Sonserae Leese was raised here in Southern California, growing up only 10 minutes from Disneyland. Never did she imagine her dreams coming true, a few decades later, when she was hired as an artist and painter at Walt Disney Studios.
Her passion for drawing, painting and art as a child led her to obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Photography degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. which included a Year-in-Europe program where she traveled and studied art and art history extensively in Germany and many parts of Europe including studying behind the Berlin Wall.
After completing undergraduate college, she became one of the first women in computer graphics. She started her digital journey by learning on a $100,000 turn-key command-lined based computer graphic system, designed by General Electric for NASA. Within a year, she was in charge of building a computer graphics department of a large corporation in Madison, Wisconsin, eventually writing programs to transfer the work from the turn-key system onto Apple/Macintosh desktop computers.
Her experience and dreams then led her to move back to Southern California to pursue a career in visual effects. She's had the privilege of being an artist/painter in visual effects on films and television for Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Nickelodeon studios on films such as Atlantis, Stuart Little 2, Meet The Robinson's, Bolt, Polar Express and others. She is humbly grateful to be a voting member of the Emmy Academy of the Arts, Television and Sciences.
She has a passion for teaching and sharing her knowledge and experience in art. She has taught drawing, painting and art classes to both adults and children, and is a teacher and private tutor in traditional and digital media. Sonserae loves making learning exciting and interesting through story-telling and teaching various techniques, digital and traditional art and a variety of other subjects.
Currently, she is a alumni Instructor at Orange County School of the Arts teaching both traditional and digital art at and is affiliated with home school networks, private teaching, workshops, etc. She prefers teaching in the private sector and preparing students for art school auditions and careers in the Arts and Animation Industry.
She is also the founder and executive director of a non-profit (501) (c3) to help heal trauma and PTSD through the arts called Sophie's Dream, Inc.
• Imdb page can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1241693/ Her portfolio is found on this site in the upper menu items. SERVICES
• Fine Art Drawing & Painting/Instructor • Digital Art Instructor (Graphic Design, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, etc) • Private Tutor - Art, Art Therapy, Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist Training (CCTS-I Arizona Trauma Institute) (Trauma/Addictions/ADHD), Certified Therapeutic Art Life Coach (Transformation Academy) , Theology, Writing, General Computer, Websites,Photoshop/Illustrator, etc. • Visual Effects, Digital Art/Painting for Film/TV • Graphic Design/Logo Design • Photoshop/Photo-Retouching • Web Design/Content • Photography/Product Shots/Business/Headshots • Marketing/Social Media • CG Graphics Consultant/Technical Support Specialist for Mac, PC and various graphic peripherals including scanners/printers • Sonserae Designs/Exclusive Jewelry Designs https://www.etsy.com/shop/SonseraeDesigns
• Available for contract or freelance work, workshops, public speaking, in-home or on-site studios in the OC/L.A. area, out-of-state and abroad.
Specialties: Years of experience in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Wordpress, Weebly, Bodypaint, Studiopaint, Maya Shader network, Mental-Ray Shader Network, Linux, PC, Mac, Unix, Pixar Renderman, Renderman Shader Network & various proprietary software. Specializing in high quality texture painting of characters, props, buildings and environments. Adaptable to any style needed...from Photo-realistic to very stylized based on the direction of the production. Experience in various shader networks such as Pixar Renderman, Maya Renderer and Mental Ray.