Meet The Animation Tutors
Garth, the owner and lead tutor of the Animation Tutors, is a freelance animator and illustrator with a bachelor degree in Animation from Sheridan College. Like so many students who apply today, Garth had to apply twice to be accepted; some apply many more times. While the process was more opaque then, he still felt that the expectations of students to even enter into the program had grown so competitive that it really required an entirely separate educational program than what students we’re receiving in highschool. Since Garth graduated, he began working as a portfolio tutor with The Animation Tutors’ sister company, PortPrep, to help to make the process a little bit easier for students.
Since there has proven to be such a need for an alternative art program for young teens or early artists, Garth stepped out on his own in 2024 to create the Animation Tutors, where we now hire back many of our past students to teach with us, and even work on the occasional freelance animation project!
With a genuine passion for supporting young artists, Garth finds immense joy in helping students bring their bold stories to life. Having experienced a similar journey himself, he deeply understands the challenges of aspiring artists and enjoys reflecting on the transformative process of students becoming the artists they were destined to be.
Teaching Philosophy
For almost 15 years, Garth has served as a dedicated mentor to students worldwide, guiding them on their journey to developing the numerous skills needed to pursue the demanding discipline of animation. Through his experience, he has recognized three key modes of study that are crucial to cultivate from an early age: classical studies, creative studies, and technical studies.
Classical studies are centered around enhancing technical drawing skills that often draw inspiration from external sources, be it from observation, reference images, or studying the masterworks. These exercises are not dependent on a written story or context but rather serve to expand knowledge and build muscle memory towards drawing. For instance, drawing a building from observation, or life drawing from a model exemplifies classical studies.
Creative studies encourage students to apply what they have learned from classical studies and channel their imagination into their artistic practice. In the context of animation, creative studies might involve creating storyboards or designing a lineup of characters for their own narrative. An example of this would be taking a building previously drawn and placing it in a new world, accentuating its personality to imbue it with a captivating story, or using a life drawing pose to inspire an imagined character’s pose.
Technical studies is about staying digitally literate, and knowing the best tools to use to assist you as a modern, digital artist or animator. While these skills are ones that you’ll undoubtedly learn as needed as you progress throughout your career, we feel that the soon you get started on learning the ropes, the better. Examples of this are compositing / editing an animatic in After Effects, animating in Procreate Dreams or TVPaint Animation, or rigging a character design in Moho.
We look forward to helping you with that!
Many other mentor or tutor companies usually focus on one or two of these, but we pride ourselves on accepting that all three are really necessary. Your creativity is always bound by the ways you can express it (the tools!), and by your foundational drawing skills. To properly learn about this incredibly rich discipline of animation, and to communicate this in your entry portfolio, is the challenge!
Meet our other Animation Tutors
Languages: English, Persian
What I’m best at: Background painting, understanding color and mood, perspective drawing and layout, environment design, world-building, and concept art.
Extra things to ask me about: I’m a current Sheridan student, specializing in background design and background painting. I really love environments, and I can help with anything related to backgrounds, color, or mood.
Feel free to ask me for help with rendering, polishing your artwork, or bringing a piece to a clean final stage. I’m happy to help with anything environment or background related.
Languages: English + Spanish
What I’m best at: Figure drawing, storyboarding, layout & scene composition, animatics, but I’m happy to provide feedback on any part of the portfolio.
Extra things to ask me about: Storytelling and filmmaking! I studied filmmaking in Cuba and love nerding out about film. I can also chat about maintaining your balance as an artist in a busy world, as I juggle this daily! I’m going into my 3rd year at Sheridan College.
Languages: English + Mandarin
What I’m best at: 2D animation, figure drawing, hand drawing, character design.
Extra things to ask me about: I’m a current student at Sheridan, so feel free to ask me about the life of being an animation student! I’m just going into my final year!
Languages: English
What I’m best at: Layout (Perspective, Environmental Drawings), 2D hand-drawn animation, gesture drawing, screen direction, & more!
