We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wanda Imchareon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Wanda, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
From these past few years, I have been studying to become a professional story artist while practicing witchcraft at the same time. How did I get into witchcraft? Initially, I am always interested in magical world-building since I was young. I would say that it is one of the things that inspires my artwork the most. Of course, witches have always been an important key to magic! Characteristically, They are more than just someone who can cast spells; their history is also fascinating and unforgettable. I always respect them as humans who are being mischaracterized too much, both in media and in real life. The more I research their craft, the more it reminds me of how I learned to become an artist. This leads to the projects revolving around their story and practicing witchcraft at the same time.
Witchcraft and Artist have so many in common to the point that they both improve me, not only my skills but also my spirituality. First of all, both need ingredients and mediums to create. However, it is not as important as your intention & creativity. These are two things that you need the most for your painting or spell. If your intention or idea is clear enough, your messages will be sent through successfully. Moreover, If you have enough creativity, you don’t need any fancy tools or ingredients to create the greatest piece of art or powerful spell-works. Using your creativity to adapt and simple things around you will strengthen the magic more than you could ever imagine.
Wanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi! I’m Wanda. I’m an LA-based story artist who was born and raised in Thailand. Storytelling and world-building are the things that drive my creative soul the most. I can work with any form of art which deal with story-telling, such as short comic, storyboard, or beat boards. Escapism into a fantasy world is my best friend who helps me through some tough times when I feel creatively stuck.
Other things that also inspire me a lot are any story set in the summertime countryside with an old setting period, such as Little Women, Circe by Madeline Miller, and Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. Growing up in a rural area of a town that only has a summer season throughout the year has impacted me a lot. The screaming sound of crickets and farm breeze is a significant memory of my nostalgic childhood, which is one of the reasons why I choose California to pursue my art career. Summer here might not be hellish and damp as Ratchaburi, but it is still giving my inner child some peace when I miss my home.
I enjoy media storytelling such as animation, film, and comics to the point that my 18-year-old self wants to be a part of creating one. I started by drawing short comics with my friends and selling them in high school. Then, I decided to travel all the way here across the world and pursue it seriously. Fortunately, ArtCenter, my art school, gave me some scholarships. Now, I have just fully graduated from an illustration major after learning and knowing a bunch of talented people. My career goal is to work with Feature/TV animation companies from anywhere around the world. Action-drama story is one of my strength, but comedy is my passion!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
In my opinion, Being creative could mean a lot of things in human traits. It could mean that you are adaptable, imaginative, inventive, or even empathetic. Not only artists have creativity. To be creative, you need to have a comprehension skill of humanity. You don’t have to understand every single thing in the world, but you need to at least know enough about human beings and what makes you a person nowadays; that is what is important. For me, People with creativity are considerate enough to observe others; they dare to explore their emotions for their own inspiration. They are not afraid to visit the imaginary world, or the abandoned one, that we might not even know exists until they bring what they saw and show us. This is a significant process for creative people to create non-existence into reality. However, Non-creatives might not value this process much since they will struggle to see how hard-working and thoughtful we need to be. They would see it as an easy step that can just pop up in your mind like a light bulb. But, In reality, creativity also takes time and afford too. And, if we try to push it too much, it could also drain all our energy and burnt us out at the same time.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Recently, I’ve just got into reading to learn more about storytelling in another universe of media and also for my own enjoyment. So I found some books that entertain me, some don’t. I finished If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. This book is the first mystery dark-academia fiction that I’ve never known I would love. It’s about the Shakespearean theater students who have their passion toward his plays more than anything in the world to the point that they would quote him then and there as their inside jokes, which is ironically similar to me and my friends with Taylor Swift. (and we would joke that she’s better than Shakespeare because he could never write Reputation and Folklore)
On the other hand, One of my favorite genres used to be fantasy young-adult fiction when I was a teen girl. Now I realize that no matter how much I try to read one of the best review series on Goodreads and get into it until the end. I do not enjoy that anymore. And one of the significant reasons is that it is not for me. It’s not relatable to the person I have become nowadays no more. I’m still myself, but I’m also a different South East Asian woman with a new aspect of her life. This really reminds me of my creative path in the media and entertainment industry; if I want to work in the industry, I need to know my audience. I need to make sure that the story-setting, medium, and style that I have created are relatable enough to the group that I intend to send messages to them. If I want to work for the animation industry that targets minority kids, I want to make sure that my work is engaging and understandable for them. Also, If some random privileged adult is not into it, sometimes, that doesn’t mean you have a bad project. It could mean that this is just not for them. This epiphany helps me make my own peace with my imposter syndrome of working on some project other people or even myself might not enjoy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wandavitch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wandxful__/
- Twitter: @wandxful__
- Email: wandxvitch@gmail.com