{"id":5411,"date":"2020-06-04T16:49:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T23:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eu.shop.wacom.eu\/us\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:29:17","slug":"post-mermay-profile-whitney-pollett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/post-mermay-profile-whitney-pollett\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-MerMay Profile: Whitney Pollett"},"content":{"rendered":"This is the fifth in a series of interviews with hopefully, all eight artists who participated in the show we co-organized with Los Angeles's Gallery Nucleus, then collaborated with each other to create the image below.\u00a0\u00a0 (Some of them are taking longer than I expected to facilitate.\u00a0 Can MerJune be a thing?)\u00a0<\/em>\n\n\"\"\n

Previous ones:\u00a0 Tom Bancroft<\/a> | Pernille \u00d8rum<\/a>\u00a0| Brigitte Roka<\/a> | Jenna Gray<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Whitney Pollett<\/h2>\nWhitney\u2014who painted the image\u2019s background\u2014has spent the last decade entertaining kids in a massive way.\u00a0 She was the creative director for girls\u2019 toys at Nickelodeon and the VP of New Content and Design at Just Play, a toy manufacturer-for-hire you\u2019ve probably never heard of, but who\u2019s made stuff for Disney, Marvel, Dreamworks, and Hello Kitty, that a child in your life probably owns. Her first gig was as an intern for Disney, eventually rising to the level of senior toy designer, which she describes as like \u201ca boot camp\u201d in both their iconic style and in drawing cute characters.\n\nThis was one of the toughest interviews to put together: It took two scheduling errors and a missed call before I finally got through to her via Skype, but when I did, It was worth all of it: Whitney is one of the most passionate and\u2014no pun intended\u2014animated interview subjects I\u2019ve ever had, her infectious energy for art and her work coming through even over the phone.\n\nBy the way, Peekalo, the company she co-founded with entrepreneur Natalie Makous, has been pitching animated series to various networks\u2014and recently, they got one accepted.\u00a0 She\u2019s under a strict non-disclosure agreement as to any details or even who picked it up, though. And to my knowledge, our interview was the first public announcement of it.\n\n\u2026But Skype wouldn\u2019t let me record it and OBS failed, so the audio was lost.\u00a0 So I had to get the answers again by email a week later.\u00a0 Then writing up the article was delayed due to a backlog of interviews that had happened in the meantime and needed to be written up first.\u00a0 Then it was delayed again due to my neighborhood being hit by riots. So the Instagram takeover we discussed as being in the future, has already happened.\n

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Pretend you didn't see this.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat I was going to say before the tangent, though, is that the same energy she displayed during our call is clearly visible in her work.\u00a0 Just looking at her Instagram feed, The sheer amount of color and intensity that jumps out at you will take your breath away.\n

\"\"<\/p>\nAnd combined with her bold brush-pen-styled lineart, her style is uniquely striking. Although I can see shades of all the influences she\u2019ll mention further down the page, I can\u2019t think of a single artist who she quite resembles, or who\u2019s been able to duplicate her style.\n\nAnyway, on to the interview.\n

__<\/p>\nWhat was it that drew you to mermaids?<\/span>\n\nMermaids and fairies have always been so much fun to draw. I think I just like drawing weightlessness. There\u2019s something so freeing about painting a figure unencumbered by gravity. I\u2019m also a sucker for long, sweepy, fluid lines. Mmm.\u00a0\ud83d\ude0a\u270d\ufe0f\n\nDo you have a history with Gallery Nucleus?<\/span>\n\nI\u2019m fortunate to say that I do! When I was in art school, we were asked to write out our goals, and one of mine was to show my work at Nucleus because so many of my favorite artists and animators had been featured there. Now, this will be my third show with them since graduating. My first was with Liana Hee, the mermaid queen, for her Splish Splash show. I remember I was\u00a0so<\/span>\u00a0nervous to exhibit alongside her and her talented lineup of mermaid artist friends. It ended up being an awesome show, so the nerves really weren\u2019t necessary\u2014but are they ever?\n\nThe second was a corgi-themed show where real live corgi pups were running around. It was beyond cute! This was on the same night that Wendy Park exhibited downstairs at Nucleus. Her work is killer, too, so if you\u2019re looking for another cool artist to follow, check her out at\u00a0@wendy.hearts<\/a>.\n

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Environment designs by Wendy Park, from Instagram<\/span><\/p>\nAnd finally, the third was this one with the creator of MerMay, Mr. Tom Bancroft<\/a>! He and I had met a few times at various conventions but this was the first time we\u2019d ever worked on something together, and it was so much fun! I didn\u2019t expect it to be this collaborative and inspiring, so thank you to him, Nucleus, and you guys at Wacom for making so many memories with us! I don\u2019t know if that sounds cheesy, but it\u2019s the truth!\n\nNow that you\u2019ve hopefully had some time to turn it over since our phone interview, do you have any types of art or specific artists you\u2019re looking forward to sharing when you take over our Instagram?<\/span>\n\nAs usual, I have way too many ideas but no clear answers. \ud83d\ude05 I\u2019d love to do a little demo on my beautiful new Wacom One\u2014maybe draw some expressive hands, or ask the lovely folks following along what they\u2019d like to see. I\u2019m excited about hearing from the Wacom community: What does their work setup look like? What kind of routines do they follow to get their day started? I\u2019ll share my process and hopefully hear from them too!\n

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