We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dan Truong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dan below.

Alright, Dan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Being misunderstood as an artist almost feels like a given. It’s certainly understandable; the career path that’s implied by the word ‘artist’ may be one of the most perilous and unstable out there.

Plenty of careers require one’s full commitment and willingness to sacrifice almost everything in order to reach the point where they’re finally able to be rewarded for their efforts. That reward could vary from employment, to new opportunities; it depends on the goals of the specific person. What matters is that they’ve reached a stage where they can finally look back and say, “It was all worth it.”

Therein lies the difference with artistic careers. That so-called “reward” often doesn’t come immediately after you’ve graduated from college. Instead, artistic careers require one to constantly improve their craft in an exponentially competitive market in the hopes that one day, someone will like what they see and give them a chance.

So, yes, I have absolutely been misunderstood, and I’m willing to bet that 99% of other artists will say the same. It will happen most often with family and people you’ve met for the first time. Every question will be similar, too: “How do you plan to make money?” “Why would you become an artist?” “Will you paint my cat?”

The vast majority of the time, these misunderstandings are in good faith, and come from curiosity rather than malice, so it’s fairly easy to brush them off. From the perspective of a non-creative, it’s difficult to distinguish an artistic career from a more traditional path, and that’s where all the misunderstandings come in. The one thing I like to remind myself of is that I understand myself, and that’s good enough for me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Hey there! My name is Dan Lee Truong and I am a concept artist. Being a concept artist means that I am part of the first stage of visualizing an idea and putting those visuals on paper. These ideas can vary from characters, to environments, assets, and more. In the end, it’s all about designing parts that culminate into one cohesive world for forms of media like movies and games.

I was first introduced to the world of concept art through video games, and as someone who was able to experience these fantastically immersive worlds first-hand, it was a wonderful moment when I was struck with the realization that it was actually someone’s job to design these incredible experiences. I had always been drawn to art almost as another language, where there were things that I could only communicate through art that I could never express with the spoken word. Therefore, when the time came where I realized that I could make this language that I love into a career, I jumped at the opportunity.

In terms of what sets me apart, I believe that every artist has their own distinctive voice that is exemplified through their work, and I like to think that I’m the same. It isn’t my place to say something like, “Well, I put more time into my projects so I’m clearly better”. What distinguishes me from other artists illustrated through the quality of my work, and that is in the eye of the beholder. All I can say is that I hope said beholder likes what they see!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I began as a concept artist, I definitely had a few artists in mind as role models whose journeys I wanted to follow. However, it was only later in my creative journey through peers and professors that I was able to learn about some people that would be instrumental in my growth as an artist and allow me to truly grow.

Artists like Craig Mullins (goodbrush.com), Ruan Jia (ruanjia.com) and Finnian MacManus (https://fmacmanus.com/) are the names of just a few artists that immediately come to mind when thinking of people I knew about sooner. There work serves as great inspiration when you’re in a rut, and you can learn a lot by studying the work of artists you admire.

In terms of tools, PureRef is an amazing software that gives you a simple place to store reference, and Pinterest is a great place to actually find that reference.

There are also plenty of great online tutorials that I wish I knew about earlier, a lot of them free on YouTube and such. There are also paid subscriptions like Schoolism and LearnSquared which are run by industry professionals, so they’re always worth a look.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I previously mentioned a few artists whose work I greatly admire, but there’s almost no one who comes close to the great Jim Henson in terms of inspiration. Through his creative works, he was able to entertain younger audiences in a fun way with ‘The Muppets’, and dazzle audiences with the intricately crafted worlds of ‘The Dark Crystal’ and ‘Labyrinth’. The man had a vision, and through bringing it to fruition, he was able to make a lasting impact on the world with his art.

My goal is to one day be able to say the same of my work. It’s certainly ambitious, but it feels like what I was put on Earth to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: danleetruong.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/danleetruong
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-lee-truong-a02823195/
• Other: [email protected] fiverr.com/danleetruong

Image Credits
©Dan Lee Truong, Images by the Artist.