A sticker pack designed by Luan
What is your primary medium?
My primary medium right now is kind of a mixture of things, but it's mostly digital right now. If I'm gonna go traditional, I really like pens, markers, kind of collaging things together type work.
How long have you been doing art?
Ever since I was little. I always loved drawing. It really started becoming very, very involved in my life when I started getting into anime. I really loved that style and the look and I just kept drawing from then on.I just thought, let's make it a career if we can. So then I got an illustration degree.
Was the art school experience worthwhile for you?
Yeah, I think it really was because I had a lot of time to develop an identity with my art and kind of learn what's out there, what I want to do, what I might not like, you know. It gave me the opportunity to experiment. So I really liked that. Now I feel more confident in what I want to do and in my style. I think there could have been a little bit more, I guess, life experience that I needed. Like getting more side projects. I think it prepared me as a person, as a human. And then as far as getting the more technical stuff down, I still need to work on that. I'm still practicing.
Where do you get your inspiration?
A lot of it comes from just a feeling. I really want to convey this in this way. How am I going to go about that? I really want it to be aesthetic, I want it to be kind of pretty. For instance, I really take inspiration from Alphonse Mucha, who is one of the artists I love because of the detail in their work and it's just so beautiful the way he creates these figures and the use of line. So I kind of want to have people see where my inspiration comes from.
What gets you up in the morning and ready to create?
Well, it's been kind of tough because of the recent world events. Right now I've kind of reignited the love of just going out and drawing people at coffee shops. I love just sitting down with my sketchbook and cup of coffee and then I get to stare at people and just draw them. I did that while traveling. I did that throughout school. Now that we are able to go out and be in the world I've started that practice again and I just love that life drawing.
How do you think your art has evolved?
I mean, if we're starting from the anime times, the best way to learn is by copying. So as far as what I've added to make it my own. I kind of feel like maybe it's, it's not realistic, but I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I still like the idea of the eyes being the focus. You know, the eyes are the windows to the soul type stuff. I really still like to have those kind of bigger on my figures. But I think the way I color and the way I draw with line kind of starts to get into the Alphonse Mucha type category and out of that simple, straightforward kind of anime look. I was able to be on the cover of the Boise Weekly and on the cover she's still got those big eyes. But what I love is kind of organic line work. It could be from any culture. And like, this is her mask and it's like a butterfly. It's got really cool eyes and is kind of organic looking
Do you have a primary subject with your work?
Yeah, so it's definitely had its different periods and stages. A lot of the prints I've created were trying to see if like, maybe if I focus on animals, maybe I could go into a pet portrait type angle. But you know, I realized that maybe that's not exactly what I'm wanting to do. So moving on from that, then I'm like, “Okay, well, let's keep practicing on humans and figures and all that organic line and a little bit of sparkle, aesthetic, cute, all that good stuff. Now I've actually kind of started to evolve into more of wanting to learn how to create assets for say, a company. So working within a company, like, do you need internal visuals? Graphics for a presentation, for instance? Do you need stickers for your onboarding with new people as a kind of merch? So I'm starting to think more in that way. That's how it's evolved, from this more fine art realm into more commercial and a little more businessy.
Luan working on creating a logo
Do you work on commissioned projects?
Yeah. I actually have a project right now with a local Korean restaurant here called KoKo Bell. It's really a nice couple doing their best out there trying to share Korean street food with Boise. I was able to talk with them and they're wanting to have me do a mural on their wall in the restaurant. In the past I've done Freak alley, of course. I've done some other murals inside businesses. And so that's just a whole other aspect of my art that I really love. I'm really excited to start working on this Korean food one. It's like a huge wall. So this is probably going to be the biggest mural I've ever done by myself.
Do you find it easier to work big or small?
Oh, small is so easy, just, you know. But bigger definitely takes a lot more. You’ve got to pick up all the stuff, move it over, pick it up, move it back over again. But it's such a fun challenge.
Are there any Boise specific art opportunities you’ve had?
The city of Boise does a really good job of having calls to artists. Like the electric box, I actually submitted some stuff that wasn't chosen, but that's okay. That's okay. And right now I know that they're running another one redesigning the library cards for the Boise Library! So, I think they do a good job of trying to have opportunities going as often as possible. There's the Wintry Market here. There are events that happen at JUMP. I think if you actually look for it, they're there, but it’s not always as obvious. There are definitely opportunities out there I really want to go for. Right now I'm still kind of in the process of making my own logo. I need to actually make some business cards. Once I have all that setup to go out into the world I'll just be; apply to this, try that, go over here. Do you want to be here? Can I do this for you?,
Is art what you want your career to be?
I realized long ago that if I didn't do art, I genuinely feel like something is missing from me. It just doesn't feel right. I always need to have the opportunity to create. Why not have it integrated with my lifestyle and my career? For a while I kind of faltered. I was like, well, maybe I could do something else. But then I realized, why not combine it? Because you know, right now, people can do pretty much anything they want. I should be able to combine my talents that aren't creative with my creative ones. But yeah, ultimately, I don't think I could not do anything creative, or with art.
Do you think art is something you'll ever stop doing?
No, I won't ever stop. Yeah, never.