Carol Kilbanks

Having the passion to draw from the age of 3, Cotty was obsessed with the beautiful bird drawings of John James Audubon. She would spend countless hours drawing birds at her hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania, oddly enough, the home of Crayola Crayons. After a suggestion from my college friend, Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, and director of Coraline), she began a career in animation while she lived in New York City, New York. After working on many TV commercials like Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisps, Alpha Bits, and many animated TV specials such as The Berenstain Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, upon countless others. After she re-located to Los Angeles, California and found herself a position working for Warner Brothers (Taz of Tazmania, Warner Brothers Classics), Nickelodeon (Rocko's Modern Life), Marvel New World (Iron Man and The Fantastic Four), Fred Wolf Films (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), South Park, designed toys for Disney, and many more (see IMDB)

Soon after being asked to teach an after-school program in Cartooning, she became hooked on teaching kids. Initially juggling an animation job and art classes before finally accepting a teaching jobs with the California Institute of Art, the Laguna College of Art, the American Animation Institute (Screen Cartoonists Local 841 - animation union), the Conejo Park and Recreation District including Dos Vientos and Borchard Community Centers, Pleasant Valley Recreation Center, Thousand Oaks Teen Center, the City of Lancaster, the City of Oxnard, Palmdale Park and Recreation district, the City of Monterey, and she has also been a guest speaker at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Currently producing her own cartoons and having just opened Cotty's Cartoon and Art Studio. With this new exciting endeavor her primary goal is to provide children with a supportive and nurturing atmosphere geared towards teaching every aspect of drawing, painting, sculpting, etc. and all the technical skills behind each. She makes a practice of teaching her students, not just the knowledge and techniques needed to become an exceptional artist, but also trying to spark the fire inside every person she works with, allowing them to use all forms of art as a means of expressing themselves as individuals.

You can read more about her and the studio at: http://cottyscartoonandartstudio.art.officelive.com