Apr 25, 2019

Art Directors of "Victor & Valentino" on designing a show set in Mesoamerica for Cartoon Network

The new Cartoon Network series "Victor & Valentino," created by Diego Morano, is a rich homage to the folk art and traditional stories of Mesoamerica, which includes Mexico and Central America. The show tells the story of two half-brothers who must learn to accept each other's flaws and abilities while exploring the mysterious town of Monte Macabre, home to the region's famous myths and legends.

Art directors brothers Josh Perpan ("Gravity Falls") and Justin Perpan ("Ducktales") played a key role in building the culture-specific world of this series. Wanting to showcase their team's artwork and their influences, the siblings created a Tumblr page titled "Folk Art Friends - The Art of Victor and Valentino" to serve as a home for works by their art crew The images on display on this site are from the "Folk Art Friends - The Art of Victor and Valentino. The images displayed on the site are part of a library of images created over the past two years, which also includes photographs showing important references.

"The goal is always to do something new and different artistically," the Palpin brothers told Cartoon Brew about their approach to background and character elements.

To achieve the authenticity needed to fulfill Morano's vision, the Palpans surrounded themselves with a variety of Latin American art, from architecture to Mexican horror films, 1960s Lucha posters, and Oaxaca alebrijes. There was a lot of inspiration," said Palpan. It was very easy to create something new and interesting for the show."

Regardless of the series they work on, the Palpan brothers do a lot of research, but this particular endeavor required more attention to detail than usual, they noted. We, along with Diego, filled up a reference folder for the crew to absorb." We are fortunate to have a crew that seems to really love the exploratory aspect of being on an art team. If they didn't all care so much, it would have been impossible to pull this show off with our tight schedule"

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According to the Palpans, there was only one place that Morano insisted on: the Monte Macabre, a mythical land inspired by Mexican culture with a fantastic twist. Morano wanted to convey this place as a respectful and unique interpretation. From this initial pitch, the brothers and their team of artists were able to explore different approaches, making the experience all the more fascinating. They were "putting together a giant animation puzzle, piece by piece."

The Mexican cities of Guanajuato, Cuernavaca, and Mexico City were the main inspiration for the art directors. They created a library of photographs of these cities for constant reference. In addition, Morano was interested in incorporating elements of the ancient Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

The Palpin brothers served as art directors, and key members of the art department included Marcos Cohen, Kari Casady, Victoria Schifke, Olivia Aserr, Katherine Tsai, Michelle Park, Wendy Park (background painting), Tania Franco, Tanner Wilson Olivia Aserr, Marcos Cohen, Victoria Shifke, Maryam Sefati, and Paul Tsui (scenic layout), Tanner Wilson, Eric Gonzalez (props/effects models), Heejin Park, Victoria Shifke (color styling), Roxann Cole, Brandon Wu, Fabien Mense (character design).

Victor & Valentino premiered last month on Cartoon Network.