Set in 19th Century London, England, Sisters Prunella and Cyril Sanguine, are trying to make a living as grave robbers to escape the slums in Whitechapel. This is the premise for an upcoming hand-drawn animated adult horror comedy series, Sisters Sanguine, created by Seneca Polytechnic animation professor, Stephanie Ramon.
Ramon is a Toronto based animator who specializes in character design and development art. “When you design a character, they can come in all different shapes and sizes. I can really get a lot of different variety and just being able to imbue personality into that character.”
Ramon has been in the industry for over 15 years, working on shows like Daniel Tiger and Xavier Riddle while also developing her own ideas including Sisters Sanguine.
What is Sisters Sanguine?
The series tackles the themes of sisterhood and struggles in the economy. Fascinated with Victorian culture, she takes inspiration from shows she’s watched on BBC and the jobs people had to do to survive then connecting it with current issues.
“There’s a lot of stuff that kind of reflects back on Victorian culture that we’re dealing with” she says. “It was just like as, you know, as crappy as things are happening right now today job wise, it was a lot worse and it was just ludicrous.”
Throughout much of her career, Ramon has designed characters that are fun, colourful and kid friendly. For Sisters Sanguine, she decided to change the tone to a much darker contrast. The animation style is influenced by Victorian Painter, Walter Sickert and Torsten Schrank’s work in the Academy Award nominated film, Klaus. Ramon expressed that it was first time that she made something for herself and had full creativity without having it censored for a specific audience.
“I don’t have to worry so much about creating something that has to have a little bit of kid gloves to the story like it has to be a little safer for a younger audience.”
So where’s the series at now?
When developing the story, it often came down to what she finds interesting and how these characters would interact with each other in certain situations, especially during Victorian England.
As the saying goes “write what you know,” and that is the approach that Ramon took when developing her main characters. “There’s two characters and it’s like there’s the one character I want to be then the one that I’m more like” says Ramon. “Just writing from yourself, like what you know, is all you I can do.”
Developing the show, she admits, took a lot of battling with her inner critic that says “you can’t do it.”
“It’s just trying to fight past that and just kind of show up every day and do the work. And have trust that it’s going to turn into something.”
This mentality paid off as Ramon received a grant from the HELIX Catalyst Fund that will help her attend the 2025 Banff World Media Festival, giving her the opportunity to network and pitch her show.
What’s Next?
There maybe still so much work to be done for Sister Sanguine, she remains hopeful to apply for more grants and establish her company, Sadie Goat Animation. However, she already has an idea of what her next project might be…Hint; it involves anthropomorphized cacti that are a 50s biker girl gang “in the vein of John Waters.”
The animation industry has grown and blossomed as the technology advanced and new stories have been introduced. As the industry evolves, Ramon is consistently improving her craft from learning new technologies like Blender Grease Pencil, improving her drawing, and dive deeper into other aspects she was never strong in. After Sisters Sanguine, she is looking to expand on different styles, themes and atmospheres whether they’re dark and scary, or fun, goofy and celebratory. “I don’t want to peg myself into, like, one thing, it’s just like, what do I feel like exploring now?” she says.
If Ramon were to give advice to other animators getting their work off the ground, it would be to “Do it. Nobody is going to champion your idea harder than you, you have to be the engine driving it forward.” She reminds them that they have talent and their work deserves to be seen.
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