A science fiction artist who draws from real life

This article is part of the series of Nautilus Interviews with artists, you can read the rest here.

With deep lines and daring colors, the artist Yiran Jia creates science fiction art with a high graphic aesthetic. Even if she imagines fantastic worlds that could be, she is inspired by the world as he is. “The draw for real life makes me feel a kind of participation in the world,” she told us. His work appeared in Cable,, Foreign affairsAnd Nautilus (One of his first commissions). She recently seized to answer our questions about her creative process, the difficulties of illustrating short texts and what scientists can learn from artists.

What attracted you to the arts in the first place?

It’s simply because I like drawing. I remember when I was little, I kept drawing – either my environment or imagined things. Even if I now work as an illustrator and there are tons of reference images on the internet, I always prefer to go out and draw real observations, and often some of my sketches will end in my illustrations. I think it’s just because the drawing of my environment or the drawing of real life makes me feel a kind of participation in the world, which makes me continue and always feel inspired.

How would you describe your aesthetics?

My aesthetics are a combination of influences from comics from the 1970s, wood engraving and wooden engraving, and decorative arts of different crops, often made with a DIP pen drawing and digital coloring. The content of my work goes from social problems, technology and the environment to science fiction and fantasy.

How do you work through a creative block?

I try not to think too much during the creative blocks, I suppose. Usually, I’m just going to go out and visit museums and draw – learn how other artists see things and stylize things. Reading is also a large part of any creative process, which helps keep my mind anchored and gives me a clearer understanding of the reason why I would use certain techniques or methods to manage information from my work. Talking to other illustrators about how we plan our career paths is also a great help. It provides some instructions on how to adjust. It is more about accumulating various experiences during creative blocks and having fun.

You have created the coverage for Nautilus Number 44 on the human ancestor Australopithecus; And this story captured your imagination?

The article focused on the comparison of how our ancestors have survived in nature and in our current ways to manage nature, so I used the mirror as a metaphor for reflection and introspection. The setting was a room with a clock on the wall and a plant in the area, with a girl standing in front of the mirror fixing the reflection of the human ancestor. Since the article is more focused on the lifestyle of humans and on the way their relationship with nature has changed, I intentionally made plant and clock as objects to show that, in relation to the speed of human evolution, nature has always been there and has changed slowly.

Is there anything you think that scientists can learn from artists-or vice versa?

The most difficult question to answer so far! I always tend to think that art and science are different types of subjective experiences. While artists take them in a level of personal understanding, scientists measure the world for practical use, but always in the abstract rules and systems created by humans. Honestly, I have nothing to say to the scientists or the advice to be given. I suppose that, regardless of personal or practical reasons, the world is right there, and we must learn to appreciate it.

You have illustrated six-words science fiction stories for Cable. What is your process to illustrate such a short text?

This series was really fun – it was not like the usual editorial commissions. With only six words in each story, each word has its meaning and its goal in the little story. For example, there is this story that I illustrated, and I like it. The prompt was “an unexpected medical breakthrough”. The story was: “Try to blink with his eyes, sir.” This conflict and this disturbing feeling are created in six words – once, this guy can see the world through a female perspective. I thought of the way I could make conflict more extreme, both literally and visually. There is this gap between the effect of history and the meaning of words, so I was trying to contrast these two elements by exploring the interpretation of words. The first thing that came to my mind is both the “gentleman” and “her” in history represented as human; It would work, but that’s just. Then, I imagined that “she” could be interpreted as non-humans, animals or androids, which would enrich both history and illustration. I ended up interpreting history as in a laboratory, with an experience on the consciousness of a man transferred to a lion woman.

The rise of generative AI services like Midjourney causes some controversy in the art world. What do you think of using AI to create art?

Honestly, I only played with Midjourney only one or twice in 2022, and that’s it. I found it to use it to generate quite boring images because it is more an information collection tool. From an illustrator’s point of view, I love AI that makes software easier to use. As for the creative process, I don’t see that it helps a lot. But that provides some ideas when we generate something aesthetic or morally questionable repulsive. We could ask ourselves questions about the reasons why it summarizes all the information or existing images and is found with things like that. I think that through that, we could find a perspective on the place where the problems are in the existing art world.

Do you have future projects that you are passionate?

I intend to make a comic book. Influenced by abstract comics, I want to explore how to use the basic comic book parameters, such as the panels and the overall design of the structure of the page, to tell a story without words. However, my current style is not concise enough to adapt to comic forms, so I must first simplify my style. I hope I will create a graphic novel in the future.

Jake Currie interview.

Main image graceful of Yiran Jia.

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