We recently connected with Yisu Zhao and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Yisu, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

From my experience of studying MFA, I think art education needs to be further subdivided. Our professional courses will prompt us to get in touch with different types of projects, such as advertising illustrations, editorial illustrations, and concept illustrations. However, after graduation, artists will face very segmented market positions, concept artist and Freelancer can be said to be two completely different jobs, but in most illustration majors, these contents are interspersed in students’ degree plans. If a student wants to become a concept artist who designs characters, there are not so many opportunities to learn how to become a mature character designer in college courses but spend a lot of time drawing illustrations for advertisements or books to complete Studies. From the perspective of the course setting, such confusion can be avoided. I think the solution is to arrange some general art education courses such as perspective and figure training for students in the first year of school and arrange courses for them according to the career path chosen by students from the second year. For example, publishing houses and media companies are very important sources of income for freelancers, so they can spend more time studying editorial illustrations or book illustrations; for concept artists, an overall portfolio will help them a lot, so they need to spend more time on a set of character design or scene design with a complete world view to help them get into film and television companies or game companies more smoothly.

Yisu, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got paid as an illustrator for the first time when I was invited by an art toy company to draw their mascot product labels after posting my illustrations on the internet. In short, the company will provide me with their initial concepts, such as the scene, atmosphere, and pose of the mascot, and I will complete the illustration from design to draw. Generally, my service process for them is to complete three to four compositions for a specific subject, and after the art director selects one of them, I will explore the best color matching and light and shadow. After determining these elements, I will complete this illustration. What I am more proud of in my work is that I don’t stick to a certain style or color tone. I am very good at using the mood board to provide inspiration for my work. If my director needs a bright style, I will bring it from all Give me this element of commercials, band album covers, flowers, and fashion posters to get bright elements, and vice versa, if my superiors need gothic dark illustrations, I can also perform quick element extraction and reconstruction.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For me, the goal of becoming a mature concept artist has been driving me forward. Concept art is a test of people’s comprehensive ability. When an artist conceives a worldview, you have to learn about different cultural backgrounds and societies in the world. Designing an impressive character requires the artist to have an understanding of human body structure, fashion design, and industrial design. This goal will allow me to constantly absorb fresh perspectives and knowledge from various fields. The atmosphere and tailoring brought by clothes; the principle of coexistence of rationality and aesthetics in industrial design, national costumes rooted in local history and culture, and even graphic design to make the presentation of characters more uniform are all I am willing to learn.

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

I think getting an audience is very important in the early stages of running social media. Based on my personal observations of well-run artists, I think there are a few things we can all learn from. First, some artists are very good at capturing social hot spots and combining them with their own art forms, which will allow a large number of audiences who pay attention to certain news to see their works and increase exposure. Second, maintain a relatively fast update frequency. Social media is very fond of the new and dislikes the old. Artists who often show themselves and appear in the public eye are always better known than artists of the same level who update once a year. The third is persistence, or in other words, using a large number of works to show the artist’s own specific strengths, even if there is no new idea, it doesn’t matter. Several accounts I follow only post the same composition with different elements combined, but for the Internet where there is always something new, it is very important to emphasize to new followers what you are good at.

Contact Info:

• Website: yisuzhao.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ballhead807/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yisu-zhao-770353237/