We recently connected with Gena Jongsukkijpanich and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Gena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I personally wish I had started my creative career sooner. Growing up in an Asian family from a third world country, I was taught that art is not something you could pursue as a career despite my interest in it. With that belief in mind, I mostly spent my childhood focusing on school and studying. It wasn’t until around the end of my high school that I started picking my pencil and sketchbook up again, and decided to go to art college. I think that those years that I didn’t draw create a huge gap between me and my peers who have been drawing all throughout their lives. I noticed the gap between our observational skills and oftentimes I could not analyze a piece of work as well as them. My fundamental skills were also not as strong and I was behind all my classmates when I first started art college. However, being surrounded by talented peers really inspired me. The gap between me and them helped push me forward, and inspired me to work hard to catch up to them. I learned and improved a lot through those times, so even though I wish I had started drawing earlier, I am not too hung up on that anymore!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Gena Jongsukkijpanich and I’m an artist born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand! I’m currently a senior at Art Center College of Design and I will be graduating at the end of this summer!

Growing up, I have always been a huge fan of animation. I would always spend my free time in front of a TV with my sisters, watching all the cartoons we have access to back then. I also really love looking at artworks in general, and always wish I could create something as well. So once the time I have to decide what I want to pursue as a career came, I chose art and went to study at an art college which is where my journey is at right now!

I specialize in visual development, world building, background painting, as well as any type of illustration work for animation and game industry! For people who might not be familiar with this industry, before any animation or game goes into production, the ‘look’ of the project has to be designed first, and that is where visual development artist/concept artist came in! I mostly focus on world building, set design, and key scene painting, but I also like to do layout drawing and character as well! I’ve been told that my strength lies in my uses of color and my ability to create a story-driven cinematic painting. Storytelling is everything when it comes to creating a painting for me, and I tried to capture that plus the mood and emotion I want to convey in all the paintings I create. I am also flexible when it comes to style, and I can paint in both rendered and a more graphic style!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I could connect to people through what I do! It is always very rewarding to hear that people could see and feel something from my art, and that they could relate to what I want to convey. Another rewarding aspect would be that I get to work in a collaborative environment. I enjoy exchanging ideas with people and trying to find a best way to tell the story together! It also brings me into a circle of people who all love the same things as I do, and being able to talk and discuss art with others everyday is like a dream come true!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think showing them your love towards what they do is always the best way to support an artist and anyone in the creative industry! It could be just giving them likes on their social media post, letting them know what you like about their work, or purchasing their goods to show them your support! I think knowing that people likes and connects to what you passionate about really gives you the motivation and energy to create more!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://genajong.portfolio.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genajnsx/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gena-jongsukkijpanich-715086207/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/genajnsx