We were lucky to catch up with Yawen Hu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Yawen, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today
Observing more on myself than spending time in blind learning. To be honest, I have found artistic passion and the style of illustration I want to explore only In my forth year of undergraduate. Before that, I know art by learning skills and meet criteria for assignments. Influencing by my Asian parents, I was fond of earning A+ and very confident in drawing, but I never thought about what I genuinely love. What’s after those A+? In the summer before the forth year, I realized I couldn’t find any previous work to represent me, to remind me of why I loved drawing. Despite this setback, I found answers in random sketches, and experiments in different mediums, like digital, Risograph, ceramics. Seeing other artists’ aesthetic choices of elements and composition, I also learn to observe myself, and find my own artistic resolution. If given the chance to start anew, I would focus on exploring the facets that make me uniquely myself, rather than chasing after skills.
Yawen, 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?
I am Yawen Hu, a New York-based illustrator with a passion for creating textured visuals in graphic illustrations, picture books, and 2D animation. Recently, I earned my BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts and I am actively seeking editorial job opportunities. What draws me to illustration is the challenge and intrigue it brings, as it requires employing logic, metaphors, and personal aesthetics to solve pictorial problems, convey article ideas, and reveal the stories behind.
In my work, I enjoy using lines, shapes, and colors to capture moments, and exploring refresh perspective and composition to tell poetic stories. Such as my thesis project titled “Life is like Summer Flowers”, I’m inspired from poems and prose by Richard Brautigan, creating a series of illustrations exploring themes of life, love, and dreams. This series has been recognized in various awards. Besides, girls’ adventures hold a significant place in my creations. I love portraying girls with vague facial expressions, sometimes obscuring their faces or closing their eyes, aiming to convey their gentle yet powerful nature.
As I continue to develop other possibilities of illustration, I am exploring to extend graphic illustration into diverse products, such as ceramics, paper folding, and handmade zines, because I see great potential in paper books and appreciate some brilliant and memorable book designs.
How did you build your audience on social media?
As an emerging artist, our art fellows help each other to promote. I started to build up social media during the last two semesters of school, and actively entered in lots of art markets, festivals and events, giving away business cards. Besides, keeping making new art and sharing will boost the audience and attract more potential audience.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The episode of Christoph Niemann and New Yorker from the series Abstract: Art of Design. Many years ago, this episode lead me to the world of illustration and give me a lot of inspiring ideas; other episodes also reveal brilliant and interesting artists from numerous career.
Contact Info:
- Website: yawenh.com
- Instagram: @icedpalette