Interview with Christopher Ang

“Just remember to enjoy what your doing and also one more thing, keep those old artworks of yours. The best one or not, keep it cause someday you’ll look at them and then you’ll see how far you’ve improved with your skills”.

Please, tell us a few words about yourself(age, where you are from, etc).

I’m 23 years young! from Philippines but currently working in Singapore, I’m half chinese and filipino but people usually tell me that I look like a korean… uhmm weird. Anyway I’m not really a dedicated art person but doing some artworks is like a need for me, I don’t know why but It’s just what my mind would tell me to do, especially when I get really bored or feeling lazy doing some home jobs. and oh if I get bored in doing artworks

What was the reason of choosing this occupation? Did you start it as hobby or your aim was to build up a career in this field? What was your first work?

Currently my occupation is being a 3D architectural visualizer, It’s definitely unrelated to what I usually do with my artworks. I really didn’t intend to be a 3D artist though. My first work last 2 years ago was being a 2D or Photoshop artist in an architectural firm located in Dubai U.A.E and as time pass by my supervisor want me to learn 3D, so my great colleagues teach me a lot of things and I really learned a lot from them. It was like I was studying 3D for free which I couldn’t possibly go into waste and then my contract ended so I looked for another job but now in Singapore still as a 3D artist.

The evidence of your talent is your portfolio. I was really impressed by the characters you’ve created. Where do you get the ideas for such amazing works?

I really appreciate that you like my characters. There are a lot of inspirations where I get my ideas from. One of them are movies, usually when I watch a movie there are some scenes that sticks into my brains like the one from the movie Tangled from Disney where there is this very romantic scene with all the sky lanterns floating around. I would like to make an artwork with that same concept. and I also get inspirations from people as well, there are some photos that I really want to use their faces as my reference and get their permissions.

I think it will be interesting to our readers to learn about your work “Daydreaming”. How long did you work on it?

I really like this artwork, whenever I look at her it gives me peace and the idea to daydream things. I am actually a daydreamer myself. Well, I did the “Daydreaming” artwork quite a long time. I started it months ago because I was inspired by the Cinematic of Final Fantasy Series back then and then my momentum to finish just stopped and continued after 6 months later. But I think this artwork was done approximately about 16 to 18 hours.

What work do you enjoy more: personal or commercial projects? When you are working on personal projects what type of work you like to do?

I enjoy making personal projects and seldom enjoy doing commercial projects because when Its personal I can do a lot of things to it and decide what things to do myself without any limitations. Commercial projects in the other hand is limited due to what the client wants.

What kind of work are you doing now? Please tell a few words about it.

Currently, I’m a very busy. There are a lot of pending works, I’m working full time in an Interior Design Firm and also working with my own personal Bigheads Studio Videos and if I still have some free time I work with my artworks. My pending artwork for now is a fan art for the anime Bleach. I’m quite excited about this one.

What do you think is the best work you’ve ever produced? Are you a perfectionist? Does it take you long to achieve that final perfect image you are happy with?

My best work would probably be my “Daydreaming” artwork and I can’t say that I’m a perfectionist but it does take a long time for me to achieve the kind of image I want. For example the “The Album Cover” artwork I recently made, The text on his guitar “Cierse” took me about hours just to figured it out what font will look good on it.

Have you any tricks and your own “know-hows” which you gained with experience during your work? What do you think is the most important thing in the workflow?

Yeah, I did developed some tricks on my own gained through experience. Its been a while since I started practicing this skill and eventually the more effort I give, the more I learn new things on my own. For me the most important thing in the workflow is being positive and having a big patience.

How do you manage to combine your personal life and work? Do you have any hobbies? Is it easy for you to find the time for your family, friends?

As what I’ve heard from random people “sacrifices are necessary in order to achieve something else.” As for now, I’m quite far from my family and friends. The disavdantage about this situation is that I won’t be able to bond with them and have a good time, but if I look at the advantage, I can also do a lot of things on my own and concentrate and try to achieve something. I have a little hobby of playing video games with friends and going out day and night during weekends with some new friends, just to make things different and not boring.

What can you say to inspire those newbies who are just starting to work in CG?

Be POSITIVE! don’t let frustration get into you, i know there is quite a lot of artist that are superbly unimaginably amazing! But hey! Don’t compare yourself to them instead be inspired of their works and learn from it. Believe me, I have that “comparison” attitude before and it gave me a really bad time back then. Practice3x and eventually you will improve. Just remember to enjoy what your doing and also one more thing, keep those old artworks of yours. The best one or not, keep it cause someday you’ll look at them and then you’ll see how far you’ve improved with your skills.

Thank you for the interview and wish you all the best!