Check Out Menglin Gan’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Menglin Gan.

Hi Menglin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I come from a small family in Hubei, China. Since I was a child, I have been good at recording interesting moments in dairy life through comics, sharing them with friends and harvesting their smiles. Since then, I have felt that painting can bring happiness to people, and I also enjoy the feeling of creating. It is a pity that due to the arrangement of my parents, I have not been in contact with painting for decades, and even chose Accounting major in college, which literally has more employment opportunities.

After graduating from my undergraduate degree, I decided to study abroad for a master’s degree. Looking at the list of schools in my hand, I feel that my future is gray because I have no interest in accounting at all, and even feel pain because of its rigidity and obscurity. It was at this time that I discovered that there were also art schools on the list, and suddenly the possibility rushed into my brain. From that moment on, I decided to study art without hesitation. It’s never too late to decide.

The process of preparing portfolio was extremely difficult because I hadn’t touched painting for a long time. Whether it’s the lack of familiarity with software or the undergraduate thesis course that is still going on, all of this has caused a lot of stress on my mental and health. In order to catch up with the progress of those art majors, I was always the first to go to the studio and the last to leave. But for me at the time, not being able to persevere meant re-learning Accounting. On the contrary, when I was creating, no matter how tired I was, I am happy and joyful.

This belief has always supported me to complete the portfolio, and successfully got my first offer from SCAD. This offer means a lot to me, it is an affirmation of my dreams and abilities. Also, it gives me a sense of reality and makes me believe that everything I do is meaningful. So, I chose SCAD without hesitation. This is how I got here.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Compared to doing a job I don’t like, Illustrating is actually a lot easier, but the process of creating does have a difficult part. As someone who has not been painting for a long time, on the one hand, I have to look at the works of the masters and learn from their excellence, and on the other hand, I have to pursue my own originality and try to be different from everyone else. As I got deeper into my work, the more these ideas grew, and eventually the work looked like a poor imitation of other people’s work instead of my own initial feeling.

I think the balance between borrowing, studying from others and own originality is the most difficult, which requires me to always be clear about who I am and what I am creating for because I can learn from others in terms of technique and logic, but the core idea must always come from myself.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mainly do commercial packaging, advertising and book illustrations, with a focus on people. I specialize in digital painting in an analog traditional painting style, so my illustrations have a strong texture and vintage style. Whether it is commercial packaging or book illustration, I am passionate about narrative illustration, filling the images with a variety of interesting characters and using their emotional direction to convey the message. I believe that people can empathize with people more than plants and animals, so the messages conveyed through the characters in the images are more vivid and imaginative. I am also good at motion graphics, making the characters move and further enriching the content.

At the same time, I am also good at adding interaction between characters to the scene to increase the story so that the picture not only looks good but also interesting, worth watching.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I think it is necessary for all creators, even if they are not starting out, to always read more and collect more information. By enriching your knowledge, you can have more possibilities at the very beginning of the creative process and make the message delivered more accurate.

Also, I wish someone had told me that not all final pieces have to be rendered and heavily detailed. When I first started, I was always worried about not drawing enough, but as long as the image can adequately convey the message and make sense with it, then it’s okay to stop.

Pricing:

• Advertising illustration $500-$5,000
• Advertising Motion Poster $5,000-10,000
• Book Cover Illustration $1,200-$5,000
• Book Interior Illustration $100-$2,300
• Children’s Picture Book Illustration only $1,000-$20,000 per page

Contact Info:

• Website: https://menglingan.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: menglingan_art

Image Credits
1. Birds’ Migration Dilemma, won the Red Dot: Brands & Communication Design awards; 2. Doris Lee, unjustly treated， won 3×3 International Illustration Show No.19 Merit; 3. Nayuki’s strawberry season, chosen to appear of The AI-AP ARCHIVE; 4. Solomon’s Perjury won 3×3 International Illustration Show No.19 Merit; 5. Pan’s Labyrinth Poster; 6. And Then there were None cross page illustrations; 7. Unoccupied full page illustration; 8. Home town swimming pool poster