Artwork magazine by Luana

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SUMMARY

VICTO NGAI’S

ABIGAIL LARSON

SACHIN TENG

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V I CTO NGAI 5

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eautiful line work with murky, mysterious colours from New York-based artist Victo Ngai. Victo has an interesting background, which she describes on

her site: She speaks Chinese (Both Cantonese and Mandarin), English and Japanese. She attended Christian schools, but is not Christian. She holds a British National (Overseas) passport but is not truly British. She is a Hong Kong citizen but does not have a Chinese ID card. Her parents live in Hong Kong; her grandparents are Chinese American living in the west coast of the States; and Victo goes to Rhode Island School of Design on the east coast. “I work with both traditional and digital media. The lines are done with nib pens or rapidograph pens. The textures are done on different pieces of paper with various media, like graphite, acrylic, oil pastels. depending on what look I am trying to achieve. Afterwards, everything is digitally composed and colored in Adobe Photoshop.”

“My source of inspiration is very broad – from natural scenery, to great graphic design, to old and contemporary illustration masters.” - Ngai, Victo. Tell us a bit about what you do. Your art, your work etc. I am a freelance illustrator. Freelance means I am the CEO, the artist, the accountant, the marketing department and the janitor of my oneperson establishment. Illustrator means I create visual solutions to help my clients communicate with their audiences. My clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, International Herald Tribune, Leo Burnett’s, McDonald’s, The Progressive, Plansponsor and many more.

What inspires your work? Who/where do you look to for inspiration? Growing up in Hong Kong, I was largely influenced by Asian arts and crafts such as Nianhua, Chinese ink scrolls, Lianhuanhua and Ukiyo-e. Attending RISD in the States exposed me to works by Western art masters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Antoni Gaudi, William Turner, Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Al Hirschfeld. Now I am constantly being inspired by things I see and experience everyday.

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The most inspiring person to me is my RISD portfolio professor Chris Buzelli. He said, “Style is overrated. It’s merely a habit of drawing. Everyone has a unique style because everyone has a unique life.” This made me realize being honest is the key to bring out the unique voice in one’s work.” What are your earliest art memories? Was there a significant moment in your life that made you want to become an artist? I have always been interested in telling stories with visuals since I was a kid. I was an only child with busy parents, so I spent much of my childhood creating fantastical worlds with imaginary friends on paper to keep myself company. Becoming an illustrator was a natural and organic decision as I couldn’t think of doing anything else and being happier.

What do you consider be the artistic highlights of your career thus far? For a while it worried me that I was stuck and repeating myself. It was an artistic highlight when I broke through the bottleneck, and proved to myself that I am able to evolve, improve and tackle more diverse subject matter.

am currently based in New York, and am working on a project called “1200 Posters”, which is meant to inspire conversation and community. The project is a collaboration between “Big New Ideas” and RISD students and alumni. I am one of 12 artists who will be working on a series of large silk screen posters that will be produced in limited editions of 100 (100 posters x 12 months = 1200 posters). Each poster will be inspired by one line of a larger quote from Margaret Wheatley, and the text will be included as a graphic element in the design of the poster. Our hope is to use the text along with artistic expression to inspire the kind of artistic community the quote discusses. I am also building my online store for selling limited prints and looking for more editorial illustration work.

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ARTWORK our illustration work combines breathtaking lines, colors and textures. What media do you usually work in? What is your process?

My lines are mainly done with nib pens, sometimes with brushes or rapidograph pens. Then I create layers of textures on separated pieces of paper with various media (pencil, charcoal, crayon, paint…) on a light box. Afterwards, I have everything scanned, digitally colored and composed together in Photoshop (as we see in the right).

What does you work space look like? Do you have a studio space? I prefer to work solitarily and have a studio space at home. My fridge has been my most loyal comrade and the biggest distraction. For a few months every year, I work as I travel with my mobile studio—my drawing supplies, a laptop and a scanner. What advice can you offer other artists and creatives? “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.” — Paul Arden Again, make honest work. When an artist is genuinely passionate about their work, the passion translates to the audience.

