Yingluo Xu stories from an animator

I heard about the Art Students League from my figure drawing teacher who said it’s a really nice opportunity for me to build my skills. For an art student, it is really important to show colleges you can draw and that you have creative ideas. I have been aiming for my dream school for years, and this opportunity can help me a lot, so here I am.

I want to be an animator or a cartoon artist which are the things that I really loved since I was young. The reason is that they are the ones who paint a lovely childhood for everyone and encourage children to follow their dreams. I’m sure there are a lot of kids who dreamed of being a prince, a princess, a hero, a warrior, and an adventurer. The ones who created a wonderful scene for audiences are the people behind the curtain.

They use their imagination to build a lovely world brick by brick to make people happy and satisfied. I think this job is charming. Vincent van Gogh said, “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” I used to be the audience that was amazed by their stories, but now, I want to be the one who tells the story.

The artist that influenced me the most is definitely Hayao Miyazaki, his art still looks gorgeous even if it has been published for 20 years. As I grow older, I can always see another layer of meaning under the stories. Many of the things you don’t realize as a kid actually tells a much more serious story than a fairytale. Of course, his work is not the only piece that amazed me, but his art makes me decide “I want to be an animator.”