Extra things to ask me about: I am graduate of Experimental Animation student at Emily Carr University. In addition, I volunteer with WIA as a student collective Co-Lead at ECUAD, where we focus on bridging the gaps of gender diversity in the animation industry. I am enthusiastic about indie-animation and other film projects.
Cultivating an Artistic Life after school
While Garth tutors and mentors students for significant portions of the year, he is still very active in his field as a freelance artist. He animates music videos, illustrates children’s books, and even rents an art studio to sell his original paintings in his quaint town of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Garth firmly believes that it isn’t enough for mentors for young artists to simply teach — they must keep their skills sharp and the their knowledge current in their field of study. He also attends a local life drive session as often as possible, see some recordings of his work below.
Occasionally, Garth has even hired back some of his best students to help him with his larger scale animation projects, often providing them their first gig as an animator.
“I absolutely love bringing past students into my professional projects! What a great way to give back to them for trusting me with their early artistic education. I hope to make this a bigger part of my practice in the future.”
This video was animated for the band Tragedy Ann, and involved a traditionally painted background combined with with multiple looped animal animations throughout, and is completed entirely in one shot! No cuts!
Another life drawing demonstration — now with fabric!
Here Garth showcases 3D Total’s book on Animal Anatomy.
Below, you can see a sample of Garth’s professional work as an illustrator.
Have a look at some of Garth’s work!
This comprises a small sampling of his many diverse projects, and will be updated regularly to reflect his newest works. He enjoys working with whimsical, imaginative, folk-tale based themes and stories, but welcomes many projects that allow him to grow as an artist.
Here Garth demonstrates some drawings he made at his local life drawing session.
Garth occasionally reviews products including anatomy maquettes and art study books.
FAQs
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The top choice for the majority of my students is Sheridan College, which aligns with my own background as well. In addition to Sheridan, many students also apply to other esteemed institutions such as Seneca College, CalArts, Capilano University, The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and, more recently, Gobelins in Paris.
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The success rate of my students has been steadily increasing year by year. In 2023, despite facing the toughest marking year on record (with a Domestic passing grade of 89% and an International passing grade of 95%), I am proud to share that I mentored a significant portion, around 10-15%, of the successful applicants who were accepted into Sheridan College's Animation bachelor program. You can find interviews with many of these students on my Testimonials page, showcasing their achievements and experiences.
To date, I have mentored over 100 students who have been accepted into their top-choice animation programs, helping them achieve their dreams in the field of animation.
At this point in time, I’ve mentored over 100 students who’ve been accepted into their top school choices.
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The primary reason to work with me as your animation tutor is the significant education gap between high-school art programs and the expectations of Colleges and Universities. Many students have completed all art courses in high school, but still lack essential knowledge in perspective drawing, which is crucial for advanced art studies. To understand the level of skill expected by institutions like Sheridan College, you can explore examples of my past students' work on my Past Student Work page.
Unfortunately, the preparation provided by senior-level art courses in high school may be inadequate for the rigorous demands of post-secondary animation programs. Similarly, general preparatory art courses in post-secondary institutions, like Art Fundamentals, might not be focused enough on the specific requirements of animation. This is where my programs excel - they are tailor-made to precisely address the needs and challenges of animation as a discipline.
I understand firsthand the struggle of excelling in high-school art classes, only to feel lost when assembling an animation portfolio for Sheridan College. It was this personal experience that led me to create these courses and mentorships, with the aim of helping students who feel similarly bewildered in creating an impressive animation portfolio that meets the highest standards. My dedication lies in assisting students in achieving their animation dreams, just as I wished for guidance during my own journey.
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While my expertise lies in Animation and Illustration, I collaborate with a wonderful partner company called PortPrep. PortPrep caters to a diverse range of fields, including Architecture, Design, Interior Design & Decorating, and various art programs tailored for youth who are in the early stages of building their artistic skills.
Additionally, I have the privilege of teaching at their Animation Summer Camp held annually in Guelph, Ontario, where young aspiring animators can learn and explore the fascinating world of animation during the summer months.