Creating original art while juggling a full-time job and schoolwork is challenging, so it’s no surprise that Color Designer Grace “Grey” Chen fell into a temporary creative burnout when she first started in the animation industry. She put what remaining energy she had into peaceful experiences outside of work and art. But slowly, she says, “I found myself wanting to illustrate those little moments in my life that I found joy in—quiet moments with my cat, watching the sun set against the L.A. mountains, sitting in coffee shops. I take a lot of pictures of things that inspire me, and I try to depict the energy that I felt in that moment.”
Capturing these vignettes of her everyday life led her to create Sunset on Flower Street, a familiar view to some animation professionals who have spent time at the DreamWorks’ campus. “As I was heading back to my car after work, I was really captivated by the way the light was hitting everything; there was a pinkish-purple hue [that] made everything feel dreamy and magical—a strange way to describe a parking lot, I know! But that’s what I really enjoy about painting, being able to take a familiar sight and transform it to make the viewer feel something different.”
Chen is often drawn to capturing scenes during the golden hour because, she says, “you forget about the troubles in your life for a brief moment.” In the case of Sunset on Flower Street, she also played around with bokeh and chromatic aberration in the foreground of the image to create nostalgic pops of color. She adds, “I really discovered my love of color and lighting and how its use can affect the mood and storytelling of a piece.”
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