Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Thong.
Hi Megan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Working as an artist had always been a small aspiration of mine, but it felt like an elusive, far, idea compared to the other professions commonly discussed around me. It was only after graduating high school I decided to seriously lay groundwork for a creative art career, where I’m ever grateful for the support from my parents and family gave me.
I studied a diploma in Illustration at The One Academy back in my home country Malaysia, which I’m also thankful for many of the foundational skills I learned for growing as an artist. In TOA, a fog slowly lifted over the word ‘art’ and I started to see it more specifically as ‘concept design’, with special thanks to a lecturer I had who was working in the entertainment industry. His knowledge and understanding of what you could do in design was incredibly eye-opening as someone understanding the final results of an ‘artwork’ as flashy, eye-catching pieces. All of that was just the tip of the iceberg. I really enjoyed brainstorming weird, fantastical ideas and trying to conceive them in a tangible reality, or putting details in hard scrutiny and trying to figure out its story. It was like wondering why the sky was blue again, or how it turned orange at sunset, then pink at dawn…
Yet learning about all of this was having sushi on a conveyor belt- each plate providing me a different insight into the principles of design but not enough to fill my understanding of it. I wanted to overcome the shortcomings I face from my green nature as a concept artist and grow to effectively translate my ideas into something visually compelling. So another college I go, and here I am in Pasadena, studying Entertainment Design at Artcenter!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The beginning years at TOA were tough and challenging. There was a misconception I had in regard to the process of art that ‘things should come easy to you because you’re doing what you love’, because that didn’t always feel true. There were long hours of pushing your body to draw, a lot of tough and scathing critiques, and that sense of perfectionism where I felt like an utter failure when I couldn’t get exactly what I visualized in my head. My mental health was at an all-time low and to also add another downer (and I want to communicate this with the most lighthearted tone), I even failed a semester. But I’m still here! It took a lot of support and time but eventually, my self-worth became less reliant on my art, where I my conscience would flatly say that I was just crying over a jpeg.
In Artcenter, I constantly remind myself of all these difficulties and find that my relationship with art has become much healthier, and because of that my journey still feels endlessly exciting!
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?
I’m an aspiring concept artist! I enjoy telling stories with color and light with concept paintings, keyframes, and I’m trying to venture into color keys and color scripts! I also like to design environments – I find myself working best in worldbuilding and the researching process, stringing up plausible situations that still feel novel but grounded, then coming up with the materials that will eventually populate the world. Something I’m really proud of was working on a short animated film called ‘Chime’ with my peers back in TOA. It was really fun and rewarding to see the concepts created turning into real models and being animated!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think I’ve been growing to take more risks as I feel less of a need to chase perfection and to not find every little mistake a failure. To elaborate on my years in TOA, the biggest risk I took was failing that semester. Taking art seriously was a new experience with more ups and downs than I had expected- it was difficult to be patient with my own progress, and I was putting my body through a fair bit of suffering. I knew that if I wanted to pass the semester, I needed to push an already burnt-out mind and it might have worked- but I thought of it as running a marathon with two twisted ankles. I just had to stop myself, even if some voices in my head were saying that it would be humiliating myself to a point of no return. It sounds like I ‘gave up’, but to me I was taking a risk against this perfectionist voice that wanted the worst for me. ‘Failing’, allowed recovery. It allowed me to seek medical help and to nurture my body into a better place.
That toxic mentality and the greatness it boasted felt empty as I managed to smoothly proceed my college years, I managed to take bigger responsibilities such as helping to lead a graduation campaign. Hence, had I not taken that risk to ‘fail’, I would have been stuck in the desert chasing mirages that would have led me further away from the lush horizon.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/wingding
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingding_art/
