The Oatley Academy of Visual Storytelling

09/10/2026

If you’ve ever struggled to draw animals, check out the latest episode of You’re A Better Artist Than You Think!

Animal expert Charlotte Belland joins as our guest to share tips on comparative anatomy, creature design, gesture drawing and more!

Linktr.ee/ChrisOatley

09/09/2026

10 Tips for Drawing Animals on today's episode of "You're A Better Artist Than You Think!"

Expert advice for various animal drawing challenges including comparative anatomy, creature design and making confident lines.

04/15/2026

For over 20 years, I’ve been helping artists get unstuck.

These three things make all the difference...

1.) Motivation is not always the problem, but direction usually is.A simple, sustainable project developed with the support of an experienced, invested mentor and an enthusiastic community changes everything.Because...

2.) Experience leads to clarity and clarity leads to confidence. When you “borrow” the experience of your mentors and peers, you gain all three simultaneously. Lastly…

3.) “Time management” is often a myth. You can’t “manage” time you don’t have. But energy spent on things that drain your energy can be “reclaimed” and combined in ways that make you feel happy and fulfilled.
..but it’s difficult to see and maintain without the aforementioned support of a trusted community and mentor(s).

Six years ago, I created The Clockwork Heart Mentorship to help artists and storytellers get unstuck.
..and we’ve been going strong ever since.Enrollment for 2026 is now open.

If you’re an artist or storyteller who needs help getting unstuck, I’d love the opportunity to work with you.Book a spot in one of our upcoming interest meetings at Linktr.ee/ChrisOatley

“The Clockwork Heart has been, with no contest, the best investment I’ve made for my career.”-Gabriel LealBackground Painter,Cartoon Network

09/03/2025

“Throw Your Arms Around Me” :: Digital in

➡️ for the 🎦

08/06/2025

Timelapse :: “No Such Thing As Neutral”

➡️ for the 🎦

11/27/2024

This recent plein air painting brought back one of my most profound memories…

Several eccentric trees bordered the back yard of my childhood home. My favorite was a cool gray with wobbly branches that swept low so I could climb without much risk of injury.

One Spring day, a family member referred to it as “dead.”

I objected, citing the obvious signs of life: sprouting, yellow leaves. The family member reasserted their diagnosis and I silently held to my own.

Someone soon decided that the tree was too unstable and hired someone else to cut it down.

The stump never stopped sprouting leaves.

In the years since, I’ve given extra attention to trees that appear to be living and dying simultaneously.

…like the trees in this painting. They’re lush and green on one side and dry and brown on the other.

…and they’ll probably continue to sprout leaves for years to come.

I’m no arborist, so I have to accept the possibility that, despite being alive, that tree in the back yard of my childhood home was dead *enough* to pose a threat to me, my family and our neighbors.

…a legitimate reason to cut it down.

…but humans often assert certainty when curiosity would be the wiser response.

I remember that tree as a metaphor for how, in our desperation for certainty, we risk hastening the conclusions of which we’re most afraid.

10/17/2024

The full interview series with my mentees who were recently featured in ImagineFX Magazine’s “Rising Stars” issue is now available at bit.ly/ifxmb!

Today, we’re highlighting the segment featuring Mutia Terian aka !

CHRIS: “It’s easy to see [work like yours] and just feel like it’s forever away. 

But it’s a combination of following the path of other people that are trying to help you and that are invested in you and, and have your best interests in mind. 
..but then also a bit of creating your own path. 
..and I think that’s sometimes why it takes a while. 
..because it’s hard to kind of blend those things together. 
..but you’ll get there. 

It’s not far away in that you can’t reach it, or that it’s lost.

…like you’ll never find it because you don’t know the pathway there.

You will find the pathway there.”

MUTIA: “Yeah. I think our journey is not a straight line. I had to do a detour. 

I can’t really see a year or two from now, but what I can do is one step at a time. 

Maybe we gotta do a detour first before arriving to the destination. 
..and that’s okay.”

Find more of her amazing artwork (like her super-appealing character design pictured above) at MutiaTerian.com

06/02/2024

🤞for the folks running . Dare we dream of a time like the early days on deviant art?

01/24/2024

Check out our latest episode of “You’re A Better Artist Than You Think” for some legendary (literally) insights into developing more dependable workflows!

From the golden age illustrators to Nintendo and Pixar, this classical practice has helped to de-stress the creative process for over a century. “You’re A Better Artist Than You Think& #…