Meet Vicky Xie | Background & Visual Development artist, Illustrator, Storyteller

We had the good fortune of connecting with Vicky Xie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Vicky, the decisions we make often shape our story in profound ways. What was one of the most difficult decisions you’ve had to make?
When it comes to decision, going to grad school for a master degree after graduating from undergrad college is a difficult decision. My major is animation and the whole animation industry is in a trend of “art school is a scam you do not need a degree to get a job“. Decided to go to grad school not only means there will be more bills to pay on the very expensive tuition, but also means I have to invest 3 more years to focus on learning things that aren’t really about “getting a job in that specific industry” at school instead of getting working experience like some others. Feeling being behind compare to people who has similar age with me do stress me out sometimes, but at the same time I am glad with the once in a life chance to learn more about myself as an artist, explore more types of art, get to know more artists who are from different field, other than only focusing on the technical skills that I learned from my undergrad college. I believe this decision will benefit me as an artist in the long run,

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Like many other people who love watching anime and drawing, I grow up with a lot of Japanese anime. After watching a lot of them and drew a lot of fan art of them, the middle school me start day dreaming about my original story that inspired by those anime and tried to draw those original characters down: this soon become my passion of my life. Build your own world was never an easy task, during my time at art college, I was focusing a lot on making beautiful drawings and painting, and thought that will help for the world building. Of cause the technic skills helps me so much on telling a story visually, but I was stuck for a long time because I find my works are not appealing and attractive emotionally even though they might be a cool image. After I attended grad school, I start taking classes that is not about drawing/painting for current animation industry, such as screen writing class, stop motion class, and history class etc. and reading books that has nothing to do with drawing. Surprisingly I got so much inspiration that actually improves my art. I think it’s very helpful for all artists to learn something else other than only about drawing skills, because after all, all those great artists through the history was never only about having an amazing skill of painting/sculpting, but also being able to attract, connect with people emotionally.

About the story that I am develop since my middle school, it’s a story called “Tenebris”, which means darkness in Latin. As you may see in my art works, there is always an orange hair guy. His name is Ray Carranza, and he is a young priest with magical power who asked to protect the “holy spear” in the church and the town from the evil spirit, slowly finding out the justice and belief that he always presume does not always bring more light to people’s life. I believe the balance is the key of a reflectively peaceful world since it’s not possible to achieve the perfect world, without the darkness, the light will not shine. With that idea in mind I had this story idea, I want to show the “light” and “dark” in a fantasy way, and regardless the visual style, I want the story be universal instead of only a small group of people that share the culture with my background. There are still so much more I need to learn to fully develop this story and world, my dream is one day I can make it into a TV animation and show it to the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are so many spots I love in the city, but if I have to pick one, I will pick Little Tokyo. The most impressive place is the kinokuniya book store. It’s a bookstore with not only anime manga and artbooks, but also a lot of random magazines and cute small toys. I always spend hours in that book store with my friends and try to find some new books for inspiration. What makes this place even better is that there is a sushi place nearby called Kura sushi. Imagine a sunny Friday, you just finish your classes of the week and now it’s time to treat yourself, you get to enjoy the delicious sushi and then stay at the bookstore after to feel satisfied both physically and mentally, what a life in LA.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people that gives big influence on me as an artist, besides my very supportive family, I also want to mention that one middles school friend, who was my very first fan of my art regardless it was not as good as the ones from professional artists, and always willing to listen to me talking about the story I created and talk about her thoughts with me. Although we no longer keep contact after middle school, her kindness gives me motivation to keep working on my original story and being myself even today.

I also want to thanks to all my friends from high school and art college to always be with me during the up and downs, support me while we are far from our hometown(we are international students), taking me to the fun places that I would never go alone, and always bring me new ideas about art, life, and so much more.

After I go to USC for grad school, I am very glad to meet my classmates Cherry Guo and Naicheng Liu. They are both not only very talented artists but also very kind persons. It’s always a bless to spend whole afternoons in a book store with them and talk about art and our interests. It’s so inspirational when we share our ideas of the films that we are going to make and the opinions about art, news and life. They always gives good feedbacks on my projects. Their kindness brings more joy to my stressful life as an animation students, and I am grateful to have friends like them.

Last but not least, I want to thank to all the cats that I meet in my life over years of study overseas, they are both my therapy and art inspiration, they are my roommates’ and friends’ cat, including but not limited to: Saturn the orange cat, Honey the orange cat, Big meow the Bengal cat, and small meow the Bengal cat.

Website: www.vickyxie.com

Instagram: @vickyandbunny

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/1998vickyxie

Twitter: @vickyandbunny

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqc0FT3tKnwg8bYTd1gf3XA