1.

The process of designing the characters started with a test animation that our studio created for
Mattel in order to secure the project out of a number of other studios. the Designs for the test werent of
any established characters. I designed 2 girls, one roughly like Raven (gothy) and the other one roughly
like Apple (blond). It was a long process to get the final designs approved and I remember getting
frustrated but finally something clicked haha. When it came to the actual show, the designs depended
on whether Mattel already had a doll/package dedign or not. If they did we would just design their
drawing but in our established style. The final style took some time to develop, and because the show
was going to be made in Harmony which was 2d but kind of like rigged pieces so it would be easy to
design costumes with a lot of details and move them around (but not freely rotate them), we wanted to
have an elaborate beautiful illustrated look to the show like fairy tale books. That's where we made the
design of the hair for example more intentional than the package design so that it looked good in every
frame. I designed turnarounds too which is 5 views of each character - front, 3/4 front, profile, 3/4 back
and back and the hair had to look good in each view but also match so that animation was seemless for
when the characrers moved. We used a lot of fashion refs from all kinds if sources to design stuff that
wasn't provided by Mattel, I would buy fashion magazines and observe what people wore in the street to
give a modern fairy tale fashion look to the characters.

2. The designs of the main girls were provided to us most of the time, but the other designs and outfit
changes that I had to come up with were primarily designed to look harmonious and aesthetically
pleasing. Colour combinations are very important for example. Unlike Monster High, we opted for
colours and shapes that were softer and more classically beautiful, and we weren't shy about including
lots of ornamental details! This would not have worked on a show that didn't allow the budget for so
much detail, like most shows. But since I love intricate details in fashion I was very happy we could do
that. Fashion choices needed to look good too, and I would often design 4 or 4 different design (for
example, 4 or 5 different dresses) sketches that the art director chose from (sometimes combining hair
from 1, shoes from 3, and dress from 5 for example) before drawing the clean design.

3. I was inspired of course by Rococo aesthetics, and perhaps also by the artist Mucha. We wanted a lot
of swirls and decorative flair elements. My mom's house had a bunch of traditional furniture and china
like that. I am a reference queen so I always collect tons of references because it makes the design stage
go more smoothly and quickly, when you are inspired. So there are too many refs to name specific ones,
I just pulled in everything that seemed relevant from instagram, fashion mags, etc. In that way it's really
that kind of thing where the job never ends. But it's ok because it's enjoyable. I mean I love fashion so I
was happy.

4. The main thing that got redesigned from my memory were actually the backgrounds. They started out
kind of more cartoony and eventually the art direction decided to make them less 'wacky' and more
realistic to match the realism and detail of the characters. We did redesign the characters but it wasn't in
a major way. One thing I remember well is the shins were at first more curved but then we made them
more straight. So it was mainly small anatomical things like that.

5. Yes I can, and this has nothing to do with the art. But I remember there was a time when I had to stay
in the office all night to meet a deadline and I started hearing children laughing. I was alone and I looked
all over to see if someone forgot their phone and I couldn't find anywhere where the sound might be
coming from. It would happen at intervals and was quite creepy. Then my good friend Scott (the art
director of the show) came in to also do some work, and I told him 'there's ghosts here and I'm going
home lol.. have fun!' The next day he said 'I heard it too!' and to this day we don't know what it was.
Later our coworker San who was on backgrounds I believe told us that he saw a ghost once himself and I
was like wow.. so that's my funny story.

6. I found it really cool when they made a doll of my design of Courtly. Although the official doll didn't
have the same hair I did see some people make their own versions which had that hair swirl covering
one eye, and it was cool to design an evil female character with short hair. I also enjoyed designing Baba
Yaga because I grew up with Russian fairy tales, being Russian-born myself. Also the old witches, the evil
sisters, the background characters in Way Too Wonderland were a lot of fun- I love me a little crazy and
the neon colours. But honestly I loved designing anything on that show, there was always something
interesting to explore.

7. The background character based on me I suppose! The girl in the Fairies Pijamas looking clothing and
glasses with short brown/green hair. I actually didn't design that one. The other one I would say is the
Dutch Boy who uses his finger to plug the water. He is based on my son's dad's other son Isaac- before I
had my own son and he was about 10. He was a really cool kid (still is) and I was happy to have a chance
to include him in the show. Oh and of course the background character based on my best friend at the
time and co-worker Bora Nah. She is the Korean girl with a green dress and curly hair. Bora made my
experience on the show that much more amazing and I am so grateful for her companionship and
honesty. She's also a fiercely fast and talented designer herself. She started off as a shy newby on the
show and by the end of our time on the show grew in confidence and was wearing show-inspired
Victorian fashion such as dresses with lace etc.

8. I'd say Princess Aubergine, which is the Indian background girl character. Although I personally didn't
research many fairytales outside of ones I already knew- most research was strictly fashion related- such
as dresses at the Oscars.

9. Well of course everything in Ever After was softer and more traditionally pretty so we softened her
look by making her dress and hair longer and fuller and giving her feather wings and gold accessories
rather than silver. But actually her EAH design was provided to us, we just had to draw it in our style.

10. For me the dragons were a bit challenging- only because once I designed the main one (Apple's) that
the others would be based on, and the design was approved, I changed my mind and redesigned it to
where I thought it looked better but the newere design was rejected, possibly because there wasn't
enough time for a redesign anymore. At the time I was very sad about that because sometimes as a
designer you draw something that you think looks good but then after looking at it later you realize it's
garbage. Sometimes you only see your 'mistakes' afterwards because you can't really be on the ball ALL
the time. But now looking back I wasn't so sure I was right because now I like the dragon designs. Maybe
they would have looked a bit too 'reptilian' otherwise (even though the toy ended up looking completely
different anyway) And I love the baby dragon designs that I did too! If anyone wants to 3d print one and
send it to me let me please know haha!

IG: babybeebones