How did you become an artist?

I’m actually currently studying engineering and interning as a software engineer! Art has always been a hobby of mine and I have drawings from when I was 7 in Inkscape and MS Paint. I realized I relied a lot on being able to draw somewhat well without really knowing what I was doing, so my progress kind of became stagnant until I started studying more seriously about 3 years ago by watching videos on YouTube and observing the artwork of other artists.

Where do you get inspiration?

I’m actually really into game dev and one of my earliest inspirations was Angela He (@zephybite on Instagram) – she made games and art and it really inspired me to tell my own stories using my own creativity.

My current inspirations for colour include: Krenz Cushart, Slawek Fedorczuk, rei_17, awanqi, vetyyr, namendart, Feng Wei (c12), quruiqing and kun333r. I also look up to Carles Dalmau, lampzeni and emilyamaio for character design and story telling! You can find all of these artists on Instagram, Twitter or Artstation - I definitely recommend checking them out!

As for references, I use either photos I took myself or Pinterest. For bigger pieces, I may collect 60 or more references just for one painting and I usually like to use PureRef to create a mood board for my drawing. I also use other artists’ work as quasi-references and it helps to infuse different aspects of their colours and styles that I like into my work.

What’s your hardware setup?

Before I got a graphics tablet, I had been drawing on an old Wacom bamboo tablet for about 10 years. Now I use a Huion Kamvas 22 with my laptop screen for references.

What do you like best about Clip Studio Paint?

The Timelapse functionality!

How long does it take you to make a single illustration?

It really depends on the drawing. Studies can take 30 minutes to 7 hours depending on the complexity and what the focus of the study is. Bigger illustrations can take more than 15 hours and if I’m doing really complex pieces, I usually spend several hours doing research before starting the piece.

Would you consider Clip Studio Paint an industry tool?

Yeah!!

Where can we follow your work?

@chen_dll on instagram and twitter! I also have a discord server where I post my sketches most regularly - I initially made it to post my game development work but now it is a small art server where people can share their artwork and creative projects: https://discord.gg/wATXaB6

*** Yi Chen is doing a #Giveaway with us! Reach her post on Instagram, follow her, @graphixly and leave a comment. Winners of Clip Studio Paint Pro will be announced on August 29, good luck! ***