Alina Chau - illustrator, animator - Artist research

Alina Chau is a filmmaker, animator, artist and illustrator. She grew up in Hong Kong when it was a British colony. Her art is influenced by Chino-Indonesian origin. She became interested in art as a career path only in college. She was inspired by childhood stories, traditional clothes and art, Asian cuisine and the atmosphere of Hong Kong. She has been admired for her unique storytelling voice, her illustration style and her use of watercolour technique. 

As an animator, she created male characters in 3D but later discovered that her true passion is drawing when she joined the Toronto Forest Project art show at Pixar. This lead to her gaining popularity as an illustrator and leaving the job at the studio to pursue an independent career. Having worked on commission for several years, she moved to children’s book publishing, where she could both illustrate and tell a story. 

Her favourite medium is watercolour because it allows her for a great range of expression. She can be quick and dynamic with it, but also detailed and precise; the drawings can be done in any scale and are easy to travel with. When working on a book, she will firs work in Photoshop to create the sketches, print them on a watercolour paper and then finish the illustrations in watercolour paint. 

Alina Chau relates to my progression in Graphic Design and Illustration and to my theme because she decided to do children’s illustrations and her work is funny, energetic and full of colour. My project links to her art because I would like to create illustrations to books using both Photoshop/ Illustrator and, as Alina, combine it with some other medium.

 

Image Reference:

Available at: https://alinachau.com

Reference:

Available at: https://alinachau.com/about