Teressa Ong One Foxy Illustrator !
Teressa Ong is a young (masked) illustrator (/ Superhero ?) who works for Paper Plane. In her spare time she creates modern-retro masterpieces ! I caught up with her recently to ask a few questions.
You seem to have quite a few fox and bear related illustrations, were these for specific projects or just because they made you smile to work on ?
It’s definitely because they make me smile! I’ve always kinda struggled with thinking about a subject/coming up with ideas, so even though I still love the drawing process, I wouldn’t be as excited as compared to if I were to scribble a fox watching tv now. Trying to stop myself from drawing foxes and bear cubs can be a problem at times.
Currently, I think I only have 2 projects (both personal projects) with fox(es) and bears in them . I want to create a short story/picture book type thing with a fox character as another personal project at some point.
Is your work mostly digital or do you work with scanned pieces and gouache to add depth and texture to your work ?
I wish I did more traditional paintings but most of my work is digitally done. Kyle T Webster’s photoshop brushes really help me a big ton with adding textures and is probably one of the reasons why I work digitally more often nowadays. It’s rare for me to work traditionally and digitally for the final illustration. I think I find it a hassle, haha ! I do admire mixed media works though, they are really fascinating to look at.
Who do you do work for most often and can you describe what might be classed as a typical working day for you ?
I haven’t done a lot of client work and I’ve only worked on one client project at my current workplace and most of the projects I’ve done are targeted for kids. A typical work day would start with me trying very hard to resist a second bowl of cereal while having a bowl of cereal before heading to work. I’ll spend the day (9:30 to 6:30ish) painting up illustrations for any project that I’ve been tasked with, mostly short stories. Occasionally sneaking in a doodle or two.
BOOKS! Especially children books. :B I’ve worked on a couple at work which I had a lot of fun with but I still don’t know much about making them so I’d love to hang around the children’s book community for a while and maybe one day I’ll be able to come up with a nice one of my own. Getting to be part of an animation project is a little wish (especially a stop motion project, the dream!), designing for an animation and seeing my designs come to life or getting to help create miniature props would be so exciting! But despite graduating with an animation diploma, I still don’t feel quite ready to be part of an animation project just yet.
I am so terrible at giving advice (nervous laugh) but here goes: do as much personal work as you can, draw what you love, have lots of fun with them and get to know more people in the illustration/animation/artsy family because they are very lovely and helpful people. Oh, and cute cats are a big thing on Instagram. Just sayin’. *wink*
Many thanks Teressa for the fun and honest answers and for being part of the Fishink community too. Keep creating the wonderful work, and we’ll keep our flippers crossed and look out for a foxy book in the near future : )
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What great illustrations and I can totally imagine this lovely designer doing her own children’s books one day – the kids will love her characters!!
Very true Lizzie : )
Keep up the inspiring posts Craigus! :o)
Such bright colors and a sense of wonder and innocence, they really chase away the winter doldrums. I should have been looking at these instead of the gray days outside.
Yes they certainly cheered me up Joy when I put the post together, glad they had the same effect for you.
I really enjoy it when you show photos of an artist’s work space.
Me too. I try to ask for a pic, always fascinating to see where such illustrations are born. There are whole books on artists spaces if you’re that interested : )