About Jiayi Li
Jiayi Li is a Paris-based illustrator who grew up in China with her mother to support her creative capabilities as a child. She, therefore, studied fine art in China before pursuing further education studies in graphic design in Paris. Today, she is a renowned illustrator recognized for her “culturally relevant elements” that prompt sentimental memories. Jiayi Li aims at connecting with others, and she does so by illustrating peculiar daily elements in her work.
Inspired by still life photography and airbrush paintings, looking through her portfolio, you’d be surprised to notice that Jiayi Li only started accomplishing work publicly around a few years ago.
Jiayi Li’s Approach to Illustration
Despite loving drawing since she was a child, Jiayi Li instead spent many years working in Paris as a graphic designer, convinced she wasn’t good as a freelance illustrator. When the pandemic began in 2020, she was in the countryside without a good wi-fi connection or other distractions. That’s when she started spending time drawing and making illustrations to then start posting them online. “I was happily surprised by the feedback, which boosted my confidence.”
Jiayi’s artworks have a consistent visual language where vivid colors fill everyday still-life objects. Without ever missing a few cats.
Aesthetic Influence
As mentioned, connecting with others is what Jiayi hopes to achieve with her illustrations. For this reason, she often draws elements that come from her daily routine or her childhood memories.
Aesthetically, she’s inspired by bright still-life images. Interestingly, much of Jiayi’s aesthetic findings derive from a Playboy magazine she found at a young age – rare contraband in mainland China. Totally captivated by the beautiful nude photos, she didn’t really understand the sexual dimension initially. Still, applying hazy and glowing lights in the pictures left a deep impression on her memory.
Workflow
She uses a similar method to lighting in her artworks. The reason why everything she soaks everything she depicts in striking or opaque light, is to turn everything into something alluring with the added glow providing a provoking twist.
Before sketching a new piece of work, Jiayi shares ideas with a few close friends to verify whether or not the concept is clear and relevant.
This stage is the hardest for her and is when she mostly gives up. After completing a sketch, she spends a lot of time editing the colors, to notice how sometimes the result comes out completely different from her initial attempts. Jiayi does not tie to any color palette and is never afraid to go for bold, dark colors to evoke a feeling of viewing the world through lilac-tinted lenses under UV light. Li’s work, for this, reveals a magical galaxy where objects whiz and radiate with energy and conspiracy.
Jiayi Li’s profound message behind her art is straightforward. She hopes that her viewers will hold space for any possible interpretation to deliver people content that can boost their creativity. If her work can inspire others to chase a creative pursuit, that would be the greatest triumph.
Future Projects
Jiayi looks to shift her hand to animation next, keeping it simple as adding a slight sound and movement to her illustrations. This would be to Jiayi Li an excellent opportunity to learn some new things and challenge her technical capacities.
Go here to visit her website or here to follow her on Instagram.
