Best Kept Secret in the Animation Field
I’m Stephen, Karl Gnass’ brother and manager at GGI Management. For the past 30 years, Karl has been a vital force behind the scenes in the animation and entertainment industry.
It’s been said that Karl picked up the torch from famed Disney animator and teacher Walt Stanchfield at Disney. Yet Karl has been teaching life drawing and figure drawing, not only at Disney Feature and Television Animation, but at several other major animation studios including Dreamworks Feature and TV, Sony Animation, Nickelodeon and many more.
Karl has been a life drawing teacher for 28 years at the Animation Guild, American Animation Institute (AAI), and he has taught at several universities as well. Karl was also on the Nomination Selection Committee for the Annie Awards for 8 years.
While Karl has been very involved in animation for decades, he is very humble and unassuming, and mainly known only within animation circles. This is why people often say that Karl is the best kept secret in the art field.
During Karl’s European Tour a few years ago, his recognition expanded internationally as top European animation schools, studios, and universities hosted Karl to present exclusive lectures and figure drawing workshops.
As a result of the Coronavirus this year, Karl has started online live-streaming classes to adapt to the ever evolving environment of teaching. GGI Management takes full responsibility for developing Karl’s new website, and it’s our purpose with this site to introduce Karl to those who may not yet know him, and who may now participate in his online classes from wherever in the world they may live.
I might say that with considerable resistance from my brother Karl – not a lover of self promotion – we have managed to talk about his extensive background as a master draftsman and artist on this new website: figuredrawingschool.com. To get him to agree was like pulling teeth! But he finally said yes and let me put up his remarkable history as an artist and master draftsman, a luminary in life drawing in the animation field.
You can see a small sampling of this from the studios he’s worked at. As I put this website together, even I was literally blown away by my brother’s achievements as an artist and teacher. He’s taught so many over the years – in the thousands I would imagine. So if you’re considering taking my brother’s classes or his ‘One on One’ consulting or buying any of his books, you’ll be learning from someone who I believe to be one of the great master draftsman of our time.
Home – Classes – Registration – About Karl – Accolades – Blog – Karl’s Books – Contact – Best Kept Secret
