Today we’d like to introduce you to Zhijun Cheng.
Hi Zhijun, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am currently pursuing my MFA in Illustration at SCAD Atlanta campus and I am also a freelance illustrator. I was born in Foshan, China where I took an interest in art from a very young age. Because my mother used to be a kindergarten teacher, she often taught me to draw at home when I was young and that was my earliest artistic enlightenment. After my mother discovered my talent in art, she sent me to study with different teachers, and I also learned sketching, sequential illustration, Chinese traditional painting, and other painting techniques from different teachers. Later, as time went on, my art education became more and more professional, which goes hand in hand with a heightened pressure to perform well and efficiently; however, my passion for drawing never waned.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In China, the path of being an art student is not an easy one. When I was in elementary school, I took lessons to learn how to draw every Friday night. When I was in junior high school, I studied in the studio all weekend, every week. High school, for me, was the most stressful period. I, along with my fellow art students, spent almost a whole year in a specialized painting teaching institution, where we studied painting for almost 14 hours a day. This high-intensity painting study made me eager to try other majors, so I chose fashion design as my major in college. After all, fashion design is a high-end profession in the eyes of most people, not to mention that I was just an ordinary high school student at the time. However, in the process of studying fashion design, I found that drawing is the most suitable creative language for me, so I kept referring to the works of other excellent illustrators during college to improve my drawing skills. After graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I applied to SCAD’s illustration program as a graduate student.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an illustrator who often incorporates digital elements into my hand-drawn illustrations. My inspirations are often animals, fairy tales, and traditional Asian cultures which I reconstruct using darker representations by integrating wicked components in order to bring attention to the alternative form of beauty. I often draw fine lines on paper with a micron pen and then scan the lines into a computer to color. I know that with the development of technology, many illustrators have abandoned the use of traditional materials and switched to the more convenient electric drawing, but for me, the joy of drawing on paper with a pen is something that no digital application can ever replace. And, because drawing with traditional illustration tools is not easy to modify, I have to force myself to keep improving. My persistence in using hand-drawing techniques that reinforce the traditional elements of my work is what I am most proud of, and also what sets me apart from many artists in this digital age.
Contact Info:
- Email: chengzhijun922@gmail.com
- Website: zhijuncheng.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junnn.arttt/?utm_medium=copy_link
