Will Yang

Review

Tell us about yourself: Who are you, what do you love to do and where are you from?

Hi! My name is Will and I’m an illustrator from Sydney, Australia. I love playing video games, watching anime, and making art!

I’ve been drawing as a hobby since I was a kid, taking some classes throughout my childhood for sketching and oil painting. However, it wasn’t until I was in university that I started looking into art as a potential career path. Disillusioned with my commerce and law degree, I began looking into how to create illustrations like the splash arts in League of Legends that I’ve admired ever since I was in high school. It was at this point I became aware of the existence of art fundamentals and I began to study them from books and online resources in the little spare time I had. At the same time, I also began thinking about dropping out of university and enrolling at an art school. However, I could not find any locally that taught the kind of art I wished to create, and overseas options were outside of my budget.

Ultimately, I decided to finish my degree since I had already invested so much time and effort into it and I felt like it would be good to have as a backup just in case this whole art thing didn’t work out. After graduating, I was able to devote more time to my art and continued studying on my own.

What were the biggest problems you faced when you started as an artist?

After a few years of self-studying art following graduation, I began to feel like I was stagnating. I had gotten decent at doing studies of references but every time I tried to create an original illustration I became frustrated that it was not looking right and often abandoned the piece. I could see that things were off in my artworks but could not figure out how to fix them. Naturally, the biggest problem of self-studying was that I did not have a more experienced person that I could go to for the solutions to these problems. Not only that, but I also didn’t know any other illustrators personally at this point in time so I did not have anyone to seek technical feedback from for my art, or even just to enjoy a conversation with about the more in-depth aspects of art. Eventually, I started to feel a bit burnt out and self-doubt started to creep in so I knew it was time to change things up with my art education.

Divine Sword Irelia

An illustration of one of my favourite Irelia skins in League of Legends that I completed during the mentorship.

Why did you decide to sign up for CGVerse online art school?

After a few years of self-studying, I was at a point where I was becoming more comfortable with portraits but I wished to create more elaborate illustrations with full characters and backgrounds.

By chance one day, I saw Monika Palosz’s story on Instagram showcasing the amazing splash art one of her students created during their CGVerse mentorship. I was so impressed that I immediately went to check out CGVerse and applied for a mentorship.

I decided to sign up for CGVerse as opposed to the other various online art schools out there because they had mentors that I had been a fan of for years and were already working on the games that I dreamed of working on. I believed that they had the experience and knowledge that was most relevant to the kind of art I personally wanted to create.

What did you do during the mentorship and what helped you on each task?

Over the course of the 6-month mentorship, we completed 3 splashes and a few minor exercises in between to practise things like concept art and rendering. Augusto broke down the massive task of making a splash art into smaller deliverables that we submitted each class from thumbnails to colour roughs to the various stages of rendering. Each lesson involved extensive personalised feedback on each student’s progress and highly informative demos of things relevant to that stage of the process such as Augusto’s organic approach to thumbnailing and his rendering methods. As a result, I now have a completely new perspective when it comes to creating an illustration.

Dragonslayer Kled

A splash art I completed during the mentorship based on the amazing concept by Robert Song: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KaDDnr

How was the mentorship for you?

The mentorship has been one of my most valuable and treasured experiences throughout my art journey. I feel like the amount of growth I achieved in these past couple of months would have taken me much longer if I was still studying by myself. The goal I set myself when I signed up for the mentorship was simply to complete a splash art without giving up on it like I have numerous times before, and by the end of the mentorship I can happily say that I’ve achieved that goal!

Throughout the mentorship, I could keep pushing forward with my illustrations week-by-week without fear or doubt since I had the reassurance that Augusto would give me feedback on things to fix in the next class, including mistakes that I would not have been able to see myself. I was able to ask him questions I had about the illustration process that I’ve pondered about for a long time and finally got insightful answers to that were informed by his years as a professional in the industry. Augusto was always patient and attentive while he was giving us comprehensive, individualised feedback and demos, and took the time to make sure that we all understood the content. He taught me not only the niche technical things associated with splash art but also his philosophy as a whole when it came to being an artist. One aspect that I found particularly valuable and relevant at the time was knowing that all artists including professionals experience burnout, as well as the various methods I could employ to combat burnout.

Another valuable aspect of the mentorship for me personally was that it gave me the opportunity to finally meet other artists that were also interested in creating splash arts, and whom I now have the fortune to call my friends! My fellow mentees were always so supportive and encouraging and seeing their incredible work every week inspired me to keep doing my best as well!

Overall, the mentorship for me was amazing and I honestly could not have asked for a better mentor or classmates and I am so grateful to them!

What would you say when you recommend us to an artist?

I would say that if you are an artist who is feeling like you are stagnating or just want to fast-track your progress, then I would highly recommend taking a CGVerse mentorship. The tiny classroom style of mentorship allows for highly-personalised feedback and extensive time with an industry professional that I feel would be hard to obtain anywhere else. It allows you to learn specific things needed to improve your art personally rather than broad art concepts intended for a general audience. The knowledgeable mentors have a nurturing and supportive style of teaching and are able to give unique and valuable insights that are derived from their extensive experience in the industry. Personally, signing up for the mentorship with Augusto has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my art journey and I’m so grateful to have gotten the opportunity!

What are your next steps?

After my mentorship with Augusto, I will continue creating portfolio pieces on my own since I feel like I now have the necessary tools and confidence to do so. I will also continue working on improving my skills by self-studying and taking classes and/or mentorships where appropriate and hopefully start applying to studios soon!