We caught up with the brilliant and insightful YoYo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

YoYo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I first knew I wanted to pursue art professionally in elementary or middle school. I’d already been into drawing as a hobby, but I realized that out of all the things I’d done before (gymnastics, dance, any other school subject) drawing stuck the most. I watched so many art YouTube videos of professionals teaching beginners like me how to draw, and I’d seen artbooks, comics, and full portfolios of characters that were developed and designed by artists which totally pushed me to want to create expansive worlds and characters of my own. A big thing for me was seeing the animated movie Big Hero 6 for the first time and loving the way every character was drawn with so much soul. I didn’t place it yet but the feeling it gave me manifested in a “I want to make something like that” moment. I used to be under the assumption that having an art job just meant selling your paintings, but I quickly found out about something called “visual development” where artists developed the world around the characters and characters themselves in shows and movies. I looked into the movie’s concept art on Pinterest and was hooked from there!

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 online alias is YoYo, like that toy that swings around. I’m just starting out in the field of visdev and character design, and I post my artwork on social media as I try to document my journey of creating a full portfolio. I haven’t scored a full-time position yet just because I’m also a student. Occasionally, I’ll do commissioned artwork or visdev for other people’s stories (like an internship!). I try my best to create new characters and solidify existing designs with the details I’m given. Most of what I do currently is drawing my own webcomic “Extra Ordinary” and posting my daily sketches on Instagram. I’m most proud of my philosophy around drawing daily and I’ve built a lot of my recent following around the fact that I integrate art in my life in almost every aspect. I’m all about having fun creating and connecting with like-minded people in the industry who also love art for the craft.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the notion that social media dictated the quality of my art and to instead accept my style for what it is and its potential to improve rather than comparing it with others’ styles. I had serious comparison issues when I started social media because a lot of my motivation relied on how well posts would perform, and based on that, I’d tell myself that the lower the engagement, the poorer the art. I thought it made sense because other people perceived my art and thought about the quality, so surely poorer engagement meant that my artwork was lackluster compared to other accounts. Around the same time, I also felt that the only way to get better at art was to be more critical of my work ethic, basically cremating myself whenever I tried to take breaks or stop drawing just because I was scared I’d fall behind others for not practicing. I felt that a lot of people my age were doing so much better than me and I realized soon that that mindset of always wanting to work until exhaustion simply leads to burnout. I guess these two issues came hand in hand because seeing people post their art online and seemingly improve leaps and bounds while also engaging big audiences made me fired up to post/draw extremely frequently to yield the same results. I had to unlearn that mindset and instead focus on drawing for myself!

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

I had to pivot very recently. I’m not a college graduate yet because I’m only in high school, and so when I think about my future I see very clearly that I’d like to pursue art full-time. Unfortunately, the art industry tends to be a little rockier and it’s not the easiest industry to break into. My parents and others around me have advised that I take other courses towards, say, a psychology degree or something in the sciences, and pursue art at the same time. I’m inspired by the story of a visual development artist named Kat Tsai, who also went into college for a psychology degree and found herself working for DreamWorks and Into The Spiderverse after years of working on a portfolio during university. While I’m attempting to get something stable to work towards while I work on putting together a portfolio and applying for character design opportunities, the pivot towards fields other than art might help to broaden my scope and keep my passion for art alive as I do it for fun whenever I’m not in school. I realize that I don’t come from as privileged of a background as others and I might need to turn towards art in the future rather than immediately, and I think I’m okay with that reality as long as art will always be part of my life. Ultimately, I have so much hope that professional art will become something I break into further in my career.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @viyomiarts
• Twitter: @totallyoyo

Image Credits

N/A (all made by me)