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

Hi Joey, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

When I was in the third grade, I wrote and illustrated a picture book called The Bathroom Bully about an elementary school girl who fights an evil, sentient toilet monster. Brilliant stuff, really. I was under the impression that the best books had titles that alliterated, and generated the story from there. The first draft was written in a pink diary I got for Christmas that had one of those flimsy, tinny locks on it. That summer, my dad helped me scan my illustrations into Photoshop, formatted it, and got it printed through some self-publishing website. A copy ended up in my elementary school library, and it gives me a chuckle to think it might still be there today. Since I was six, “artist” or “author” or “writer” was what I wrote on all my “What do you want to be when you grow up?” projects, like many kids do, without much thought or consideration for things like career stability and liveable income, but I never outgrew that phase. Through sheer delusion or hubris, I’m still pursuing that kid’s dream.

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 Joey, an Asian-American writer and illustrator based in California. I’m a fiend for gothic fiction, horror, and fantasy, whether it be in movies, artwork, or books. On the writing side, I’m in full horror-aficionado mode. In 2024, my psychological/body horror script “Faces” scored Top Drama Winner at Launchpad’s Annual Feature Competition. On the illustration side, I work mostly with adult and YA fantasy authors, creating digital illustrations for books. This can be anything from promotional artwork to interior illustrations, book covers, dust jackets, and endpage designs. Stylistically, I’m inspired by old-school storybook drawings done in pen and ink, gothic Victorian fashion and architecture, and medieval fantasy. Abigail Larson, Arthur Rackham, and Tim Burton are some of my favorites to ever do it. I started out as a fanartist, making drawings inspired by the books and movies I love as a hobby, and since then I’ve been very lucky to work officially with clients like Owlcrate, Albatros Media, Roshani Chokshi, Melissa Wright, and Sasa Hawk. I recently finished a very exciting project with my biggest client yet, but don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it yet. Whatever I’m working on, I feel most in my element when I’m crafting something heady, moody, and slightly spooky – rhyming not intended.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

It was actually kind of an accident that I became a digital artist. I was trained as a fine artist, working traditionally in watercolor and acrylic paint for the majority of my life prior. In 2020, I was in the process of starting a fine art minor in college, though I was beginning to feel disenchanted by the seriousness, and sometimes pretentiousness, of the fine art world. Classes were suddenly shut down for COVID-19, and I moved back home without many of my painting supplies, thinking I’d be back to my dorm in a few weeks. Instead, I was stuck at home for a year, and working digitally on my iPad became the most accessible way to draw. I really started to hone in on digital art, which I’d only had sporadic experience with until that point. Around that time, a show called Shadow and Bone was coming out, based on one of my favorite book series by Leigh Bardugo. I posted a fanart of it on Instagram, not expecting anything but a few likes from my friend and family. Maybe it was a matter of right-place-right-time, dumb luck, or a blessing from the cosmic and unknowable Instagram algorithm, but the piece ended up going viral. I remember actually falling out of my chair when I saw Leigh Bardugo herself had liked the post. It now has over 50,000 likes, and introduced me to some of my first commission clients. Ever since then, I’ve been working in this bookish art sphere, and it’s been an absolute pleasure to be surrounded by people who love the books and genres that I do. Looking back, it’s remarkably serendipitous how it all worked out; just goes to show how a seemingly frivolous thing like posting a fanart could be the thing that gets your foot in the door.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

It’s nothing monumental, but I hope one day to be able to fill a bookshelf with books that I’ve illustrated for. I have a little bookshelf in my current apartment, and already there are a few of these books on it. There’s definitely a little extra magic in seeing your work printed and knowing that it exists in other homes on other bookshelves, all over the world.
I have a print shop through Inprnt that allows me to see where my art has been purchased. That fact that complete strangers in Laerdal, Norway, Bucharest, and an Air Force base in Illinois is pretty crazy. I feel so incredibly grateful to anyone who’s supported my work in any way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queen_joey/
• Other: Print shop: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/queen_joey/