Growing up as a kid of the ’80s, illustrator and animator Chris Alvarez has always felt 
the drive to create. Inspired by the dizzying array of television cartoons at his fingertips, his work evolved from imaginative classroom doodles covering all available notebook space into attending art school to kick off a career in animation. A native of Spain, Chris now calls Atlanta his home, where he works as a 2-D animator and illustrator.
His Emmy-winning work can be seen in shows such as Archer, Chozen, Squidbillies, The Awesomes and many more. When he’s not animating or working on his own art, Alvarez can be found painting murals with The Lotus Eaters Club, a local creative collective.
Here, the artist talks with CommonCreativ about finding his style, challenging himself as an artist, and he shares advice for budding animators starting out in their careers.
CommonCreativ: You’re originally from Madrid, Spain. How did you end up in Atlanta?
Chris Alvarez: I moved to Florida with my parents when I was 17 and I was not very happy about it. I spoke zero English and I didn’t know anyone. That first year in high school was not great, but I picked up the language quickly and that made things way better. After high school, I moved to Georgia and eventually went to the Art Institute of Atlanta to study animation. I’ve been living in Atlanta for over 15 years now, I love it here and it’s where I call home.
CC: What first sparked your interest in art?
CA: I’ve always loved art, or at least as far as I can remember. I’ve always loved to draw. As a child, I would get in trouble for drawing on all the walls and the undersides of tables at home, and at school, all of my notes would be covered in doodles. I was a kid in the ’80s so there were plenty of awesome cartoons all the time, and I was addicted to all of them. I never thought of animation as a career until I saw the movie Monsters, Inc. and said to myself, “I want to do this, this is what I want to do.” I wanted to create animated movies and TV shows, and so I did. So far it’s been working out.
CC: How did you develop and build your 2-D portfolio?
Illustrator Chris Alvarez
CA: I left art school with an animation reel and that helped me land my first animation internship [at local design agency Primal Screen], which eventually turned into freelance work. Very luckily, I’ve been employed ever since, so I’ve just been updating my portfolio as I went.
CC: You’ve worked with a wide range of clients—including Adult Swim and currently on the FX show Archer—do you have any favorite career highlights?
CA: Yes! My first day ever as an intern, I was working at Primal Screen and they were doing these animated bumpers for the 25th anniversary of Cartoon Network. So, on my first day, I got to animate Daffy Duck, who is one of my all-time favorite characters! That was super awesome. More recently, I had the chance to do some work for Marvel and that was a career highlight for sure. Also, winning an Emmy for the work we did on Archer was quite the feeling.
CC: What inspires you to create?
CA: To be honest, I just like to stay busy, so I’m constantly looking for a project to work on. These days, I’m usually juggling several projects at a time. At the end of the day, I just like to draw, and with animation, I have the ability to bring those doodles and ideas to life. I’m constantly inspired by the endless possibilities of storytelling you can achieve through animation.
CC: How do you effectively promote yourself and nurture connections?
CA: I’m not sure I’m doing it right myself. There is so much exposure to content out there, and different ways to promote your art that it can be overwhelming and time-consuming. I’m not great at social media, so I only post art to my Instagram account. But I think it’s important to have a clean website, with regularly updated work.
CC: What are some of your favorite commissions and projects you’re most proud of creating?
CA: About 2 years ago I challenged myself to do a drawing a day for a year. Because I love pigs and pop culture, I decided to merge the two and ended up with 365 drawings of pigs mostly stuffed in superhero outfits and other nerd stuff. Never missed a day! It was a great project and now if I don’t know what to draw, I naturally default to pigs… I was able to do some work for the City of Atlanta very recently — I was commissioned to create an illustrated map of the city — and that was great. I also got to work with some podcasts that I really enjoy, like Myths and Legends and How Stuff Works, and that was a lot of fun.
CC: How would you describe your creative process?
CA: The process for me is pretty much deadline driven. I like to procrastinate until the last moment, but that gives me time to plan a lot in my head before I sit down to work. By the time I start drawing, I’ve figured out how I’ve wanted things to look and move. I also have to work fast because it’s due soon [laughs].
CC: Do you have advice for fellow animators who are just starting out?
CA: It’s an obvious statement, but the more you animate, the better you’ll get. Draw every day and attend life drawing sessions if you can. Always have a project for yourself, so you can keep working and keep updating your reel. Animation is a small industry, and creating connections isn’t hard. Follow through and deliver good work, and you’ll keep moving up.
CC: You’re part of the Lotus Eaters Club collective. What are your thoughts on Atlanta’s current art scene?
CA: We really think it’s great. A lot of us started with the Free Art Friday movement a few years back, and that’s how we met a lot of amazing local artists. The city seems very open to the growing art scene, and Atlanta has some really talented artists. There is some truly great work all over the city.
CC: What are some of your favorite people and places in Atlanta?
CA: My favorite person, by far, is my amazing fiance, Courtney Hicks. We are pretty much attached at the hip, and work on all our projects together. We even have a comic strip about our adventures called FoxySwine. Some of our favorite places around the city are The Albert for a burger, Hankook Taqueria for tacos, and Estoria for drinks.
CC: What can we look forward to seeing next from you?
CA: Courtney and I are currently working on an animated short film, but that won’t be done for another year or so. More currently, there are some fun augmented reality projects the Lotus Eaters will be working on, along with some new murals.
See more of Chris’s work on his portfolio site and Instagram.
