🎧 Tanya Roberts Interview: From Star Wars to DeviantArt and Beyond
In this unfiltered and entertaining Tanya Roberts interview, OH!CAST dives deep into the creative journey of one of the UK’s most versatile comic artists. Host Cal MacDonald and co-host MacFuz welcome Tanya back for her third appearance — and this time, it’s personal. From her early love of animation to her breakout work on Star Wars comics, Tanya shares candid stories, creative struggles, and hard-won wisdom from a life in art.
✏️ From Animation Dreams to Comic Book Realities
Tanya’s path into comics wasn’t a straight line. Originally trained in 2D animation, she found herself at a crossroads when the industry pivoted to digital. With few opportunities for traditional animators, she pivoted — and her first Comic-Con experience (yes, that “little” one in San Diego) lit the spark that would define her career. She never looked back.
Though she didn’t end up animating for Disney, she did draw for them — contributing to Disney comics and later working on Toy Story and Clone Wars titles. Her reflections on adapting characters like Rex (and remembering that he’s a toy who can’t move like a human) are both hilarious and insightful.
🌍 Childhood Between Africa and Scotland
Growing up between Africa and Scotland gave Tanya a unique visual vocabulary. She recalls drawing animals on safari, soaking in the colors and textures of the African landscape, and developing a deep love for nature. While she rarely gets commissioned to draw animals today, her passion for them remains — and she’s not shy about wanting more creature-based gigs.
💻 DeviantArt, Community, and Global Adventures
A major turning point in Tanya’s career came through the now-legendary DeviantArt community. In this Tanya Roberts interview, she reminisces about the early 2000s internet — a time of genuine connection, artistic growth, and unexpected opportunities. One of those opportunities? Getting hired to draw Star Wars comics after an editor discovered her DeviantArt page. Tanya’s global travels, from Australia to New Zealand to California, were often sparked by online friendships and creative collaborations.
🚀 Licensed Work and Creative Constraints
Tanya opens up about the balance between creative freedom and brand guidelines when working on licensed properties like Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, and How to Train Your Dragon. She shares how style guides, editorial feedback, and character restrictions shape her process — and how she still finds ways to inject her personality into the work. Case in point: she once added nipple tassels to Jabba the Hutt (with editorial approval, of course).
🎨 Process, Tools, and Artistic Evolution
From rough storyboards to digital coloring in Photoshop, Tanya walks listeners through her evolving workflow. She emphasizes the importance of perspective, color theory, and the constant challenge of improving as an artist. Her honesty about the frustrations of having coloring duties taken away — and her desire to see a project through from start to finish — will resonate with creatives everywhere.
💬 Advice for Aspiring Artists
Tanya doesn’t sugarcoat it: drawing is hard, and the industry is tougher. But she encourages young artists to seek feedback, show up at conventions, and become their own best advocates. She’s passionate about lifting others up, just as she was supported early in her career. Her advice? Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And if you’re over 16, be ready to hear where you suck — that’s how you grow.
🐢 Turtles, Trolls, and Future Dreams
While Tanya has worked on some of the biggest franchises in geek culture, she still has dream gigs — like working on DreamWorks’ Trolls. She’s also a lifelong Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan and would jump at any chance to draw them again. Her enthusiasm for animation, comics, and storytelling is infectious, making this Tanya Roberts interview a must-listen for fans and aspiring creators alike. And if you want to know more about creating comics, check out .
Full Transcript Outline (Quick Jumps)
00:00 Welcome to OH!CAST: Introduction and Guest Introduction
01:19 Tanya Roberts: The Journey into Comics and Animation
03:53 Cultural Influences: Growing Up Between Africa and Scotland
05:50 The DeviantArt Community: Building Connections and Inspiration
07:42 First Professional Comic: Breaking into the Industry
08:48 Working with Iconic Franchises: Star Wars and Beyond
10:00 Artistic Freedom vs. Constraints: Navigating Licensed Work
13:58 Collaboration with Writers: Balancing Creative Input
16:41 Learning and Teaching: The Challenges of Drawing
18:15 The Artistic Process: From Script to Finished Page
23:49 Dream Collaborations: Writers and Projects of Interest
24:44 The Relentless Pursuit of Creativity
26:48 Overcoming Anxiety in the Creative Community
27:36 The Evolution of Artistic Platforms
28:42 Encouragement in the Arts: A Shift in Perspective
30:05 The Regret of Abandoning Creativity
31:06 The Value of Unique Storytelling in Animation
32:25 The Future of Independent Animation
36:55 The Comic Industry: A Scottish Perspective
38:36 The Challenge of Long-Standing Characters
39:40 Nostalgia and the Enduring Appeal of Turtles
42:52 Art and Collectibles: A Personal Touch
43:50 Quick Fire Round: Art Preferences and Superpowers
45:32 Doodling and Creative Habits
48:22 Snacks and Drawing Sessions
49:14 Fictional Characters and Pets
50:47 Weird Habits and Mundane Challenges
53:28 Cartoon Wardrobes and K-Pop Inspirations
Full Transcript
Cal Macdonald (00:05.825)
Okay, hello everyone. Welcome to OCAS. I messed up the intro already. Welcome to OCAS, your island gateway to all things geek. Yeah, I can’t get it right. It’s good to be back again and joining me. I think this is your third time, Kieran? That’s great because you’re now officially property of this podcast forever. I hope you really understand. You read the fine print when you joined up with us.
tanya roberts (00:12.038)
You
MacFuz (00:23.382)
Yeah it is, it is.
tanya roberts (00:26.531)
Hi. Hi.
MacFuz (00:29.549)
Hahaha.
My soul is forfeit.
Cal Macdonald (00:35.547)
Yes, you have forfeited your solo. welcoming onto the show, a very familiar face to all of you who have been to Ocon. And yeah, she’s been twice now, twice out of the four. So again, third time and we get to keep you as well. Welcome back, comic artist Tanya Roberts. Welcome Tanya. It’s great to finally speak to you. I’ve not actually spoken to you, you know, until these Ocons. You’ve seen me running around in the background, I think quite a lot.
tanya roberts (00:56.561)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (01:03.078)
than at the show at was the quiz.
Cal Macdonald (01:07.811)
Yeah, I’m the one that writes the quiz if you’ve got any grievances about that.
tanya roberts (01:11.475)
I know some of the answers.
Cal Macdonald (01:15.376)
Yeah.
MacFuz (01:15.543)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (01:18.371)
So we’ll just get started. You’re an artist, an illustrator, comic writer. So how did you get the comic bug or was it just always there? Were you always kind of doodling away in school?
tanya roberts (01:31.286)
Yes, I was. yeah, comics particularly. I’m a huge animation fan, so I’ve always been into animation. still make it mega into animation, more than am, more than I am comics. So I studied animation and this was a long time ago. And when I went to get out of college, everyone was doing digital animation. So 2D animation just kind of like, and it hasn’t really picked back up again, which is I
I don’t think it was me. I didn’t break it. But it kind of no one wanted to kind of hire 2D animators anymore. So I went into my first Comic-Con, which was just a little one called San Diego Comic-Con. My friends were like, let’s go over and go to that little one. It’s funny, so I come to your show. Exactly.
Cal Macdonald (02:18.391)
Okay, yeah, I just say yeah. I’m a church computer, that’s really.
MacFuz (02:25.454)
Mmm.
tanya roberts (02:27.602)
I prefer to be in the althevities. And that was when I got the real kind of comic book. And then I was like, oh, this is like, this is just drawing. Let’s just draw. Let’s just draw more. And it never got back into animation, so.
Cal Macdonald (02:37.947)
you
Cal Macdonald (02:44.475)
No, just talking about like, so what did you do during your animation days? What projects did you work on? Like how did, because you were involved with Disney, so how did something like that come about? Well, you’re not.
tanya roberts (02:54.414)
No, so I got out of animation. No, no, so I did the Disney comics. So the little comics that I did that were Disney comics. When I got out of animation college, I did like a few things. I think I had an advert. I couldn’t even tell you it was four because it was a long time ago. But I did a test for Sylvain Chame’s Triplets of Valvo and
Cal Macdonald (02:59.969)
Okay, alright, sorry, I’ve got that.
tanya roberts (03:23.794)
an animated film called Nocturne that I think is Spanish or something. And they were both in Edinburgh. They were both made Edinburgh. And Sylvain was telling me about the triplets of Elville and she was really, really excited about it. So I was like the first person that he spoke to about it when he was in Edinburgh. And I took the test and he was like, she’s really shit. She’s not a French animator.
Cal Macdonald (03:30.105)
Right.
tanya roberts (03:52.53)
I was talking, speaking in French to his animators about the test and I was like, I speak French, but never mind. So was hearing what he saying, like, okay, never mind.
Cal Macdonald (03:52.955)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (04:06.245)
So, let’s see.
