Today we’d like to introduce you to Kexin Liu.
Hi Kexin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
First, let me introduce myself first. My name is Kexin Liu. I come from Beijing, China. I am a student who is doing illustration in MA and Motion media in MFA in Savannah College of Art and Design (Scad) now. Apart from my internship, I have never officially been fully engaged in my work and have been studying as a student. Because I am an illustrator and motion designer, I occasionally take some commercials online as a freelancer. I’ve loved art since I was very young, and love to draw. In kindergarten and elementary school, I loved that the school had drawing classes two days a week, drawing children’s pictures. I also doodle a lot at home. I remember my grandmother’s house had a Doraemon alarm clock, and I repeatedly depicted it on paper. In elementary school, there were a lot of extracurricular classes for us to enroll in, but of course, they weren’t free. My mom wanted me to take piano ballet, then one day, I passed by the Poly Theater and saw a woman playing the Chinese Zither (Guzheng) on the big screen. She is so beautiful. So I told my mom I wanted to learn to play this instrument. She respected me. I learned to play the Chinese Zither for six years, got to grade 8, and practiced daily during everyone’s lunch break. Then, I stopped learning when I went to middle school because there was no room and time for it.
Back to the topic of painting, although there were painting classes in the elementary school schedule, my mother still enrolled me in an extracurricular class of children’s illustration at the Children’s Palace, which lasted more than two hours on Saturdays. At that time, my mother’s idea was straightforward: she didn’t think about my career as a painter or an artist, and she didn’t want to immerse me in studies but wanted me to have various hobbies. The program was exciting in retrospect. The teacher let us experiment with multiple media such as oil paintings, sand paintings, wood crafts, collages, etc. The teacher would also show us a lot of documentaries, explanations of famous paintings, history, etc. Of course, we were still in the second or third year of elementary school at that time. It was always very enriching. Of course, at that time, I was still in the second or third grade of elementary school. This class was a time dedicated to painting, not for learning. The teacher of this extracurricular class will also organize us to go to various places in China to travel and sketch, go to museums and various exhibitions to sketch, painting exhibitions to see performances, and so on.
To be honest, I’m a bit shy to paint in public now. I can’t concentrate on my work when I’m being supervised. At this stage, I loved drawing more than my peers and was more talented than the average kid. In the extracurricular classes, we had critique time, but there was no standard for everything in our eyes. Some of the kids in the drawing class were highly talented, which was beyond my reach. In our elementary school’s sketching class, I started learning to draw systematically in grade 4. I began learning to draw cubes, spheres, combinations, etc., with a pencil, drawing structure or light and dark. In fact, for the average fourth grader, three hours of sitting in a seat sketching might seem tedious, but not to me. I immersed myself in the process. Since I’ve been drawing for many years, I’d like to learn it systematically. It’s an excellent skill to have in the future. Painting has become a more significant proportion of my life, and the first time I turned the corner was when I was in junior high school (elementary school to junior high school in China).
Suppose you want to go to a famous junior high school. In that case, you must take the exams, hand in your resume, and have interviews. Not only do you have to be good at your studies, but you also have a lot of habits and social experiences, and your English level has to be up to a certain level. I studied at the top of my class, top 5. I also got some offers from famous junior high schools, but ultimately, I chose a school that changed my life path: The Attached Middle School to The Central Academy of Art & Design. This school is full of students who are talented in drawing and whose parents want them to develop in this area. My mom chose this school for me because she didn’t want me to work my butt off for the entrance exams. This school has standard middle school classes, but there are half days and one Saturday for us to paint in the studio. I started learning more deeply and systematically about some academic art techniques. We began to learn to paint jars, sculptures, and portraits. Later on, we began to paint still life with gouache. These contents are also the basis for the contents of the Chinese Higher Education Art Examination. Painting for me gradually changed from a hobby to a purposeful study; I sometimes even rejected it. There are too many talented students around me. The pressure is excellent.
The second turning point was in the middle school exam. God gave me a chance to choose again. My junior high grades were medium to high, and I could attend an ordinary high school in the Dongcheng District of Beijing. However, I still continue attending The Attached Middle School to The Central Academy of Art & Design. My university examined the Beijing University of Technology, the study of fashion design. I chose this major to be transferred. I learned what I was supposed to do in Chinese society when I majored in this field when I graduated. Fashion designer? Or to be a tailor or a pattern maker? I can’t fulfill any of the roles. In four years, I have learned some knowledge, but I have not learned anything, and the knowledge I have learned can only be used to complete my homework projects, not to support myself in society.
