Meet Fangyu Ma | Illustrator Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fangyu Ma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fangyu, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
To be honest there was no balance in my life before. My life was terrible when I first came to the US. As I changed my major and wanted to finish my studies in two years, I was able to grow into a professional illustrator. But two years is very difficult to accomplish this goal, because no one can guarantee that you will achieve something the moment you graduate. In order to achieve my goal as soon as possible, I subconsciously divided my life into two parts, painting and sleeping. At that time, I carried my drawing book with me at all times, and I had to hold my pen in between waiting for uber for five minutes. There was also a period of time when I was very passionate about sketching portraits of uber drivers and then quickly tearing the paper out of the book and giving it to them when I got off the ride. I believe in the 10,000 hour law, so I hope to fill it up with these trivial hours. Also I really want to talk about my sleep. Sleep makes me happy. I get ten hours of sleep a day, and it seems to be the only time I have fun and feel relaxed. As once I fall asleep, the stress of reality is irrelevant to me.

Let me talk about the sucky part next. The difference in eating habits and culture combined with the fact that I wasn’t a keen cook led me to be in very poor health. Because at that time, I felt that eating was unimportant, as long as I was full, it didn’t matter what I ate. I don’t even remember why I thought that way. It was when I realized that such habits were affecting my lasting work that I began to realize the importance of health. Then I realized that I had to do more than just drawing, I had to take care of myself. Then I started to consciously allocate my time to chopping vegetables, cutting meat, trying to be nutritionally balanced, but not making dishes that take too long to cook. So I started to buy a lot of different kinds of vegetables to cook for hot pot on a regular basis. (Call me lazy, I don’t mind;) I started exercising regularly, going boxing and running every week. As my health slowly got better and my work slowly built up over time, I began to have a sense of control over my life.

I don’t think the ‘balance’ is that we have to maintain balance well all the time. Like some of it has to be surprisingly orderly and perfect. In a lot of interviews where the host asks how some successful people balance their career and family. It’s a complicated for me as a audience to listen. From a view of bias, I don’t feel it’s informative to think of examples of people who have a good “balance”. We can’t learn it from their experience. Because when you focus all your attention on what you think is important, it must be unbalanced. And those parts that you don’t notice can easily blow you away. We just have to be in charge of our own scales. It can be all kinds of things, not the standards imposed by society. And those parts that you don’t notice can easily blow you away. We just have to be in charge of our own scales, not the standards imposed by society. And have the courage to fall down and start over, to find and adjust your state in time is important.

Although there is still a lot of uncertainty about the future, I seem to have some strength to feel that I can do well.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think what I’m most proud of is how much I’ve grown and changed. When you follow my Insta post you will see that my style has changed very significantly. I used to like black and white pencil portraits and sketches, trying to convey a melancholic beauty with portraits. Later on, I explored more tools, such as ballpoint pens, markers, and eventually digital painting, using brushes to imitate the effect of real paintings. This process began my transition from black and white portraits to brightly colored still life illustrations. I specialize in bright colors and decorative illustrations, and gradually began to explore narrative illustration.

I feel the biggest challenge is how to overcome my laziness and persistence. Drawing is a long-term accumulation, and everyone has different starting points, gifts and growth paths. Therefore it is easy to lose ourselves and self-confidence in our comparison with others. Although this comparison is meaningless. What we need is to encourage and inspire each other. How to gain experience from others while being able to know ourselves correctly is something to think about.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Cafe intermazzo is one of my favorite places to go. I used to draw there with my friends a lot. We would also go there to sit and chat on weekends when we had a break. Since I went there too many times, my friend joked that this place is my kitchen. I recommend you the expreso martini and the chicken croissant.

I would also like to recommend a pet store for birds and reptiles which name is Animart Pets. This is where my parrot, QQ, was born. The owners are a very friendly and responsible old Mexican couple. Even a visit gonna be a good experience.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The first thing I am most thankful for is my parents. As ordinary working class people in China, they gave me financial help by saving money despite not agreeing or understanding my ideals and difficulties in studying illustration. I am the lucky one.

I want to thank my friends very much for always giving me comfort and encouragement when I was devastated. For being willing to offer to support me financially in my difficult times. And for believing in me when I had self-doubt that I could do well. Because of their support and companionship I was able to adjust my mindset in time. I know we are all going through a time of struggle, and I believe we can all get through it.

I would also like to thank my professors in the illustration department for their help, especially professor Lovell and professor Phivi. I sincerely hope that someday I will be able to make them proud.

I also really want to thank my followers on the social media platforms, because your appreciation and watching gives me more motivation to keep drawing new works. It makes me feel that my work has been recognized. I really appreciate it and I’m honored to be a part of your followers list.

Love you alll.

Website: www.matuart.net

Instagram: @m_matu_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fangyu-ma-5a6b98210/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnhz8lEepmLFO20DqzkcQrw