Twice on his education path Allen Helbig had an epiphany about changing his career. The first time he realized he was not in the right place was during the first year in veterinary school. When given a task to put animals to sleep, Mr. Helbig decided that he certainly didn’t want to do that for the rest of his professional career. He then decided to get a degree in math to become a math teacher. The next three years of his education were spent in the field of scientific precision. One day sitting in math class during a lecture on Linear Algebra, Allen Helbig looked around the classroom and thought to himself: “I don’t belong here.”

He suddenly realized that up to that moment in his life, he was conscientiously choosing to have a well-respected and ordinary job. And yet no ordinary job could provide him the opportunity to express his creative genius. After the second turning point in his education, finally he decided to do what he truly loves. ​

“At that point I said to myself: ‘You know what, I’m going to start art!”

Allen Helbig went home that day and told his parents about his decision to become an artist. His parents were supportive of his decision. In fact, every member of his family praised him for finally choosing art as a field of study and not just a hobby.

“I didn’t want to study art from the beginning because I thought that if it was my job, I would end up hating it.”

Allen Helbig is now an up and coming contemporary American illustrator and graphic designer. He has been an art director for many children’s books and video games such as Daffy Duck for President, My First Picture Word Book, The Art of Space Jam and others. Those works were  based on the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes characters. He also raises money for CalArts summer school program which provides high school students with the opportunity to get a 10 week course in their field of study and also a possible scholarship for admission to a university of their choice.    

​Mr. Helbig, what serves as an inspiration for you to create cartoon characters?

“I do it mainly for myself. It is very selfish. I like to draw funny things that will make me happy, make me laugh, and what will make other people laugh as well.”

When did your passion for art first emerge?
“I’ve been drawing my entire life. I remember in the kindergarten, I would sit in front of the TV with a paper and a pencil and just draw what I would see. Typically, it was cartoons. I think it was because I liked what I saw and wanted to make it.”

​What is your strength as an artist?
“I have a good sense of humor. I tend to look at things not in the traditional way but rather in my own. That is one of the aspects that they count on me at ABC Mouse. I’m also older than a lot of my colleagues and, thus, I introduce ideas that have a lot of old comedy influence. Sometimes I find a great joke from an old movie that I will use as an inspiration. I think it goes back to my desire to make people laugh.” 
​

Do you sometimes incorporate real people’s personalities in your characters?
“Not by choice (laughs). When I worked for Warner Bros., there were a couple of times I had to draw real people. And that was completely out of my comfort zone. I could do it, I just didn’t want to. It’s easier for me to do cartoon characters than other things.”

​Where do you see animation heading towards as an industry in the future? 
“There is a huge desire for computer animation nowadays but I think a lot of people may get tired of that soon. There might be a return to traditional animation, hand-drawing style.  Because when people see traditional animation they admire it very much. So I think in the near future there might be a step back. 

​
​How much freedom of expression do you get as an illustrator? 
“At my first art job back in New Jersey, we were drawing a lot of old Nickelodeon characters. Even though we used a style guide as a reference, we were allowed to introduce our own changes in the existing standard looks of characters. That was what the retailers wanted - they wanted to see something different than a simple copy of the existing characters. And that was great. Because I started drawing those characters, I got in at Warner Bros. But as soon as I started working at WB, I was told to ‘Use these poses only’ for characters. For studio one had no control there, no say whatsoever. There are at least 50 people above you who will tell you ‘No, you’re not allowed to improvise.’ So, there was no creative control at Warner Bros. at all and that was the main reason that I left.”

​But you were an art director at WB, right?
“Yes. In our group we made all the video games, books, and music for kids. I was hired to a brand new department to take charge of that. It was a lot of fun but like I said, you get to a certain point when you want to push the limit a little further but you are not allowed to. Here, at ABC mouse, I have freedom to create. They actually count on me to push the envelope.”

What would be your advice to the beginners in the fields of animation and graphic design? I see a lot of first year students at Woodbury who are struggling with their classes. And I know that it’s very hard in the beginning.
“It is. Everyone goes to school and they have a track that they’re on. They learn ‘A, B, C, D’. But when they get out of school and get into a job, they are not doing exactly what they learned but many other tasks instead. My main advice would be, and I wish somebody has told me this, to study everything you possibly can. Because you never know what is going to help you in your career. It could be something strange and completely out of your field of study that will end up feeding your future work as a professional. Apart from that, if you are an artist you have to constantly draw. I think experience is huge. And not just drawing on your own, but also finding ways to get experience from other people. Find an internship, for example, or work at a summer job site.  

"My main advice would be, and I wish somebody has told me this, to study everything you possibly can."

“There are some times in the middle of the night when I’ll have an idea and that keeps me up. And there will be times when I meet people and I’ll be hundreds of miles away because I’m drawing in my head. And it’s ridiculous because they’re thinking that I’m working on a cure for ca​ncer or something very important when I’m just trying to figure out how to draw a certain pose for some character.”

Allen Helbig is a man of reason, art, and humor. He turns each of his hobbies into a meaningful work that benefits not only himself but also the public. He is open to share with people his art, his experience and, most importantly, his humor-guided positive attitude.  There is both a strict logic and unique creativity in Mr. Helbig’s approach to life. And that’s his key to success.

To find Allen Helbig's art,  follow him on Instagram or go here.

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