Catching Up With Reece Parker
Reece Parker is a self-described one-man creative shop whose hand-drawn animation, illustration and brand design work has a distinctly humanist edge, informed by the skate graphics, comic books and video games he grew up on.
With an enviable client list including Procreate, Timex, Ford and Microsoft, Reece's work always has the right amount of grain, texture and evidence of the human hand. Whether it’s a tight social loop or a long narrative client piece, Reece's work maintains a seriously high level of craft.
Scroll on for a deep dive into Reece’s unique animated world.
What's the first thing you ever got paid to draw?
Oh man, woah. No one has ever asked me this. I have been drawing maybe 25 years, and pretty early on kids noticed I could do it better than the others. It had to have been Zelda or something for a friend for like 2 bucks? My mom commissioned me when I was maybe 13 to do self-portraits of our whole family on drywall in our childhood home. That was a unique and challenging one, but I remember being happy with it. Got many commissions for portraits and pets previous to my professional digital career. Grip tape art for all the local skaters. You got me down memory lane, and this answer is way too long.
Vector, raster or both?
My heart is saved for raster. But clients love that vector usability. Both... No... raster!
What's your creative superpower?
I've evolved out of my early career boxes. I now get hired to do tons of things as a 'one-man creative shop'. Which just means I've had so many cool opportunities across design, illustration, animated film, and physical products.
Dream client?
I sound up my own ass, but I have been fortunate to check off many! Real skate culture clients would be full circle for me. Thrasher, Vans. My other love in life is skateboarding, and those threads have rarely crossed outside of my own personal projects. I've even organized local skate comps with cash prizes for the love. But real talk - any client that respects my work and boundaries is a dream.
Frame-by-frame or interpolation keyframes?
Always frame by frame, hand drawn. Really sprouts from illustration routes, and just pairing drawings together, that's the form of animation that interests me. I've played all over the 2D spectrum, but total control of a blank canvas and every aspect is hard to shake.
Favorite thing you've ever animated?
I'm not sure I could answer this. Animation is so time-intensive and so challenging... I've made it a focus to put all of my heart into my work and hopefully reach a really high craft bar. I'm really proud of most of my longer client pieces. So many of them have scratched the right itch. You often hear the saying 'one for them, one for you'. I've had a maybe uncommon mix of fulfilling creative pieces that have been funded and signed off by clients. AH. Can't pick, and you can't make me.
Reeces beautifully humanist short for Procreate takes the viewer on a journey through the creative experience. Unavoidable failure, constant iteration, new discoveries, and often unexpected results...
Loop it or let it end?
Both, and they are both great practice. Short loops for social really sharpen your timings and are a unique challenge, even if bite-sized. Longer narrative pieces obviously need to end with confidence. Time and place.
Was there an animated film or series that made you want to do this as a career?
I wasn't really that invested in animation as a creative inspiration. Was not really attracted to the mainstream-accepted looks - Disney stuff, or serial cartoons. Style-wise it didn't grab me. I was more so into skate graphics and comic books, video games. Art that had a touch more edge. My older brother introduced me to cool self-funded underground cartoons on the internet in the early 2000s. That pushed him into some animation exploration, which led me to try it too. We had an old version of Flash growing up. He was more code-leaning; I came at it from a completely hand-drawn and sketch-on-paper perspective. Our outputs were completely unique to us, but I stuck with it and he didn't. I think the drawing instincts helped with the longevity.
Fast forward to professional ambitions to 'animate' - some of the commercial stuff I was seeing was so unique and creative. Early works from BUCK that were mind-blowing. I fell in love with animation again after leaving it behind for a decade, and seeing what some of these other shops were doing. Haven't looked back!
True Grit tools you can't live without?
Monomania pack & Stipple Studio (sprays) are my favorites. Love a digital brush that feels really analogue, all over it. Ps and Procreate. Bonus: I use tons of TGTS overlay textures. Papers, noise, speckles. Constantly.
EXPLORE REECE'S FAVORITE TRUE GRIT TOOLS HERE
Layers: organized or chaos?
Always organized, always labeled. Always. Just like my OCD studio. Don't ask my wife.
Sketch on paper or straight to digital?
Slap on the wrist, I'll usually go straight to digital. In today's slop era I'm pushing to change that habit.
Complete this sentence: Generative AI is ___
Boring, fucking lame, not for me in any sense.
Last book you read?
Silly design answer: just reread Aaron Draplin's pretty much everything. Not deep reading but full of his life stories and charm. Super inspiring. My first design book when I started professionally 10 years ago. Weirdly, the book that made me quit my job and just jump in the water to be an artist, stars aligned moment sort of. Maybe I'm low on sleep, I'm a bit gooey in these answers man.
Last band/artist you saw live?
Matt Maeson with my wife in Vegas. Not really a band. We traveled to Boston to see Manchester Orchestra with Jimmy Eat World opening not too long ago. It's a rock band, not an orchestra, and they are the best I've seen. So good. Jimmy was aight ha.
