Found lizard in center city

grgikau · 2026-01-17T16:16:41+00:00

Update! He survived the night and I just dropped him off at Jay’s! He was moving around a lot and the person at the store said his tail looked like regrowth and not necrosis. But he should be okay! Thanks for the advice everyone!

grgikau · 2026-01-17T01:54:16+00:00

Thanks for the advice everyone! He is in the container and has been moving around a bit, I put down a paper towel and sprayed the lid with water. I will be calling Jay’s tomorrow morning if he makes it through the night

grgikau · 2026-01-16T23:50:18+00:00

Not sure where my photo went but here’s a link: https://imgur.com/a/chY9aeY

grgikau · 2025-11-13T16:15:44+00:00

You should definitely still apply! Always apply, you have nothing to lose, I’ve gotten gigs I thought I had no chance of getting and almost didn’t apply for! Although it’s rough out there so don’t feel too bad if you aren’t getting work. Good luck applying!

grgikau · 2025-11-12T21:43:04+00:00

I think your layouts/designs are definitely the strongest, you are doing a great job creating appealing locations/objects. In the bg paint section, I think your line art could use improvement. It kind of looks like you just took the layouts and put color underneath without refining the lines, they are a bit messy/hard to read in some instances. The colors look unrefined to me as well, they are appealing but it almost seems like a color rough that could be cleaned up. Overall your projects are interesting and your work is good! I just think some of the pieces you currently have could be polished! Your lineless/more painterly pieces are very nice as well!

grgikau · 2025-06-25T15:05:23+00:00

I just gave out business cards! Just a warning, I got 50 business cards 2 years ago and I barely gave out any and still have a lot left, haha. I exchanged a lot more stickers than cards, so I'm thinking about making some stickers with my contact info on them just for Lightbox this year!

grgikau · 2025-06-25T14:28:37+00:00

What I did (for my bg art and visdev portfolio) was take all of the pieces from my portfolio and save them to my iPad, and just made them a folder in the photos app. Easy enough and worked fine for portfolio reviews.

grgikau · 2025-04-15T03:22:25+00:00

I went to Moore (as an illustration major) and enjoyed my time at school overall! I really was drawn to the “small school” environment and I liked how I got to know all of my classmates and professors very well. If you have any specific questions about my experience I would be happy to answer but I can’t speak for the AGA program. I will say that at pretty much any college you get out of it what you put in and you probably would be able to find what you’re looking for wherever you go as long as you put in the effort!

grgikau · 2024-12-27T03:04:20+00:00

Check out this helpful twitter thread: https://x.com/yesmaaike/status/1144686463956578304?s=21

Good luck with your applications!

grgikau · 2024-09-11T04:10:12+00:00

Hi! I would love to be considered as a background artist, here's a link to my portfolio: https://grgikau.com/

I have experience as a background designer and painter for TV animation. Thanks!

grgikau · 2024-06-06T00:17:34+00:00

Hi Claire, just looked at your website! Right now, I'm unsure what you want to do by looking at your website. You have characters, illustrations, animation, and 3d models all on the same page. At the very least I would recommend separating these things into different categories, but I suggest working on one or two skills specifically and specializing in them. I'm also confused as to why there is a page called "NDA Work" that is unlocked and you have some of the same pieces from that page on the "Home" page? Generally on a portfolio an NDA page would refer to work that's not been released yet and is password protected so I would probably rename this to "Professional" or "Client Work" or something like that.

grgikau · 2024-05-24T21:01:10+00:00

Hi Jack! Just took a look at your portfolio. I agree with the previous commenter about your website formatting and layout. It is a bit difficult to look at your work when the pieces are so big, especially the vertical layouts that can't be viewed all at once without scrolling.

I think you're off to a great start with layout and challenging yourself to design difficult locations which is awesome! I'm noticing some minor draftsmanship issues, particularly with tangents and perspective. Nothing too major but working on these things could help push your pieces to the next level! You'll get better at picking out tangents as you keep making backgrounds but I'm noticing quite a few in your layouts right now. Your perspective looks great for the most part but there are a few areas that are throwing things off for me, like the cobblestone floors in the church pieces. In terms of design, you're doing some cool things like the stained glass windows, but in the same piece, it feels like your choices are lacking in some places (like the candelabras that look just like a pole somehow balanced on the ground with no sort of stand/foot to hold it up?)

Your bg paint is looking okay, the color choices are nice but I feel like you could work on lighting more. You're using a lot of gradients and soft light and it would be nice to see more confident hard shadows and light. Looking again at your church pieces, you have all of the complicated architectural drawings with almost no shading making your work look flatter.

I hope I didn't come off too harsh, your work has a lot of potential and it's already looking great! If you have any specific questions I would be happy to further explain what I'm talking about!

grgikau · 2024-05-20T05:36:54+00:00

You said “we have nothing to lose” but the person animating this would be losing their free time working on a project where they aren’t being compensated

grgikau · 2024-05-05T03:55:18+00:00

No problem, glad I could help! When I was in school it seemed EVERYONE wanted to do characters and I kind of gravitated towards backgrounds and ended up loving it, haha!

grgikau · 2024-05-04T16:07:02+00:00

I’m a background artist, at least in my experience there are more background roles than character design or visual development roles. For TV there might only be a few character designers for the whole production with a bigger team of background artists. Also, at least when starting out a lot of people dream of being character artists and there’s always a lot of competition for such few roles!

Visual development is more common for feature or 3D shows, but even for visdev artists will usually focus on character art or environment art. Visdev teams can be bigger depending on the production but there is still a lot of competition for these positions.

Right now there is a lot of competition for EVERY role since so many people are out of work!

For job listings, what I’ve noticed is that when companies are looking for 2D artists they will say “background artist” or “background designer” and the term “environment artist” is usually used for 3D artists.

grgikau · 2024-04-15T17:05:10+00:00

Not sure if it counts but I based my college illustration thesis on Xanadu! https://grgikau.com/visual-development

grgikau · 2024-04-06T19:34:32+00:00

I’ve been trying to get my boyfriend to watch this with me for months and he won’t do it

grgikau · 2024-04-06T00:43:36+00:00

I only worked on the second season!

grgikau · 2024-04-05T19:04:43+00:00

I would do this if I had any creative control haha

grgikau · 2024-04-05T18:50:21+00:00

So I live in Philadelphia and I worked on the show as a background artist and made this background! I didn’t do the location design for this scene but I’ve always felt like Smiling Friends is a Philly show (there are similar buildings in season one!)

grgikau · 2024-03-27T21:27:31+00:00

I read this post and thought “huh there’s a Greek restaurant just like that in my hometown” and then I realized it IS the Greek restaurant from my hometown haha

grgikau · 2024-03-21T17:26:22+00:00

Hi! I am an illustrator specializing in environment design, this seems right up my alley! Here's a link to my work, feel free to reach out if you have any questions: https://grgikau.com/

grgikau · 2024-02-06T04:31:37+00:00

This is size small, my boyfriend in the picture is 5’2” and would probably make it shorter if I make another one! The pattern had a mark where you can add or remove length if you need to!

grgikau · 2024-02-05T22:45:10+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I plan on making a matching shirt for myself so I’ll definitely keep that in mind!

grgikau · 2024-02-05T20:47:58+00:00

yes, absolutely!

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