Conversations with Xinyue Chen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Xinyue Chen.

Hi Xinyue, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story can be described quite simply — I started drawing when I was three, and I’ve never been able to stop since then. But to put it more detailedly, there had also been doubts and struggles on this road before I start to feel clear and happy about my art goals. I was born in China, where the best thing an “art kid” could imagine is to get trained classically for years and get into a famous art academy (that is also classical), and that’s exactly what I did. I spent sweat and tears to get to that place, only to find out it’s not doing anything for me. In fact, years and years of traditional training had actually made it difficult to express myself through art again. I had my dark time in the academy, and decided I had to change. I stopped forcing myself into fine art, submitted illustrations as my thesis and left. Although it was weird thing to do in a Fine Art academy, I knew I was doing the right for myself.
So here I am now, in a new city, making illustrations and picture books about my emotions and memories. I found my voice through art again.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As I mentioned, I’ve had very rough training in the past, spending 6, 7 days a week in studio painting the same subject again and again to get into art academy. And turned out it was nothing helpful. Although I can say it built up my painting skills, what I’m doing now is to get rid of that as much as possible when I’m drawing, to let the emotions shine through but not just skills. It certainly felt like a great waste of time in my life, but I think it was needed to find what I truly want to achieve with my art.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Currently I’m working on more and more picture books, but I’ve also done a lot editorial illustrations. I work mostly traditionally, as I believe there’s something intimate and irreplaceable about drawing on real paper. I’m good at capturing colors and building atmosphere, I know when I want to pass a certain feeling to my audience through a painting or a book, I’m able to make them get it. That’s what I’m proud of, as well as what I will keep working on. It’s the biggest goal in making art to me — it’s the communication of emotions.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I feel positive my industry — more and more companies are considering using illustrations for their products; physical books remain on the market, didn’t lose the battle against E-books. And graphic novels are getting more attention than before. However, I’m indeed worried about the economy and where this inflation is gonna go. We all know, when the economy goes down, artists are always influenced a lot. After all, it’s not an office job and the demands are highly relied on the economy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maiyashu.art
• Instagram: maiyashu