Artist Expressions is a series featuring in-depth interviews with creative artists in LFHS. Artist Expressions highlights the endeavors and works made by students and hopes to highlight their work and future plans.
Chenchen Wan is a senior who is currently in AP Art. Wan uses his love of stories and world-building to inspire his colorful digital artwork.
What is exciting to you about art right now?
“My current “sustained investigation”, or goal, for art is to design aspects of fantasy worlds (scenery, characters, etc) from my own creative writing. This is pretty much the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning because it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. For context, I’ve been writing creative short stories here and there since the middle of middle school. Some are utterly abysmal and I wouldn’t wish anyone to read them, but others actually have potential in plot and characters that I can capitalize in the form of art. Ideas such as civilizations living on space whales, a super-powered showdown on a lunar colony, or a fallen cyborg angel seeking to rewrite the universe no longer have to remain as abstract thoughts in my head, and that excites me. “
What art classes have you taken?
“I took Ceramics 1, 2, 3H, Drawing 1, 2H, and am currently taking AP Drawing at LFHS. In addition, I have also taken private drawing classes every other Saturday since I was six years old.”
What has been your favorite project that you’ve done?
“My favorite project is the ‘Heavenly Gears’ piece with an angelic warrior looking over the Earth. Not only am I proud of how the composition, texture and coloring turned out, but I also just love the story behind the piece. Mr Lowry’s (my physics teacher) lesson on the history of gravitation reminded me of the geocentric world model, where the Earth is the center of the universe and is orbited by stars and other planets. Lowry described the idea as a mechanical heavenly system, which inspired me to craft a story around a group of angels maintaining the heavenly gears that spin the Earth and the other celestial bodies. They run the Earth through trials until the end of time, where they reset the world into a different universe (similar to a multiverse) and start over. Remiel, the angel in this piece, grows fond for the humans and revolts against heaven to stop the reset. That’s why I drew the gears like they were melting/burning. “
What is your favorite medium to work with, and why?
“I am a digital art enthusiast. It’s like carrying a pandora’s box of brushes and tools that I can carry wherever and draw whenever I please. For example, my ‘Heavenly Gears’’ piece was painted using the oil brush tool, but I can also make pieces with ink, spray paint, or watercolor if I wished. In addition, fixing mistakes in proportions and composition for a physical drawing is a pain in the butt, not to mention the near-permanent eraser marks, but it’s a piece of cake for digital. I must mention that while digital art is ‘easier’, it’s not like I can snap my fingers and create an image in seconds. Digital art still requires all the skills and nuances needed for physical art. It’s just that fixing mistakes in digital art is much more convenient. “
Do you plan to continue art in the future?
“I plan on continuing art for the foreseeable future. I wish to continue sketching characters and polishing my art style because that brings me joy, but I also cannot deny the time consuming nature of art. As such, drawing will revert back to a mild hobby rather than something I dedicate hours a day for.”
What has surprised you the most about your artistic journey?
“The most surprising thing about my artistic journey is how much more experimental I got during my senior year. My AP Art teacher, Mrs. Bielski, said that with the invention of cameras, the purpose of art was no longer to recreate realism, but to add an ‘artistic flare’ to the images. As an artist who previously only drew realism, I was dreading introducing unfamiliar elements into my art because I thought the end result would look tragic. However, my first project utilizing this new ideology, a glowy orange fish on a spray painted background, became one of my favorite pieces. The success made me more comfortable to experiment with even more aspects of art, mainly color theory and texturing. Over the course of many pieces, I realized my “artistic flare” consisted of dramatic/unnatural colors and visible painting strokes that gave my works an exaggerated elegance that real life objects lacked (this style fits with the outlandish stories my pieces symbolized). If you compare my current works with some six months ago, I doubt you can tell they were drawn by the same person. That’s how dramatic my experimentation became.”
What/Who is your biggest inspiration?
“I’m not the sort of person who follows mentor artists, even though that would be very useful for developing my skills and art style. My biggest source of inspiration comes from Eastern animated shows and movies, which is also my main source of artistic media. It’s part of the reason why my pieces are so story-orientated, why I focus on characters fighting or interacting with the scenery; every image has a novel’s worth of lore behind it, even if it’s not obvious to the viewer. These shows also influenced me to adopt elements of my ‘artistic flare’, such as exaggerated colors, shading, and semi-realistic characters. “
How did you get into art?
“I discovered art when I drew my first stick figure dinosaur in preschool (yes, I was that type of kid). I then believed it was in my best interest to fold a ton of paper sheets hamburger style, staple them together and make comics out of pencil and crayon. Thus, the artistic warmachine was born. Some time later, my parents signed me up for the previously mentioned drawing classes, and the skills I developed there turned drawing from a hobby to a ‘professional hobby’.”
