Today we’d like to introduce you to Yilin Li.
Hi Yilin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m an Asian girl. I have loved drawing since I was a child, and I enjoy the process of drawing. Since high school, I have been studying painting formally. It was a challenging period. Although it was hard, I am delighted. I chose graphic design as a new direction in college because I wanted to try a new field, but I found out it wasn’t suitable for me. So during the graduate period, I came to SCAD to study illustration. Because I am very influenced by Asian culture, most of my works are related to Chinese and Japanese themes. I’m currently researching ghost culture in Asia, which is an old but exciting direction. Most of the main characters in my works are weird ghosts and girls. I think the combination of the two is very excellent. Not only do I enjoy it myself, but also more and more people like my works. In the future, I hope to create better works of art for everyone.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s not been a smooth road for me. Because learning art is a tough road, this process needs a lot of time and patience to learn. And will often encounter blows, such as being poorly judged by others or struggling to be uninspired when the work needs to be completed. Although I am very distressed in this state, I am delighted every time when a piece of work is created. Painting is a process of honing the will, so I always tell myself to learn to enjoy it when dealing with these struggles.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am now an illustrator and usually do some posters, cover designs, and book illustrations. My themes are mainly based on some girl images and some strange ghost images. I mainly use the digital method because this method is more in line with my current working state. I always focus on bright colors in my work because I think rich colors are more expressive and more powerful. What makes me feel proud so far is that I’ve been doing what I love and that a lot of people like my work.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think the biggest change in the future should be the change in my painting subject and painting method. First of all, after the research on Asian ghost culture, maybe I will be interested in new topics, that is to say, the content of creation may change, but I am not sure what direction I will study in the future, but I think changes will definitely appear. In addition, I will change from the digital method to the hand-painted direction because I still prefer the hand-painted method of creation.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yilin_ppp/
