Sandra Equihua is a Mexican animator, painter, sculptor, character designer, voice actress, and illustrator.

Biography

Born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, Sandra attended the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) and received her BFA in Graphic Design in Tijuana, Mexico. While studying under illustrator Rafael Lopez at Art Center at Night in San Diego, she learned to conceptualize, experiment with technique, color and ideas, discovering her real passion was illustration. This expanded her artistic range and she moved to Los Angeles. She also studied under the Clayton Brothers at Art Center at Night in Pasadena. Her original paintings have been shown in galleries both in Mexico and the United States. She designed characters for ''El Macho'' (Sony), ''

¡Mucha Lucha! ''¡Mucha Lucha!'' (known as ''¡Mucha Lucha!: Gigante'' during its third and final season) is an American animated television series that premiered on Kids' WB, Teletoon, and Canal 5 from August 17, 2002, to February 26, 2005. It was created by ...

'' (WB), ''

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'' (Disney), and ''

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'' (Nick Jr.). Her work in the animation field includes illustration, character design, and voice acting. She melds the influences of mid-century design and her own Mexican heritage. Equihua is married to artist Jorge R. Gutierrez and together they created the Nickelodeon series '' El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera''. The show dealt with issues such as immigration, ambition, romance, success and defeat. In October 2014 the 3D animated film '' The Book of Life'' was released, and Sandra designed all the female characters with reality flaws and personal touches to add authenticity. Symbolism and heritage are an essential part of her character development, evidenced in the use of traditional Mexican folkloric designs and other cultural references. The poetic, magical story references spaghetti westerns, bullfighting and pop music. In 2018, Equihua creatively consulted, voiced and created character designs for Jorge R. Gutierrez's Son of Jaguar, a VR short for Google Spotlight Stories. In 2021, Equihua creatively consulted, voiced and created character designs for Jorge R. Gutierrez's event series ''

Maya and the Three ''Maya and the Three'' (Spanish title: ''Maya y los tres'') is a computer-animated fantasy streaming television miniseries created by Jorge R. Gutiérrez and produced by Tangent Animation. The nine-episode series premiered on Netflix on Octo ...

'' at

Netflix Animation Netflix Animation is an American animation studio and a subsidiary of Netflix. The studio primarily produces and develops animated programs and feature films. History When Netflix began to produce original animated content in 2013, all of them ...

Awards

Sandra Equihua won an Annie and Emmy Award for her character designs on ''El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera''. She was the first Latina artist to achieve the honor. She won an Annie for her character designs for ''The Book of Life''.

References

External links

* Mexican animators Women animators Living people Annie Award winners El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera Artists from Baja California Nickelodeon Animation Studio people People from Tijuana Year of birth missing (living people) {{Mexico-artist-stub