How do you get inside the head and heart of a princess to tell her story?
As one of the only Disney artists to actually come from a real kingdom, Fawn Veerasunthorn turned to her memories of the princesses from Thai folklore she read as a child.
“I loved reading those things when I worked on this movie,” Fawn said of her storyboard work on “Frozen,” Disney’s frosty fairy tale which took home the Oscar for best animated feature earlier this month.
In an interview today, the Chonburi-born artist said she was totally unprepared for the outpouring of pride from her homeland after a picture of her clutching the iconic award went viral two days after the Academy Awards ceremony.
The image of Fawn holding the Oscar statue won by her team for Frozen happened ‘”just for fun.” Photo: Fawn Veerasunthorn
Twelve years ago Fawn was in her first year of medical school at Mahidol University after graduating from Triam Udom Suksa school in Bangkok. Proving her Bangkok bonafides, Fawn said she was too busy taking cram classes in high school to really think about what she wanted for her future.
It turned out that medical school wasn’t it.
“I’d always been drawing, but I didn’t think it could be a career, and I didn’t like doing art homework,” she said. At Mahidol, “everyone was passionate about what they were studying, but I felt that it wasn’t for me.”
However, like many students she would sketch and draw in her free time, often carefully copying illustrations from her favorite Japanese manga.
But instead of just daydreaming about making it a career, Fawn took action. She assembled a portfolio and sent it to Paitoon Ratanasiritrawoot, another Triam Udom graduate then working for Disney in Florida.
There was no program in Bangkok at the time for what Fawn wanted to study, so with Paitoon’s guidance, she dropped out of Mahidol and left Thailand at 19 to the unlikely destination of Ohio to study at the same school her mentor had attended.
Images from Frozen courtesy Walt Disney Animation Studios
After graduating from the Columbus College of Art and Design, Fawn did as many do looking to break into the industry. She moved to Los Angeles, and three years later was hired by Disney.
Now she’s paid to draw, draw and draw every day.
“It’s really cool to work with creative and open-minded people every day,” she said. “Everyone really listens, it’s not just the the directors making decisions, it’s really a team process.”
Two other Thais were also on the Frozen team: visual development artist Sunny Apinchapong and effects apprentice Rattanin Sirinaruemarn.
It was Dumbo who left the biggest Disney impression on a young Fawn.
She credits – or perhaps blames – her parents for her love of the character.
“I watched Dumbo a lot because my parents kept playing it on VHS,” she said. “I really love animal stories, and as I grew up I really connected with strong female characters, so I really liked Mulan when it came out.”
Character sketch from Frozen, courtesy Walt Disney Animation Studios
That admiration for strong women proved a good match for Frozen, as did her relationships with her sisters.
“When I was working on Frozen I found myself really connected with Elsa,” she said. “We would be working on the story and I’d think to myself, ‘She wouldn’t do that!’”
Fawn’s experiences are visible in the characters. In a pivotal scene, Elsa the Snow Queen’s secret is accidentally revealed to her sister Anna. Fawn said her relationships helped her create a more emotionally nuanced portrayal than how it was written.
She decided the situation called for “more of a sadness that you’re losing your sister, and as I realized that, I started drawing her that way.”
Fawn’s next project for Disney is Zootopia, which is described on the Internet Movie Database as: “a fast-talking fox who’s trying to make it big goes on the run when he’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit.”
Yeah, that sounds pretty Disney.
Meanwhile Los Angeles seems to have become home. Although Fawn returns every couple years to Thailand to visit her family, she’s fallen in love with that other City of Angels’ weather and ethnic diversity.
But she’s still Thai. Asked what she likes most about Los Angeles:
“The food’s good!”
“Skate kitty” courtesy Fawn Veerasunthorn
“All the ladies at the red carpet…and a minion” courtesy Fawn Veerasunthorn
“We had a big storm last weekend. It’s nice to actually see a season in Southern California once in a while” courtesy Fawn Veerasunthorn
More of Fawn’s work can be seen on her Tumblr.
Related:
Thai Disney Story Artist with Oscar in her hand shared all over the web
