Taking inspiration from nature, Yee Von Chan has created a series of illustrations based around birds. They remind me of the old Russian fairy tales which originally inspired me to take up illustration. She uses Photoshop to add delicate colours in behind her enormously detailed pen and ink outlines. I particularly love the dots and dashes she uses for texture and shading.
Yee Von was kind enough to talk to Ape on the Moon about her influences and style.
How did you learn to draw?
I’m not sure ‘how’ I learned to draw in the first place. As far as I can remember, I had been doodling fairytales like princesses and the big bad wolf in all my story books since I was young. Ah, my memories as a child!
What inspires your style?
Strangely, it was a pattern on a camisole with a lot of tiny vertical lines, worn by a girl I saw on a morning tram. She didn’t wear any underwear and I was so shocked I couldn’t get the picture out of my head.
Later on, I decided to sketch her and since then I get my tiny vertical lines all over my illustrations. Other than that, amazing artists like Audrey Kawasaki, Eveline Tarunadjaja and Anne-Julie Aubrey are those who make me want to be better than who I could be.
How do you typically go about creating an image?
Most of the time I tend to get my ideas much faster when I’m having stronger feelings (excited, happy, anger or frustrated). The emotions that I’m feeling at that moment will turn into ideas, then sketches and finally the artwork.
Some ideas might take some weeks before they are ready and some might only take few minutes to sketch.
What is your dream illustration job?
I want to be a children illustration artist, but at the moment I’m open and keen on any opportunity to challenge myself and gain more valuable experience, be it illustration for skin care / make up packaging or retail installation!
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on my season holiday theme for forest animal series and developing new series for my girl illustrations.
© Yee Von Chan 2010
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