I was just going to say just what I’ve read about, was doing some reading on you leading up to this. So hopefully this is all the stuff about your lines through, I’m hoping that you grew up between Africa and Scotland. Has that kind of influenced your work? Do you think that’s through like having those two cultures?
tanya roberts (04:25.201)
Yeah, I was just so funny. was just I was just down in my parents house just now because I was telling you the podcaster guys that we’ve had no power today. So I was I was refuging at my mum’s house and all of our Africa, all of our stuff is there. there’s from when I was in Africa. And there’s this really, really nice postcards from of all like these animals that we’ve seen in Africa. And I used to draw them and he used to go to safariing and
and just draw lots of animals and everything. I don’t draw a of animals anymore, but I really do love drawing animals, but no one hires me to draw animals. It’s really weird. I just draw humans now, but someone hired me to draw animals. I really like drawing them. But yeah, so being out there in Africa with no internet, being really bored.
MacFuz (05:03.342)
Yeah, another feeling
tanya roberts (05:20.239)
and just drawing and creating things. So yeah, it does influence you because it’s so beautiful.
Cal Macdonald (05:28.197)
So, and I’m guessing, so like the Lion King probably was a big thing for you when you saw that, kind of having that background, what they did there.
tanya roberts (05:34.417)
Yeah, but I was so when, so what was that? 92, 90ish? 94. was almost right. Almost right. You’re too young. You’re so little. Here you are, poor little girl. So I was in school and that, it was such a huge film. And I think they got most of the animals right.
Cal Macdonald (05:38.597)
in 1994.
MacFuz (05:38.894)
- It came out the year I was born.
Cal Macdonald (05:43.416)
Alright.
MacFuz (05:44.268)
Yeah, 94.
MacFuz (05:49.676)
you
Cal Macdonald (05:51.803)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (06:01.614)
because when you grow up in Africa you know all the animals and everything and I was just studying books about animals back and forth and most of those animals are right but when you look at Tarzan I’m such an animal nerd and it’s just like, don’t exist in that part of the world. They have lemurs. It’s supposed to be in Uganda.
MacFuz (06:18.574)
Hahaha!
Cal Macdonald (06:19.557)
Hahaha!
Yeah. Yeah. And is it true, you kind of found like the DeviantArt community while you were doing the Kovikons, you discovered that?
tanya roberts (06:33.68)
Yeah, so that’s the kind of thing that I know always kind of speak really fondly of that because it’s kind of not really a thing that can be re-realised again because it’s just an online community where there was just such a huge outpouring of love and support and everything and I got to travel the world with people like I would hook on to artists and I would really admire and then I’d be like, where do you live? Australia? I’m going to come to Australia!
MacFuz (06:44.046)
you
Cal Macdonald (07:03.451)
Yeah
tanya roberts (07:03.728)
I think they thought, oh, know, silly Tanya just saying stuff, but I would just turn up and, and say, and, and she’ll, that’s how we went to the all these cons in like California and New Zealand and all these places. So, that was really fun. And it just, it just wouldn’t happen now. It just, seems like it’s not really the social media’s job isn’t, isn’t about kind of, I mean, I suppose there are maybe pockets where it’s purely kind of
you know, community and everything, but it just seems so hateful and because it’s too much of it, you know, so it’s so huge, but this is when it was a small community and I still do get people coming out to me and say, I remember your TV and art and I try to run away. Because I my selfie. A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that I drew back then.
Cal Macdonald (07:41.36)
Yeah.
MacFuz (07:45.099)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (07:54.316)
Yeah, that was really nice.
tanya roberts (08:01.039)
Because you get into things and that’s how you learn how to draw and you learn how you’re going to draw and what you’re going to draw and your style and everything. And you get inspired and then you draw questionable stuff and then it’s out there and it’s fine. You just have to own it.
MacFuz (08:09.133)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (08:11.6)
Yeah.
MacFuz (08:15.566)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Cal Macdonald (08:17.019)
Yeah, just got admitted.
tanya roberts (08:22.432)
Time to leave it, it’s out there.
MacFuz (08:23.306)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (08:26.491)
Alright Kieran, do you want to come in there?
MacFuz (08:28.82)
Yeah, sure. referring to how you got inspired to draw and where you actually started, what was the first comic that you ever did on a professional level?
tanya roberts (08:30.066)
Thank
tanya roberts (08:43.887)
I think it was Star Wars. I think it was Star Wars. And again, that was weird because it was was Deviantart. So I was on Deviantart and the editor reached out to me on Deviantart and I was like, yeah, right. Weird. Yeah. But it was and he’s yeah. So.
MacFuz (08:46.838)
Okay.
MacFuz (08:57.198)
Wow, okay.
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (09:03.124)
You were like, yeah, this is totally legit.
MacFuz (09:04.174)
Yeah, I’ve come across those.
tanya roberts (09:12.367)
I think we just went to email after that. But yeah, that was in that for many, many, years. you can get these kind of jobs through social media. It’s rare, but in those days, you kind of got people looking for you. Whereas now you go to conventions and you seek out editors. You try to figure out who’s on what book and who do you speak to and stuff like that. it’s a lot of
MacFuz (09:24.466)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (09:30.498)
Yeah, yeah.
tanya roberts (09:41.964)
It’s a lot of graft, but it’s the job.
Cal Macdonald (09:46.277)
So like, you know, getting selected to work on like Star Wars comics, like see on like basically your day one, are you given like the big book of this is the rules, this is what you can and can’t do or are you given quite a lot of freedom?
tanya roberts (09:59.061)
No.
We work with Star Wars, yeah, with some projects they do kind of make sure that you are a bit kind of more, you know, true to the comics and true to the characters and everything because they’re not yours. And they have to kind of represent them in a proper way. Like when I was doing Toy Story and I was throwing Rex and I forgot that he’s actually a toy. He doesn’t really move. He just really wouldn’t.
Cal Macdonald (10:28.731)
Right.
MacFuz (10:29.048)
Hahaha
tanya roberts (10:31.598)
So I was maybe drawing on a bit more of an animated way and I totally forgot, because that was in movies as well, but I forgot that he doesn’t really, he can’t really reach around or whatever. He’s really wooden in the way that he moves. So they had to kind of rein me in and go, can’t really move like that, need to withdraw that. yeah, so it just depends on the creators and what their license is like and what they want from you to represent their characters and stuff. So yeah, it depends. Star Wars was very…
It’s very good. Like they let me put nipple tassels on Jabba. Somewhere. Very parallel. My editor is just like, just go for it. Go for it.
MacFuz (11:07.182)
Hahaha
Cal Macdonald (11:07.451)
You speak, you’re quite proud of that one, aren’t you?
MacFuz (11:16.686)
Yeah, I’m not gonna get my head
Cal Macdonald (11:17.486)
Hahaha
tanya roberts (11:19.928)
So yeah, but some people win that. Well, yeah, yeah, thanks for that. You and your crazy drawings behind you.
MacFuz (11:27.691)
you
Cal Macdonald (11:28.143)
Yeah.
MacFuz (11:30.394)
I mean, you can’t resist Alexander-Louise Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist.
tanya roberts (11:37.075)
Nice.
Cal Macdonald (11:41.915)
I don’t know, you can probably see the image we got at the very back here. So, I saw the style you did the comics, that was more like the original cartoon, wasn’t it? Rather than the CGI one. Was that like a conscious effort on the part of the comic designer, Saur?
tanya roberts (11:56.682)
the
tanya roberts (12:01.313)
Are you talking about Star Wars?
Cal Macdonald (12:03.675)
Yeah, like I said, the way you’ve done the comics, it’s resembling, you know, the original animated Clone Wars cartoon. Yeah, it seems to resemble that a lot more. Yeah. Yeah. Is that, was that a style? Yeah.
tanya roberts (12:09.165)
Get a D to Artosky. The 2D animated one. Well, thank you. Thank you. don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe I kind of just drew it. Hi. Sorry. have child coming in here. Can you go to Tati? I knew it. I’m in the toilet.
Cal Macdonald (12:20.533)
All right.
Cal Macdonald (12:36.987)
Yep.
tanya roberts (12:37.453)
We don’t have another bathroom. It has a cold. Anyway, yeah, I don’t know when, usually when I get picked for a project it’s because my style matches. So I don’t have to do that much wiggle room. I mean, sometimes I do, but just like draw this thing. yeah, I mean, I love getting the Utara Tosu’s work and that show is gorgeous. So yeah, thank you. That’s good.
Cal Macdonald (13:06.402)
MacFuz (13:06.862)
Oh, we’ve got a question as well. So the retro gamers just asked, what did you do for the Clone Wars?
tanya roberts (13:06.974)
I like the other side as well, but obviously I’m…
Cal Macdonald (13:09.136)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (13:16.781)
So it the comics. I think was Titan Comics brought out the Clomor’s comics very long time ago. We’re still talking about it. Very long time ago.
Cal Macdonald (13:31.035)
Yeah. Was there a specific storyline that you worked on or is there one that really stood out that you got to do?
tanya roberts (13:38.892)
I liked any time that I could draw Cad Bane or General Grievous.