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ABIGAIL LARSON 11

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t all began in the dark withered forests of Virginia. The birth was marked by howling winds, volcanic eruptions and a procession from the other worldly realms to honor the child that would give their ranks visibility in the coming years. Abigail Larson was inspired to create from the time she could first hold a pen. In spite of her parents wishes to the contrary, she grew to love things of a bizarre frightening sort, including the works of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Gorey and classic horror movies. Nowadays, in addition to the macabre, her artistic inspirations come from literature and history. The illustrations of Arthur Rackham, Edward Gorey, Edmund Dulac, John Bauer, Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Tony DiTerlizzi, Chris Riddell, Gris Grimly, and many others also provide inspiration. She loves learning about how people once lived and the strange things they wore and believed. She says:

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I think our fears and superstitions reveal so much about ourselves, and I love to explore these things and interpret them in an endearing or tranquil setting through my art.” These days Abigail creates art for books, magazines, albums, events, and anything else she fancies. She works in pencil, watercolor and digital media. Her work has been shown across America in such prestigious venues as the Museum of American Illustration in New York, New York, Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California, Halloweentown, and many other galleries in Richmond, Virginia, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Missouri, and Los Angeles, California. Her artwork has been featured in Digital Artist Daily, Spectrum:18, Black Lantern Publishing, CROW magazine, and many other publications.

Do you have a dream project? I have lots of small personal projects I’d love to do, but my biggest dream projects are all collaborative. I’d love to design characters for animated movies or shows. I’ve already taken a few jobs designing characters for stage productions and gaming companies, and it’s some of the most enjoyable work I’ve ever done. I’ve also written a few short stories, and I would love the opportunity to illustrate them and see them published. What are your ideal conditions for inspiration? I find inspiration in the most unlikely places, but I visit a lot of museums and go on historic house tours to feel inspired (because so much of my work is historically inspired). I’ve filled my studio with old French knockoff furniture, books, and bizarre artifacts and I’ll play strange music to feel inspired on a daily basis. I think, ideally, I’d like to be cloistered in a rambling, dusty old Victorian house... a haunted one. What is your greatest fear as an artist? That’s a great question. Probably having my hands bitten off or my eyes clawed out by zombies. Though, that would be a cool story to tell at the bar! Your illustrations depict a time, roughly, in the late 1800s. Why that time period? I love the Victorian era mostly for the incredible artwork and design coming out of that time period. The fashion, furniture, architecture, literature, advertisements, etc. really appeal to me. This was also the time period that Spiritualism developed and became popular - mediums, occultists, ghosts, and the mysteries of life and death are all really fascinating to me, and make appearances in my artwork. Other artistic eras I really love are the Baroque and Rococo periods in Europe. I love all of the excessive grandeur in decoration, and I love modifying that style for my own work.

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I’m working on an illustrated collection of Poe’s stories, a nursery rhyme book, various covers for novels, label designs, and a couple other projects.”

If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before taking the plunge to become an artist, what would it be? Get a degree in business! I didn’t need a degree in illustration, really. I loved art school, but I did all my assignments so quickly that I spent my free time building my website and brand on the side. Most of my professors were absolutely wonderful, but my critiques were often to the tune of, “your work is great, keep doing what you’re doing” which made me wonder why I was even there. I should’ve studied business, and built my portfolio on my own time.

Every creative person usually has to find their way through the sometimes murky forests of becoming an artist. Did you ever face any self-doubts or difficult obstacles? If so, how did you overcome them? Of course! I still do. Self-doubt will follow me around forever, but it’s a tiny monster, and he lurks out of sight for the most part. My greatest obstacle was deciding where I belong. Once I realized I don’t need a tag, or to fit inside a box, it became much easier. I found that where I “belong” is really not a matter of settling down, but of constant evolution.

What is the greatest perk of being an illustrator? Cake for breakfast. Happy hour at 2pm. I can draw all day and all night if I want to. I get to work with amazing people. I get to travel and share my work with other like-minded people. My job is to inspire, and to be inspired. I can’t imagine doing anything else!

