Today we’d like to introduce you to Jun Zhou.
Hi jun, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The enthusiasm for drawing began with Japanese manga. I got my happy childhood from designing comic books and drawing animation frames. In high school, besides drawing, I liked math and science. I enjoy thinking logically and seeing the rules behind the cases. Based on that, I went into game design in my undergraduate age. But soon I found myself spending too much time communicating with programmers and dealing with game engine stuff. Then I look into the illustration field to see if I could find a place there and focus on drawing more rather than coding. I found Savannah to be a beautiful place and the Savannah College of art and design to be a good start for my illustration career. Now I find a balance between technic and art by doing paper games for kids and designing motion media.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The luckiest thing is that I never worried about the financial issues because of my parents’ support. But I did meet other problems. When designing the indie game, there were barely any people who understood my concept. It’s the time I found myself relying on outside feedback a lot. When doing the illustration works, I forced myself to ignore other people’s voices and try to believe my intuition. Once upon a time, an editor found me and said they are looking for an illustrator who has a game design background to draw some mazes for kids. I felt it was a perfect opportunity for me, but some of my friends advised me to reject it because of the low price. Well, true, the price is super low, but, since I was still an illustration student, the price makes sense. I understand that my friends were afraid of the low price would waste my time and cause financial issues. But I believed my intuition and took the job, Now the mazes have won several awards and brought me to a brand new level.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Now I am trying to finish my children’s maze gamebook and get it published. I never worried about time or money, but I do always worry about the quality of my work, and if it’s fun enough. I also make motion media by using after effects. Once I made a lyrics video for Lagoona Bloo, I don’t like the design of the chorus part, so I spent a night remaking the whole part again. I guess such an attitude towards my work is the proudest thing for me. I don’t see myself being a unique artist, but I believe hard work brings and build my own personality.
How do you think about happiness?
When I come out with a beautiful idea to solve a visual problem, I feel the dopamine hit my brain. But most of the time, happiness comes from peaceful working. I always think drawing is like meditation; I don’t need to worry about anything and focus on the present. In the reality, a lot of things bring pressure, like “how good am I compared to other artists”, “where should I go in the future” or “if I could make anyone satisfied”. Drawing is so like therapy to cure all these worries and bring me long stable happiness.
Pricing:
- freelance work: 25 dollars per hour
- illustration: 10 to 30 hours work
- motion media: 30 hours work per minute animation
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.junzhou.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junzhou_draw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/junzhou1997/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/junzhou_draw
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoTu3J37Qyyf0XyRllps-ew
Image Credits
Illustrator: Jun Zhou
