Ivorian Animator Yasmine Djeje-Fisher-Azoume Takes Us On A Psychedelic Adventure

Yasmine Tara Opre Djedje-Fisher-Azoume is a freelance animator and illustrator whose style and work draws inspiration from African culture, ancient African sculptures, and art. We caught up with the London based artist whose name is as powerful as her work to dive into her wonderful psychedelic world.

• What's your background? Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello! My name is Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume. I am a freelance animator and illustrator based in London. I work with a mixture of traditional 2D animation and 3D layered spaces. My style and work are dominantly inspired by African culture, ancient African sculptures, and art. I have lived most of my childhood in Istanbul, Turkey and moved to London to study Animation at London College of Communicating where I graduated in 2017. I have been working on multiple projects with directors, artists and agencies on both commercial and passion projects ever since.

• Do you remember the moment you knew you wanted to be an artist?

My mother used to work in a publishing company in Istanbul for children’s books and novels as an editor. I would often go to her work after school and observe how the books were made. I was fascinated by the illustrators that worked there and would watch them create dreamy characters and illustrations digitally in Photoshop and Illustrator. The whole process was so very fascinating and new to me and it made me want to draw and illustrate like them. I was always encouraged and praised by my mother and the people working at the publishing company for being creative and drawing characters as I was growing up and I naturally gravitated towards wanting to become an artist and work in a similar industry.

• Which books, animations, tv, films, comics, anime, or graphic novels did you enjoy the most growing up?

The first books I ever remember reading were Babar the Elephant and Le Petit Prince which will always be my all time favourites. My favourite tv series growing up was Sailor Moon and Ariel the Little Mermaid. I really enjoyed watching Nickelodeon shows such as AAAHHH! Real Monsters, Rocko’s Modern Life, As told by Ginger and The Wild Thornberrys. I loved the quirkiness of the shows and the characters which are all very nostalgic and hold a special place and appreciation in my heart.

• Your approach is very distinctive and unique. How would you describe your aesthetic and style?

I enjoy working with a mixture of traditional hand-drawn animation and digitally composed backgrounds and lots of bold vibrant shapes and colours. I like to practice fluid motions and morphing imagery in my animations that are mostly scenes in the characters I animate.

• We love your re-imagination of Alice in Wonderland for our recent V&A x Reform The Funk series collaboration. Talk us through your creative process and what was the inspiration behind it?

Thank you! My creative process mainly starts with research on the subject. I took a lot of inspiration from the Disney’s Animated Alice in Wonderland (1951) and wanted to maintain a traditional aesthetic with a modern twist. I drew rough sketches of characters and concept frames which is my favourite part of pre production/production in animation. You get to experience the characters and the environment come to live and evolve. Before I move on to the animation process I storyboard and plan my scenes and produce a rough animatic. I animate the characters frame by frame in a 2D animation software primarily in TVPaint, and compose and edit the animated scenes in After Effects and Premiere Pro for the final finish. Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my favourite animations and I wanted to take this opportunity to recreate the world of Alice in a way that identifies with me and my Ivorian heritage. I have captured this essence by incorporating colours and details influenced by Ivorian and African textiles, and in creating a jungle like atmosphere to bring cultural aesthetics and elements into the world Alice.

““I think it is important that in today’s animation there is a diverse representational range of Black characters and people of colour especially films and TV series targeted towards children worldwide which is my main influence.””

• How does your identity feed into your practice, were there any elements of your personal identity that influenced your re-imagined Alice?

It is not often that we see animations or adaptations of classical novels portrayed by a black protagonist, even more so, when I was a child, I think this made me question my identity before I learnt who I was or what race meant. Therefore, I think it is important that in today’s animation there is a diverse representational range of black characters and people of colour especially films and TV series targeted towards children worldwide which is my main influence.

• What was the most fun thing about animating Alice and the section of Advice from a caterpillar chapter?

I truly enjoyed animating the morphing scenes of Alice, especially her taking a bite of the mushroom and growing and her neck rocketing up through the leaves.

• And what kinds of messages do you hope to portray through your work?

In my practice, I hope to portray the importance of cultural identity and heritage and the diverse representation of black characters and people of colour in animation.

• What's your favourite all-time animation film?

My favourite animation of all time is Howl’s Moving Castle. I adore the characters, the story and the soundtrack.

• What Pixar animation would you have loved to work on? I would have loved to work on Wall-E or Inside out. Both movies have a lovely sweet narrative and interesting characters.

• What are your coolest accounts or friends to follow on Instagram?

My favourite accounts to follow are @emilemilijatm, @annaginsburg, @jbanimation, @thelineanimation, @ana.projects, @benjybrooke, @ramandjafari and @nuriatamarit they are all so so so cool.

Follow Yasmine on Instagram @yaz.motion