Today we’d like to introduce you to Jing Ouyang.
Hi Jing, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Jing Ouyang. People are usually impressed by my compound surnames because it’s a bit martial-chivalric feeling. I was born in Guangzhou, China. Both of my parents are busy architectural engineers and they spent little time with me in my childhood. l had to enjoy myself by reading fantasy novels and comic books. But soon, I found reading was not enough for me, so I started to draw the pictures in my head. It was only a hobby until one day. Thanks to my teacher at primary school, she picked one of my paintings and submitted it to a national competition. Unexpectedly, I won an award. Now I can still remember what my teacher told me, “Ouyang, just keep drawing, you have a talent for art, maybe someday you will become a great artist”. You know, at that time, I was too young to understand it, but the award did encourage me. When I was in junior and high school, I kept self-taught and made many illustrations. I uploaded my works online and share them with a lot of fellows, their encouragement inspired my creations. Shortly afterward, I published our first art book with a group of friends. What was a surprise! Our books were sold out in a comic convention in a few days. Then, I co-founded a small group with four girls of a similar age and continued to publish more than eight art books and sell them from China to Japan. They are my first partners.
I thought I found the meaning and target in my life. After graduating from high school, I didn’t go to college like my classmates, I made a big decision. Yes, I chose publishing art books as my career. Unfortunately, two years later, I was blocked by an art hit. I thought maybe the best way was to receive more education, so I went to a famous art college in China for half a year, once again, it didn’t work out. After that, I came to the U.S.A and studied at the Academy of Art University. I switched my major three times during college. Finally, I found what I really wanted to do: a character designer for animation. I spent the whole year creating a new portfolio from scratches right before graduate.
Upon graduation from college. I was selected and honored to be a mentee of the Pixar art mentorship program. And then, I started working for Titmouse as a freelance Character Designer. I also participated in animation shows for studios such as Warner Bros, Netflix, Dreamworks. One of the recent shows I worked for is Q-Force, it will be released this September on Netflix.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I growing up, I have been told by people surround me that being an artist equals being poor and homeless. So, when I was obsessed with drawing, my whole family was against for it. I had to convince my parents what I did was what I really loved. I guess at that time, everything I did was so weird to them, fascination in creating art was not solid enough to connive my parents. But after the first book was sold out and I showed them the book and my earnings, I did see the respect in their eyes. When I co-found our group with my four girlfriends, my parents were one of the sponsors of our new art book. That was a very important lesson I learned from life: respect is earned by action.
Later, giving up what I established in China and came to the U.S, restarted from scratches, without a doubt, this was a huge turning point for me, it took me a lot of courage to make this decision. Learning the new culture, new language, new majors… Everything was out of my comfort zone and almost like a reset. As I mentioned, I switched my majors three times from 3D modeling, illustration, concept art, then character design for Animation, and that was a roller coaster ride. You know what my biggest struggle is? It was I had been trying to find a way to combine my past experience into the new culture or the potential industry that I would like to work for. So, during that period, I had to constantly ask myself: what can really bring me joy, because joy is the key to keep me motivated to create and it helps me made the final decision.
Over the years, I have learned that what people said can’t mislead me. Learn to be honest and listen to my inner voice, and follow it with action.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As you know, I’m a character designer and visual development artist for Feature and TV Animation. I’ve participated in several animated TV series and the recently released one is Q-Force by Netflix. When I am in productions, I often find myself in a show that has nothing related to my own style. But I am good at observation so I can grasp show style quickly then apply to the design. Sometimes other departments need a hand, like props design or FX design which is only a concept I haven’t known before. But upon an explanation, I can handle the work easily. I can say I am a quick learner and quite flexible.
With these advantages, I am also good at improving my workflow. In the development project that allows using my own style. I have built a tracking system for myself to respond to the complex and changeable requirements of clients. Last year, I designed a series of characters for an Animation style project named “Alice’s Restaurant”. It had a variety of characters that had different races, jobs, ages, and different stories behind them. Each one has such a long specific description. So I break it down into keywords and highlight the features that I want to achieve after I did the research. I call it a goal list, it helps narrow down the design ideas. I did improve my working process by means of doing this project.
Before I dived into character design, I had never considered it as a way to communicate with other people. It could express intuitively multi-layered information. Not to mention the importance of shapes, the construction of design language is also quite concise and exquisite. Only one line can often interpret a lot of meanings, such as the personalities of the characters, the positioning in the story, the influence of cultural background, and so on. A sense of achievement just pops up when others can understand what I want to express through my design.
For me, designing characters is definitely an exciting and challenging job. It needs not only a solid painting foundation but also rigorous fact investigation, flexible thinking, experimental spirit and rich imagination. Sometimes I must satisfy the existing style, sometimes I must explore my own potentials to establish an iconic style, and sometimes I also have to develop a unique style for a specific project that no one has ever seen before.
These challenges keep me interested and curious about the job. Every time I successfully solve a design problem, it feels like I can fly and win the whole world. After such a long time searching for an area to develop a new passion which I really enjoyed the process. I am so proud of being a character designer and I am sure I can go further and further on this way.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Because of the pandemic, there are so many organizations now that can help artists to find a mentor in the field. Like Women in Animation, Rise up Animation, Asians in animation, etc. They are very active in giving support to aspiring artists. Every organization has its own rules to apply so check them out on social media and follow the rules is the best way nowadays.
Contact Info:
- Email: artjingouyang@gmail.com
- Website: http://artjingouyang.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artjingouyang/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JingOuyang1116
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtJingouyang
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10945045/
