Karen Carnegie’s path from a UD marketing degree to Simpsons animator was no straight line.

Carnegie, BE ’95, zigzagged from the Rhode Island School of Design to New York for her first job in animation before moving to Los Angeles, where she drew WB Network’s Oblongs, an oddly shaped family who lived directly downstream from a radioactive waste dump, and Disney’s Teacher’s Pet, a children’s show about a blue dog that wants to go to school.

When animation industry jobs were tight, she did graphic design and communication work for a nonprofit organization.

Then, opportunity came in the early months of 2003, when she submitted a drawing to an independent animation company in North Hollywood for the popular show, The Simpsons.

“It was actually the third Simpsons test I’d done,” Carnegie says, adding, “The third time was the charm.”

Now, she’s halfway through her second season and says she believes she’s just hitting her stride.

Carnegie is a character layout artist on The Simpsons. She uses paper and pencil—no computers—to animate the characters, drawing the key poses of their movement to the dialog. “Animation is considered ‘acting with a pencil,’” she says. “The dialog is recorded first, then the artists use the voices and the storyboard as guides to completing their scenes.”

Simpson-trivia fans will enjoy learning that the biggest challenge for all the artists is drawing Homer. “He’s the trickiest because he’s the character you see the most. When something’s off, everybody notices it,’’ Carnegie says.

The character whose looks change the most is Moe the bartender, she says. “Moe looks different in all the episodes if you look, but you don’t notice it that much because you don’t see him much.’’

Carnegie says learning the subtleties of The Simpsons takes time. “I’d bring my scenes in to my director and say, ‘How about this one?’ and he’d draw maybe two lines and say, ‘Is this better?’ and I’d think, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s 40 times better.’’’

Nowadays, when Carnegie signs her name on a birthday card to a UD friend, she’s likely to pen a Simpsons character next to it. Her favorite is Bart (Homer’s son) because she believes she draws him well.

At UD, Carnegie played clarinet in the Marching Band and was a resident adviser at the Christiana Towers and at Ray Street’s Music House. She filled her senior schedule with art classes to ensure her entry into Rhode Island School of Design and was assistant art editor for The Review.

“My time at Delaware was certainly valuable, and I enjoyed it,’’ says the artist, who maintains a Blue Hen e-mail address. “I can’t overstate the impact the people I met there have had on my life.”

Carnegie says she’s now doing what she loves to do.

“It’s fun to work in animation, and The Simpsons is just really the ultimate,’’ she says. “It’s very gratifying because the show touches so many people.”

In addition to her day job, Carnegie pursues her own personal art work at home. She was recently featured on HGTV’s new show Crafters Coast to Coast and has a new web site [www.takkat.com]

She plays down her role in the success of The Simpsons, but her holiday present from her employer last year shows she’s a valued member of the production team. Who else gets a picnic backpack filled with plates advertising Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart?