Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Demi Chen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Demi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It took a rich, winding journey for me, but I don’t regret a moment! I have always loved art and drawing since I was young. But I am a first generation Chinese-American, and come from a very STEM-oriented immigrant family who encouraged art only as a hobby, and not as a career focus. It wasn’t until college when I watched Disney’s “Tangled” in theaters, that I listened to my heart and made that leap to pursue a creative career seriously.After graduating, I found that working in production management (producing) for animation came to me most naturally. I loved collaborating with artists and bringing teams together to thoughtfully, strategically devise solutions. It felt dynamic and rewarding to cultivate a productive environment for an artistic team. My understanding of the creative process and empathy for artists, strengthened my performance and I got to really shine as a leader.   

I was incredibly lucky to not only have the opportunity to pivot to the production side, but thrive in it. In college, when transferring into the animation program, I was hard on myself. Since I had been mostly self-taught, I had felt “behind” on my art skills, so I pushed myself super passionately but intensely, and burned out. I luckily discovered that working in production management would allow me to still be part of these amazing projects, but allow me to slowly recover my love of art on the side. I knew I wanted to improve and level up my skills, vision, and voice at my own pace. I don’t regret taking the time to steadily get to know myself and what I want to express, artistically!

So on top of working a full-time day job in animation production, I still made personal art on the side. Drawing became my preferred method to relax, day dream, and chase that feeling of flow. I enjoyed the challenge of leveling up and growing, too!
In the past couple of years, my art hobby started to gather attention on Instagram. I was juggling an exciting, demanding production supervisor role, and during nights and weekends, I would draw to relax, eventually sharing my art online and at various markets.
I had just reached working in animation production for 10 years, and never gave up art on the side. I reflected on what I wanted the next 10 years to look like, and I wanted it to be filled with more time for making art. I realized if I never tried to give my art some full-time focus, I would always wonder where it may have led me! So it was only recently I decided to follow my heart, making the leap to become a full-time illustrator.

Demi, 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 an artist living in sunny Los Angeles. I grew up in coastal Connecticut and I studied film & animation at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

For just shy of a decade, I worked in animation production at studios like DreamWorks and Walt Disney Animation. To clarify, I worked on the producing/project management side. Most recently, I was working in a longtime dream role, as a production supervisor at Disney, on “Encanto” and “Wish”. During nights and weekends, I would draw to relax, eventually sharing my art online and at various markets. 

Recently I decided to follow my heart, making the leap to become a full-time illustrator.

My art comes from a place of flow and love of the creative experience! I hope my art inspires viewers with a sense of magic, dreaminess, and relaxation.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For artists, especially, I think it’s more important to enjoy focusing on your craft, and creating the most genuine, authentic, high quality art you For artists, especially, I think it’s more important to enjoy focusing on your craft, and creating the most genuine, authentic, high quality art you can, above anything else! Basically, your art, “the product,” is number one. Everything else— the social media, sharing and marketing of it, any merchandise based off it, can flow organically from it, but you can’t do those things effectively if your original product doesn’t resonate with audiences in the first place. If you can focus on your joy for creating, and share it at a consistent, healthy pace, people will sense that genuine feeling radiating from your artwork on your social media profile. You can definitely “feel” that passion and love for someone’s craft, and I think people gravitate towards that inspired energy! The audience will come! Over time, as you find your voice and put it out there, you will find your community, your audience, and your niche!
For me, my audience particularly skyrocketed during MerMay, which is an art challenge in the month of May where you share mermaid-themed artwork you make. The hashtag offered my various mermaid artwork lots of exposure and visibility, and it inspires so much camaraderie because you get to connect to a built-in community with a shared interest…mermaids! I encourage you to find or design your own themed endeavors. Some existing ones include #MarchoftheFairies, #Doggust, #Inktober, etc. People may start tuning in to follow, because they want to see what’s in store each week!
Finally, find a workflow rhythm that works for you and leverage it! For me, on Instagram, one piece of artwork can inspire multiple posts, which allows for a consistently paced posting schedule. This might look like three posts in a week: sharing a preview/work-in-progress sneak peek of the artwork, then a video of the process that might offer something educational, then a final post of the artwork itself.
Focus on your love for art, and gently use social media as a space for you to express yourself and your creative endeavors! Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, so take your time building a profile that shines, you never know what will go viral and lead people to your amazing work!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

On your metaphorical road trip toward your dreams, your destination…you don’t always have to be speeding at 100mph! Don’t be afraid to slow down, enjoy the journey, pause to rest at vistas, and appreciate the views! You’re going to get to where you are headed, so be gentle and have compassion for yourself. In the past, my passion sometimes turned into working “nose to the grindstone,” which is a fast track to burnout. Creating takes mental, emotional, and physical energy. It’s healthier long-term, to cultivate and lean into the natural flow, than force things when you’re blocked. Make your art practice as enjoyable as possible so you keep returning to it. Take time to refill your well of inspiration, and you’ll go far!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: demi.draws
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demichenart/