Illustrating a passion in art
Tiffany Liu focuses on creating digitalized works for franchises she enjoys, such as the popular game, Genshin Impact.
With an iPad Pro in hand, Diamond Bar High School junior Tiffany Liu has illustrated over 10 pieces of work and shared them with her over 8,000 social media users. Since dedicating her, once personal, Instagram account to focus solely on her art, Liu has established connections with many other digital artists and created pieces for various brands.
While Liu’s interest in art developed fairly young, it was her grandparents who kept her in pursuit. Starting from kindergarten, her grandfather enrolled her into local art classes and, over time, Liu started to view it more as a career path than a hobby.
“There really wasn’t anything special about my art during that time,” Liu said via Instagram. “I only kept pursuing art because my grandparents encouraged it a lot.”
In 2019, the artist began publishing her work more frequently on her Instagram, @greenionpan, mainly posting digital artwork that’s inspired by her favorite video games.
“The popularity rolled in when I started drawing Animal Crossing art. It was during the beginning of quarantine, when [Animal Crossing New Horizons] kept everyone from going crazy,” Liu said.
Since building her account, Liu has collaborated with several franchises, such as Animal Crossing and Genshin Impact. Liu noted one of the most beneficial collaborations she participated in was “Sky: Children of the Light,” where she helped design a Tarot deck— a design that later earned her recognition from the game’s studio and developers.
“I don’t stick to a specific franchise for very long unless it really interests me. I switch around to whatever entertains me the most in my free time,” Liu said. “At the moment, I draw a lot of art relating to [the game] Genshin Impact.”
She has also expanded outside of these collaborations, taking a limited amount of commissions during the summer. However, due to school, Liu has restricted the amount and kind of commissions she does.
“I’m not the best at balancing but I make sure that I only draw major pieces on Fridays and weekdays when I have more free time,” she said.
While Liu currently posts her renditions of popular video game characters, she expressed her desire to move away from these preexisting figures and focus more on original characters.
“My goal for the future is to post more often while creating less boring artworks. I feel like my art is very basic for someone my age and that I need to work harder to improve it,” she said.
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