Hi everyone! Its that time of the week for another interview! YES, you heard it. This week, I'm interviewing Wendy, better known as MASHI on deviantart! Her illustrations are gorgeously beautiful with her iconic curvy and sleek style that brings out the characters she is drawing. But if you indeed compliment her that way, she'll reply you with a humble Singaporean accent saying "No lah... I just draw lor..." Indeed, she is humble about her work because it took her years to reach her current position. I know, because I was there from the very beginning.
Mashi's illustrations are not only beautiful and sexy,
Rabbits: Your female illustrations are so distinctive. How did you reach this specific style? Could you give some advice on how you think one can create a unique style?
Mashi: This style is more of mashing up artists I like (at least 2 I would say). I can't draw realistic figures and besides, a cartoony look is what I always wanted to achieve in my illustrations. My advice is that one have to see more artworks to slowly develop an art style. If you like a certain artist, try to learn how to draw from him/her and maybe while doing so, you'll develop something and you'll get YOUR style.
Rabbits: What is your preferred software that you use to create your illustration?
Mashi: Adobe Flash and Photoshop. As my artworks are more vector, I use Flash more often. The reason I prefer Flash to Illustrator is that Flash has a Pencil Tool which allows me to draw freely with a wacom tablet instead of marking points. And using the Pencil Tool, I can change the curves or anything I feel looks wrong straightaway.
Rabbits: You have such a huge following on deviant, how did it happened? Was there a specific drawing that suddenly attracted the huge traffic?
Mashi: I don't think it's because of one specific drawing. It's just happened, as I start to update my deviant frequently, people start to notice me. I guess when a person favorite my work, (also known as "Add to Favorite" in DA terms) their friends saw it and did the same, which in turn creates more traffic for me.
These days, Mashi draws sketch cards for Marvel.
Rabbits: You have done so many gigs including one for marvel. Could you tell us how it happened?
Mashi: You mean the sketch cards? I don't know too. An email from the company that's doing the Marvel cards just pop up in my inbox asking if I would like to work on them. I just grab the chance. It's quite fun.
Rabbits: Wow...So tell us, what are your influnces?
Mashi: The biggest influence for my art style will have to be Bruce Timm and Katie Rice. Also, I like animation and I love to watch Disney animated films and retro stuff. So that may have some influence on my work. Recently, I've started to read manga so maybe that could slowly become one of my new influences.
Mashi's illustrations are simple yet effective,
expressing and evoking emotions.
Rabbits: You have done so many illustrations, how did you keep yourself going and motivated?
Mashi: The fact that people like my work motivated me. Also, I have a strong urge to always improve myself.
Rabbits: If you have to name just one key factor that brought you into where you are today, what would it be?
Mashi: It would have to be PASSION. Then followed by HARDWORK and PATIENCE. You need to be passionate and interested in something before you are willing to work hard to make something out of it. Then you'll have to be patient with yourself and the world too. Patient with yourself is because, not everybody is talented in what they love to do, including myself. In the case of art, if you don't know how to draw, learn from schools or read books and teach yourself how. It takes time to get the skills. That is why one have to be patient with oneself. On the other hand, you have to be patient with the world because success isn't overnight so you'll have to give people time to see your potential. However, if your success is instant then of course, it's great too!
Mashi's male characters are equally cute and attractive.
Rabbits: If you have to pick one of your work (or a couple), which illustration is your favorite and why?
Mashi: I don't have a specific favorite piece, actually. If I have to really pick 1, it would be a piece in my first artbook where a girl is holding a chainsaw. I don't know why but maybe it's with true feelings when I'm working on that piece. hahahah...
The Chainsaw Girl Mashi love.
You can check out more of Mashi's work HERE.
thanks for sharing! her characters are really cute and lovely :D
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