Check Out Robbie C. Ward’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robbie C. Ward

Hi Robbie C., we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always liked to draw. When I was little if I was given a box of crayons and a stack of computer paper I would be silent for hours, drawing King Kong, Chewbacca and other favorite creatures. My mom is an artist, she taught me all I know (she is still the only art education I’ve ever had), and I was always encouraged in what I did.

In my teens I discovered Led Zeppelin and promptly prioritized music and playing in bands with my friends for several years. It wasn’t until my twenties when I formed DEDSA in Nashville that I came back full circle into visual art. Something about the music compelled me to create a graphic world to accompany the songs, so I began with album covers and shirt designs.

When my girlfriend showed me an old tv show on YouTube where Terry Gilliam demonstrated his cutout animation technique, she encouraged me to try something similar with my drawings. It was incredibly exciting because I have no real technological skills, and it was such a simple, but powerful way to create exciting videos. I made 2 full length music videos with DEDSA before we parted ways, and it set me on my current path. You never know what’s going to change your direction in life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Since my early twenties I’ve struggled with severe Crohn’s disease, and it became increasingly clear that I could no longer function as a touring musician. I’ll spare the readers the gory details, but things were pretty grim for a while, and shortly following a move to Los Angeles, I was hospitalized twice for emergency blood transfusions. I had just begun production on my current short film, Animal Math, but was promptly forced into a miserable hiatus. I had so little blood in my body that I could hardly sit up without my head and heart feeling like they were going to implode, much less working on any sort of creative endeavor.

This situation led to me and my wife deciding to move back home to Colorado to be near family for additional support, and throughout Covid and beyond I was able to slowly recover and work on my film. Just in 2024 alone however I have been hospitalized 5 times due to complications from Crohn’s disease, but am fortunate to have had the energy to keep working, and am in the final stages of animation as we speak.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I tend to think if myself first and foremost as an illustrator, though I make films using traditional cutout animation techniques. My practice is essentially unchanged from the days of Lotte Reiniger, a century ago, except for my use of a digital camera and software to capture the images. If anyone knows me at all, it is likely from my DEDSA music videos, which are drawn completely by hand with colored pencils and brought to life frame by frame under a sheet of glass.

As I began to struggle more and more with Crohn’s and started to drift away from life as a musician, I was increasingly drawn to cinema, discovering everything from Kurosawa, Herzog, Bergman, Murnau, Méliès, Miyazaki… you name it. Once I made the connection between illustration and cinema, I felt fireworks going off in my head. Cutout animation is very empowering because almost anyone can do it, and if you can draw it, you can put it on screen. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, and that is very exciting to me.

I felt that I could make something beautiful and compelling with these limited techniques and my ability as a composer to tie everything together with an original score. Disney’s Fantasia has remained a guiding light for this project, and I still feel that there is something pure about the combination of animation and music. I love all forms of cinema, but for me, this is still the most perfect framework.

I know it’s faster to do this style of animation with computers these days, but as we become more and more inundated with computer generated, and even artificially generated images, I feel more and more stubborn about doing things the old fashioned way and keeping these traditional techniques alive. There is an eerie, magnetic quality to cutout stop motion which I am convinced can only be achieved by animating frame by frame using tangible materials. As long as I’m working by myself I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I think it’s too difficult to pick one specific moment, but I have really rich memories of just sitting on the living room floor playing VHS tapes of Star Wars, Godzilla, or old Disney movies like Pinocchio and Fantasia and drawing for hours. Deep down it’s still all I really ever want to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.robbiewardillustration.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbiecwardart
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RobbieWard

Image Credits
Robbie C. Ward