At which point did you realize your affinity for all things gothic and macabre? I always loved monster movies, and gothic horror tales like “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” and everything by Poe, even as a young girl. I didn’t call it gothic, or think about it at all, really. I just leaned more toward the darker side because it felt comfortable to me.

How do you notice your creativity spills into other aspects of your life? I like to think I’m fairly creative in all aspects of my life – it’s one of my annoying quirks. I love details, so everything from the decorations in my home to the way I apply my make-up is carefully thought out. What is your favorite fairy-tale? Hands down, “Beauty and the Beast.” I love Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, but the French tales always have my heart. If you could live in any book or film’s world, which would you choose? That’s a really tough question! Probably “Harry Potter.” Because, you know, the Dark Arts…

If you could give an aspiring artist some tips on what it takes to be a full-time illustrator, what would those be? I hope you love drawing. Because it’s all you’re going to do! It takes a lot of hard work, motivation, passion, and talent to be successful. All in equal measures. I never recommend jumping directly into an illustration career, but focus on building up your portfolio, talk to potential clients, take some small jobs, enter contests, join group gallery shows, talk to other artists, and just stay up to date with the scene. The big jobs will start rolling in after.

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15 “Morella” by Abigail Larson, for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum

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SACHIN TENG 17

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urrently living and working in New York, Sachin Teng attended the Pratt Institute for a BFA in Illustration. While he is an illustrator, Sachin states that he thinks more like a designer. So far his work has been featured in Hi Fructose, Digital Arts Magazine, and he is a Dean Ellis Memorial Winner. His work is consistently exciting, and amid the distorted and often bifurcated figures, Sachin’s design mind comes in with 3-dimensional figures juxtaposed with flat elements and even qr codes.

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In design there’s no room

for ego. Form follows function. If you forget about the function the design will turn on you. And people will notice. The best design is the kind you don’t feel. You never notice when a bus seat is designed well but you will notice it’s designed badly if you get off the bus with a backache.” Thoughts spoken outwardly and those ingested internally often share a distinctly opposite language and placed beside one another can often seem like some complex code waiting to be broken. Thankfully Sachin Teng has a knack for solving these riddles, combining the two - one over the other - to reveal the beauty that awaits

Tell us a little about yourself; when/how did you begin doing what you do today and where do you reign from? I was born and raised in New York. My parents though, are from Taiwan. My father was an artist, so growing up there was a radar for any possible inheritance of talent. And because everyone wanted to coax it out of me I figured out early I had the disposition for it. Or at least that’s what they gathered from my crayola crayon sketches. Whether I would do it when I got older I didn’t know because, I mean, I was a kid. An infant’s life choices are visceral not cerebral. So without much surprise, my first happy experience I can remember with art is Saturday Morning cartoons on the Channel Eleven, Toonami and old VHS tapes of Akira and Ghibli movies. And at the time, I thought, damn. Within your body of work, what would you consider to be your specialty? What are some things as an artist you wish to do more of? My specialty I’d say is the dialogue. I always think about what my work wants to say and then I design to communicate that feeling, because when your work has a conversation it isn’t necessarily a narrative. Sometimes it’s quite literally aesthetics having a conversation, like digital pixels and flowers. It doesn’t specifically say anything, but how it’s composed creates a message. Is it dominating on top or hiding underneath, or large and overbearing, breaking apart and so on. As far as things I still want to explore, at the moment it’s this splicing slice and dice thing I’ve come to like. I’ve always liked dissecting things, and this is quite literally dissecting, but in a painting you could be dissecting an idea or an emotion. Cut open a tree and find a heart inside. Something I’ve only touched the surface of.

