Sit Down With Our #089 Featured Artist
Xuetong_Wang
Instagram / xuetong_wang_
Featured Artist / #089 ScrawlrBox
Xuetong is an illustrator based in China, her work has received awards such as the Derwent Art Prize, American Illustration, Society of Illustrators and so on. She treats her illustrations as a method of communicating, using beauty, accuracy, and interest as the basis for her work.
“This piece was taken from my daily sketch project. I drew all different kinds of food every day using colored pencils. The organic feel of colored pencils and hands-on drawing brings a sense of freshness to the paper.”
What is your favourite thing about working with coloured pencils?
I work both digitally and traditionally. The textures and the looseness of lines are the most charming things that pencils have and nothing can compare to. Bring vitality to art
When did you first start workingwith coloured pencils?
In 2019, I was trying many different media at that time, I loved colored pencils when I first try them. I sketched my journey to Florida and fell in love with colored pencils.
Is there another medium you liketo pair/ that you think works wellwith pencils?
Watercolors, charcoal, pastels, crayons are all good pairs, pencils can draw really thin lines. I usually use pencils for detailed parts and use others such as watercolors, crayons, pastels for the large area of color. They match well!
Do you have a favourite subject to draw?Do you find yourself drawn to a certain subject?
I love everything related to my life, people around me, a place I travelled to, food I love. All the inspirations are from my life, those thingsare related to me and truly connected tome. Everyday I observe my life and thingsaround me, I feel passionate to draw them.
If you had to describe your style to an alien, how would you describe it?
I have a lot of styles because I am using a lot of media traditionally and digitally. While I would say colorful and cheer. I usually have a really good mood when I do my work, and that makes me pick bright and cheerful colors.My original intention of drawing is to bring something happy and beautiful to this world and of course to my life.
Have you ever suffered from the dreaded ‘Artblock’? And how would you help navigate yourself out of that?
Yes, I do, especially when art became my job not my personal things anymore. Sometimes a lot of work at the same time makes me exhausted and out of ideas. I force myself to relax after work. Force myself to calm down and think about something else, to do anything but art. Maybe sleep, go for a trip, have a wonderful dinner with friends. I just left the art world for a moment and when I came back, ideas came back.
What does art mean to you?
It means my life. I almost spent most of my life doing art. By continually observing my life, I not only find inspirations, make art, gain some fortune and reputations. Sometimes I even find solutions to my inner problems, I grew up with art and know myself better and better.