MacFuz (13:46.53)
I generally agree this would have been fun.
tanya roberts (13:49.686)
Dude, I mean, he looks like it’ll be difficult to draw, but he’s all blocky. And I know he has like four arms and everything, but it’s so fun to do him. I even like drawing, and I don’t like drawing a lot of mechanical stuff, but drawing starships is really fun. But just making stuff up as well, like just some of the characters that were in there. Just like, make some bounty hunters or some extra aliens and just put them in the background. So that was really fun.
MacFuz (13:52.846)
MacFuz (14:05.111)
I imagine so, that would be pretty cool.
tanya roberts (14:19.359)
Let’s do that. And it’s great.
Cal Macdonald (14:22.959)
And like, did you have a lot of input into the stories yourself that you were doing for Clono? None at all, right?
tanya roberts (14:25.98)
No, not at all. No, no, no, no. No. So sometimes if I’m doing like, if I’m doing comics with independent writers, sometimes I’ll just go, here’s my opportunity to be a bit of a pain. Because if I helped to the character and just like, here’s this character to do or his cool storyline idea or something, I’d be a bit of a pain in the ass of the writers.
MacFuz (14:40.332)
Hahaha!
Cal Macdonald (14:40.987)
Ha
tanya roberts (14:53.088)
because I love characters so much and know they’re, especially if I’m designing them, I I’d love to be part of that kind of process. But no, they’re not, not all writers are okay with that. We find them, we read them out.
Cal Macdonald (15:09.965)
Yep.
Do you find you have to adapt your kind of style a bit more when you’re doing licensed work like Ninja Turtles or Star Wars? You have to always constrain yourself a little bit. You can’t go fully…
tanya roberts (15:24.191)
Yeah, it depends.
A little bit, like you just, if you just have the, if you just have the style guide in front of you and just matching that and it’s just some, yeah, sometimes it’s, I think I’ve went into the, country of dragon stuff. My hiccup is a little off, so they have to kind of go and talk to me about it and then I’ll just redraw them. But you just have to kind of listen.
to the editors. They know what they’re doing.
MacFuz (15:59.021)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (16:03.605)
So how does that compare? I know you’ve done the comic with your husband. Having that complete freedom. How does the whole process compare between the two?
tanya roberts (16:13.931)
I was tricky with him because he… So I’ll think, I know these characters and then something will come up and I’ll be like, well, why are they doing this? They should do this. Then you can get to A, Y and Z. And then he has an idea of something that’s going to happen in the future. So he has a plan. But I’m trying to strong arm him into certain things. He just won’t budge. annoying. I’m just writing my own stuff.
then no one follows me.
Cal Macdonald (16:45.598)
Alright Kieran, do you want to step in there? You were in the chat room there.
MacFuz (16:48.654)
I can certainly try. Someone was asking questions. This is the same guy from before. Regarding the comics, you mentioned trying to reiterate characters and fix them up to going by the editors. It seems a bit more like hiccuping, for example. What’s the trickiest thing or hurdle that you had to overcome in that regard?
tanya roberts (17:12.477)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (17:22.506)
Question. I don’t know. Drawing is tricky. It’s all drawing it’s Drawing in general is just really, really hard and it just will never get easier. But I will think about that.
MacFuz (17:31.054)
Okay.
MacFuz (17:34.752)
And
MacFuz (17:46.286)
I imagine you
tanya roberts (17:51.481)
a question when, and I will think of this an absolute thing that I, that was tricky.
don’t know. But yeah, it is really, really difficult when people come up to you and think that you learn to draw in college. You don’t learn to in college. You learn to draw, you know, 20 years or 15 years before that. then you bring, it’s kind of, animation college is different than other kind of courses, but you do have comic book courses now.
MacFuz (18:16.706)
Yeah, yeah. yeah, definitely.
tanya roberts (18:27.112)
But as you teach you those kind of things, but that wasn’t there wasn’t there when I was when I was studying. No way.
MacFuz (18:31.094)
die. Yeah, we would have had to like pull from like insubreations and other artists that you probably admire and to try and like, kind of like do your own sort of style and signature without trying to copy their works too much as well. Yeah.
tanya roberts (18:39.401)
Exactly.
tanya roberts (18:47.37)
Yeah, yeah, uh-huh. So it is, so you do, I do get a lot of people ask me, or, you know, give me their portfolios at Comic-Cons. And I do the same, like I ask my portfolio once, well, people go, how do I get better? You know, tell me how I can get, what do I need to improve on? You know, I need to always be aware that I’m just, don’t be afraid to kind of ask people, because especially at Comic-Cons, like they’re there to help you, you know, we’re always there to give you advice. And if you might not want to hear it.
MacFuz (19:12.075)
Hmm.
MacFuz (19:16.11)
Yeah,
tanya roberts (19:16.809)
You need to be ready to hear it. I’m not going to tell… If you’re at a specific kind of age range, maybe like 16, before that, everything’s awesome. Everything is awesome. hit 16, I’m going to tell you where you suck. And what you need to work on, because I deal with a lot of children, and I’m not going to ever tell them that they suck.
MacFuz (19:29.038)
Mmm.
Yeah, yeah.
Cal Macdonald (19:32.944)
You
MacFuz (19:36.406)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (19:40.623)
Yeah.
MacFuz (19:44.878)
I think one of my trickiest parts in terms of drawing is like learning light direction and my major nemesis is learning proportion and perspective at the same time. Proportion alone I’m getting better at but the perspective mixing perspective into is like my god what this doesn’t look right.
tanya roberts (19:53.416)
I’m okay.
tanya roberts (19:59.496)
yeah.
tanya roberts (20:05.057)
It is really hard. you have any books on perspective or?
MacFuz (20:11.63)
I’ve got like a couple of how to draw anime books but I’ve not referred to them in so many years. I’m largely self-taught.
tanya roberts (20:20.796)
But mean, perspective in general, I mean, it is a huge lesson. So if you have some books about perspective, and I always kind of refer back to them, it’s, you can’t cheat your way out of perspective. You need to learn it. You need to know exactly where you’re like, your distances and which lines you’re following. And yes, super boring. Super boring. But yeah, you can’t just make it up, unfortunately.
MacFuz (20:25.334)
Yeah, yeah.
MacFuz (20:34.656)
No, no, you really can’t.
MacFuz (20:40.142)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (20:45.198)
You
MacFuz (20:49.719)
No.
tanya roberts (20:51.078)
He’s full of lines.
Cal Macdonald (20:52.987)
So can you take us through like your process from like what you’re told to write on the page, like how you get from there to your finished page. Like just take like you were told like this page is Star Wars, we’ll just use Star Wars, it’s the kind of most recognizable, like what’s your whole process, what tools do you use and that just so people can get an idea.
tanya roberts (21:07.836)
Good taste.
tanya roberts (21:13.608)
you know, I’m changing like every, every project that I come across or get into, I change it a little bit every time. So like in regards of how like the storyboarding to the penciling, to the inking, to the colour. So I try to do everything and it upsets me when I can’t colour because I’m a child and I want to carry it through to the bitter end, you know.
I like to do digital colouring on Photoshop. But yeah, sometimes they take it away from me and it really, really burns. Because when I’m doing the storyboarding and when I’m looking at or reading the script and it’s like, that would be really cool if this colour would be involved or these kind of that colour theory or whatever. And I’m trying to get better at colour. I can’t get better at colour if you want to learn colour.
MacFuz (21:48.206)
you
Cal Macdonald (21:54.053)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (22:11.268)
Yeah
tanya roberts (22:12.604)
But yeah, the storyboard, I mean, I’ve seen some artists storyboarding and it’s again, it’s all different with different artists and everything. And some storyboards like, man, it’s like you threw that. like it’s it’s like it’s penciled, you know, onto the page, but it’s just a storyboard. Why bother? My storyboards are really, really loose. If I would people say, say to me, can you show me your storyboards? Show me your me your storyboards.
I was like, I’ll show you the pencils. Very, very loose pencils. And then we can talk about it because I can show you these pencils and then I can change that and that’s fine. But if I show you my storyboards, won’t be able to figure out what’s going on. Because for me, it’s just for the very, very basic information like where the camera angle is, where what pose, what pose I’m dealing with in that particular thing, how, you know, how the page is laid.
MacFuz (22:45.61)
You
tanya roberts (23:12.091)
laid out how many panels there are, know, that kind of information. And that’s a lot of information. So I try not to give it too much detail. So to do that in that kind of area. But it is a very, very important part of it.
Cal Macdonald (23:29.407)
Yeah. So I guess what some people, let’s say, would be curious, like, what is it, what do you actually get when you’ve been told to illustrate something? you just, is it just a load of written instructions or maybe some sketches? And they say just make that, yeah.
tanya roberts (23:41.755)
Again, it just depends on the writer. Some writers are really descriptive. are just like they trust the artist will just do, you know, do whatever on the page. But sometimes just ignore the rules that are there and just go, I think this is what they meant or they meant this is better. but yeah, I try to get away with stuff.
But yeah, it just depends on the writer and what your relationship with them is, you know.
Cal Macdonald (24:16.123)
It’s kind of reminded me, can you remember this well, Paul Fromer when he was talking about, when he initially went for the interview with James Cameron for Avatar, he said he walked into this room and there was just all these incredible drawings just round about showing the film. And he said to James Cameron, that’s one hell of an art department. And James said, that’s just my sketches. And they were like, what?
