. I’ve been drawing since I was three, with a broad range of interests. I love overlooked corners of existence, strange things hidden in plain sight every day—elderly people, insects, creatures of myth and folklore. My family is from Iceland, so I was brought up with a lot of stories about elves, trolls and ghosts, and retain a fascination with all things old and supernatural—a part of me wishes that we still had a place for that in our modern world. I steal a lot from my dreams, or things seen and heard on the edge of sleep. I’ve kept dream journals for years, and practice lucid dreaming on a semi-regular basis.
When I’m not animating, my most common medium is pencil, pen and marker in a sketchbook, though I’ve been experimenting with oil paints recently. I also have some experience with costume fabrication and production design. I tend to start a piece with only a general idea, and then work it over repeatedly and improvise additional details, developing a story or character as I go. I like things intricate, full of details that suggest a larger world. In the long term, I hope to develop more animated shorts, zines, and perhaps one day children’s books.
(949) 212 4541
gunnar.mcgriff.art@gmail.com