The Draw #17: Michelle Jenfjord

A running series for the TAPAS blog. I wrote down names on little slips of paper, the names of everyone currently in the TAPAS Facebook group and Discord server, 41 people altogether, and will be drawing one name every so often to write about them and their history with the group.

Up next we have Michelle Jenfjord - my sister-in-law as of my wedding this past August. She joined the team around 2020, when we started working on storyboards for the Keys & Kingdoms pilot.

There were eight scenes to do, one for each character and then a conclusion. They were split among five artists; Michelle quickly volunteered for scenes 3 and 4, those starring Cristela and Stacky, in order to spare anyone else from doing the pilot's nude scenes.

The best part was definitely the various civilian designs that she put into the background of Cristela's scene of first entering civilization. I lifted many of their looks directly when designing concept art for the real extras to be designed for the final product, whenever we get to that. Had a good time adding some colors and specific animated face claims for these characters who will surely recur in the background, not just appear in this one scene.

One day I'd certainly like Michelle to continue designing some characters. I've designed a lot of the upcoming major characters myself for the cast blogs you can see scattered throughout the 2023 and 2024 tabs, but I don't want to be the only one who has ideas.

The storyboard process was a rough one, taking about 18 months altogether, every artist having their own struggles with getting through it, some getting more frustrated about it than others... Michelle hasn't contributed any further art to TAPAS ever since and I feel I've probably put her off the idea altogether after the storyboarding experience.

I need to find the balance in my directing. I started out too shy to correct anyone's mistakes, and that resulted in, well, the final product having mistakes in it. So ever since then, I seek to make sure everything actually goes right, and some people think I'm too blunt and judgmental and mean about it. I'm not judgmental about mistakes in the slightest, I just don't know how else to, like... correct mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. Sometimes I ask for a mace and somebody draws a flail; sometimes someone gives me a slingshot when I meant a sling. I can't just not say anything, but clearly I still haven't put my finger on the right thing to say.

I hope we can get past all that and see Michie in the TAPAS world again sometime, I don't like leaving people behind after they've contributed. She's still in our Facebook group and Discord server, at least. Best wishes!