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

Hi Yingda, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I come from an artists-teacher family, my parents teach in the Universities in drawing and art theory, so I‘ve got many influences since my childhood. However, when I was about to choose my direction for the future, art was only my second choice at that time, I really wanted to become a translator back then. But my scores were not good enough to get into a very good foreign language university in Shanghai. Then I thought maybe I can study animation, as I was a big fan of Disney and Pixar animation films. Then my journey of chasing an artistic career started.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In the beginning, I chose animation as my specialization because I was a big fan of Disney and Pixar animation films. During my four years of study, I gradually realized that my real passion is to make drawings, then I changed my direction to illustration and drawing.

After graduating with my bachelor, I went to the Netherlands to study printmaking in a small city called Enschede, then my teacher there introduced me to a school in Belgium that he thought would be suitable for me to continue to develop my drawing language. In the new school, I followed a completely new pathway of studying how to draw than my previous experience in studying animation. In the drawing of animation, everything needs to be precise and it has to become part of the group production, therefore there is always a standard there when I make drawings for animation. However, in the new school, my teacher encouraged me to accept making mistakes and develop my own rules for making work. I was lost in the beginning but gradually I found a new way have could lead me to the place I feel much more freedom than before.

In the meantime, as an international student studying and living in a brand new place, I realized that a lot of moments were so fresh and precious, then I started to record these experiences by drawing on my sketchbook. After some time I found these drawings started to connect with each other and began to have a storyline. Then an idea to make my first graphic novel came out.

Besides making illustrations I also have a very strong interest in artistic research, so I continued to develop the idea of making a graphic novel about my life into a research project topic. Then I started my PhD study after I graduate from my master.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my friend comes to visit me in Ghent, the city I live in Belgium. I would bring my friend to go for an artistic tour. I would first recommend starting with the MSK museum. The museum has collections from my favorite artists, for instance, they have collections from the greatest Hieronymus Bosch and James Ensor, which have always inspired me since I was here. I would then bring my friend to St. Bavo’s Cathedral, where the Ghent Altarpiece is located, this works is one of the most representative works from the Flemish primitives, which would definitely be worth having a look at.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I was always very lucky to meet very good teachers to guide me on my way to chase my career. I first met my printmaking teacher Patrick Mangnus in the Netherlands. I studied with Patrick for a whole year and he was always so patient to teach me all the basic printmaking techniques, throughout the whole year he always pushed me to take risks to experiment and make mistakes, which has greatly helped to develop my drawing language later in Belgium.

When I came to Belgium I met another important teacher, Goele Dewanckel. She’s a great illustrator and she has been teaching in the art school for 40 years. She always encouraged me to freely build up my own rules for making illustrations and drawings.

Website: https://yingdadong.cargo.site/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yingda_dong/

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