''Everyone says I draw well''
2015-02-02
News
Levon Baghdasaryan, a former Tumo student who currently works at Tumo's Yelling Animation Studio, shared his thoughts, hopes and aspirations.
I never went to an art school when I was young, the most difficult thing I had to draw were the posters they asked us to produce at school. In my opinion, my drawing skills were not much different from all the other kids', but my parents encouraged me and told me that I was a fantastic artist so many times, that I started to believe it.
I changed schools five times, in Uzbekistan, Armenia and Russia. Moving from place to place and from school to school wasn't particularly difficult for me, because no matter where I went I was always in my own world and in my own imagination. I only found real friends once I returned to Armenia, and it was because of my best friend that I began to draw. We had an exercise book at school and we would take it in turns to draw comics in it. He was better at drawing than I was, and that was a reason for me to improve my skills.
At some point, I decided that I wanted to be a game developer. I was looking through articles and videos online and I stumbled upon a video where a boy was teaching how to use Flash software for animation. I was fascinated by the software, the boy's style, the way he was animating each frame, and I suddenly remembered, that I was able to draw.
When I found out Tumo had opened, I thought to myself that there was no way my parents would come with me to the register me. My family is full of engineers, scientists and economists, and they would prefer that I focused on exact sciences rather than art and technology. But they did come with me. I registered and began to go through Tumo's educational activities. Initially, I didn't have any friends. I would come and sit alone and do the activities. One day I decided to walk into the room where the computers have tablets to learn how to use the Pencil animation software. While I was drawing, I saw in the reflection of the computer screen a few coaches standing behind me, watching me draw. As I was leaving, one of them told me that I was really good at drawing. She gave me her email address and told me to send my drawings to her.
A few days later, they called my mom from Tumo. They told her they were going to shoot a music video and they wanted me to participate in it. I thought I would be an extra in one of the scenes, but it turned out to be something completely different. They gave us the title of the song and asked us to illustrate our thoughts and the images we associated with the title. Afterwards we found out that it was for Serj Tankian's "Uneducated Democracy" music video. After that project, it was as though a new phase had started in my life. I found peers who were interested in the same things and had the same mentality as me.
We used to come every day and draw. They would compliment me and I started to believe that I really was good at drawing, and I finally decided that I wanted to become an animator. Much later, I joined the "Color" animation project, where I explored techniques outside of my usual style and drew in an eclectic, delicate and accurate style for "Color." I became good friends with Grisha, Arev and Zara during the "Color" project. After participating in the "Twisted Christmas" game creation project, we came together and decided to open an animation studio. Tumo gave us a space and equipment, and we're currently working in our first commission: creating videos dedicated to the Centennial of the Genocide.
A frame from "Yelling" animation studio's ongoing project dedicated to the Centennial of the Genocide.
I know that is sounds ambitious, but right now my main priority is for our studio to become world renowned. My second priority is to become a world renowned animator. I think that being average is not good enough in any discipline, so I'm setting pretty high standards for myself.