WHEN storyboard artist Rajendra Ramkallawan was told of an opportunity with streaming giant Netflix, he never thought he would get it. He had had so many disappointments in the past there was no reason to think this would not fall through as well.

But everything came together and he has begun work on a project which involves singer/songwriter Wyclef Jean.

Ramkallawan, 30, from Freeport, told Newsday he had long had a love for art and enjoyed drawing comics and anime. He decided he wanted a career in art, but choosing one was difficult.

"When I was younger I didn't know exactly what type of art to make a career out of."

After attending Carapichaima RC and ASJA Boys' College, Charlieville, Ramkallawan did a degree in visual arts at UWI.

At 24, he discovered storyboarding and fell in love with it. A storyboarding artist or story artist creates storyboards (drawings of scenes including characters, action and background) for advertising agencies, television productions or film productions. While following artists on the online art community DeviantArt, Ramkallawan noticed some of their production work on animated Warner Bros films.

"I saw the storyboards and I was like, 'Wow, what's this? They draw the entire movie? This is awesome, I want to learn more about this.'"

He decided to study storyboarding online and took his first course with the online art school Schoolism.

[caption id="attachment_890720" align="alignnone" width="750"] A drawing done by Rajendra Ramkallawan. [/caption]

"After the class, I used the tools and knowledge to practise on my own and develop my portfolio."

He said in the beginning, learning the new art was difficult.

"But it doesn't feel hard when you really love something and are passionate about learning it."

He added that he received the right feedback and mentorship. He took more online classes on storyboarding from individual professionals and used the new knowledge to create his own stories.

"I would pretend as though I was making my own movie."

And what stories was he coming up with? He began with fantasy, action-type stories.

"When I was young I was attracted to swords and fighting and dragons. In my process of learning (storyboarding), I learned writing as well. Then I started telling more intimate, emotional stories about the human condition, love."

Ramkallawan said he has been doing storyboarding for about six years, but was still learning, "because there's always stuff to learn."

With his storyboarding skills acquired he was ready to apply them to the working world. That part was not so easy.

He applied twice for a training internship with Disney, but was unsuccessful. On the first occasion, he had a close call, as one of the recruiters told him he was on the shortlist.

"But somebody else got the job."

He also applied to DreamWorks animation studio and the production company Skydance, but these attempts did not work out either.

Whil