VOFFLA’S SPOTLIGHT ON AMAZING ARTISTS: LAMONT AGYEKUM

Today we would like to introduce you to the incredibly talented and interesting artist Lamont Agyekum, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing.

Lamont Agyekum is a first generation Ghanaian-Trinidadian American artist, born and raised in Minnesota. Growing up, he was always enamored with animation, however he found live action repetitive.

In High school, Lamont originally desired to study mechanical engineering but felt little fulfillment in the world of numbers and formulas. It was then that he discovered his love for learning foreign languages. Growing up in a multicultural household, Lamont was already familiar with foreign languages. Seeing that his Father spoke English and Twi, it felt like the natural thing to do, which helped motivate Lamont to continue studying foreign languages into his college years at the University of Minnesota.

While studying at the University of Minnesota, Lamont studied Chinese, Japanese and French simultaneously. He used these new found skills to help make connections with all walks of life. Including many of the international students, whom he otherwise may not have been able to communicate with.

During his junior year in college, Lamont decided to study abroad in Japan for a year to advance his understanding of the Japanese language and culture. The spring of that same year, he decided to challenge himself, and travel to China for 3 weeks. His goal being to speak only Chinese his entire stay.

After returning from China that year, Lamont found himself alone in his dorm. (Spring break in Japan is around 2 months long, as it is the only extended vacation time during the school year.) Due to that, the other international students were still traveling. With new found time on his hands, Lamont decided he needed a new hobby.

That’s when he made the decision to study art. Lamont had always loved animation growing up, but didn’t realize it would be possible to attempt it himself.

At first Lamont only sought to fill his time, until his friends returned to the dorm from traveling. He started drawing fan art of his favorite characters, and learning to mimic the styles of his favorite artists. Lamont spent most of his nights and mornings during that spring break drawing.

As Lamont’s study abroad experience was coming to an end, he decided that he wanted to try animating. He downloaded an Adobe Flash trial and made his first stick animation. Lamont recalls seeing YouTube videos like these as a kid and, and then realized it was now possible for him too: this far off unattainable world was actually in the realm of possibilities.

So Lamont made it his mission to learn how to draw even better, and spent every minute of the day perfecting his craft.

Lamont graduated from the University Of Minnesota in 2017. The next step was moving to LA.

His parents while supportive, were not sure it was realistic to attempt to work in the animation industry right out of college. Knowing Lamont had no professional experience in the field yet, believed that it would be more stable to work at a local business in town.

But Lamont was determined, and spent the next 6 months from 6am to midnight applying to jobs, and updating his portfolio. That’s when preparation met opportunity. An alumni from the University of Minnesota happened to be working at Warner Brothers at the time. She saw the fruits of Lamont’s self-starter mentality in his art portfolio, and his foreign language studies. Intrigued by this young man’s work ethic and goals, she told him to fly out to LA, promising to introduce Lamont to her colleagues and other professionals in the industry.

Still not landing a job since graduating, Lamont found himself in a difficult financial position. Despite this, he immediately started working on his uncle’s food truck in order to save money. Eventually, Lamont made the impossible, possible and saved up enough money to fly out to LA to have those meetings.

While in Los Angeles, Lamont was able to take a peek behind the curtain, and see how animation is made; everything from pre to post-production. After meeting professionals in the field, and seeing how all these jobs correlate to each other, Lamont decided that he wanted to become a storyboard artist.

After a few informational interviews at Warner Brothers, and other nearby studios, Lamont flew back to Minnesota more determined than ever to land his first job.

There was not much news after his adventure to California. However, Lamont refused to give in, and continued to work on his portfolio. About 6 months after his return, Warner Brothers called Lamont offering him a Production Assistant position on the feature film SCOOB!. Lamont didn’t have to think twice about it. He gathered up what he had, and moved to LA.

While working on SCOOB!, Lamont learned the inner workings of the feature production pipeline. How the smallest changes in the script affect what props are made, how entire sequences of storyboards are drawn, and how everything is strung together in edit.

Being around all of these creatives gave Lamont the opportunity to passively learn while on the job, particularly, what makes a successful storyboard. Because he was able to watch his coworkers board sequences of the movie, Lamont was motivated to try it out for himself. On February 2019 Lamont posted his very first storyboard to YouTube. “Miraculous Ladybug – Ready as I’ll Ever Be” ; a fan animatic of the popular TV show Miraculous Ladybug: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Lamont saw the popularity of the show online, and decided to try and add to the fandom, and make a name for himself. Despite Lamont only starting to draw in 2016, and this being his first storyboard, his video has garnered over 12 million views on YouTube! In the short time he has been out here, Lamont has made some serious waves. Fans were so impressed and touched by his work, they requested part 2.

Check out part 1 and the anticipated part 2 below.

When asking what his current goal is, Lamont told me he would love to work as a storyboard revisionist to get his start.

While he has not attained his goals just yet, Lamont is still honing his skills, and some of his peers are taking notice. Lamont has been working as a storyboarding consultant on TV pitches and projects his friends have been developing. Due to Lamont’s multicultural and multilingual background, he also finds himself assisting in cultural portrayals on screen, as well as translation. He even finds time to tutor other animation professionals in Japanese, since he is conversationally fluent.

I asked Lamont what his dream job would be.

With sparkles in his eyes he replied:

“My dream job would be to create multiple animated TV shows with a focus on social issues. There are so many shows that have taken a stance on something; Steven Universe on LGTBQ, self acceptance, and inclusion, Star Vs The Forces of Evil which took a stance on systematic racism and the rewriting of history, Even The Amazing World of Gumball would sneak in talks about our current socio-economic situation. I would like to create shows that not only entertain people, but fill them with some validation in themselves as well.”

4 years ago, Lamont couldn’t draw at all. He was under the impression that drawing was a skill that you are born with. But, after undergoing his linguistic journey Lamont has learned to persevere despite what you might think is possible. He strongly believes that you become great at something by putting effort into it. If Lamont could learn multiple languages, he could learn how to become an amazing artist. And he has!

Here is a Japanese quote Lamont wanted to share: あなたの国籍がどこであろうと、あなたの頑張り次第で何でも学ぶことができます

(No matter what your nationality may be, as long as you work hard you can learn anything!)