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

Jane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I loved to draw ever since I was little. But growing up, my country and culture were not very accepting of an artistic career, so it never occurred to me that being an artist was a viable option. I did the best I could in school, but when I (inevitably) flunked my A Levels, my family and I both accepted that being an accountant or engineer was never going to be in my future. That’s when I started to seriously pursuing being an artist.

Jane, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi everyone! I’m Jane, and I was born and raised in Singapore. I moved to LA for school and have since then been working in LA! I do character design for TV and the toy industry at the moment, but I’m looking to expand into the book illustration industry soon.

Storytelling comes in many different mediums and styles. Character designing is my chosen medium! There’s so much that can go into a character. The posing, the expressions, the outfits, and I love figuring all that out with a creative brief. It’s like solving a puzzle, but instead of there being one correct answer, there are various answers that depends on your input and expertise. Over the last few years, I have gotten pretty fast at coming up with design options, and I have realised that I especially enjoy designing the fashion/costume for the characters! I love that different characters wear different styles and colours based on their personality. It’s like playing dress up without spending actual money!

Recently, I have been wanting to get into narrative storytelling, hence my goal to start doing book illustrations. I think there are so many stories that need to be told but aren’t. Especially stories on immigration, cultural identity and healthy communication. Those are topics that I hold closest to my heart that I wish was available when I was younger. It would be a dream to be apart of a project centred around these topics.

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

A lesson that I learnt the hard way is that there is no such thing as perfection. I used to analyse art that I liked and thought that there was a ‘perfect’ way art should look, and that a specific ‘formula’ would get me there. I spent a long time trying to chase that perfection, and as a result, would spend hours doing draw overs over draw overs, repainting after repainting. Because of that, I spent years being frustrated that my art looked rigid and lifeless. It’s taken me the last 2 – 3 years to shed that thinking, and to realise that what I loved about the artists I follow are that their art looked so alive, and it all looked like the artist had fun making it.

Having fun while making art again was a wild concept. I didn’t even realise when I stopped having fun. Somewhere along the way, art had just become a thing I did, and had just become a job. I started thinking and looking back at my own art from the past. They weren’t technically the best, but they were fun and lively and I still love looking at them. I’ve since been working on myself, and trying to channel that feeling of drawing without worrying about right or wrong. It is so freeing but also so anxiety riddling! I’m sure it will take me a while to have that feeling be my default, if ever, but I’m glad that I am on the right path now.

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

I come from a society and culture where art often takes the back seat. Most people don’t see the value in art, and as a result, there aren’t enough artists around to educate them about it, and it turns into a vicious cycle.

People seem to think that artists are born with ‘it’. They don’t see the years of training and practising and hard work that comes with any form of art. The only ‘it’ that artists are born with is the interest and maybe some talent that we have in art, the same way that certain people enjoy and are talented in maths or science or economics. It can be very disheartening to create or discover a piece of art, only to have people immediately try and find a cheaper, mass produced version to purchase instead.

It is my hopes that arts would play a bigger part in mandatory education. And to stop letting cheap rip offs get away with copying designs from artists. I also hope that people would be more willing to educate themselves on the process of making a specific piece that they are intending to buy. So that slowly, as a society, we can learn and appreciate art forms more and not take it for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.janeshi.studio/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janershee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-shi-07879b161/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/janershee