Emily Yang
she/her
Illustrator | Animator | Educator
"I am a storyteller, my tools lie in digital illustrations and animation. My goals are to be able to share the stories I have to tell and to inspire my audience to tell their own stories as well, and I work constantly to be able to share those skills by revisiting and re-honing my techniques and skills as I learn from my peers."
I'm an Chinese-American artist and educator centered in the New Jersey and New York area.
I make digital illustrations, comics and animations in a variety of programs. I have a mastery in the Adobe Suite, Procreate, Toon Boom Harmony, TV Paint, MoHo, and Clip Studio Paint. My art style is heavily influenced by anime, manga, and digital webtoons, though I also paint and do studies digitally. Consequently, I experiment with different techniques to broaden the scope of my work as well as constantly expand my visual library as I dive deep into art movements and artists. I conspire to tell stories when I make my pieces, focusing on details that my audiences will be able to connect and understand on a deeper level, whether that be pop culture references or exploring larger, overarching themes. My goal is to continue the tradition of visual storytelling that has existed in tandem with us since the beginning of our history. Art is one of the most ancient forms of communication, and has evolved along with our needs to satisfy our means of communication; and as such, to not acknowledge that fact is a disservice to art. Art, regardless of your initial inspiration, communicates something about yourself, and being able to articulate those ideas is what my core belief in art is founded on. As for my process, I begin with dedicated research in aesthetics, history, and existing media as sources of inspiration and reference. I then make executive decisions to decide what I want or do not want to include/reference, assessing and planning the end result of the final piece, mainly concerned with the overall finished story presentation and what message I want to send out to my viewers. My target audience are my peers and the younger generations. I want to be able to inspire them to create their own works. However, subconsciously, my audience also includes my younger self. Frequently, when I take a look at my work I always ask myself, “Hmm, would my 12 year old self think this is cool?” And I always gauge myself by that metric secretly. My background in animation and digital art spaces means that I am acutely aware of the impact my work can have on communities as a whole. My passions in life are wholeheartedly geared toward stories and storytelling. This shows up in my work now as I continue to try and experiment with different subjects and compositions mixed with my own style to improve my storytelling craft as I also develop as an adult.