MacFuz (24:21.742)
Hmm
MacFuz (24:27.0)
Yeah, yeah.
MacFuz (24:31.522)
Yeah, yeah.
MacFuz (24:41.153)
you
tanya roberts (24:43.414)
James Cameron sketches.
MacFuz (24:44.47)
Yeah, yeah.
Cal Macdonald (24:45.273)
Yeah, I’ve heard about it. He’s quite incredible,
tanya roberts (24:48.326)
It’s the artist!
MacFuz (24:49.272)
Yeah, well I think he’s… yeah… He probably humblebrag by the sounds of it, but…
Cal Macdonald (24:50.201)
yeah, he’s meant to-
Cal Macdonald (24:54.627)
Yeah. And it was the same when we talking to Roger Christian, he did art direction on Alien. And the same thing, said Ridley Scott gave us all these storyboards and we’re just like, well, we can’t, that’s everything, it’s VR. He just said, again, just sometimes you get these guys, they’re just naturally talented at communicating it.
tanya roberts (24:55.654)
didn’t know that. Cool.
tanya roberts (25:03.341)
tanya roberts (25:15.91)
That’s amazing. It’s Dean D’Oyre who co-directed Lila and Stitch and did How to Train Your Dragon. He came to our college to talk. It’s amazing. It’s so cool. And he brought with him. look, I’m getting more. Thank you, baby.
Cal Macdonald (25:17.573)
See ya.
MacFuz (25:31.288)
That’s pretty cool.
tanya roberts (25:40.293)
This is the hand. He came and speak to our college and he brought all the original storyboards for Lila and Stitch. And because he said, Disney think they have the originals, but I have the originals and I’m not going to go to them because he just photocopied them and went, ah, I came from Disney. And at the end, and I can’t remember if this is just me being cheeky, but I was like, hey, can I get one of the storyboards? Thank you so much. Thank you.
MacFuz (25:49.418)
Nice.
MacFuz (25:58.542)
Yeah
MacFuz (26:10.414)
you
tanya roberts (26:10.466)
And I really liked Jumba. And so he went, all right. And he just gave me a Jumba storyboard. And my friend was beside me. She was like, can I get one? So he gave one to her and then didn’t give one to anyone else. And I was like, no. So I still have that. But it’s so beautiful. And I love the way he draws because it’s it’s very, different to the way that Chris draws because Chris is a
MacFuz (26:13.297)
yeah
MacFuz (26:17.646)
you
MacFuz (26:26.286)
Special treatment.
tanya roberts (26:38.807)
He does he does rounds, but it’s spiky, but Dean’s all round like all of his stuff is lovely and it’s round. it’s really nice. So I’ve got quite a few Chris’s original artwork as well. But it’s nice to. it’s so cool. But I love to eat stuff as well. So, yeah.
MacFuz (26:49.816)
That’s pretty cool.
Cal Macdonald (26:59.035)
Is there a writer you would give your arm for to work with? Like a comic writer? there one? Like a live, past or present? Is there just one you wish I could have?
tanya roberts (27:10.853)
Yeah, uh-huh. I book him every year at Thought Bubble. I’m just having a mind blank right now of the writer. That’s really embarrassing. But he…
Cal Macdonald (27:15.311)
Hahaha
Cal Macdonald (27:28.429)
Or is there a comic in particular you would really love to have a shot at?
tanya roberts (27:34.816)
It’s going to be really embarrassing, but for years and years and years, I’ve really wanted to get the trolls, anything to do with trolls, the troll… The troll hunters, it’s different. The trolls from DreamWorks. I just really, really love them. And it’s something that I’ve worked really hard to try and get into those comics and speak to people that I know that do them.
Cal Macdonald (27:34.841)
EG
Cal Macdonald (27:44.601)
Right, okay.
MacFuz (27:44.888)
the
Cal Macdonald (27:52.932)
Right?
MacFuz (27:53.186)
Yes, I-I-I-I-
tanya roberts (28:03.786)
I still haven’t managed to and it really bugs me. But… I keep making them!
MacFuz (28:07.534)
I saw on your website, I saw on your website like the, I presume there’s gonna be more, but yeah, when I went onto your website, so I did, the first thing I saw was the image of this little troll on the first page.
Cal Macdonald (28:08.064)
I guess I’ll carry on Kieran.
tanya roberts (28:24.101)
Yeah, that’s um, yeah, yeah, she’s so cute. But I love to get into that. But they keep making them, so who knows, we’ll just keep on bugging them. I think the thing about comics and just being the creative industry at all is just relentlessly bugging everyone because you just need to do it. It kind of sucks, but…
MacFuz (28:34.926)
Just keep on trying.
Cal Macdonald (28:36.697)
Yeah
MacFuz (28:46.358)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (28:53.826)
I get to go to conventions and you get to speak to the people that are there and you just constantly just have to talk stuff up because no one else is going to do it for you unless you pay agents or something and it’s not going to do that.
MacFuz (29:05.451)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (29:07.163)
Yeah. So basically your advice for any young wannabe artist is just, you’ve to become your own best salesman, it? Or salesperson.
tanya roberts (29:13.922)
Yeah, you do. You do. You need to be. And I know that’s hard because a lot of people have a lot of anxiety about it. But you’re going to have to talk. Because I get a lot of young people and they’re really, really scared. And they’re really, really anxious about speaking to me or being at the convention and stuff. But we’re all here to help you. There’s nothing to be scared about. not going to. We’re don’t fight. We’re only going to tell you things that help you. And.
MacFuz (29:33.899)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (29:41.892)
I’m going to give information to people because they helped me, you know, back in the day and people just were lifting me up. So we’re not going to be mean. Well, you might think it’s mean. But, know, I’ll have. No, no, Paul Hollywood, maybe. Or somewhere between that and fruit. But yeah, so.
MacFuz (29:44.878)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (29:53.676)
Hehehehehe
Cal Macdonald (29:55.355)
You’re not gonna Simon Cowell them anyway, that’s funny.
MacFuz (29:58.091)
No, no, no.
Cal Macdonald (30:04.718)
You
tanya roberts (30:11.456)
If going going there and I’m glad that they have taken the step to go there and go to conventions and everything. It’s such a great way of meeting people. But they and I know the people that are talking about quite young because it be their moms. They’ll speak to me or be their sisters or their and they’re there and they want to speak, but they’re just really, really shy. So just just take the first step, you know.
MacFuz (30:22.401)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (30:31.983)
Yeah.
MacFuz (30:34.318)
Mm-hmm. Yeah
MacFuz (30:39.768)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (30:40.421)
Yeah, because it is like, that’s like something a lot of folks don’t get is that there’s like the value of these conventions and especially where we live as well. know, a lot of kids here probably think, how could I ever get into comics living in Stornoway? And then they can just go to speak to someone like you and then you can say, no, it’s possible. You can do it. Why not?
tanya roberts (30:40.996)
And I haven’t done any words, so talking.
MacFuz (30:43.223)
Yeah, yeah.
MacFuz (30:56.556)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (30:57.357)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (31:01.997)
Yeah, exactly. And because I know I was just disparaging about it, the Internet, you know, I mean, I had so much come from TV and art. It’s not like that anymore. Even art isn’t like that anymore. But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t mean that the parts of Instagram or Twitter or some some ones that I don’t know. There’s so many of them. don’t know what they are. Art station. Blue sky.
MacFuz (31:14.443)
It really isn’t.
MacFuz (31:20.654)
Mmm.
MacFuz (31:25.93)
I’ve been using blue sky
Meh.
tanya roberts (31:30.445)
Blue sky, so I’m not on blue sky, but maybe maybe parts of blue sky. don’t know. I try not to do that one because I’m actively always looking for work. So if I’m part of an art community, they don’t want to pay me. And that sounds really mercenary, but. But I’m on Twitter to speak to the editors, I’m on Instagram to speak to, you know, yeah.
MacFuz (31:38.37)
Yeah, yeah.
MacFuz (31:46.38)
Hehehehehe
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’d say comparatively, like, Twitter’s like your best bet because it’s more widely used. I think Blue Sky was just set up because of the controversies surrounding Twitter. You know, I refuse to call it X. Just, you know, it’s still Twitter. It will always be Twitter.
tanya roberts (31:59.329)
I would say so. I would say so, yeah.
tanya roberts (32:06.082)
Thank you.
Cal Macdonald (32:09.411)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (32:09.632)
I know, me too. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I totally familiar yet.
Cal Macdonald (32:16.063)
It’s just what you were saying there about kids now. I get this feeling that seeing kids going to school now, they’re not as disparaged from pursuing creative subjects as, like kind of maybe me and Ewan went to school and was like, you’re going to be an engineer or if you’re a girl, you’re going to be a hairdresser. There’s a lot of that kind of stuff. Whereas if someone wants to pursue the arts, I think they’re encouraged a lot more to go for that.
tanya roberts (32:26.721)
No.
