When Oscar Night arrives on March 27, I'll be rooting for British animator Joanna Quinn to win Best Animated Short.
You'll recognize her work if you've seen the Charmin commercials with the toilet paper-loving bears. The bears are computer animated today, but were initially animated by Quinn in her hand-drawn style.
Her more personal works star her signature character, Beryl, an outgoing working-class housewife with an active imagination. Quinn's Oscar-nominated latest is Affairs of the Art (2021), which earlier this month won three awards at the British Animation Awards.
Affairs of the Art is the second in a series that explores Beryl's artistic ambitions and the eccentricities of her family. The first was Dreams and Desires: Family Ties (2006). Given the gap between them, it could be a fifteen-year wait before we get to see the next one.
Central to Joanna Quinn's animations are her sense of humor and her figure drawing skills. She's really good at caracaturing the human form and has no qualms about drawing her characters clothing-free.
Watching her animation reminds me that I haven't been to a figure drawing session since before the pandemic. I'm told that models haven't been obligated to wear masks of late, so that's progress.
More on Joanna Quinn on her website.
More of her animated shorts on her Vimeo page.
