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

Ploy Warisa, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I am an only child who grew up in the North-Eastern part of Thailand. You might have heard or seen a meme of Asian parents expecting their child to be a doctor, an astronaut or whatsoever. My parents and grandma are different. They never care about my exam scores. They say they only want me to have two things in my life: one is moral and one is happiness, so basically just be whatever but a good and a happy person.

They support me in every way. They taught me to think and be responsible for the consequences of my decision because freedom of action doesn’t mean freedom of consequences.

My grandma was also a big influence in my life. She valued knowledge a lot and always told me that.
“Knowledge and wisdom are asset which no one can take from you and will stay in with you forever”

I am very blessed they shaped me this way and they has been such a big part of me becoming who I am today.

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?

My name is Warisa Thepsurin, I am a children’s illustrator from Thailand and prefer to be called Ploy, it’s a Thai name meaning gemstone which later became my pen name Plizoy. “Plizoy” is actually the name Ploy, adding the sound of “z” that my friends used to call me during my high school years in New Zealand.

I got into art when I was about 7 years old when my parents offered me to go to a weekend drawing class and I’ve never dropped my paintbrush ever since. In college, I studied Thai traditional painting, later on Asian Art History. I used to work in various kinds of jobs like in a museum, kindergarten and antique gallery but I’ve never thought of making art a career because I was scared to manage my own little business.

Until Covid came, most jobs were cancelled and we stayed home all day long. So I decided to buy a tablet for drawing which I should’ve done earlier. I started to learn digital drawing because I’ve always painted traditional. My social medias were set up, I sell my merch at art markets, and finished my first picture book project called “Three Friends of Winter” in 2023 the story is featured by my original characters #LuiKajonBo which I’m really proud of. I started to reach my first client, then second, third and so on and that’s how it all started.

I found communicating and being punctual with clients is very important. If you don’t think you can finish the job in a month, then tell them that at the beginning. Don’t please people by saying you can finish the job in two weeks which is something you wish and may fail to deliver the work. Be honest to yourself, your work and your client.

The service I offer is any kind of illustrations including storyboarding but my main area is illustrating children’s books both for clients and my own book projects because I enjoy telling stories. I sell my hand painted postcards and merchandise online along at art markets from time to time including doing other small side jobs as well. So if you ever got a chance to visit Bangkok, check out my Instagram story where I’ll be selling and come visit!

Most of my inspiration comes from wildlife and small fun trivia about this and that. I’m into whales very much because of its culture and I like to draw and post stories about marine animals. I’m really happy when people read my post and thought it was interest to know more about small little things.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is one of the main themes of my first children’s book “Three Friends of Winter”. I think it’s like an immunity we humans had against failures.

During my college years, I studied Thai painting. The program was very traditional, skillful and more on the conservation side. I don’t have any negative feelings towards it even till now. I admire the traditional craftsmanship but maybe I’m just the admirer not the creator. As I study, I know that my skills aren’t advanced enough to be on the craftsmanship level. My works always lean toward the creative and cute style and I knew I was at the wrong place. So it was really hard to get past the final art thesis so I decided to resign in my last year of the bachelor degree program.

The consequence was I felt like a failure and I was very down. I didn’t know what to do and thought I had no future but my mom told me that

“Yesterday, you felt happy and that was the past. Today, you are sad and this will be the past tomorrow. Next week you might laugh or you might cry no one knows. But what we know is nobody will be crying or laughing forever.”

That makes me understand that things change all the time because time doesn’t stop. Everybody has their own path to walk and if you find a dead-end, then just find the new path. Sooner or later, there will be a way.

Later, I got a part-time job while doing distance learning. And I’ve done my postgraduate in Asian Art History from SOAS University of London. Now I am walking the path I created. It’s not exactly perfect but it’s my journey. If I fail again, for sure one day that failure will be just the past and I’ll find my way.

For anyone who is struggling. Don’t lose hope in yourself. It’s ok to take a break and let it out but for sure, you will bounce back and find your way somehow.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My account is considered a nano account for only a thousand followers so I can only speak from a nano creator point of view. And I’d say many artists, creators and small business owners are struggling to grow their audience nowadays. However, don’t stop creating because what you create is always value. Here is what I can break down from my own experience in bullet points.

– Consistency, even if you post once a week but you gotta keep it consistent.
– Use a hashtag, I’m talking about in every platforms. Some clients found me from hashtags.
– In the case of an illustrator, build your own character. If at least one person who is not close to you, not your friend or relative remembers the character. I’d say it’s an achievement.
– Boosting your content sometimes is an investment but choose the one that you think will catch the audience, not just randomly boost any post.
– To get real genuine followers, the most effective way is art stalls. If you have a chance, selling at an art market is an ideal because art markets are like art exhibitions where people get to meet and talk to real artists. Organic followers come from that.
– Most of us want big followers and focusing on follower numbers can make you stressed but that doesn’t mean small followers won’t give you a job. My first client was when I had under 1k.
– Joining the community, getting to know other artists, sharing your experience, joining art challenges is also a good way to make people know you more.
– Take a break! Important to take a break for a couples day from social media. Overwhelming feelings will cloud your creativity.

Note that even if you aren’t growing followers, just remind yourself that you’re building your portfolio which you will be looking back on proudly in the next 10 years. You are building your legacy, your memories which are very valuable. It’s cliche but again it’s never too late to start so if you want to do it, do it. Take a step out. Everybody has their own adventure waiting ahead. Maybe it’s better to fail trying than regret that you didn’t do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.plizoy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plizoy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plizoy/
• Twitter: https://x.com/plizoydrawing
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Plizoy
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@plizoy
  https://en.pinkoi.com/store/plizoy
  https://plizoyillustration.etsy.com
  https://shopee.co.th/plizoy

Image Credits

I own all the copyrights of the images and I took my own personal photo.