MacFuz (32:38.903)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (32:40.79)
Yeah, I was lucky and I was encouraged as well. Like even with my teachers in school, they were very encouraging. like, well, you can’t add.
MacFuz (32:49.678)
Hmm
Cal Macdonald (32:49.925)
Yeah, yeah, because this
tanya roberts (32:52.297)
You seem to like this whole drawing thing, but yeah, with my parents as well, I was encouraged. But now there’s a different kind of disparity. It’s like, you want to be a vlogger? What? Exactly. It always shifts. It’s always a shifting kind of target thing. And now it’s like, you want to be an influencer? What?
Cal Macdonald (32:58.234)
Yeah, that’s…
MacFuz (33:02.67)
It just shifted targets.
Cal Macdonald (33:03.523)
yeah.
Buh, yeah.
MacFuz (33:12.79)
do you to be a tick talker?
Cal Macdonald (33:15.495)
Yeah, because, uh, oh, you want to be a podcaster? Oh my God, don’t do it. Don’t go there. No, because there’s an old friend of mine, and that was his experience in school. Like he was great at art and he told his art teacher, want to do comics. And she was so disparaging, like, because there wasn’t proper art as she put it. And he gave up on it and I still see his drawings and I’m like saying…
tanya roberts (33:18.594)
Exactly.
MacFuz (33:20.076)
Hehehehehe
tanya roberts (33:36.746)
Yeah, there we go.
Cal Macdonald (33:41.007)
Why don’t you just give it another go sometime? to some conventions and show off your art? What can happen? But he’s just bearing that kind of cross a bit.
MacFuz (33:42.798)
Mmm. Yep.
tanya roberts (33:44.163)
Thank you.
So the number one thing that I always hear from people is, wish I’d never given up. I wish I’d never, and it’s not about making a living through art. That’s not what they’re talking about. talking about, they wish they’d never stop throwing. Because they do at a certain point and I never did it and I never understood it. Some people just stop being creative and then they just get angry and.
MacFuz (33:56.046)
Mmm.
MacFuz (34:02.519)
No.
MacFuz (34:11.276)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (34:13.615)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (34:15.458)
And then they play bingo. I don’t know what you do. I don’t what else do. But that’s the number one thing I hear. Just the regret. And as I said, you don’t have to be the best. You don’t have to be working for Marvel or whatever. But if you enjoy it, then it doesn’t matter.
MacFuz (34:16.384)
Yeah, a lot of built-up regret.
MacFuz (34:28.493)
Yeah
MacFuz (34:37.933)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (34:38.467)
It’s like the best example as the guys from South Park. mean, they were just literally moving pieces of paper across a page when they started. And it’s not even, yeah, and it’s not great animation or great drawing, but they’ve made it work. It just shows you, don’t have to be the best.
tanya roberts (34:45.537)
I love it. I love those guys. I love those guys so much.
I know. that’s such a good example of characters as well, because their characters are incredible and they’re so well, they’re so well built and well realized that it doesn’t actually matter about the animation at all. Not ever. And they probably have a massive budget now. don’t know. Yeah, they don’t have the three. It’s either.
MacFuz (34:57.624)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (35:02.357)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (35:06.246)
no.
MacFuz (35:11.0)
Hmm, I’m gonna so stick with that. Yeah, it’s quirky. That’s what makes South Park South Park
Cal Macdonald (35:12.559)
Yeah. Yeah. It’s… And it’s weird.
tanya roberts (35:20.801)
sideways or forwards. You have three quarters of them sometimes, very rarely, but that’s either, I turned into Carmen there, meh or meh.
MacFuz (35:21.878)
Yeah, yeah.
Cal Macdonald (35:22.831)
Yeah. Yeah.
MacFuz (35:25.004)
Yeah. I think one of the few times I’ve
one of the few times I’ve seen maybe like that rare three quarters is that episode I’ve not seen the full episode though but I know the context enough is where the Mongolian when the the the the Chinese the other city what guy built a wall on South Park and the Mongolians come along
Cal Macdonald (35:47.82)
the
tanya roberts (35:50.048)
Hahaha
tanya roberts (35:55.2)
I love it!
Cal Macdonald (35:56.411)
But it’s weird, it’s like, but it is like the story of Southbank just from having little bits of paper maybe and now you’ve got people praying saying you’re the voices that we need in these times right now. Like to go from that, that just shows you like you don’t have to be the best to be kind of valued. I know people are seeing them as just having an important message that needs to be said right now.
MacFuz (36:06.531)
Hmm.
tanya roberts (36:07.988)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
MacFuz (36:11.64)
I dunno.
tanya roberts (36:12.937)
Yeah, but…
tanya roberts (36:18.376)
Yeah, but as I was saying like before, I’m a huge animation fan. So the moment animation is like booming, it’s and I’m not I’m not I’m not into I’m not an animator, but I’m just I’m just a voracious consumer of and I throw all these things. So when with all the all the kind of independent studio, all the independent kind of little pop up things.
MacFuz (36:24.088)
Mm.
MacFuz (36:27.374)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (36:28.6)
Yeah.
MacFuz (36:34.337)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (36:47.755)
that were told by studios, no, they’re just making their own things and K-pop team and hunters and like, need I say more? I’m so excited about the future of animation because we just get all these projects. I’m so excited about it. So excited. And it just shows that a lot of the bigger studios are a bit more guarded about their stuff and they’re not willing to risk everything on something that
MacFuz (36:51.596)
Mmm.
Hmm.
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (36:57.177)
MacFuz (37:02.592)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (37:02.661)
Yeah.
MacFuz (37:09.846)
Yeah
MacFuz (37:14.99)
Hmm.
tanya roberts (37:17.226)
You know, you can see a project and go, now that’s cool. Now that’s going to really, really rock. they just, you can imagine all the things that haven’t been made because Disney have been like, no, we can’t do that.
MacFuz (37:20.654)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (37:30.826)
Yeah, I mean, like you mentioned, the bigger studios, bigger companies more lately, at least over the past decade, arguably, I feel they’ve been pouring more money into just making it look shiny as opposed to actual storytelling and character development. I’ve actually been watching a lot of this guy called, I think, various different YouTubers, but one of them is called Toon. And he just does these covers of how to write.
Cal Macdonald (37:46.883)
Yeah.
MacFuz (37:59.658)
a twist villain. That one’s the first one that comes to mind because that’s something that Disney has been sort of struggling with lately. the ones, the main studio that’s been really good at villains, regardless of whether they twist or not, is DreamWorks. Yeah, mean, have the likes of Lord Shen and Kai from the Kung Fu Panda films.
tanya roberts (38:05.852)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love a good villain. Love a good villain.
tanya roberts (38:17.664)
Totally agree.
tanya roberts (38:28.81)
Okay.
MacFuz (38:28.84)
And was, he also referred to Disney’s greatest and most terrifying twist villain was, water noose from monsters, Inc.
That’s, yeah, the crab guy. The CEO. Yeah.
tanya roberts (38:39.936)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he was really, good. Or, or the Wreck-It Ralph guy. The, yeah, oh, that was awesome. You didn’t see it coming at all. It was a fantastic movie. Yeah, no, I love that movie.
MacFuz (38:49.98)
Turbo! Think King Candy! He’s like, you wouldn’t hit a man with glasses would you? Smash!
Cal Macdonald (38:59.636)
Hahaha.
I will say, but I can recommend a bit of animation if you go to Netflix, look at Bad Exorcist. I so recommend that.
tanya roberts (39:11.207)
Bad exorcist. haven’t- is that an adult one?
Cal Macdonald (39:13.799)
It’s yes, it’s from Poland and it was my well that’s a good thing. I’ve started going out with a Polish girl and she’s exposing me to a lot of Polish TV and like it is dubbed. You can watch this guy is he is renowned in Poland and his animation just goes to some screwed up places. He just goes he said like it’s South Park but if you take it even further more extreme than South Park.
MacFuz (39:15.926)
Okay.
tanya roberts (39:16.415)
It’s your Poland. Is it tough or?
MacFuz (39:24.149)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (39:27.11)
I didn’t know they had animation!
MacFuz (39:40.062)
Wow. Okay. How’d you go further than South Park?
tanya roberts (39:41.949)
What?
Cal Macdonald (39:41.989)
Bad exercise.
Cal Macdonald (39:46.479)
Just watch this and you’ll find out it’s just so off the wall and it’s so worth watching. She just says he’s a legend in Poland and he’s done all these animations. there’s all this foreign stuff as well you can tap into in markets you wouldn’t think of. You wouldn’t think Poland would have a big animation thing like that.
tanya roberts (39:48.815)
Okay.
tanya roberts (40:01.555)
Yeah.
MacFuz (40:04.078)
I dunno.
tanya roberts (40:04.433)
No, I wouldn’t. No, no, no, but I would bet my money on it being something like that. Something dark and something heavy and gross. Is it gross?
MacFuz (40:10.998)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (40:11.855)
Yeah.
Yeah, basically he, it’s yes it is, it’s gross, it’s twisted. Basically it’s this guy, he’s a severe alcoholic pulpoper and he goes around hunting supernatural things. And one of his companions is a demon that he’s become friends with. And it’s just, yeah, it just, yeah, goes through there. And then he sometimes teams up with these Catholic priests.
