We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Qingyang(tiffany) Zhu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Qingyang(Tiffany), thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The first time I realized I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally was when I was 14 years old. It’s undeniably an early age to set a clear career goal, but I had always loved drawing and felt a deep admiration for creative professions. When I began seriously thinking about my future college major at that age, the idea of becoming a designer or an artist came to my mind like a spark of inspiration. After that, I did lot of online research, exploring everything I could find about art schools and various design-related careers. The more I learned, the more my enthusiasm grew, solidifying my determination to follow this path. From that point onward, every step I took was in preparation for a future in art and design. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to be admitted to the Illustration program at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Now, as a senior Illustration student at RISD, I can say with certainty that I have never once regretted my choice. These past four years have only deepened my love for my field and allowed me to explore countless dimensions of illustration.

Qingyang(Tiffany), 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?

I’m Qingyang (Tiffany) Zhu now is an illustrator and senior illustration student in Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I work with editorial illustration, advertisement illustration and picture books. For me, illustration is not only an artistic expression, but also a reflection and concern to social issues, such as families and communities, mental health and etc. By working with editorial illustrations, I can communicate with different topics in the world, such as politics, literature, technology and etc. I can help readers grasp the essence of the articles by extracting key points and creating engaging illustrations that directly explain or visually support the text.
For advertising illustration, I want to use my artistic way to help my client, translating client’s brand identity with visuals, creating eye-catching illustrations, and solving client’s problems with my artworks. At the same time, a big part of my work is picture books. I like combining illustration with story telling. One of my picture book, Grandpa’s Color, which explores my grandfather’s journey with Alzheimer’s disease. Using color as a metaphor for memory, I want to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s and its emotional toll on families, increasing the connection between art and society. By raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease through the educational knowledge embedded in the book, I hope to help children reduce their fear of the disease and its impact on their family members. I work with different medias, digitals and traditional medias, to satisfy different requirement of works.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There are many rewarding aspects of being an artist or creative. Firstly, we have audience. Audience’s appreciation is one of them. Regardless of the audience’s language, culture and background, there will always be some audience who can appreciate my own work, feel the stories I tell and the feelings I convey. It’s very satisfying for me. At the same time, the process of artistic work itself is very enjoyable. Start with an idea, to a sketch, to coloring, and etc. The experience of creating a world entirely out of myself is something no other profession can give me. It’s not always easy—sometimes it’s messy, frustrating, and full of self-doubt—but those moments of breakthrough, when the work comes together in just the right way, are worth every challenge.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The first thing I want to know earlier is the using of digital medias, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. As an illustrator, we have to know how to use those digital material resources as soon as possible. In this day and age, there are many commercial cooperations, especially advertisement and editorial illustration, requiring techniques with digital medias. The second resource I wish I knew about earlier is different social media platform to display our artworks. This is not only an opportunity to display the work we did, but also a platform for commercial cooperation. The second thing I want to know earlier is different organizations, such as Society of Illustrators, Bologna Book Fair and etc. We can attend in those competition and learn from each other.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://qingyangart.com
• Instagram: @tif.fanyart
• Linkedin: Tiffany (Qingyang) Zhu

Image Credits

Qingyang Zhu