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MEET Jessica Martinez, a 24-year-old freelance animator and illustrator. Chances are you have seen her works being shared online. Most especially if you’re a fan of Disney Princesses and Harry Potter, incidentally both her favorites.

Jessica’s works have been featured on such websites as Pop Sugar, Design Taxi, and BuzzFeed, among her minimalist GIFs (graphics interchange formats). Growing up, Jessica or Jeca for short, has always been creative.

A busy day for her would be filled with art projects—drawing, creating flip books, and even writing her own stories.

She’s one of those kids who keep tuned to Art Attack and recreate the crafts. Obviously, her next favorite thing to do is to read books when she’s not busy with arts and crafts. It’s no surprise that she took an art course in college.

She started honing her craft in high school after getting acquainted with digital art. It was the time she learned Photoshop and Flash in computer class. From there, her illustrations came to life and her adorable
GIF obsession began.

Little did she know that these wonderful creations would land her a college scholarship. She was torn between taking courses such as digital filmmaking, animation, and multimedia arts. In the end, she went for something that could give her a bit of everything. Jeca took a full scholarship at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, majoring in Multimedia Arts.

At present she spends her day creating “delightfully entertaining art and animation for kids and kids at heart,” which is how she describes her style. Her art, indeed, is very adorable and such a delight.
It brings back childhood memories and can easily put a smile on your face.

Her specialties are illustrations, GIFs and custom animated eCards, whether they’re commissioned or just for fun. She has worked with Hansel Crackers for a series of cute friendship quotes. Hallmark has commissioned her, too, for holiday-theme animated eCards. You can even purchase her delectable drawings
through Society6 and Red Bubble, from art prints or in the form of T-shirts, gadget cases, tote bags and the like.

When asked who are the artists she looks up to, she names Glen Keane and Claire Keane. This father and
daughter are known for their works for Disney. Jeca hopes that one day she, too, can animate life and emotions as beautiful as Glen and Claire can.

The whimsical art style of female artists Lorelay Bové and Mary Blair also inspires her. Jeca also dreams of working for the likes of Google. But her lifelong dream job is with animation studios—Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network.

Jeca is definitely one of today’s up and coming “yuccies” (young creative professionals). She’s got the talent and positivity which are evident in her art. There’s so much life and joy in it that you know this is what she’s made for.

Good thing she doesn’t take it for granted. She believes in hard work and that success is earned, not given. Her advice to aspiring artists is that they have to create their own opportunities. Don’t wait
for things to happen. They just have to keep creating beautiful things and the world will soon notice—just like it did to her.