Christina Faraj

www.christinafaraj.com Traditional and CG Artist, currently working at Pixar Animation Studios.

[christinafaraj]

Wow!! Literally couldn't be happier! Pixar's Renderman Community page took my set I created when I was PUP in summer of 2015 and turned it into a downloadable copy that artists can use for look development and to learn shading and lighting! This is incredible for artists still in school who can't model sets of their own! I heard this might even turn into a Renderman official exercise ;)! Thankful that this set lives on because I still love it with my whole heart to this day!

Here’s the link to check it out!

https://community.renderman.pixar.com/article/1767/kitchen-pup-asset-1.html

[christinafaraj]

Aerith;HealingWind by Christina Faraj.

Created for a Final Fantasy VII Zine curated by Alex Barsky.

[christinafaraj]

🎶Raindrops keep falling on my head☔️🎶 Realized I haven't updated my tumblr in a while and I want to get in the habit of using this much more! So here's to the first post of a new chapter of being back on here! Woot woot! (at Pixar)

[christinafaraj]

www.facebook.com/unmaskedshortfilm/

Hey Everyone, welcome to our BIG introduction! Here is the poster and first sneak peak of our upcoming film, Unmasked.

Our names are Christina Faraj and Alice Gavish! We are directing and producing our very own original story, full 3D animation short film in our final year as Seniors at the School of Visual Arts.

We are so excited to FINALLY bring you along this incredible journey that we have enjoyed every second of being on.

We hope you enjoy this page to keep up with all the updates we will bring to you from now until the release of the film in May 2016.

When we started this journey in September our team was just us two, but over time expanded to an international team of over 30 people who all came together to create something bigger than we ever could've imagined.

Stay tuned for more exciting imagery, trailers, and posters to come soon! :)

[christinafaraj]

I AM BACK!

Hey everyone, wow. Sorry this has been a pretty crazy year and another one has already been in full swing! I promise to start posting more on here, but for starters I thought I would share with you guys what has been going on.

I just got back from my summer internship at Pixar Animation Studios exactly a month from today. I was a PUP (Pixar Undergraduate Program Intern) which is a technical direction training internship. It was absolutely amazing in so many ways that I honestly can’t explain. The experience, the laughs, all the things we’ve learned from the incredible mentors that helped us along the way and all the most wonderful moments I have made there with people who have become family to me, is something I will carry with me forever and never forget. It completely changed my life and I couldn’t be more grateful to have been apart of something so special.

I learned and took with me one major important thing from my summer there, the power of mentorship. So the day after I got back to NYC I had set up a meeting with my chairperson in my department and pitched the idea of starting a program that allows people connect, ask questions, and make friendships with the upper classmen. Just gain general guidance and support about almost anything. To help people grow in social, technological, and learning skills. Boost encouragement to be curious,  confident, and hopeful for the future years of at the School of Visual Arts and beyond. I know how hard it is to be a freshman/sophomore and be confused. For some people it is an entirely new time in a new country, with a new group of friends and colleagues and to ask a question might be hard and uncomfortable for some. But now things have changed because they have a place to be comfortable to ask questions no matter how small or big. This will not only hopefully help them now but in the future to always talk about questions, ideas and suggestions with people. My chairperson and I have not only reached our entire department of students but we are also working with people in Zimbabwe, Africa and Hanoi, Vietnam!

I am also co-directing my very own short film with my thesis partner Alice Gavish! We are absolutely so excited to be doing this! We have created a story and a world we feel super passionate about. We can’t wait to share our journey along the way! Give me a little more time before I create a website for us, but it will be up soon enough :)!

Let's see where this year goes! I can't wait to take you guys along for the ride!

Best Wishes,

xoxo Christina Faraj

[christinafaraj]

New semester, new moleskin! This is my first double page down! Definitely obsessed with moleskins at this point.. I think now it is officially a double digit of the amount I have collected these past two years. They are just sooooooooo nice!

Also I was playing around with noses, which heads up you will see in a lot of upcoming work of mine, I like them when they are funky!

:)

[christinafaraj]

Here's a piece I have left for a while but am starting to come back to! The first is the cleaner scan of it, but the second one I like in particular cause this scan picked up all the very small details on the page itself. A bunch of different pieces inspired this. I love inking on physical paper and then bringing it into digital the lines feel more organic to me that way.

Hope you enjoy :)

[christinafaraj]

Even though we are in the middle of our last weeks of school before winter break starts and all I should be working on is my finals, I was told out about an amazing gallery show that the Visual AIDS Foundation was holding in the upcoming months where artists can donate one piece of artwork and have it be sold to people who come to the show! All profits go to the foundation and I absolutely had to be apart of this! So I took a day off of my hectic schedule, and feel so happy that I was able to finish just in time! The top one is what I submitted to the gallery but the full piece is on the bottom.

This girl staring off in the distance was actually the first thing that came to my mind when I found out about the show. I couldn't think of anything else but her. I wanted there to be an obvious disconnect from the viewer and the girl in the piece. So I made sure there was no eye contact. Eye contact is something I use in many of my portraits to connect with the viewer. 

The use of red in this piece is for the red ribbon that stands as a symbol for the fight against AIDS (as well as drug and drunk driving prevention.)

Enjoy!

[christinafaraj]

Hey Tumblr!! So what better way to introduce myself than to dedicate my first post to a favorite page in one of my many sketchbooks. It had to be... Sentimental. Powerful. Captivating. And about my love for potatoes.

That two eyed, cute nosed, 5 hair mustached potato, was an abandoned piece of paper I found in a book one day. When I first laid my eyes on him, I couldn't help myself. He was too cute and I absolutely had to have him, so like most normal people, I ripped the page out and kept it. I glued it into my sketchbook after and was starving that day. As I sat there for a few hours, I ended up drawing more potatoes around it, even a nice baked potato with butter on the warm open slit. Until a friend of mine asked me why I was drawing a bed of potatoes around a rock with a silly face....

So after the delayed shock set in, I re-looked at my two eyed, cute nosed, 5 hair mustached potato and realized indeed, he is a rock. A two eyed, cute nosed, 5 hair mustached rock laying in a beautiful bed of warm baked potatoes.

This page holds a dear and special place in my heart.