We were lucky to catch up with Faith Ong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Faith, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

As a kid, I enjoyed art casually at children’s art classes and drawing manga style art. I got to grow a lot in my skill from being part of online art communities and sharing my work there casually. Eventually, I got to a decent level with my work and smugly went up to a local art college for a portfolio review when I was around 15, thinking I was ready to find work. My world came crumbling down when the professor there told me that I had a lot of foundational skills missing. It was a humbling experience which led me to pick up a lot of books and attend online classes like Schoolism in order to work on the skills I was sorely lacking in. I fortunately found a good group of friends who would study with me virtually. We would practice really hard and I would also find myself sneaking into the aforementioned college to secretly attend their figure drawing sessions. I eventually heard about Art Center College of Design in the States and decided to apply to the Entertainment Design program to further my studies. Alongside school I attended individual classes at the Concept Design Academy and Brainstorm School. A mix of all those resources and hours of practice have gotten me to where I am today.

I think seeing the full picture in my life, I realized how much faster I learned with a teacher figure. I had to unlearn a lot of bad habits that resulted from cutting corners when I was teaching myself the skills. Though the extent of that when I was growing up was limited since I was in Singapore at the time. However, with how interconnected we are today online, I think I definitely would seek that out now if I got the chance to start over again.

I think the most important skills in picking up this craft are universal, discipline and perseverance. No matter how good the learning resources you obtain are, it ultimately will fall to you to practice those skills in your own time. I think it’s also important to be analytical in order to work smarter, knowing your mistakes and actively trying to improve on your weaknesses will help you from being stuck in a cycle of ‘busy work’.

I feel like the biggest obstacle I faced, and still face today, is the impulse to rush through my work. I think growing up with the art community online was a double edged sword in a way. There is always this urgency to post what I was working on to stay relevant on whatever platform I was on. Even though I’m not as active as I used to be, I still have that bad habit of trying to scramble things together without taking the time to slow down as assess what I’m doing. I think that’s a huge thing that holds me back quite a bit.

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.

I am currently an environment concept artist at Genpop Interactive. I have a deep love for video games and the rich stories they tell, which is what got me on this path in the first place! I love to create imaginative and immersive worlds with lots of energy and bright color. However, the part that I enjoy the most about this discipline is the creative visual problem solving that comes with each project. Even though I love and admire the process of art-making, I enjoy looking towards the bigger picture and constantly anticipate seeing how every little napkin sketch contributes to an overall vision.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think the lofty goal, which I’m sure goes for most creatives, is to one day make some kind of mark on the world! However, I feel like there’s so much out there in this world for me to experience before I can really formulate what it is that I want to say. For now, I treat my creative journey as the vehicle for me to experience the world. When I experience something profound, like from a place I’ve travelled to, I like to weave that into my work. Alternatively, I like to create my projects around something I’ve maybe overlooked or something I’m completely foreign to in order to throw myself into a new world of discovery. It’s been a cool getting to meet people from different disciplines through that and I hope to do it even more!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A huge lesson I needed to unlearn was the idea that I needed to be working non-stop to achieve my goals. I think this doesn’t come as a huge shock to anyone in the creative industry, but I think there is always this pressure to be on a constant ‘grind’. Growing up with social media and especially going through a rigorous school system, it became easy to just get completely lost in trying to perfect my craft. I believe very strongly in discipline, but ironically keeping a healthy work schedule was a kind of discipline I overlooked a lot growing up. There was a constant effort to keep studying, maintaining a consistent post schedule on top of school to the detriment of my social life and my health.

The moment I realized something needed to change was when a myriad of health problems hit. On top of that, there was a huge plunge in my social media performance when I decided to take a break. This volatility in performance just made me question the importance of what I was placing value in and what I was sacrificing in its place. I still think it’s good to keep working at your craft but I’ve been finding it more useful to take a step back and strategically look at how to efficiently improve rather than just throwing hours at random tasks.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://lursland.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lursland/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faith-ongxy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lursland