MacFuz (40:20.0)
Of course it is!
MacFuz (40:30.99)
okay, hints.
Cal Macdonald (40:43.627)
the catholic priests are all big buff action hero type guys like really handsome it’s just
MacFuz (40:47.566)
You
tanya roberts (40:48.904)
So it’s not a serious documentary. That sounds amazing. Watch that.
MacFuz (40:51.662)
no, no. Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (40:52.0)
No, it’s not a serious reflection of life in Poland, I think.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, there you go. You’ve got some viewing material. It’s just, I was going to say like, we’re kind of the same age range Tanya. I’m 46 now. You’re not too far off that are you? You know, no, I’m just kidding. No, it’s just for, you kind of grew up sort of in the 90s when comics was going through its dark ages. And just say what’s the, and have you seen like a big transition in the comics industry since then?
MacFuz (41:11.468)
Not day over 30.
tanya roberts (41:13.323)
Hahaha!
tanya roberts (41:21.906)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (41:27.39)
I think because I do a lot of independent comic book kind of shows like, as I said, Thought Bubble and like The Lakes and Ocon and everything. So I see a lot of kind of homebrewed stuff with Scotland. Scotland particularly is such a hotbed for writers and artists and everything. I feel so, so.
MacFuz (41:41.87)
Mmm.
Cal Macdonald (41:42.265)
Okay.
yeah.
tanya roberts (41:52.062)
happy in my wee bubble in Scotland because we have so many good writers and so many good artists and we could fill a show like whenever we could go down to the bubble and that’s in the Boston Leeds when I was in Harrogate in York. All the Scots just come down. I think there’s actually a show that goes on at the same time at the same weekend but we just come down to Harrogate, drink it dry and just stay in our own bubble and go Scotland, Scotland!
MacFuz (41:54.241)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (42:04.873)
Okay.
haha
Cal Macdonald (42:09.808)
Hahaha
Cal Macdonald (42:16.507)
Yeah.
MacFuz (42:18.958)
SORRONED!
Cal Macdonald (42:20.251)
You
tanya roberts (42:22.205)
down here in England. So I feel really proud whenever I travel like that because it’s it’s kind of like a circus. But I’m always excited about the projects that they do. so, yeah, if you ever want to go and see what the comic industry is like, go to your local kind of com or go to the, because they always have really great, great ideas.
Cal Macdonald (42:23.675)
You
MacFuz (42:46.104)
Hmm
tanya roberts (42:51.401)
I really can’t be bothered with superhero stuff. I never was. I never really was. mean, you can’t even tempt me with Nightwing. He’s hot and everything. But… I just… You know, where do you start with that? Because those guys, characters, they’re like 70 years old. Where do you start?
MacFuz (42:55.514)
and
MacFuz (43:01.314)
That’s it.
Cal Macdonald (43:02.245)
Yeah.
MacFuz (43:11.118)
Hmm.
Yeah, All they have to do really is just like refresh every decade or so or like expand upon the same character in a different way. you’ve got like, I know in like DC they have multiple, multiple multiverses and one that my mate has been getting into recently, I think it came out like over the last few years or so I think was the, what was it? It’s basically the DC alternate universe for example is where like Batman,
Cal Macdonald (43:14.405)
Yeah. Yeah.
MacFuz (43:43.094)
is like an engineer as opposed to being a millionaire. Still sort of Batman-ish, but he’s like really good pals with the Joker. It has like a much more darker twist to it, but it explores more down to the, I think down to like the psychology of it all as opposed to, you know, your standard DC. I can’t remember what the name of the series is, but you know, I kind of find things like that fascinating. But then again, you can only go so far with the same characters and you can only change them so much. Yeah.
tanya roberts (43:53.02)
Okay.
tanya roberts (44:00.702)
Okay.
tanya roberts (44:05.276)
you
tanya roberts (44:10.468)
Yeah, you know, the only way that I’m willing to follow characters over that kind of series and changing and reinventing themselves is the turtles, OK? I’m there for every single thing that they do and however much they get retold, like, no, I’m here for this. I’m here for this. Turtles every day, every day turtles.
MacFuz (44:21.173)
yeah!
MacFuz (44:27.316)
Hmm… Turtles!
MacFuz (44:33.644)
You ever see that video of, I think it’s like the kid on the American news, it was like back in the early 2000s, he’s like dressed up as like a skeleton. It’s like, why are you here? I like turtles.
Cal Macdonald (44:45.166)
Hahaha
MacFuz (44:45.614)
Yeah
tanya roberts (44:48.892)
What is he dressed up as in? What is dressed up as in?
MacFuz (44:51.918)
I think he had like, he’s like probably in his like 20s to 30s now. But when he was a wee kid, he had like a black makeup, black face paint on. It had that sort of skull design on it. I think he had like black around here. Everything else was kind of white. Cheekbones were like black. And he just says, I like turtles.
tanya roberts (45:01.286)
Okay.
tanya roberts (45:07.259)
Mm-hmm.
tanya roberts (45:14.554)
Right, he’s just innocent.
Cal Macdonald (45:17.275)
You
tanya roberts (45:19.778)
Weird. Apparently I’m Maltesia Adams for Halloween, says my daughter because she’s going to be Wednesday. she’s going to Wednesday. Speaking of cult classics from the 80s, actually that’s from like the 70s, isn’t it?
MacFuz (45:24.954)
nice.
Uh-huh.
MacFuz (45:33.518)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (45:36.08)
Yeah.
MacFuz (45:36.974)
They’re like pre- yeah yeah 60s. Oh yeah yeah.
Cal Macdonald (45:38.873)
No, it’s the 60s I think. It’s black and white the first one. I’m pretty sure it’s black and white. Yeah. But it didn’t go on that long. The original Addams Family was only a few seasons, wasn’t it? And it just… Then there was two movies in the 90s.
tanya roberts (45:41.264)
Has it these? It’s crazy how long that’s been going on for. Yeah, I love that.
MacFuz (45:51.214)
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. then, yeah, because I was just like, originally started off as a comic and then was into a TV series which ran for a couple of seasons. think I don’t know if it stopped because the guy who the original guy who played Gomez passed away. I can’t quite remember the reason why it suddenly stopped. But then, of course, it it picked up back up again in the 90s with Tim Burton with the two films. I was sure.
tanya roberts (46:03.622)
Okay.
tanya roberts (46:17.564)
So good.
MacFuz (46:19.49)
Pretty good, they’re really good. And we recently, obviously when Wednesday first came out back a few years ago, myself and my wife were like, yeah, we’re watching that. We’ve yet to see the second season, so.
tanya roberts (46:33.543)
We’re, yeah, we’re currently watching it. My sister, daughter, Zekila. She’s really into it. I thought she would be, but we tried a couple of times to watch it and I think we just got distracted by the stuff. I don’t know why, but, um, because it’s too much. Too much. I mean.
MacFuz (46:38.122)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
tanya roberts (46:57.452)
Not enough that we can’t watch K-Pop Demon Hunters 40 times, but you know.
MacFuz (47:01.106)
yeah, my wife’s only seen that twice now. I don’t know if she’s seen it more though. Yeah. I was just in the background just over listening. I was like playing, I think I was playing like Total War Game or something. And occasionally I would be turning my head around just to see what’s going on on the screen.
tanya roberts (47:06.732)
Only twice. Didn’t go to the cinema. No.
tanya roberts (47:17.69)
you
tanya roberts (47:23.478)
You’re Warhammer Guy, are you?
MacFuz (47:25.006)
Total War, Creative Assembly, Total War Shogun 2, your turn-based strategy games.
tanya roberts (47:34.71)
Okay, they come with little guys?
MacFuz (47:36.48)
Yeah, yeah, other it’s a PC. It’s a PC game series. But they have they have actually done Total War of Warhammer as well.
tanya roberts (47:41.231)
Okay, okay, so you’re
tanya roberts (47:46.746)
Okay, yeah, don’t tell my husband that because he has too many little guys. Too many little guys.
MacFuz (47:50.286)
Yeah, I think I think the closest I have to little guys are X-wing miniatures Which is no longer being they the atomic mass games stopped production on them last year or so I was like But you know, but I’ve got like
tanya roberts (48:06.427)
The only thing I own really are art books. I tried to do the little guy, because my husband really wants me to paint things. can’t paint them. I don’t have the patience. I’m weird. Can’t do it. Can’t do it. I think I’m good at it, but I’m not, so I don’t want to do it. I just own art books and lots and lots of paper.
MacFuz (48:13.08)
Yeah.
MacFuz (48:20.256)
Neither do I, I can’t stand it.
out.
Cal Macdonald (48:27.152)
Hahaha
MacFuz (48:32.712)
I’ve got quite a good number of manga, namely Naruto.
tanya roberts (48:38.542)
Yes, I need to read more manga. That’s my thing, need to read more manga.
Cal Macdonald (48:45.815)
Okay guys, we are kind of coming up to the end. So Ciaran, I think you know what’s coming now. It’s quick fire time. We always finish with some quick fires.
