Playwright and poet Oscar Wilde opined in his 1889 essay that “life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Wilde believed that art changes our perception of life. According to Cottonwood artist and animator Leo Beltran, life is his inspiration.
“Drawn to life, my illustrations always show the whimsical and magical side of this wonderful world,” he said.
Beltran is an optimist who sees the world through rose-colored glasses. It is Beltran’s dream to educate and inspire others to learn art.
Beltran grew up in Los Angeles, and knew from a very young age that he wanted to be an animator.
“As a kid, I just loved being around animals. I would draw animals and monsters and put them together like that typical little boy stuff,” Beltran said. I just never grew out of it. That was the thing, you know when other people started to think what they’re going to do with their life. I just thought this is the most fun thing in the world.”
His father, Robert Beltran, was an architect for the city of Los Angeles and says that he was a big influence in his life.
“I just thought that he had the most incredible job,” Leo Beltran said. “I would go up to the building that he was in — this was before the CAD system and computers — he had a huge drafting table. It was gigantic and he had pencils and paper. I just remember thinking like, oh, it was just so fun.”
Beltran says that he thought his father was living the dream working on drawings eight hours a day.
“He’s very mathematical and very precise in that way.” he said. “And that wasn’t my thing. But it had a huge influence and just wanted to draw for a living. I think just knowing that my dad drew and created for a living [was inspirational].”
“I just loved animation. And then when I found out, as a young kid, that to be an animator, you must be a traditional artist, or at least you must study in those realms— sculpting, painting, drawing —those three — I just put my whole heart into it,” Beltran said, adding that at the California Institute of the Arts program, “they wouldn’t even look at your portfolio unless you had nude human figure drawings. So, that was news to me. I thought this was just cartoons, but most don’t realize it’s all based on reality and locomotion of human anatomy and animal anatomy.”
“So, that’s where I started. I just loved animation, loved animals, I love drawing. And the older I got, the more I read about what was needed to work in the animation industry, the more I just dove into it,” he said.
As part of a high school program, Beltran studied under Dave Masters, who trained artists and animators.
“It was amazing,” Beltran said. “It was a rolling animation program in high school, and they just took students and turned them into animators. We were getting more people being hired from our school going to Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, DreamWorks, then the other big colleges, like CalArts or Art Center. So, I saw how it works. It works on a mentor system, where you train people, and they train people, and then they give them responsibilities. It’s just like this wonderful circle of life, you know.”
Masters brought the collective wisdom of animation professionals to a broad cross-section of young artists.
Whether it was to a low-income high school on the outskirts of Los Angeles or a Warner Brothers training program, it was Masters’ mission to give everyone a shot at becoming an animator. This became Beltran’s mantra.
Beltran briefly attended Pasadena Art School and quit to help his wife April raise their daughter, Monet. He worked for several Hollywood studios including DreamWorks, Nokia, Avaya, Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios doing storyboards and trailers, mostly for horror films and commercials, but realized he didn’t enjoy it.
An opportunity came up for his family to move to Hawaii and the timing was right.
“We didn’t know anything about Hawaii,” he said. “So anyway, I did some freelance at first keeping in touch with the studios, but at that time, they were not conducive to doing remote work and they wanted me in L.A.,” Beltran said. “And, at that time, April got pregnant with our second son, Titian, and so Hawaii just seemed like a perfect place to raise children.”
“I just put my art and my animation and figure drawing and everything on hold for that time — which was a little over 10 years,” he said. “We raised three children in Hawaii, and it was beautiful.”
The Beltrans’ journey took them to India, where they opened Dr. Beltran’s School of Animation and Visual Wonder, as an ode to Dr. Seuss.
“I went with the purpose of [trying to figure out] what can I do as an artist and animator,” Beltran said.
“One thing that really was apparent is that you can travel around the world, and everybody wants to have you as part of their community, everybody sees the benefit of education,” he said. “In India, I noticed that the animation schools there were all scams and the training was terrible … it just really hurt my heart.”
“Here’s something I love, I want to share with people — to me it’s part of God’s goodness — sharing art with everyone,” Beltran said. “So, I thought, oh, I’m going to open an animation school here …. We settled in Bangalore, India, where we have a studio and a school.”
The school operated for eight years before closing due to COVID-19, however, the Beltrans quickly went to work and created an online program. They plan on going back to India in May to reopen the school and workshops. His students have opportunities to work on professional real-time projects while completing their coursework. He says that he concentrates on concepts and skills and stresses the importance of creativity and imagination rather than just learning software.
In the meantime, Beltran has trained his own children, Monet, Titian and Raphael with his own coursework.
“I’ve been training them the whole time,” Beltran said. “I tried to draw with each one of them when they were young. They did not have a proclivity towards art at all. But it was the only thing I had to give them. I didn’t have anything else. As they started getting older, they began receiving affirmations and encouragement … they just started doing it on their own and they started building [their own identity]. I’m certainly very proud.”
He said that studio Beltran and Dr. Beltran School of Animation is for them.
As Beltran blazes his own trail that was inspired by his mentor Masters, he bequeaths his legacy of educating others in art and animation to his children. It is his wish to “pay it forward” with the intention that others will reciprocate.
Beltran will be at the Verde Valley Comic Expo on Saturday, March 26, at the Cottonwood Recreation Center’s Gym from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, visit verdevalleycomicexpo. com
