…Nancy Zhang
Hi Nancy, how are you?
Hi Filippo. I’m good! Thanks for asking.
Can you introduce yourself?
I’m a freelance Illustrator from Toronto, and I’ve recently just finished school at OCAD University majoring in Illustration.
Do you think Toronto is a nice place for creatives?
Of course! I think Toronto creates a nice platform for artists to mingle and show off. There are lots of people from different cultures and background, and we’re all very accepting.
Do you think your drawings are somehow influenced by this cultural background?
Yeah for sure. All my artist friends from school are from out of the city like me. We all feed off and inspire one another. They do something fun and creative, it motivates me and vice versa. It’s great!
When did you start do draw?
I think I started drawing around grade 4 or 5 in elementary school. I did okay in other subjects, but the only classes that I was actually really good at were art and gym. Just shows that I’m a visual person. Even before elementary school I was always colouring in picture books. That was pretty much all I did, haha. I remember feeling this sense of accomplishment when finishing one book and moving on to another. Like a mission to colour as many books as I can. I wish I still had those picture books.
Ahah, can you show us any pages of those picture books?
I don’t have them anymore. Would be awesome if I did.
What are your main visual references?
One of my favourite artist is Amano Yoshitaka. From time to time I would whip out my collections of his art books and illustrations for inspiration. His older works are truly beautiful. For references, I like going through my Tumblr Likes or search for keywords to narrow down what I need to find. It really helps!
What role has the Internet in your creative process?
I love blogging and posting stuff about my drawings or photographs I’ve taken. Having blogs or keeping up-to-date with social networks in it’s own play a big part in my creative process. It gets my stuff out there, and it’s a great way for me to keep track of what I’ve been doing. Plus in five to ten years or so, it’ll be fun and nostalgic to look back on how much I’ve accomplished or improved throughout the years. It’s like documenting my life.
What is your favorite piece of work? Why?
Of my own? I think I would pick my Schizophrenia piece from my fourth year thesis project.
It’s the first illustration I produced for thesis. I remember working on each individual houses in the piece, and it took me hours staring at the screen, tweaking to get the perspectives right. I seriously wanted to knock myself out, haha. It’s all worth though, I’m happy how it turned out.
What are you working on these days?
One of my friend who got engaged recently asked me to illustrate a comic for her. She wanted it to be about her proposal, and at her engagement party she’s going to give it to her fiance as a present. So cute! But aside from that, I’ll just be working on personal works and getting back into making zines.
What are your plans for the future?
Draw more!! Perhaps traveling. I would love to go back to Europe again, or go to Japan. Oh and of course I want to slowly build up my client list and be able to get all sorts of Illustration jobs. Yep!
Fine! The interview is over, thank you Nancy. Is there anything else would you like to say to our readers?
Yay! That was fun! No, thank you Filippo.
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