MacFuz (48:51.562)
god, and there’s only one of me this time, as opposed to three of us.
Cal Macdonald (48:56.089)
Yes, but there’s two I use that I get to throw the… So, right, I’ll… Who should I… Should I go to Tanya first or Ciaran first?
MacFuz (48:57.838)
yeah.
tanya roberts (49:04.467)
No, he’s gonna do his thing.
MacFuz (49:06.126)
Rock,
Cal Macdonald (49:08.616)
Right. Well, I’ll go Ciaran first. Digital or traditional art?
MacFuz (49:15.522)
Yes. Well, mean, I started off as traditional and I’ve shifted to digital over the past decade.
Cal Macdonald (49:17.808)
Okay.
tanya roberts (49:20.323)
Kieran’s drinking tequila too.
Cal Macdonald (49:20.665)
Yeah.
What?
Yeah, just which one do prefer generally?
MacFuz (49:29.646)
that’s actually, God damn, that’s actually a good question. Yeah. Yeah. I’m very used to digital. I do like digital because there’s so many little hacks you can do. If you make a mistake, you can just press control Z. It’s easy enough. And it has gotten to the point where if I revert back to pencil on paper, I, my left hand does a habit of going for the control Z key.
tanya roberts (49:33.754)
I was so glad I didn’t get this. So glad.
Cal Macdonald (49:37.295)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (49:52.763)
So Tanya, over to you, digital or traditional.
tanya roberts (49:58.33)
traditional all the way.
Cal Macdonald (50:00.303)
Okay. And ending to back that up. Okay. Next up, Kieran. What would be your superpower?
tanya roberts (50:01.912)
Life doesn’t have a control, delete key.
MacFuz (50:08.366)
You
Well, I’m already good at hindsight so I can rule that out Actually what I a Superpower I’d love to have just because I’m nerdy and I come from a family of linguists is The ability to speak any language I hear
tanya roberts (50:19.779)
You’re that guy.
tanya roberts (50:32.537)
That would be cool.
Cal Macdonald (50:32.699)
Nice one.
MacFuz (50:33.111)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (50:36.933)
Tanya, what’s
tanya roberts (50:39.641)
to step on Lego and not swear.
Cal Macdonald (50:45.743)
Which is impossible for you right now. You’ve got little ones running.
MacFuz (50:46.67)
I
tanya roberts (50:48.203)
Absolutely impossible. Goes to my son, who actually has one of the tidiest rooms of us all. But know, Lego is very small. Get in that carpet.
MacFuz (50:53.326)
Ugh.
Yup, Cheeky follow-up question then. I’ve got cheeky follow-up question to that then. LEGO brick or a D4 die?
Cal Macdonald (51:09.115)
Stand on, ooh. Ooh.
MacFuz (51:09.912)
Yeah. Yeah!
tanya roberts (51:10.329)
It’s definitely a D4 die! that thing! I don’t like… Mine’s… play D &D, mine’s is in my thing at all times, but I can… It’s really very pointy. No, if I stood on that, I would not be able to not spread. It’s so pointy.
MacFuz (51:21.537)
Yeah.
I’ve seen some really pointy ones.
Cal Macdonald (51:25.539)
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (51:31.555)
Okay. Kieran, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever doodled in a meeting? In a meeting. Yeah, have you been in meeting since some point in your life?
tanya roberts (51:32.513)
Resin, resin.
MacFuz (51:37.614)
In a meeting
MacFuz (51:43.67)
Yeah, but I’ve never really, I don’t think I’ve ever doodled in a meeting. I’ve doodled stuff in a, I’ll give it, so excluding the very beautiful Jigglypuff that I showed earlier prior to the podcast. That one takes the cake. That was just pure joy. But excluding that, I’d say back when I was in…
tanya roberts (52:00.524)
PG-18. PG-18.
Cal Macdonald (52:03.597)
Yeah.
MacFuz (52:11.16)
Sixth year in English, I just, I used to love English and history, but being a sixth year, I, and being the Nicholson Institute, I kind of gave up. I ended up doodling Father Ted scenes in my notebook.
tanya roberts (52:28.568)
Brilliant. Love it. I love my brick!
Cal Macdonald (52:28.781)
Okay, that’s a good one.
MacFuz (52:29.518)
I got detention for it. Yeah, I drew that one. I also got the what do you think is behind? What do you think is behind tomorrow’s calendar, Father? I can’t fucking wear his knickers.
tanya roberts (52:38.498)
My lovely horse.
tanya roberts (52:50.95)
he’s the best.
MacFuz (52:51.832)
Hahaha
Cal Macdonald (52:55.035)
What was the question again? yeah so, doodled in a meeting Tanya.
MacFuz (52:56.206)
We’re just saying if you do, yeah.
tanya roberts (53:03.416)
In a meeting? I don’t have meetings. I really know.
MacFuz (53:04.184)
Yeah
Cal Macdonald (53:04.986)
Yeah.
MacFuz (53:08.824)
Do artists have meetings?
Cal Macdonald (53:11.739)
See, Pitch Meetings.
tanya roberts (53:11.928)
I’m not supposed to doodle in a meeting when I’m talking about drawing.
Cal Macdonald (53:19.125)
That’s basically, that’s your job to do the lit medians. You get paid to do it, that’s the best thing.
tanya roberts (53:22.04)
So exactly, you know, I mean, I could maybe tell you the weirdest thing that I’ve drawn when I was a child. I drew this, I had no idea where this came from, by the way, but I drew an entire comic of this like gremlin thing, just eating a cow alive.
MacFuz (53:23.246)
you
tanya roberts (53:49.109)
and it was really pretty, like I coloured the whole thing beautifully and I have no idea why I drew that.
MacFuz (53:50.933)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (53:56.891)
Right. Okay.
tanya roberts (53:58.303)
I could have gone so wrong. Maybe you have, I don’t know. But I just, yeah, very weird.
MacFuz (54:03.906)
Hehehehehe
Cal Macdonald (54:04.347)
Alright.
Right, Kieran, what’s your go-to snack after a Jaden and Marathon drawing session?
MacFuz (54:11.758)
okay. Anything within reach, but typically crisps or something sweet.
Cal Macdonald (54:17.883)
crisps. right. Tanya, is it tequila? Is that your snack? All right. Your go-to snack when you’ve had a marathon drawing session. What would you reach for?
MacFuz (54:25.206)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (54:25.853)
It’s got bits, it’s got bits in it.
tanya roberts (54:37.143)
something not messy because I wanted to still draw. So, no, no, although I love an Empire biscuit. my God. The best biscuits ever because, because you get two biscuits.
MacFuz (54:41.326)
Hmm, yeah.
Cal Macdonald (54:44.323)
No cheetos then.
MacFuz (54:47.886)
you
MacFuz (54:53.201)
Empire Biscuit is really good. If you’ve not got an Empire Biscuit, you’ve got a snowball.
Cal Macdonald (54:53.861)
Hmm. Yep.
MacFuz (55:00.878)
Two biscuits within one.
tanya roberts (55:05.175)
It’s so good.
Cal Macdonald (55:06.555)
Okay Kieran, what fictional character would you trust to babysit your pet?
MacFuz (55:12.35)
god, well not shawl tucker from film at all. I quest he can just go away Anyone giggles at that they all understand the reference. He’s just a dick So who can Beyond that Who I trust like pets that’s a fictional character first one funny enough that might come to mind is dr. Tenma from Naoki Urusawa’s monster
tanya roberts (55:38.522)
my gosh, we don’t know any of these people.
MacFuz (55:40.575)
Hahaha!
Cal Macdonald (55:41.282)
Hahaha
MacFuz (55:44.062)
I definitely recommend Monster by the way. Naoki Urusawa is just a brilliant mangaka. She’s amazing.
tanya roberts (55:45.802)
Ahem.
tanya roberts (55:55.063)
I will take your word for it. Monster? Monster. Right, cool.
MacFuz (55:56.27)
Monster. It’s a psychological thriller.
Cal Macdonald (55:58.683)
Yeah.
tanya roberts (56:03.155)
Nice, nice. Yeah, I’m going to drink. I’m going to read more manga. I’m going to do it.
MacFuz (56:07.694)
The manga for it will be expensive by the way because it’s been a while and…
tanya roberts (56:13.395)
I will not read that manga!
Cal Macdonald (56:21.157)
So Tanya, what monster would take care of your pet? What fictional one? What, a fictional character. character, sorry. sorry.
tanya roberts (56:26.153)
Monster, as you say.
MacFuz (56:26.88)
You said character to me! You said fictional character-
tanya roberts (56:32.278)
I don’t know why this immediately came to my mind. It’s not appropriate at all, but Mojo Jojo from Powerpuff Girls. I have a new husky puppy and I just think they would be pals. Because she just licks his face and just… And he’d be like, but I’m Mojo Jojo! Neal!
MacFuz (56:39.899)
yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
MacFuz (56:45.497)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (56:50.775)
Mm-hmm.
Cal Macdonald (56:53.947)
Okay.
