Victo Ngai

Victo was born in Hong Kong, in 1988. She is a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design and her published work includes illustrations for Plansponsor magazine, AI5000 Electronic magazine, etc. She is willing to take commissions.

Old Book Illustrations: Your work is somewhat remiscent of Japanese woodblock prints, with its strong linear quality, its vigorous contrasts and the favored use of flat, subdued colors… can you tell us a bit about your technique and how you came to elaborate it?
Victo Ngai: I do have a strong influence from Japanese woodblock prints, or rather, Asian arts and crafts in general. And I think it is largely because of my cultural background.
My portfolio teacher Chris Buzelli once told me this:

Style is overrated. Style merely means one’s habit of drawing based on one’s own experiences. Therefore everyone has a unique style because everyone has a unique life.

I think this is very true and very well said.
Everything I saw when I was growing up contributed to my preferences, my way of thinking and the decisions I make in illustration nowadays. Therefore, strangely enough, I didn’t realize my influences until people around me pointed them out.
About my technique, I usually work both traditionally and digitally. The lines are done with nib pens or rapidograph pens. The textures are done on different pieces of paper with various mediums, like graphite, acrylic, oil pastels… depending on what look I am trying to achieve. Then everything is digitally composed and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

OBI: There is great vigour and forcefulness in the way you tackle subjects that often have to do with present time and real life. Would you say that you have a spontaneous inclination for using your art to comment, with a critical bent, on topical matters? Or in other words, is working for the press something that suits you more particularly?
V. N.: I definitely enjoy doing editorial illustrations a lot. I realized it was quite difficult for my mind to generate an image without some sort of content. My drawings always start from an idea or a story. So I guess the current issues and topics serve as jumping boards to get the illustration and creation process rolling.
I also really enjoy the process of problem solving: getting an assignment, understanding the mission and trying to figure out the best solution to it within the given time.
Being able to convert an abstract concept or argument into powerful visuals is something very exciting for me; the satisfaction is kind of like solving a five-star level Suduko question, only better.

OBI: The experience of feeling uprooted runs through your bio, and it finds a direct artistic expression in your recent piece, Lost in Translation. In your case, we soon get to realize that what has been lost in translation is your own name, so when you say that you find your true identity in being an illustrator, this is a rather strong statement. Do you feel that your artistic identity has been spared this instability, or has it been influenced and shaken and by it too?