The next turning point in my life came. Sometime during my junior year of college, I was a little depressed and stressed out, feeling like I would be unemployed after graduation. In China, there are three options after graduation: finding a job, attending graduate school, and studying abroad. During this period, my college course was to draw clothing renderings, and I got back to drawing and thought I could still draw. So I thought about it again and again, did a lot of research, and consulted my friend who was studying illustration at MICA. She told me many of her life stories, which made me expect, and showed me a lot of Lisk Feng’s works, which I really liked and was shocked by. Finally, I decided to study in the U.S. to study illustration, which is a combination of design, business, and art.
While preparing my portfolio application, I met my life coach, Yalin, who returned from graduate school in the U.K. to become a teacher. She taught me a lot about the history of illustration, introduced me to many artists, taught me a lot of drawing skills, and opened my eyes. It was during this period that my painting style was formed. One of the most impressive things she told me was that there are many beautiful works, too many to count, but very few interesting ones. You should make your work funny. She always knew exactly what she wanted.
In September 2021, I came to SCAD and started a new chapter in my life. I was bitten by a shark at Daufuskie Island right after arriving in Savannah. But luckily, I still have all my limbs. I took a small year of ESL in Savannah before I started my major, and I realized that my friends around me were very purposeful about their studies to find a job. My professors also advised me to plan quickly and told me to use every studio class as a tool for me to perfect my portfolio. So, even though graduation is two years away, I’ve already started planning my career path.
I’m considering applying for a second program in September 2022, so I’m looking forward to it. I always feel like I should be learning more with my expensive tuition. I finally decided to apply for Motion Media as my second major. Since then, I realized that I love motion media even more, and my work is more fulfilling, so I decided to combine my illustration skills to develop a career path. So, this spring, I applied to the program and became a student.
The funny thing is that my mom, who is in China but follows our school’s public website, recommended it to me ages ago, but I thought it would be so hard to apply for another major at the time that I just ignored it. My mom always supported my decision and gave me advice. She still has more foresight than I do.
Even a while ago, I was lost. I even lost myself again between beauty and fun. Some of the work since arriving here has looked beautiful, but I lost my soul. Lately, I’ve been trying to find out where my soul is, exploring it all the time.
This is my story from childhood to adulthood.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s definitely not all smooth sailing, but thankfully, there is financial support from my family. The first time I felt pain was when I was deciding whether or not to go abroad during my junior year. I was afraid of failing and choosing the wrong path. I can put in a lot of hard work, but I can’t take the wrong path, or else it’s all for naught no matter how long I walk or how much physical strength I have. And the thing about studying abroad has a high expense; it’s a big investment. I can’t guarantee what kind of person I will become if I don’t go abroad. The second thing is that sometimes I hate my own work and feel that I am not good enough. At this stage, I’m still trying to find myself. There are always times when I get lost in life, and I forget the style I want to follow as I go along. Periods when I always want to stick to my own style and suddenly feel that someone else’s is better. Always thinking that I should not stick to myself otherwise.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a student in scad, and I am also a freelancer as an illustrator and motion designer. My painting style is a little weird and cute. I concentrate on editorial illustration, advisement and children books. Also, I am good at creating motion graphics. I’m better at finding little interesting details in life and showing them in my works. I have an editorial illustration project for Retirement life, which describes the retirement life of some elderly people in order to let them all be themselves. But these people will be juiced up by their peers or their children, such as the old man who has a house full of cats, the socialite, the old couple who likes to have sex, the old man who likes to collect antiques, and so on.
For children’s books, I prefer educational children’s books. My personal belief is that some families are not able to form ideologies in a good direction for their children, and educational children’s books can teach children concepts such as equality and diversity in a subtle way that children can be introduced to.
About Motion Graphic, I just finished a proposed MG anim for my client in an illustratic way. I am grateful to this client for opening up another direction in my career path.
By far, my most famous incident is still being bitten by a shark.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
This topic is very relevant to AI. For our industry, Ai replaces some human labor, and creativity is inevitable. I think what you can do is always stick to yourself. Have your own characteristics, form your own field, and create your own irreplaceability. For those who have the ability and characteristics, the trouble that ai brings for them is the copyright issue. The other side is VR industry, which is a whole new world, and a whole new world needs builders from all walks of life. Illustration, motion graphics, animation and so on and so forth.
Pricing:
- Motion Graphic $50/second
- Book Cover/ $600
- Editorial/ $600
- Package/ $600
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kexinart.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kexinl_art?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- Other: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/6312dd1000000000120019cc?xhsshare=CopyLink&appuid=588de57d6a6a695e2f528b31&apptime=1695595489
Image Credits
P1: Childhood Memory P2: Surveillance (from my project Giant Baby) P3: social butterflies (From my project Retirement life ) P4:Cat man (From my project Retirement life ) P5: For Book Journey under the Midnight P6: a screenshot from my motion graphic work “Promo for Night Lights Sky Lantern Festival” P7: old bird walkers (From my project Retirement life ) P8: Protection (from my project Giant Baby)
