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Part 1

IT'S ART : Can you give me a little bio?

Donglu Yu : I was born in China and immigrated to Canada with my parents when I was twelve years old. My grandfather was a calligrapher and my mother was always drawing and painting. Because of the artistic influence of my family members, it was natural for me to start taking art classes at a very young age, including drawing from observation, Chinese watercolor painting and traditional calligraphy. However I didn’t think about taking art as my career choice until the end of my high school years: when video games kicked in my life and I became a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. That is the principle reason that I pursued my college studies in Illustration and Design and university studies in Film Animation. After working as an illustrator, 3D artist and texture artist, I have been recently hired by Eidos Montreal as a concept artist.

I.A. : How would you define your art?

D.Y. : Art has always been a part of my life, and as an intimate friend. Whenever I am touched, sad or happy, I will pick up a pencil or a brush to express my feelings on paper. Nowadays, artists have the tendency to showcase the “final quality artworks”, however I feel much more attachment to my sketchbook, to the little doodles that I do, because those insignificant little pencil strokes build up my daily life. That is really how I see the true value of my art and how I define art in my life.

I.A. : Why have you chosen to express yourself with digital tools?

D.Y. : I started to draw with pure traditional media, such as ink, oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc. Each medium gave a unique touch to the final visual result of the artwork. However none of them could offer the flexibility and the fast-paced working process that digital tools are capable to give. Especially with the help of a graphic tablet, digital artists gain complete control over the digital tools. When I work digitally, I can really concentrate on the artistic side of the creation process and ignore the physical tool constrains such as waiting for the oil to dry on the canvas for long hours or days before applying the second layer of color, or being frustrated because I accidentally dropped my coffee on a watercolor piece on which I put in weeks of energy.

I.A. : In what way do you think digital art helps you to depict feelings and ideas?

D.Y. : With digital tools, I can alter the colors, the scales of my element within the composition and the type of lightings in few minutes. This allows me to explore the maximum possibilities of artistic directions that a piece would have. The flexibility and the speed that the digital tools offer me are the two things that I really appreciate.



I.A. : Do you think you're influence by your roots?

I have always been influenced by my cultural background since it is an integral part of my values and understanding of the world. Almost all my friends or colleagues who have seen my works comment that my Chinese heritage is obvious through the majority of my creations. China possesses a very long and rich history, the esthetics and the themes that can be explored are limitless from such a powerful civilization. I have been significantly influenced by both Oriental and occidental cultures and I always want to mix different cultural element to create something unique and different.