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

Kristie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Funnily enough, my current project at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) started more than a decade ago but I never explored it until now. Growing up, even though art was my dream life it wasn’t until late high school and entering college that I studied what types of illustration I love. While I’m studying other art media like ceramics or painting, visual development and graphic novels/comics is where my heart’s at.

My senior thesis is a graphic novel series called Dumuren. Its setting takes place in ancient history where society is magically advanced and focuses on cheetah, bat, and siren chimera-like creatures. They hold the honor of being the first beings to walk the Earth while leading other mythological beasts, magic empowered and regular animals, and humans alike to live in an era of peace, love, and equality. Ironically enough, even though the Dumuren’s presence influenced a progressive past, it still suffers from real-life issues such as desperate times creating desperate people or youth vs elderly in terms of leadership experience. My story follows five young Dumuren Tyros growing up while tackling said issues because I feel stories depicting characters handling difficult topics make compelling plotlines. Having been influenced how various forms of art media can instill meaningful lessons for people of all ages, it made sense to me that I can do the same with Dumuren.

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.

My name is Kristie Zhu, who’s 22 and goes by she/her pronouns. At MICA, I’ve been studying illustration in terms of digital art and graphic novels, but also traditional media, art history, humanistic and cultural studies, and ceramics. Growing up, animals were probably the biggest reason why I draw a lot considering most of the films I’ve watched as a child were Madagascar, Lion King, Aristocats, etc. As such, a lot of the art I drew were mostly animals, especially my favorite big cat, the cheetah. Not one point in my life has my imagination ever stopped running, giving me ideas whether it was for my thesis, school projects, or just for fun. At times the ideas get overwhelming to the point where I often go on mini walks to exercise my mind. Since an artist’s greatest gift is their creativity, I feel this has always been my strong suit and why I wanted to pursue art.

As I grew older, I honed my skills to the point where I’m able to understand the human anatomy and utilizing different art media to create my pieces. It’s not until I got into college that I finally figured out how I wanted my future to go. Looking back and taking classes that I enjoyed have lead me to visual development and graphic novels. I love character design, concept art, and world-building, all of those elements lie within the former. For the latter, taking sequential arts classes deepened my love for comics and develop a true appreciation for them since I never really saw the effort graphic novelists put into their work until now. So many projects I’m most proud of fit these categories and are the result of my hard work that I poured my heart and soul into. I feel surges of happiness, pride, and accomplishment whenever people compliment my art while finding joy and comfort in them. It’s times like these that I love art and that I picked the right career.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wished I learned about visual development and discovered my love for comics so I could create a proper degree plan on what I wanted to learn at MICA. It was during my sophomore year, I wanted to study character design, concept art, world-building, and sequential arts but I couldn’t get the necessary classes due to seniority rights. Furthermore, it’s important to reach out to professors for advice but very often I feared repercussions, but they were forgiving since they’re here to help. While I’m thankful I took the classes, asked professors for sound advice, and properly planned out my future goals, I wish I had taken the necessary classes sooner than so close to graduation.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, it’s seeing the work I put into my art actually pay off, getting the visuals correct so others nonverbally understand my ideas, and people finding comfort from my pieces. Whenever I pour all my heart and soul into a piece I’m proud of, I get emotions of happiness and pride that I’m able to create work that came out how I envisioned it. It makes the journey worth coming here as an artist and I love the feeling of being able to bring people together with my art. Another rewarding aspect is being able to improve and not stay stagnate in the way I draw. There have been times I was worried I wouldn’t grow, especially in a community filled with already accomplished and talented artists. However, spending time at MICA, making friends with other artists with different viewpoints, and learning from veteran professionals in the field allowed me to learn and grow from one another. They all help me grow as an individual, and those are the most rewarding aspects of being an artist or creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.KAZillustrations.com
• Instagram: @zhukristie
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazillustrations/
• Other: ArtStation: KAZillustrations

Image Credits
Kira Okshewsky