MacFuz (56:56.078)
Horses are beautiful.
Cal Macdonald (56:56.356)
I’m sorry.
Okay.
tanya roberts (57:01.909)
but she wouldn’t care.
Cal Macdonald (57:05.453)
Alright, so Kira, what’s your weirdest habit while drawing?
MacFuz (57:08.822)
that’s good question.
Cal Macdonald (57:13.308)
Should we be asking Melissa this one?
MacFuz (57:17.55)
I don’t know. mean, kind of a-
Cal Macdonald (57:19.195)
She’s probably got… She’s got… yes.
MacFuz (57:22.842)
I don’t know, she’s not really seen me draw in a good long while. What would you say is my weirdest habit when I draw?
tanya roberts (57:32.052)
you didn’t scare her.
MacFuz (57:32.91)
Yeah, apparently you don’t have one. I kinda know. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe it’s like hand positioning maybe or sometimes trying to zoom in with my eyes.
Cal Macdonald (57:38.149)
No!
tanya roberts (57:44.063)
Well, Kieran, do you do this when you’re doing an expression? You just make the expression as well.
MacFuz (57:50.05)
Sometimes, I do. try, especially like doing hands. Yeah, when I tried to do hands, I tried to like mimic the positioning, but it’s very rare I do that. I suppose the other weird habit I have is thinking too much.
tanya roberts (57:52.595)
You might not know.
tanya roberts (58:05.459)
When you’re in a convention or on a bus or when you’re drawing somewhere, like a cafe, and you have to do a, you have to mime out what you’re drawing, like your hand position, you’re just like…
MacFuz (58:15.182)
Mmm.
Just hope I’m not drawing anyone that’s flipping anyone off, you
tanya roberts (58:20.149)
Right, that part.
tanya roberts (58:27.859)
Hahaha
Cal Macdonald (58:30.551)
Okay, right. Kieran, what mundane object do you find surprisingly difficult to draw?
tanya roberts (58:31.061)
Exactly.
MacFuz (58:37.122)
Did you not ask Tanya the weirdest habits either? Well you kinda skipped there!
Cal Macdonald (58:41.133)
sorry, I thought you gave it there.
tanya roberts (58:43.485)
I just did that. I said just do your like your facial expressions when you’re drawing and drawing hands, drawing hands when you’re drawing.
Cal Macdonald (58:44.944)
Yeah.
MacFuz (58:47.955)
Okay, so okay right gotcha gotcha
Cal Macdonald (58:49.445)
Yeah, yeah. All right, sir. Yeah.
So a mundane object you find surprisingly difficult to draw, Kieran.
MacFuz (58:58.402)
Ooh, shoes. I don’t do shoes. For me, my default is either sabatons or boots.
tanya roberts (58:59.381)
There are so many of these. Ah, she’s R-hard.
tanya roberts (59:12.019)
Have fun.
MacFuz (59:12.354)
Sabotons are basically in full metal armor. They’re the point- I’m lifting my leg as if to show you this, but there’s no point in doing that. They’re like the-
tanya roberts (59:18.581)
Cal Macdonald (59:21.082)
You
tanya roberts (59:24.755)
Unless you’re a ballerina!
MacFuz (59:27.17)
My legs don’t go that high. That’s like the metal plating that covers the top side of your boots.
tanya roberts (59:35.775)
Mm hmm.
Cal Macdonald (59:35.963)
Mm-hmm.
MacFuz (59:36.866)
Which funnily enough is what the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton is named for.
tanya roberts (59:43.678)
All right,
Cal Macdonald (59:46.779)
Tanya, the mundane object you find the most difficult to draw.
tanya roberts (59:51.391)
wheels.
can’t draw wheels. Why? It’s it’s because they’re attached to cars. I really hate drawing cars. I tried to stylize it and it still looks wrong. I can’t draw wheels. I’m a dork.
MacFuz (59:55.576)
Like any wheels in general or…
Cal Macdonald (01:00:03.931)
You
MacFuz (01:00:05.87)
I can do vehicles to save my life. What about cartwheels?
Cal Macdonald (01:00:12.634)
Okay.
MacFuz (01:00:15.47)
cartwheels.
tanya roberts (01:00:17.843)
I I’d be okay with that. It’s just wheels because they’re attached to cars. If they were like futuristic cars and they floated, I don’t know how many wheels, that’d be fine.
MacFuz (01:00:20.834)
you
Cal Macdonald (01:00:21.583)
Hahaha
MacFuz (01:00:25.006)
yeah, you wouldn’t have to… Yeah, yeah.
Cal Macdonald (01:00:28.345)
Yeah. Okay. Last one, Ciarán. Which cartoon character has the best wardrobe?
MacFuz (01:00:36.888)
Damn, I need to think about that one. Gee. I mean, there’s a lot of what I’ve watched, the main characters tend to wear the same thing day in, day out. So you’d have to exclude things like Superman, Batman, Naruto. Yeah, Naruto only has like two or three costumes. I think arguably maybe the characters from the Avatar, you the last Airbender series.
tanya roberts (01:00:37.479)
Hmm.
tanya roberts (01:00:51.77)
Hahaha!
tanya roberts (01:00:58.695)
Yeah, he does.
MacFuz (01:01:06.36)
They have quite a good wardrobe. I think Zuko has loads, like Prince Zuko has loads of wardrobes that he goes through. Yeah, yeah. He has his blue spirit, his armor that he wore from the first season that included the helmet. You have his Earth refugee outfit. Then the sort of when he came back as Prince Zuko.
tanya roberts (01:01:14.406)
Does he?
MacFuz (01:01:34.328)
So he has his Prince Zuko attire as well as his casual attire. Then the one when he was joining the gang. And there’s also, yeah, there’s the Emerald Islands. I think that’s the one where they go to the play. They’re on the Emerald Island vacation. I think he has this sort of vest that he wears there.
MacFuz (01:02:04.49)
I think there’s an image of all the main characters in their variants outfits and Zuko seems to have the most.
tanya roberts (01:02:15.635)
Okay, okay. wonder why that is. It’s weird. It’s just like, fabulous, I guess. It’s fabulous.
Cal Macdonald (01:02:18.843)
Okay, well over to you Tanya. The last question.
MacFuz (01:02:19.064)
Yeah, yeah.
tanya roberts (01:02:24.243)
And I’m just gonna bring it right back to K-pop Demon Hunters again. Just all the girls, just looking fabulous. They’re a K-pop fan, so they have lots of outfits. And they’re all really cool, specifically the one where they go to kill Saja. I wanna cosplay that one. Get the nails. So cool, so cool. Thank you so much. Thank you.
MacFuz (01:02:28.447)
Hmm. Hmm.
MacFuz (01:02:39.202)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Cal Macdonald (01:02:41.541)
Yeah.
Alright cool. Alright, no problem. Alright, thank you so much.
tanya roberts (01:02:52.785)
I don’t, he’s not, the hand doesn’t come back to give him more tequila, so I think actually he had to go.
Cal Macdonald (01:02:56.763)
I thought you were thanking us there. Sorry for the amazing questions. All right, it was that other hand I didn’t know. Sorry. So thank you so much Tanya for coming along. So the usual if people want to find you, where can they track you down?
tanya roberts (01:03:01.459)
No, I was thinking you.
No, hands are back.
tanya roberts (01:03:12.573)
No, thank you.
tanya roberts (01:03:17.395)
So I’m on the internet, I’m Enolia and Slave, or Tatania Roberts. And you can find my website, you can find my LinkedIn, you can find my Twitter, my Instagram, my art station. You can art, if it’s still around. It is still around, but you check sometimes. People message me and like, I’m not your guys.
Cal Macdonald (01:03:44.761)
And will have to say, put Tanya Roberts comics or else you’re going to get the American actress from Charlie’s Angels. Yeah.
MacFuz (01:03:48.662)
Yeah, I had to type in comic as well.
tanya roberts (01:03:50.225)
Yes.
Yeah, I she’s dead now, so my Google search is greatly improved.
Cal Macdonald (01:03:57.07)
yeah, you’re fine, you’re safe.
MacFuz (01:03:57.902)
It’s fine, she’s
Cal Macdonald (01:04:01.253)
Crikey, would have been a major shock if that Tanya Roberts had turned up tonight.
tanya roberts (01:04:03.643)
sorry, Chanyeol, so sorry.
Cal Macdonald (01:04:09.463)
All right. And a big thank you, Kieran, for coming along co-hosting tonight.
MacFuz (01:04:12.724)
Yeah, don’t worry, it’s happy to be here.
Cal Macdonald (01:04:15.163)
All right, so…
tanya roberts (01:04:15.922)
Thank you. I should probably stop, I should probably stop poking the bathroom. Well, I want a wee.
Cal Macdonald (01:04:19.609)
Yeah, all right. All right, so thank you very much everyone for listening to me and when you listen to this on the podcast, take care everyone when we’ll speak to you again.
MacFuz (01:04:29.528)
Bye!
tanya roberts (01:04:31.89)
Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Cal Macdonald (01:04:32.613)
Bye. Right.
