Experimentation. It’s one of the best parts of art. What do you like? What don’t you like? It’s a way to both discover who you are and to train yourself to work in different ways you would have never thought of. Robin Sherbondy is one of those artists that has the ability to tell themselves to try something new, and best of all, deliver.
Today I will be sharing with you an interview I had with Robin Sherbondy. So! Let’s dive on into it.
Who are you!?
“I’m Robin Sherbondy, more frequently known as Its_Sherboi online, and I like making freaky cartoons and animations! My most prevalent self-made series that I work within is the Sunrise Journal, a post-apocalypse western that follows an investigative journalist as she uncovers the mysteries behind the appearance of plant-based zombies across the continent.“
There’s a lot of experimenting in your work, I see things for animations, games, illustrations, etc. What makes you want to experiment?
“I do try to experiment as much as I can with my art. I think it’s healthy for an artist to be able to explore freely, it’s really liberating to not have any hardcore boundaries for an art style. For me, I just like mastering as many skills as I can. I want each project I do to experiment with something I’ve never tried before, whether it be animation style, rendering, or something completely experimental. Art is at its best for me when there’s something new to learn.“
Are there any concepts, themes, or characters that you like to explore? Any reoccurrences of things you like? How do you go about doing that?
“As I mentioned before, I really enjoy working in post-apoc and sci fi genres. I feel that even though I’m a very cartoony artist, I still love designing props and characters with a lot of functional aspects. Science fiction lends me that outlet a lot. Robots especially are very fun for me to make. I love imagining how every piece fits into place, and thinking of ideas on how they should logically work within their world. I’ve also been working more in horror as well, and I think it ironically works pretty well with my cartoony style. My friends have always told me that I do these pretty creepy face drawings whenever we do drawing games together. I did it at first to be funny, but after a while I thought to myself, “Hey, these ARE pretty creepy. I can use this”. Combining my uncanny drawings with my normal style creates this really jarring contrast that I don’t think a lot of people have tried before, and I think that extreme contrast escalates the horror to a new level that feels unique to me and my art.”
Your characters are very distinct and have their own charm. How did you go about making them?
“Character design is definitely my favorite aspect of art and animation. I strive to design each of my characters with designs that are completely unique to them and help you understand them without ever seeing them move or act. I think the main thing that defines my style of character design is my use of simple shapes and dramatic proportions to bring each character to life. Each character has their own major design quirk to help them stand out, whether it be dorky oversized glasses, robotically proportioned limbs, or literally having half of their face missing. My main cast of characters in The Sunrise Journal are my favorite designs by far, so I’ll talk some more about those. Carter Hoffman is the character I’ve spent the longest on, and her design feels pretty personal to me after all this time. She’s a wannabe-adult trying to have her voice heard in a world that seems inherently hostile to creatives, something that I think a lot of young artists can relate to. She, like other young creatives, gets into her own head a lot and strives for her own definition of success, at any cost.”
Is there a big project you’re working on, sort of like your main goal to get finished?
“Right now, I have a couple of projects that I’m juggling on me right now. Depending on when this interview gets released, they may already be partially or entirely completed. I have a lot of plans for this summer, however. Expect a lot of animatics coming from me for the Sunrise Journal, as well as some new animations that I’m planning as well! One of my more defined plans is an animated introduction to each of my characters, and I already have (most) of my voice actors for it, which is really exciting! And yes, I do plan on having more horror elements in it, which I know is what a lot of people enjoy in my art. I’m definitely going to lean into that aspect a lot with my senior project next year, so stay tuned!”
For your Sunrise Journal series, what would you say sets your zombies apart from others?
“I really want my zombies to feel unique in their own special way, so they operate a bit differently than the traditional rules. My zombies stem from a plant-based parasite that roots itself in the victim’s spine, siphoning nutrients and water from their host. They don’t spread through your classic zombie bite, no. They spread through the seeds of a spinefruit plant, which grows from the spine roots of most zombies. When they’ve grown large enough to sprout a flower, they enter a sort of “stasis” stage. During this time, which can last anywhere between a couple days to multiple decades, the progression for the infection is halted as it continues to grow along the host’s nervous system. At any point after this, the root can “snap” from within the spine, instantly killing its victim and replacing its neural input with that of the plant. At this point, the host is now a “true” zombie.
I’m very fond of this interpretation because it draws more attention to the societal implications of integrating zombies into the human world, rather than it just being a quick infection that devours its host in a matter of days. When paired with a character who is a journalist for a living like Carter Hoffman, I think there are a lot of interesting stories you can tell about living in a unique world like this.
I’ve always been a fan of western-zombie fusions like you see in RDR Undead, and I don’t feel like the subgenre is explored quite enough. A lot of post apoc stories set themselves within realistic modern environments, so I wanted to try something different by pulling from a lot of the western worlds that I loved seeing growing up (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Rango, RDR, etc) and fusing them with the genre in a creative way.”
Come Together!
I hope this interview inspired you as much as it’s inspired me. We all need to keep trying in this world and try something new! So, if you made it to the end of this, try choosing a material, format, genre, or something you’ve never used before in art, and use it!
As for myself, I’ll be optimistically waiting for the Sunrise Journal to debut one day. But for now I’ll just have to stick to Project Zomboid and The Walking Dead. Robin, I’m counting on you to expand the media collection of all zombie fans!
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