With this short interview we are excited to start a series of posts asking industry artists questions we often discuss at our studio. We are especially thrilled to be starting this series with Henry Wong, who has been a huge inspiration to many Grafit studio artists. You may instantly recognize Henry’s style from his daily studies he has been posting for many years - with stunning brushwork, use of composition and light & color. He has worked on countless industry projects as a concept artist and illustrator - for companies like Sony, Paramount, Aardman, Airbnb, Netflix, Axis Studio, Chromosphere, Teddy Dief, Adobe, BUCK, Opus Artz, and Titmouse
Sketches & Studies
Q: For someone who has a traditional art training background, was it hard to start incorporating industry pipelines into your professional work? What is the difference for you between making your original art vs. making art for a project?
A: Initially for me it was extremely difficult, when I first started I only knew how to draw from life and make really bad manga art using pen, pencils, charcoal and conte before being thrusted into an animation course in which I didn't know how to animate and worked as an intern at an outsource concept art studio whilst not knowing even how to use photoshop. So everything for me since the beginning of my career has been trial by fire (pretty silly really I have no idea how I was offered those positions) But because of that I had to learn the pipeline quickly whether it was animating or concept art/illustration.
As I got more confident with the pipeline and started to finally grasp digital painting it allowed me to be more bold and experimental with my professional and personal work and I was able to figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. What the industry pipeline allowed me to do in my personal work was to make more correct decision making in my painting/drawing process such as (values/perspective/thumbnailing etc) and allowed me to do things that I enjoy such as compositions, style and color!
To answer the second question, personal art for me is for my brain to relax and for me to be able to make mistakes and interpret what I see in my brain even if it isn’t fully realized! And professional art is myself trying to make the client happy haha!
A: Initially for me it was extremely difficult, when I first started I only knew how to draw from life and make really bad manga art using pen, pencils, charcoal and conte before being thrusted into an animation course in which I didn't know how to animate and worked as an intern at an outsource concept art studio whilst not knowing even how to use photoshop. So everything for me since the beginning of my career has been trial by fire (pretty silly really I have no idea how I was offered those positions) But because of that I had to learn the pipeline quickly whether it was animating or concept art/illustration.
As I got more confident with the pipeline and started to finally grasp digital painting it allowed me to be more bold and experimental with my professional and personal work and I was able to figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. What the industry pipeline allowed me to do in my personal work was to make more correct decision making in my painting/drawing process such as (values/perspective/thumbnailing etc) and allowed me to do things that I enjoy such as compositions, style and color!
To answer the second question, personal art for me is for my brain to relax and for me to be able to make mistakes and interpret what I see in my brain even if it isn’t fully realized! And professional art is myself trying to make the client happy haha!
Q: You have become quite famous for your mornups/daily sketches series. Aside from the daily discipline and time that it takes to make room for practice, we can imagine it can be hard to say something is finished and not overspend time on a piece in trying to make it perfect - especially when one starts to compare the work to what the colleagues/artists online do.
Do you often deal with perfectionism? How do you decide when to stop and call your artwork finished?
A: I was always afraid in the beginning of showing my artwork because I didn’t like disappointing other people or having the potential of someone saying something negative to me. But I had to learn that my journey and self development has nothing to do with other people so the way I dealt with ‘perfectionism’ was to set a time limit whether it was 30 mins/ 1 hour / 2 hours etc and once the time is up I upload whatever image I have whether it's finished or not and repeat this everyday at first I really sucked - you can probably find a couple of these image online still.
Do you often deal with perfectionism? How do you decide when to stop and call your artwork finished?
A: I was always afraid in the beginning of showing my artwork because I didn’t like disappointing other people or having the potential of someone saying something negative to me. But I had to learn that my journey and self development has nothing to do with other people so the way I dealt with ‘perfectionism’ was to set a time limit whether it was 30 mins/ 1 hour / 2 hours etc and once the time is up I upload whatever image I have whether it's finished or not and repeat this everyday at first I really sucked - you can probably find a couple of these image online still.
But over time just studying from masters and listening to experienced artists and practicing a little bit everyday you can see tangible improvements (I did this for five years before I took a break)
Q: Looking back at your beginner self, what do you think has shaped you into who you are now? Could you maybe name a turning point (or a challenging project) that has changed your perspective on technical aspects and problem solving in art?
A: Oh man, that's a hard one. I've been on so many projects and so many studios and people I worked with who have really inspired and shaped me through the years. I guess the first ever concept art studio Opus Artz really helped me learn the ropes of the industry and gave me the solid base for myself to flourish and also the folks at Chromosphere and Paramount animation really helped me understand the animation industry! Also my parents are really hard working immigrants and I think I took some of that effort from them, I've never been the smartest kid or the best artist in my school. In fact my grades were mediocre or below mediocre most of my life but I believe that hard honest work will lead to honest results. Aside from that, if you have an art block or burnt out, take a break and do something else and don't feel guilty about it! I had to learn this the hard way but I’m glad I learnt this lesson.
A: Oh man, that's a hard one. I've been on so many projects and so many studios and people I worked with who have really inspired and shaped me through the years. I guess the first ever concept art studio Opus Artz really helped me learn the ropes of the industry and gave me the solid base for myself to flourish and also the folks at Chromosphere and Paramount animation really helped me understand the animation industry! Also my parents are really hard working immigrants and I think I took some of that effort from them, I've never been the smartest kid or the best artist in my school. In fact my grades were mediocre or below mediocre most of my life but I believe that hard honest work will lead to honest results. Aside from that, if you have an art block or burnt out, take a break and do something else and don't feel guilty about it! I had to learn this the hard way but I’m glad I learnt this lesson.
