Meet Yuhong Ding | Concept Artist & Illustrator

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

Hi Yuhong, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
To me, what makes me happy is doing the things I am interested in, and spending some good time on them.
For example, art is something I naturally enjoy. I enjoy the process of making my imagination come to life, and painting is a great way of expressing myself.
I also enjoy the process of solving technical issues by learning and applying new knowledge when I am working as an artist. Through this process, I can make some progress and get better results out of it. This feeling of achievement satisfies me.

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.
I started learning professionally in 2017 when I entered the art college. In the beginning, it was very hard, but I have met some really good teachers and friends who gave me tons of help and encouragement. Also, I worked hard on developing the technique, practicing painting for at least 8 hours each day. So generally speaking, hard work, the right direction, and good friends are what gives me the power to overcome challenges.
One of the lessons I learned is that one needs to spend your time wisely and get the most out of it. If one spends his time doing nothing but playing video games, he probably won’t make progress on other things. It’s like spending money, if you spend 1000$ on a date, you might still be a simp; but if you spend that money on your G, you are gonna be his father until he spends all that. You wanna be a simp for the rest of your life, or the father of your G? Ask yourself that question, it is that simple. You spend your time in the same way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This question is hard to answer.
First of all, I don’t have friends to hang out in real life.
Second, I don’t go out.
What I am saying is that a lot of my friends are living in other places, or they are very busy with school or work, so I don’t have a chance to meet anyone anywhere besides Discord.
But if we do hang out I probably take that person to the gym or shooting range. If we eat, probably I will take that guy to a sushi bar and we will be all good.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shout out to Richard Schmid. He was a great master of painting who passed away a few years ago. His book Alla Prima has given me a lot of inspiration.

Website: https://www.artstation.com/yuhongding

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuhong_ding_art/?hl=en