"Elena of Avalor" has become one of the most successful series on the Disney channel. The series marks the first time there is a Latina princess in a series and Disney has already renewed the series for a second season.

Latin Post had the chance to speak to David Cardenas, one of the character designers on the show. Cardenas designed a new villain named Fiero (voiced by Hector Elizondo) who will make his debut in the next new episode, premiering Friday, August 26.

Cardenas spoke about his experience on the show and some of the influences that helped in the creation of Fiero.

Latin Post: How did you get involved with the project?

David Cardenas: I met the lead the director and I showed him my work and I showed him this book on animal drawings that I created and he came upon this one page that had this really detailed image of a giraffe dressed up as La Catrina. Originally I made the piece as like a joke on cultural appropriation but as I was making it I really wanted it to be a love letter to La Catrina. I was talking to him about that and he thought it was really cool. So he brought me into the studio and he brought me Craig and then a few months later I got a call asking me if I wanted to move from New York to California to work on the series and I said "Yes."

LP: Once on the series what kind of research did you for the creation of the characters?

DC: Well I did a lot of research. If it was something location specific like there is a creation coming that is a giant wooden monster and we loosely based the fictional kingdom off Argentina. Because of that I tried to use a lot of indigenous art for the creation of that creature. I looked at the funeral statues for the effects that he uses to rise up out of the ground. I did allusions to other wooden totems. So I tried to do as much research as I possibly could.

LP: As you were creating the characters, did you get to speak to the actors and did they have any contributions to the character's designs?

DC: Not really. When we were creating characters on the show we really mostly spoke to the writers if we needed feedback on what something should look like. So it was really working with directors and actors. The actors were picked after the characters were created.

LP: Who was your favorite character design you created for this show?

DC: That's a hard one because they are all sort of dear to me in a different way. But I think my favorite for a long time is the character we are seeing in this episode this coming Friday, Fiero. I've been dying to design a villain because I love villains. They're always the most interesting characters in a series. And they gave him to me and this was one of the few times where I got to listen to the voice and Hector Elizondo's performance was so good and chilling that it gave me so much ammunition for drawing.

LP: Tell me a little about the influences you had for this character?

DC: I can talk to you about from a production standpoint but the things that I put into the character of Fiero aren't necessarily things that made it into the final design. For Fiero I really wanted him to appear as threatening and a menace because up to know we haven't seen anyone who is like really bad in the series. When you see Fiero I want people to think that this guy is really not nice. So I kept my shape language really violent. I used a lot of sharp edges, a lot of sharp angles and a lot of triangles. And if you notice when you see Ciro you'll notice sharpness everywhere. From the patterning of his dress to the point in his hair to a point in his nose.

LP: What have been the challenges for you as a designer?

DC: I guess really the most challenging was to make something that I thought would be appealing to be good enough for a show of a Latina Disney princess. I grew up with Disney and Disney princesses and watching these movies over and over and I really wanted this show to stand the test of time. So I really wanted any designs I made to be good from the ground up. That and keeping the pace with the lead character designer on the show were just really tough and I grew a lot from it.

LP: As a character designer, do you have any major influences?

DC: I'm really into Glen Keane's work. I really love his drawing. I really love Heinrich Kley's drawings. They're beautiful and they flow. They have this sense of rhythm that I really try to capture in my own work. Like when you look one these two artist's drawings they look almost like they're moving even they're one image. And that is something I always try to capture in my drawings.


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