ARTWORK In the time you’ve been illustrating, have there been any major obstacles to overcome in the evolution of your work? Have there been challenges that were NOT anticipated? Style. Style is little talked about before you get into art school and talked too much about once there. College at times seemed like a mad race to develop and construct a style, something we’d stew over in our studios with constant experimentation to invent something that would put us on the map, make us great famous illustrators or something. But teaching in itself was always on obstacle for this. To teach means to learn the proven methods that others before you have done before you and achieved success, however, to be unique you must do something that no one has done. It was counterintuitive. You only find a style once you stop looking for one. Very Obiwan Kanobi. I secretly write fortune cookies. Who can you credit as a major artistic influence(s) to your style/kind of work? As a kid it was art museums; Pollock, Rothko and so on. Later it was cartoons and anime when I was around twelve. Then comics and editorial illustration in college. But now, it’s all of them. I have to give credit to Frank Stockton and James Jean for inspiring early inceptions of my work. I know there are those that like that work from me, but the world already has a Frank Stockton and James Jean, it doesn’t need another. While there influence will always be partially felt I’m trying to find my own groove. What are some “non-artistic” sources of inspiration for you, if any? Everything that’s a part of visual culture whether or not you consider it art influences my work. Digital decay and glitches and, pixelated 90’s video games, old school off register printing, retro Hanna-Barbera and Japanese Animation, sticker bomb graffiti, Buddhist temples, antique furniture, package design. You name it. Is there a “dream” client/project that you wish to get your hands on someday? I’ve got two lists! Commercial and prestigious. I’m sure everyone says the cover of Time, lots of glam and fills you’re wallet. But personally, I’ve always liked Wired. But, I’m a tech dork, so what do I know. I mean, I’d like to have a painting hang in the Guggenheim, Whitney or MoMA (Check! Very small time

thing though) but a huge payout would be awesome too. I want to make my Black Swan but you have to make No Strings Attached too. What obstacles do you face daily as an illustrator, particularly things you wouldn’t usually think would be problems? My calendar. You’re always on vacation but you’re never on vacation. I’ll have dry spells where I get no jobs at all then be booked solid for months at a time. I had a two month period with no jobs and decided to take a vacation for one week to see my family and that’s when the jobs came in and I ended up working the whole vacation. I even did my Pacific Rim piece on my birthday, haha.

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ou also say that you’re more interested in the “artifacts” that people leave behind, does this mean you’re something like a historian as well as a designer? More like an explorer I guess. I love traveling and digging into hidden gems and secrets, stumbling into interesting places. And ideas, stories and history are like worlds in themselves. Places I can discover things.

The divisions/separations that your subjects often experience, what are you trying to say there? Everything is more than the sum of its parts. There’s always hidden parts inside the objects we own and the people we know. This isn’t just a stick of gum, it’s the brand of gum I had on my first date. This isn’t just a gun, it’s the gun that shot Abraham Lincoln. I try to depict the things you don’t see.

What is the most important thing to look at when not looking at the most important thing? After you see all the things that are done right, make sure to look at the things that are done wrong. Often people who don’t make mistakes start to plateau. To be creative you have to be willing to look ugly. Ironically the best work out there, if you look close, has a little ugliness in it. Look for the imperfections in great work. They aren’t there by mistake.

Do you have any hidden talents? I dance a bit. Back when I was still young and had stamina I did a lot of breakdancing. I could stick windmills and flares, the whole nine. In my day the Harlem Shake was a very different thing. Now I’m old and slow haha. Dancing is a young man’s game.

How did you develop the discipline needed to do what you do? Being broke is a really good teacher for that. Top Ramen for dinner and toothpaste in a glass of water for mouth wash is pretty good too. The best one is rent though.

What are some of the most beautiful things you’ve seen? A few beers with friends and any view. What’s the worst advice you were ever given? “Art school will prepare you for a real art job”

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CREDITS http://www.creepmachine.com/artist-profiles/the-art-of-sachin-teng.html http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixmaster/2011/07/battling_out_a_cover_with_illu.php http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/supersonic-selects-sachin-teng http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/supersonic-interviews-victo-ngai http://wedesignstudios.com/artist-interview-victo-ngai/ http://www.deadmansreach.com/articles/AbigailLarson.html

http://themissingslate.com/2011/10/14/spotlight-illustrator-abigail-larson/ http://www.davonnajuroe.com/interview-gothic-illustrator-abigail-larson/ https://www.behance.net/victo http://victo-ngai.com/ http://www.abigaillarson.com/ http://abigaillarson.deviantart.com/ http://www.sachinteng.com/ https://www.behance.net/sachinteng

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